Sunday 24th November – Scared or Relieved – Pastor Adrian Kitson

Here we are again at the close of another year of the Lord’s favour. And here we are again confronted with the reality that God is the final judge of everyone for everything.

We hear today that God Almighty, has given his Son full control; full weight; full authority to make final judgements about everyone for everything.

“… the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son …”

Scared or relieved?

This whole business of the final judgement of humanity is a topic many people find rather unsavoury.  It is uncomfortable to contemplate.

If this is true, then what we say and do, and don’t say and do, actually does count. How I live my life is being watched and understood.

I can’t simply make my own choices, assemble my own version of truth and do what I want.

This is not popular! We want “no judgement”. Please God, don’t be so ‘judgy’!

News that God is the final judge on life tends to be seen by many as either primitive at best or dangerous at worst. This talk of God being the judge of our lives is just old fashioned stuff that we have spent our adult years trying to get away from in the church!

Any talk of any God of any religious community, be it Christian Muslim or Jewish is very much seen as a big problem, by many.

All religion, especially Islam, Judaism and Christianity, are lumped into the same basket as being full of judgement that leads to violence that leads to death and suffering. Religion and it’s God is therefore judged; judged to be a dangerous thing to rid the world of.

One question: Is it really only or mostly ‘religion’ that has caused the world so much pain? What about all war and injustice and violence done without religion!? I think human beings without religion, have done and can do much violence, war and injustice!

Friends, I am hearing today that even though it is unpopular, scary or even unwanted, we actually need this Judge Jesus.

Yes, the image of judge many have is intimidating. We hear John declaring that judgement of us all will be in Jesus’ hands, and we might picture ourselves being in a large, high ceiling, mahogany saturated court room where the judge sits up high looking down over you. You are shaking in your boots as the judge does the work of accounting for your life.

With this common view of the judge, we often may look at life as a case to be proved. This belief that life is a case to be proved to God or to others can be a whole orientation in life by which you spend much energy trying to prove you are good person, a good husband, good wife, a good pastor, a ‘good’ Christian, teacher, worker, or farmer.

This is hard work! If God is an angry judge who is going to judge me at the end, it is no surprise that many people give up on God and church and faith.  As people give up on God, they also give up the belief that there is some truth of right and wrong, good and evil, heaven and hell, judgement and salvation.

But what if you were in your imaginary law court one day and you finally had the courage or the inquisitiveness to look up to the judge’s bench?

And what if when you did that you got the shock of your life. What if you finally saw that the judge’s chair was empty? You would be crushed by the reality that all along, there was no judge.

All that hard work to prove yourself was a waste of effort! No one was watching, no one was counting, no one was judging you on how good or influential or wealthy or productive you were. That would be a moment of despair!

After the initial despair, you might then feel quite liberated. You might say to yourself, “Finally I can do what I want! Finally, I can shake off this primitive and dangerous Judge idea and be myself, be free, live the way I want”.

At the start it feels good. There is lightness to denying that God is judge. There finally seems to be freedom from all of this talk of judgement and accountability.

But in that very same moment there is another side to the coin.

If there is no judge of this world then isn’t everything quite meaningless for us?

If there is no final accounting of anyone, then what do I do with my anger at the injustice and pain I see perpetrated by some on others?

Sure, you can reject the truth that God is judge over all life and go about living any way you judge to be best or wise or most effective, but so what? Who cares if you are kind or loving or hateful or anything?

Can we see? If there is no final judge over this human life on this planet, then there is no accountability and we just keep spinning into violence and chaos and pain unchecked.

More importantly, if there is no judge, there is no end, no righting of the ship called life, no end to the negative stuff, the painful stuff, the injustice, the terrorism, the fear we feel, the questions we have, the anger we feel.

The truth I hear from Jesus here is that we need a final judge. We need him to be our judge. Surely if God is not angry with injustice and the pain it causes to people or has no will to right all things, then he is not worth much.

But this Jesus is not any mere human judge, even though fully human. This judge has shown himself to be worth much. This judge is the One who is all about giving hope and life, not just metering out condemnation and death!

Jesus judges to give life and peace and joy from a heart of great love for undeserving sinners. Judge Jesus has the expressed aim of giving life and freeing humanity from all the pain and injustice and anger and violence and heartache – even death!

There is a judge at the bench and he is favourably disposed to all people. So great is his love for prideful, unbelieving, untrusting people that he has already provided the way for a human being to pass from this cycle of death to a never ending cycle of life.

We have already crossed over. We have been judged and condemned and then pardoned and set free to truly live – all in the cross and empty tomb and in that font and in the fellowship we share in his Spirit.

We are living in his life now and for people who receive Jesus’ word of life and trust him for their life, there is only life to come – now in part, one day at the last, in full.

Still scared or a bit more relieved.

I am relieved. I am not living to prove my case before a distant or disinterested God. I am living my life in response to getting off the hook when I don’t deserve any of this good.

I therefore am thankful to Jesus for his judgement. I don’t always like his truth-telling of my wayward heart and ways, but faith says he only ever judges me to ensure I am saved; kills me to help me keep living.

Even though I know I fall far short, I am grateful that there will be a final accounting of my own life and this world with all its injustice and pain. I am glad he is watching me because I know that he does this to keep me in his life, not banish me to a godless death.

With him in the judge’s chair I am safe, and the world is a better place.

I have somewhere to take my anger.

I do not have to take the law into my own hands but hand over my hurt and those who perpetrate it to a just Judge who loves my enemies much more than I can or often do, and who has the final say on what has happened and will happen.

I am relieved that I am not the judge of you, nor you of me. Jesus is the final judge of us all and his judgement is wise, full, understanding and perfect truth – his judgement is life.

We, the risen dead hear your voice, Jesus, and we are alive with hope.

Amen

Jesus, Judge of the world and Saviour, keep on speaking to us and help us hear what you say and put it into practice as we hear of these rumours of wars and the pain we experience so that we have confidence and hope in you. Amen.

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