Sermons
July 26, 2026 (Proper 12)
Here Comes the Judge
Matthew 7:1-6
Many years ago Mike was flipping through the TV channels when he happened on a dramatization of the Gospel of Matthew. We tuned in during the Sermon on the Mount, just in time to see Jesus talking about judgment, and minding other people’s business.
While he was talking, Jesus picked up a log that was three or four feet long, and he put it up to his eye. People jumped out of the way as he turned this way and that with this tree branch sticking out of his eye.
That scene really brought home to me how we so often miss humor in the Bible, because we take it oh-so-seriously. You will never convince me Jesus never told a joke or laughed, that the book of Jonah isn’t one of the funniest stories out there, that there isn’t an element of slapstick in the accounts of the authorities slapping Peter and John into jail and then being shocked when they come to check on them the next morning and find an angel has sprung them. It’s neither here nor there this morning, I suppose, but it’s worth thinking about.
When Jesus says, “Do not judge,” what is he talking about? Does he mean we should just never actually take notice of others’ bad behavior? Does it mean we look the other way when someone is harming others? Does he mean that the whole legal and judicial system should be dismantled, or that those who serve as judges in civil and criminal court are sinning?
Of course not. There is judging, and then there’s judging.
When a person breaks the law and goes to court, it is the court’s responsibility to judge their actions and pronounce a verdict and, if the verdict is guilty, hand down a sentence. That’s not what Jesus is talking about.
He was speaking to people who wouldn’t have served on a jury or been prosecuting or defense attorneys, much less ascended to a judge’s bench. So he didn’t mean that his followers must never participate in the legal system in any way. Nor would he ever have said that we should look the other way when there is egregious misbehavior or abuse happening.
If someone is being harmed, I don’t think Jesus would approve of our standing by and letting it happen because, “Well, he said we’re not to judge.” I’m pretty sure this isn’t the case, because back in Matthew 18, he actually outlines a process for how misbehavior in the church should be handled.
So what is Jesus telling us to do? I think he’s telling us to mind our own business first.
In the Brother Cadfael series that was on Masterpiece Theater years ago, we see an example of what I think Jesus wants us to avoid. There seems to be a person like this in nearly every group of people. In the case of the Shrewsbury abbey, it’s Brother Jerome, who was played by Julian Firth in the series. He was constantly watching for another of the monks to put a foot out of line, and was always ready to run to the abbot to tell him about it. And almost every time, the abbot had to tell him to butt out.
When I was little we used to call a person like Brother Jerome a tattletale.
It’s one thing to say something when someone is doing harm, actually hurting someone or damaging property. It’s totally another to devote your life to policing others’ petty little misdeeds.
But Jesus takes this a step further. “With the judgment you make you will be judged,” he says. He’s referring to something that we see in the world pretty often: the fiery temperance preacher in bygone days, for instance, shouting about the evils of alcohol while everyone can clearly see the outline of a bottle in his pocket. Or the legislator advocating laws against some behavior she considers to be immoral…then it’s discovered that she is secretly engaging in precisely that same behavior. Maybe I drive by a casino and roll my eyes at all the people in there who are, as far as I’m concerned, simply setting their money on fire; and then before I get home I stop and buy a Powerball ticket. If I do that I don’t have any moral high ground to stand on while I pass judgment on people for going to a casino, do I?
I think what Jesus wants is for each of us to realize that each of us can only control one person’s behavior. We can’t make someone else act like we think they should, live like we would prefer they live, dress the way we believe is appropriate. We can only control ourselves. And heaven knows we’ve got a full time job doing that.
It’s tempting to find other people’s misdeeds more interesting than our own, and it’s easy to attribute bad motives to others, while coming up with reasons why we’re totally justified in doing almost exactly the same things they do. Maybe we would be better off looking in the mirror, recognizing that we’re not perfect, either, and asking God to help us do better.