We all judge,
and we all have been judged.
We cannot help it,
because “we are so bound up with the lives of others
that what they do affects us,
and so we cannot but assess them.” *
As we judge
so we are judged by others.
Life is a series of provisional and penultimate judgements,
matters in which we are tested.
This act of being judged
can reveal what kind of people we are,
a test of our mettle,
an examination of our courage, our resolve, our love.
We think today
about the judgement that lies ahead
when Jesus Christ comes again:
the final judgement:
“From there he will come again to judge the living and the dead.”
If judgement is an unescapable part of our lives,
it is also an escapable part of the gospel;
there is no salvation without judgement,
there is no gospel without judgement.
What does it mean to say
“he will come again to judge the living and the dead”?
It certainly doesn’t mean that
that we have all the answers.
We have no direction information about heaven and hell;
we have no access to some divine timetable or scenario of the end-time. **
Scripture strongly proclaims that there is a judgement to come
and Jesus is the one who will judge;
at the same time, it offers no clear description of what that judgement is.
Instead, it offers a number of pictures
to what we know only, if at all, in part.
So the New Testament speaks in different ways
of the coming of Jesus again in order to rescue and save;
of the coming of Jesus again to resist and punish those who acted falsely and
unjustly (2 Thess. 1.5-10);
of the coming of Jesus again to judge according to how we have act towards
the naked, the hungry, the stranger, the imprisoned, the sick (Matt 25.31-46);
of the coming of Jesus again to finally overcome and defeat evil.
Whilst there is much unknown,
we do know, I believe, who will be judge.
To often when we think about the ‘last judgement’,
we separate it from the rest of the gospel:
and so we understand the last judgement to be
the moment God rewards some with heaven
and punishes others with hell,
but this is to suggest God as some vengeful or angry deity
who acts retributively,
or it is to suggest some law of karma,
both of these ideas are alien to the Christian gospel.
Who is our judge?
Our judge is Jesus Christ,
who has been named
as one who was conceived and born
who suffered, died and was buried
and on the third day was raised to life
and who is now seated at the right hand of God the Father.
This description of Jesus
has narrated his incarnation,
his crucifixion
his resurrection and his ascension.
This is good news.
The good news of God in Christ
triumphing over sin and death.
When Christ comes again,
“he will not have changed his identity or altered his purpose;
there are not two different Christs,
one who comes in grace and mercy
and one who comes in wrath and vengeance.” ***
Jesus is the one who comes
‘not to judge the world, but to save the world’ (John 12.47),
which I suggest means not the exclusion of judgement,
but only a “crude misinterpretation” of judgement that divorces it from salvation. ****
Salvation is not one thing and judgement another,
they are part and parcel,
the final judgement is God’s completion
of his act of salvation.
What is the purpose of this judgement?
It is to set things right,
it is to
establish order where there is disorder;
restore peace where there is division;
make perfect where there is imperfection;
reveal the truth where there is deceitfulness.
The Last Judgement
will demonstrate that the history of the world is already decided
in cross and resurrection;
The cross is God’s judgement on the world,
in the cross, we see God’s decisive ‘no’ to evil
and in the resurrection, we see God’s decisive ‘yes’ to all that is good.
The promise of the last judgment is thus good news
because it is the belief that “the agony of poverty, violence, starvation,
loneliness and despair will be lifted” *****
Things will not always be this way.
God will end the story justly.
What this says is that the judgement of Christ
is not like the judgement of one who sits behind a bench
in a courtroom
but is the active work of salvation.
So we see in the Old Testament that judgement
is towards the defence and deliverance of the poor and helpless
from the greed and cruelty of the rich and powerful.
The Last Judgement is to make right that which is wrong
and therefore if it is to save and to deliver
it is also to condemn.
So the scriptures can speak of the Day of Judgement
in terms of all that is hostile to God,
that which is evil,
that which seeks 'a future in division and domination
in spiritual arrogance,
political violence,
economic greed'******
as being consumed and destroyed.
This is described as a separation, a sifting – like sheep and goats (Matt 25),
wheat and weeds (Matt 13);
to use an analogy from the world of work – you’re fired or hired.
but it is also described as a refining, a purifying;
to use another analogy from the world of work – its an appraisal (1 Cor 3.13-15; 2 Cor. 5.10).
we will be judged for how we have lived in response to
God’s grace.
That Jesus will come again to judge
is good news
It is good news because the one who loved us
is our judge.
Jesus is the 'Judge judged in our place' (Karl Barth),
and so for those in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation (Rom 8.1).
It is good news because the sinfulness and injustice of our world,
and of our lives,
will be put right, will be rectified, will be brought to account;
there will be no ultimate triumph for evil and its effects (1 Cor 15.24-28).
That Jesus will come again to judge
means we can be patient,
we do not have to right the story, rectify all the wrongs
we do not have to overcome or repay evil with evil (Rom 12.17)
we can be a people of peace
rejecting a way of violence.
“Do not judge,” says Jesus, “unless you be judged” (Matt 7.1)
by which, I suggest, he means do not attempt
to decide someone’s future destiny
our role is not God’s.
We should note that in the vision of the final judgement in Matthew 25
both the righteous and unrighteous say ‘when did we see?’
Our role is not to play judge,
but to be witnesses,
to offer testimony to the grace of God,
to point to Jesus, as Lord and saviour,
to live without fear, full of hope, bursting with love.
That Jesus will come again to judge
means the way we live our lives matters
means the content of our hearts matter
you may know the prayer that goes
“Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known
from whom no secrets are hid.”
When we are too busy judging others –
and let’s face it, we do,
we can be blind to the truth that we are and will be judged.
God knows us!
and so Jesus provides the wonderful image of
seeing a speck of dust in another’s eye
while being blind to the log in our own.
To be proclaim the Last Judgement
is to acknowledge we are sinners in need of grace
and at the same time we are already those forgiven.
Grace is both free and costly.
Our freedom in Christ means we can approach the Last Judgement
unafraid and with joy
and yet, if it is grace and mercy we have received,
then in its light we stand.
* Colin Gunton, The Theologian as Preacher, p.159ff.
** Luke Timothy Johnson, The Creed, p.205.
*** Daniel Migliore in Exploring and Proclaiming the Apostle’s Creed, p.186
**** Daniel Migliore in Exploring and Proclaiming the Apostle’s Creed, p.181
***** Sam Wells, Transforming Fate into Destiny, p.143.
****** Theofore W. Jennings, Loyalty to God, p.164.
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