Frankenbob says:
"Me like Judge Wopner the best of all cartoon judges!"
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Psalm 2
"When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels
with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will
be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from
another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats...(Psalm
25:31-32)."
One time, I met a person who went to jail for breaking and
entering. Once he came out, he told everyone about how he was saved,
and how he was born again as a Christian. But some time after, this
person was caught eating a huge bag of chips on the job without
paying for them. He was promptly fired.
I was fooled by this person. I believed he truly believed
Christ, and had turned from crime. I was shocked to discover the
truth. He was still committing crime(even if it was a misdemeanor).
This verse in Matthew tells us we are servants. The servants in
the story asked God about the weeds. They wanted to take them out
themselves. But this is not God's will. We are not here to go on
`holy crusades' to eliminate people we see as sinners, nor are we to
drive people out of our congregations because of their sins. If a
church or a bible study group were perfect, none of us would be in
it. Not me, not you.
Jesus says that we are at no time to judge people. The angels,
the reapers, are the ones who will judge people for who they really
are. As you can see from the story I've told, I would not be a good
judge. I cannot tell a criminal or an evildoer from a good person.
This is why the crusades were so wrong.
We want to give murderers the death penalty. We want to be
vigilantes, even when we ourselves have sins that are equally bad in
God's book. But we are not here to make holy wars against other
people. If people believe in something different, if they are
sinners, if they only pretend to be Christians, we are not to judge
them. THAT IS GOD'S JOB. This is what Matthew's gospel is saying.
Dear Father in heaven, all too often, we like to be judgemental. But you know us better than we know ourselves. We, unlike you and your angels, cannot judge a person by just looking at them. We do not know whether or not a person's heart is good or evil. So, Lord, help us to do our jobs as your servants. Help us to tend your fields by spreading your word, sharing your love and peace, and making disciples. Help us to leave the job of judgement to someone else. Amen.