“He ascended into heaven and sits to the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead;”

Close your eyes. Yes, right now. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. You are sleeping. It’s a deep, dreamless sleep. You’re drifting in a sea of nothingness. No thoughts. No feelings. Just silence. A very deep sleep. You have been sleeping for a long, long time. You have no idea for how long. The last thing you remember is the headlights of the lorry racing towards you, the prick of the needle in your vein, the tears in the face of your granddaughter, your lover holding your hand in the hospital. Then nothing. Deep sleep.

But now – something has changed. You are thinking. How come you are thinking? Maybe you are close to waking up? You can already hear some noises, faint but recognizable. People. Breathing. Coughing. And the light. Even through your closed eyelids you can feel the brightness of the light. It will hurt your eyes when you open them. Still, there is no choice.

You open your eyes. Now. At first, you don’t see anything. You are blinded by the light. Then, slowly, you start to see. Where are you? This is unlike any place you have ever been. Almost like the place you come from – a sea of nothingness – but…brighter, filled with light.

Then you start seeing people. Dozens, hundreds, thousands, millions of people, black, white, Chinese, Indian, all races and ages. You see families and singles, big groups and clans. And: Everybody is naked. For a moment you feel ashamed, you want to cover yourself. But there is nothing here.

“Hello my friend.” You almost scream. Who was that? You turn around and recognize – Pastor Brown. He married the two of you, and he christened both your children when he was way past 70, because you insisted. He died from cancer soon after. Now he smiles at you and you see those familiar 1000 wrinkles in his friendly face.

“Look, over there,” he says, pointing. “There’s Hitler.” You follow his hand and see this small naked man, surrounded by more men. They look angry. No, not angry. They look…frightened. Constantly looking over their shoulder, standing close together in a group.

“Oh, Martin Luther King!” you shout. “Who is he talking to?” Pastor Brown smiles: “His namesake. Martin Luther.”

Suddenly, a roaring sound, so loud that you think your eardrums will burst: “COURT IS NOW IN SESSION!”. You stretch your neck and see it comes from a tall angel-like figure who is carrying a giant sword.

And all of a sudden there is silence. You feel like whispering a question to Pastor Brown but you can’t. In the distance, there is a light brighter than others. It seems to sit or stand or hover above the crowd – hard to see. But there is no need to see. You know.

It’s the Father, God Almighty, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Prince of Peace. The Judge.

Next to him – Jesus. The marks of the cross still visible on his body. And even though he is far away, somehow you can see his eyes. Deep. Dark. Somehow sad. Kind. And they seem to look right inside you.

Jesus holds a book in his hand. The title is etched into the leather in big red letters: “The Book of Life of the Lamb”. But there is another book, much thicker, on a stand next to him. “The Book of Lives of the Lost”.

As if by magic, people are forming a long queue. Young and old, black and white, it’s a United Colors of Benetton queue waiting before the throne, waiting to be judged. Everybody is silent. No whispering, no laughter, no crying. Then the trials begin. As one person reaches the front of the queue, Jesus reads their name – from one of the two books. People nod their head in acknowledgement and join another queue – to the right or left side of the throne.
Slowly but firmly the queue moves forward, dragging you with it. And your last thought is: “What will my judgment be?”

(Rev. 20, 11-20, 15)

Don’t you just love to judge? This person is too fat, she is blur, he is spotty, she smells, he is a gossiper. Oh him? Be careful, he sleeps around. Her? Don’t be too friendly with her, she will move in tomorrow.

Arabs? Terrorists. Traditional churches? Hypocrites. Gays? Promiscuous. George W. Bush? Stupid. Lesbians? Tomboys. Christians? Infidels.

Christians are quick to judge people of other faiths, Christians who break the law, or even those that just read the Bible differently or less literally.

Gay men are stinging in their judgment and criticism of each other with carefully sharpened bitchy tongues.

And how about gay Christians? I don’t even want to go there…

We also love to watch people being judged: Court room dramas are the second most popular TV category after reality TV. And somehow we are most entertained when we see harsh, negative judgment: drama, tears and Simon Cowell.

What does the Bible say about judging?

There are two types of judging we are looking at today:

A) Us judging others

One of the most quoted verses in the Bible says “Judge not less you be judged yourself.” (Matthew 7,1). Does that mean we cannot or should not judge at all?

No. Jesus meant that no one should try to play God by assuming a position of the final judge of what is right. Don’t we know the absolute truth? No, we don’t. If we try and follow all commandments, does that not put us in a position to judge? No.

No one is worthy enough to make judgments on one’s own morality. No one is worthy enough to make judgments on one’s own morality. Romans 3, 10 says: “No one is righteous, no, not one.”

So we cannot judge at all? So everything is OK? We can all do as we please and still find our names in the Book of the Life of the Lamb?

Of course not. Following Jesus has consequences. We need faith in Him, but faith without deeds is dead.

So God has given us discernment. How to differentiate. It’s the ability to see issues clearly. It helps us to know right from wrong.

Jesus told the disciples to use discernment to decide what kind of leaders they want in their church when he told them to beware of false prophets.

Jesus did not accept people on the basis of their words alone. He said: “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my father in heaven.” (Matthew 7, 21). He gives us discernment to appraise the quality of a person by their actions.

But even this discernment should be used wisely. So if we see something in the church going wrong, by all means we should speak up. BUT… (9 qualifications for judging, Matthew P.G., “How to Judge, Part one”, Sept 7, 1997)

1. We must speak the truth in Love. A lot depends on how we speak to the person. Many people use truth like a wet cloth which they slap into the other person’s face. Instead, they should offer them the truth like a comfortable, warming coat, that they can slip into.

2. We must remember that we are sinners ourselves. There is no room for self-righteousness. Remember, no one is righteous, not one.

3. We must investigate. We may have only heard one side of the story. The other one MAY BE RIGHT. Experience is always subjective – the more accounts we have to rely on, the better the picture we get.

4. Judge yourself first. Is there a log in our own eye that we are overlooking because we are searching for the splinter in our brother’s eye? Do we have a clean conscience? Would someone else be better at addressing this?

5. Judgment must be according to the truth – therefore, we must study the scripture and try to understand it in its intended meaning and context.

6. We must pray. We are never judging based on our own morality. We are pointing out a shortfall as we understand it based on God’s law. We need the Lord’s blessing for the conversation we are planning, his guidance and leadership.

7. We must examine our own motives. Are we trying to help the person? Are we concerned they are hurting or hurting themselves or others? Do we have their wellbeing in mind and do we want to give them a chance to change? Or do we find a welcome opportunity to bring them down, drive them out of the church, expose them in front of others. What are our motives?

8. We must be patient. People don’t change. Well, they may, but it’s very hard. People don’t change overnight.

It’s a struggle, often against old habits and convictions, ingrain over many years. Temptation will come, and opportunity. Our friend will fall, time and again. Slide back into their old ways. We must be patient.

9. We must act in a way to bring a person to sound faith. Our action, our intervention, should never crush their faith. They must not feel judged, condemned, alienated, thrown out. Very easily frustration over the words of a fellow Christian grows into frustration with God. Our aim should be to lend a loving and helping hand. Our aim should be that at the end of the day our brother or sister is happier, more content, more themselves as they were intended to be, stronger in their faith.

But shouldn’t we be tolerant? Open to new ideas, respecting people’s opinions and choices? Yes, by all means. We are called to be open. Accepting. Loving.

Like Jesus. He was loving and accepting – but that does not mean he had no principles. He was loving, yet uncompromising. He knew what he stood for and was standing by it to the very end.

So should we respect and tolerate people of different faiths and opinions? By all means. But we don’t have to pretend to agree with them. Let’s learn from our Buddhist friends. They are friendly and loving and want to be our friend – but they do not put aside their convictions in order to do so.

B) But how about us? On judgement day?

We will find ourselves facing our sins. We will find ourselves facing God and Jesus. It may not be a long queue and people may not be naked. But we will be judged.

At the end of days, the question will be

NOT “How much did you get?”,
BUT “How much did you give?”

NOT “How much have you won?”
BUT “How much have you done?”

NOT “How much have you saved?”
BUT “How much have you sacrificed?”

NOT “How much were you honored?”
BUT “How much have you loved and served?”

This final test is easy to pass. Because we have a 2000 year old, often Xeroxed copy of the questions and answers. We hold the marking sheet in our hand. All we have to do is to follow the sheet.

To say it in other words: We have to have faith, but it needs to be expressed in deeds. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Jim Wallis writes: (in The Call To Conversion, Harper Collins 1992, p.108)

“When I was a university student, I was unsuccessfully evangelized by almost every Christian group on campus. My basic response to their preaching was ‘How can I believe when I look at the way the church lives?’ They answered ‘Don’t look at the church, looks at Jesus.’ I now believe that statement is one of the saddest in the history of the church. (…) People should be able to look at the way we live and begin to understand what the gospel is about. Our lives must tell them who Jesus is and what he cares about.”

If our lives indeed tell the story of Jesus, there will be no tears on Judgment Day.

Let us pray:

“Lord Jesus, you have given us your word. It helps us to find the way to you, to know right from wrong. Let us study it wisely and seek to understand it. Help us to apply it first to our lives and use it to reach out to others. Help us live our lives according to your will, so the world will see you in us and so on judgment day you will call us your children. Amen.”