(Homiletical surgery has been performed from a 2012 sermon. Eleanor Ann Saager is baptized in the 10:30 Divine Service.)
When Jesus says, Judge not, and you will not be judged, He speaks about judgment that punishes the obvious sins of your neighbor in order to improve yourself before your neighbor. In other words, Jesus condemns “one-upmanship.” “One-upmanship” is self-love, focused away from the God Who created you and gives you everything you need to support this body and life. You have to have something to hold over God and your neighbor that says, “I am better than you. I don’t say and do those petty things you say and do. Watch me and see how a real Christian lives!”
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? It’s hard to see what sickens you when you are too busy nosing around in your neighbor’s sicknesses, looking for dirty laundry to air before others in order to make you look good and him look bad. Jesus uses hyperbole here, but He makes His point clear. When you shoot off your mouth about your neighbor’s sins, you are missing the obvious target because there’s a giant two-by-four sticking out of your eye socket.
Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. God’s mercy rests on you in the forgiveness of sins for Jesus’ sake. Nevertheless, you turn to your neighbor and show him no mercy when you judge him toward condemning him instead of covering up and forgiving his sins. Consider Noah and his drunkenness. His children surrounded him with a blanket and walked alongside him, covering his nakedness when he was drunk. Put yourself in the shoes of Noah’s children. You might wish to drop your corner of the blanket and let the world take a good look at drunken Noah. Any pictures taken would go viral in a heartbeat. You would be famous for exposing Noah!
You would also be caught in the sin of judging and condemning your neighbor. Dropping the corner of the blanket, whether it is Noah or your neighbor, shows you are a spiritually haughty, self-righteous hypocrite. James chapter two says, Judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy.
Listen to Jesus again: Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. The verbs are first imperative, HEY YOU! DO THIS! Then the verbs change tense. The first two verbs concerning judgment and condemnation are in the aspect of something that has already happened and continue to happen today. You will not be judged and you will not be condemned proclaim the joy of Christ’s all-sufficient death applied to you through believing that Jesus has paid for your sin of malicious judging and condemning. His redemption for you remains true today as it was when Jesus first had mercy in His suffering and death. Jesus’ redemption for you will also remain true when He returns in judgment. You will not be judged. You will not be condemned. You will be forgiven. It will be given to you.
What is given to you? Mercy will be given to you on the Day of Judgment, as it is given to you now through the Means of Grace. Jesus applies His mercy, His forgiveness, and His gifts given to you, when His Word of completed redemption is proclaimed. Where His Word goes, there also His Spirit goes with the Word, calling and gathering the Church to be made holy. Jesus applies His mercy today through water and His Word upon Eleanor Ann, making her an heir of everlasting life.
How is Christ’s mercy be given to you? Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. Picture a woman with a large apron. In her apron there is a multitude of stuff; so much stuff she can’t hold it in her lap. The stuff she has is what the Means of Grace delivers: forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation. Jesus gives you His mercy in such great abundance that you won’t be able to hold it all in your lap. He gives and gives and gives and gives and you keep receiving, all the while saying “Amen.”
For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you. It’s not “what goes around comes around.” It’s the way a baptized child of God lives with a full apron of God’s grace. Martin Luther says it this way: “Works are a sure sign and like a seal stamped on a letter, by which I am assured that my faith is right…. We cannot make God stronger nor richer by our works, but can make our neighbor stronger and richer with them; he is in need of them, and hence they should be directed to him and not to God. This you have often heard and you have it now in your ears; I would to God that it might come also into your hands and feet.”
What great measure of mercy you have received from God that you are called His beloved child! He has washed you clean of sin. He has fed you with His Body and Blood. He has implanted the Seed of His Word in your life, that hands, feet, mouth, and apron receive the mercy of God in order to give this mercy toward your neighbor. You are judged worthy, worthy of eternal life because of Jesus the Merciful Savior.
Media Vita In Morte Sumus 