Judgment

The scriptures referred to are Jeremiah 23:23-29, Psalm 82 and Luke 12:49-56.

One of the most unnerving villains in the movies was Heather Ledger's version of the Joker in The Dark Knight. I used to think that films or TV shows that were otherwise great were spoiled just a bit by having a cartoonish villain, who apparently just plain likes being evil. I thought it was just laziness on the writer's part that the villains didn't have a better motivation, something we might see the point of even though we disagree with his actions. But that doesn't apply to this movie. Actually we are given a number of explanations by the Joker himself for why he is like he is, but they all contradict each other. Which drives us crazy because we want a reason, like a past trauma or a some twisted ideology.

Sadly, as we have seen in the real world, there are some people who will do things that are definitely evil, that is, that deliberately cause harm to others, but have no well thought-out reason nor any deeply-rooted motivation. And I've noticed in interviews with people who are serial killers or psychopaths or narcissists, that they are not really very interesting or complicated persons. They simply do what they want and are not halted for a minute by fear or regret or the consequences for others. In the final analysis I think we have to accept what Bruce Wayne's butler Alfred says: “Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

So has Jesus become a supervillain in today's gospel reading? He says he came to bring fire to the earth and can't wait until it starts. And he says he came to bring not peace but division, with even family members set against each other. Why is he saying these things? Surely he has a reason.

It always helps to look at the context of a passage of scripture, especially one that is hard to understand. The writers did not just paste sayings of Jesus in random places of the gospels. There are themes that run through chapters and even large sections of the books, like John chapters 13 through 17. In Luke chapter 12, Jesus is mostly offering warnings—about the Pharisees, about resisting the Holy Spirit, about thinking only of material wellbeing, about Christians getting complacent and abusive when Jesus doesn't return right away. So Jesus is talking about the final judgment. In verses 42-48, he says the judgment will go well for the servant who is doing the work his master gave him to do and taking care of others. However it will be severe for the “servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants,” in other words, whose evil acts or neglect of others are deliberate. Jesus contrasts that with “the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment,” in other words, the person who acts out of ignorance. He doesn't know better, so his penalty is less severe.

But in the information age, when you can access practically all the knowledge in the world with the phone in your pocket, ignorance is a rapidly diminishing excuse. For instance, you can download various Bible apps and go to websites with numerous translations and commentaries and Bible dictionaries, etc. Maybe this is what the prophet Habakkuk meant when he said, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” (Habakkuk 2:14) One day there will be no excuse for anyone not to know what God requires of us and how we should behave.

In the meantime, do we think God just sighs at all the evil in the world? Does he say, “Oh, well, that's just how things are”? Is he resigned to the state of the world? Not according to today's Psalm. God stands in the middle of the divine assembly and says, “How long will you judge unjustly, and show favor to the wicked? Save the weak and the orphan; defend the humble and needy; rescue the weak and the poor; deliver them from the power of the wicked.” Now it is not clear if this is really a council of gods, or human judges and rulers who often said they were acting on behalf of the gods, but the Lord is clearly unhappy with the injustice in the world. Those in charge, whoever they claim to be, are letting the powerful prey on the powerless. And the reason may be that they are powerful, too. You tend to stick up for those who are like you or who are in your class. But that means that those who have the power to oppose oppressors rarely do. Even in the wild, predators tend not to attack the most powerful members of the herd but the weak and the sick and the isolated. It is not a just world and God knows that.

As does Jesus. Which is why he talks about casting fire on the earth. Fire is frequently used as a symbol of divine judgment. (Matthew 3:12; 25:41; John 15:6) Fire is used to burn dead branches and stubble and chaff. (Isaiah 5:24) Even today you see professional groundskeepers use gardening flamethrowers to burn away weeds and brush, because cutting them down doesn't get rid of them. They grow back. But not if you burn them.

Jesus, like God, would like to weed out the evil from the world. In fact, when Jesus is talking about the baptism he must still undergo, he is speaking of precisely the injustice God condemns in Psalm 82. He knew that opposing the powers-that-be would get him crucified. Just 4 miles from his hometown of Nazareth lay the original capitol of Galilee, Sepphoris. When King Herod died, when Jesus was just a boy, the city revolted and the Romans put it down brutally, crucifying every man in the city, thousands of them. Herod's son rebuilt the town and it is likely that Joseph and Jesus found work there. But the uprights of those crosses flanking the road to Sepphoris probably still stood as a warning to those who challenge Rome. Jesus knew all too well what the penalty was for defying the authorities. No wonder he wished the judgment was already underway. It would mean there would be no one left to execute him.

But the judgment couldn't begin until the powerful judged Jesus. As the day of his death drew near, Jesus said, “Now is the time for judgment on this world...” (John 12:31) But, wait! It is Jesus who will soon be judged and sentenced to death by crucifixion. How is that the judgment of this world?

If a Nazi soldier on the Russian front went to forage for food in a barn and he found a family of Jews hiding there, what he did next would certainly reveal what kind of person he was. If he let them go, that would say one thing about him. If he shot them or turned them in, which was a death sentence for them, he would be passing judgment on himself as a person. And in a human rights court after the war this would be used to judge him.

The 3 synoptic gospels all have a passage in which Jesus asks “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:15; Mark 8:29; Luke 9:20) The equivalent in John's gospel is when Pilate asks Jesus whether he is a king. (John 18:33-37) In his excellent Great Courses lectures on the “History of Christian Theology,” professor Phillip Carey makes the case that the gospels are asking this question of the reader. Having read about Jesus, who do you think he is? Is he the Messiah, the Son of God, or merely a false prophet as his critics said? Whose side are you on—Jesus' or Pilate's? It is the trilemma C.S. Lewis pointed out: in claiming to be the Son of God, Jesus is either deceiving others or is delusional or he is who he says he is. He is either a liar, a lunatic or the Lord. You judge.

So the God who is Love Incarnate, who has harmed no one nor told anyone not to worship God, is about to be judged, and not at all impartially. He will be judged by his enemies and condemned for the sake of political convenience and religious business as usual. Is this action not a judgment on, not only those who actually did the deed but all who see this injustice and either don't care or—and this is hard to believe but I've read it online—think “Good riddance, Jesus!” A world that not only has people who dream up, construct and use such horrible methods as the cross to kill others, but which also has a large number who shrug because it is not their problem, is a world under judgment.

But fire is also a symbol of purification. In fact our English word “purify” comes from the Greek word for “to burn.” Fire is used to burn up dross and refine metals like silver and gold. (Malachi 3:3) In Zechariah God says, “I will refine them like silver is refined and will test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name and I will answer; I will say, 'These are my people,' and they will say, 'The Lord is my God.'” (Zechariah 13:9) Jesus may be thinking “How I wish this world was purified of the evils that afflict it!” God gave us a paradise. We made it into a hell on earth. And Jesus entered into that hell and lived in it and died from it for our sakes.

But if Jesus wanted the world purified why did he say he did not bring peace but division? I don't think he was saying that was his or God's purpose. I think he was just saying that it would be the natural result of telling people the truth about their condition. You may have read or heard that during the pandemic there were people in the hospital who were on oxygen and dying but who were denying that they had Covid. Some would get violent towards doctors and nurses who told them that. One can see how someone might resist being diagnosed with alcoholism or addiction, because of our history of seeing them as moral failings rather than diseases. But why would anyone object to being told a virus caused their condition? Sadly it shows us how resistant people can be to the truth even when it is a matter of life and death.

Jesus knew that the gospel, though intended as good news, would nevertheless be greeted with anger and opposition. Because the gospel starts out by diagnosing the people of the world as being spiritually sick. And not just those people that you didn't like in the first place but you, too. And people don't like that, anymore than Jesus' critics like being told they were spiritually blind. (John 9:40-41)

But the good news is there is a cure: giving your life to Jesus. And some people don't like that anymore than other people liked the vaccine. Because you have to admit you are don't have the power to do this on your own. In the case of the vaccine, you have to admit that you aren't in complete control of your own body and you can't stave off a virus through healthy eating or exercise or vitamins or supplements. In the case of the gospel, you have to admit you are not infallible: you are not always wise or always moral or always right. You have to be humble. You have to admit you need outside help. And some people just can't do that. And so they attack those who assert that we must.

In Jesus' day, there were Pharisees, those who thought the right thing to do was to uphold an elaborately strict practice of the rules even if people suffered. They hated Jesus for not only saying that was wrong but showing that was wrong by healing on the Sabbath, and touching menstruating women who were unclean and corpses who were more so. In Jesus' day there were Zealots, people who thought the right thing to do was to throw off the oppressive government. They hated Jesus for not leading a violent revolt, as Barabbas tried to, but telling his followers to turn the other cheek and love their enemies and be peacemakers. In Jesus' day there were Essenes, those who thought the right thing to do was to withdraw from society and pursue pure lives by living in the wilderness and waiting for an apocalypse. They hated Jesus (or would have if they heard of him way out in Qumran by the Dead Sea) for saying the proper place to be was among the sinners and tax collectors and prostitutes, like a doctor making house calls, eating with them and telling them that they could enter the kingdom of God. (Mark 2:17)

So, yes, even having the cure to what is wrong with people will divide families and set them against each other. It wasn't what Jesus wanted but what he knew would happen.

But Jesus didn't inflict fiery judgment on the world, as much as he wanted to. Unlike a supervillain or a psychopath or a narcissist he didn't just do what he wanted, regardless of the consequences to others. Instead, he let the world do its worst to him. And after 3 days, he rose again. And he didn't subject the world to judgment even then. He finished teaching his disciples the full extent of the gospel, including the promise of resurrection, and then he left them to spread the word. And the word spread like wildfire.

Despite the fact that Jesus said about his return, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father,” (Matthew 24:36) certain people ignore this and keep predicting the end of the world. They really want the day of judgment to come soon. So why hasn't it? In 2 Peter we are told, “The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) The judgment, the purification of this corrupt world, has been held off by God's mercy. He wants not just some but all to repent—to change their minds, to accept his diagnosis and to turn to the Great Physician to be cured of their spiritual and moral sickness. When he knows that all who will respond to his love and grace have done so, then he will clear away the ruins of this burnt out world and build his new creation.

But what Jesus said about the end of the world in general is true of the end of the world for us as individuals. No one knows the hour when their end will come. But it will come. And just as it is foolish to make preparations for the hurricane when it is already upon you, it is foolish not to prepare for the inevitable beforehand. As Paul said, “Look, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2) Every second of our life is a second chance to turn to Jesus. And that is good news.

One last thing about fire. In the Old Testament, God is often pictured as fire (Exodus 3:2; 13:21; Ezekiel 1:27) and in the New Testament we are told God is love. (1 John 4:8) Both of which make sense since fire is also a symbol of love. You hear it in pop songs and even in the Song of Songs in the Bible. (Song of Solomon 8:6) Fire can destroy and it can purify, but fire can also give warmth and light. And in our reading from Jeremiah, God says his word is fire. Psalm 119 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.” (Psalm 119:105) In Acts 2 when God pours out his Spirit upon all the believers, it is manifested as tongues of fire and they start to proclaim the gospel to all within earshot. (Acts 2:3-4) Jesus said we are the light of the world and we are not to hide it but let it shine for others. (Matthew 5:14-16) So let us light up this world with the purifying and illuminating Word of God, the good news about Jesus, who went through hell to save us, and did it all out of his unquenchable burning love.