Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Good to be judged?

Luke 22.67-69 (ESV)
"If you are the Christ, tell us." But he said to them, "If I tell you, you will not believe, and if I ask you, you will not answer. But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God."

Psalm 110.1 (ESV)
The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool."


This Sunday, my senior pastor taught from the story of Jesus' trial and condemnation to death from the Gospel of Luke (spanning parts of chapters 22 and 23). It is heavy material, as we consider how the guiltless perfect God-man approached his death which was to pay the penalty for our individual and corporate wrongdoing. The joy of the Gospel, even in this somber remembrance, is that I am now able to enjoy restored relationship with God because of Jesus' perfect obedience.

But that happy ending was not on display in the passage we read Sunday. Instead, I saw again the ways in which Jesus was unjustly judged. As the rulers of the people questioned and judged Jesus, his response was simply, "from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God." He called their attention to the words of Psalm 110, in which the Lord executes judgement on the whole world for failing in innumerable ways to live up to his holy standard. Jesus had asserted that he would be the one with final judgement of them, not the other way around. His assertion did not quell their anger, however. It only fueled their determination to see him dead.

The concluding remarks of the message so impacted me that I have listened to them many times (via my church's sermon blog) since then.

Was there any justice in Jerusalem the day Christ was tried? Was there any justice? Is there any justice in America, where wealth can acquit and the color of your skin can condemn? Is there any justice? This chapter reveals a horrific corruption of justice. The most serious. For the innocent one, the Son of God, Christ, God's King was not convicted but sent to death; declared innocent yet given the worst possible execution. Sometimes human courts work. Never perfectly. We need Christ. We need the King. We should be saying, "Jesus, come. Come, Lord Jesus. Come to us. Come bring your judgements."

Up until this point, I thought I was right with him. We do not have perfect justice on the earth, but Jesus can bring it. I was enthusiastic to see the innocent go free and to see those evildoers get what they deserve. But his next statement stopped my vague self-righteous reverie...

See, we need his judgements. Because when he tries you, he finds out what's right and true. He sees it all. He never gets the evidence wrong. He establishes a perfect law. He it applies it flawlessly. And so, we need to submit to this judge.

Wait! No! I want Jesus to come and release me, not judge me! I want him to bring low those I see as haughty so that I, his humble disciple, can live joyously with him! The last question he asked only made me squirm more...

Do you put Jesus on trial? Do you judge him? ... Or do you let him judge you and out of worship submit to him as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords?

Again, my heart dropped. Do I invite God, the perfect holy one, to judge me? Do I look stupid to you? But he is right to call us to let Jesus judge us.

I do wrong and I sin in small and large ways. There are sins in my past of which I am and in some ways should be ashamed. I cannot expect to enjoy God's good gifts while I carry and continue to sin that earns his wrath. But I and my sins have already been judged and punished, and I must continue to invite Christ's judgement on me. Jesus Christ was deemed innocent by human courts and by God the Father, but he accepted the humanly incomprehensible sentence for my guilt. Only when I accept what God says about my sin in the Bible (that all my wrongdoing, even the most "trivial" rebellion against his desire for me, adds up to a mountain of evidence demanding my condemnation to eternal punishment) can I also receive the good things he promises to those who live rightly.

So, I pray that God will give me the courage to invite his judgement of me, so that I will be able to stand with joy that only increases the more I see how much of me he has judged and how much wrath Jesus prepared to take from me as he dragged himself up the hill where his cross stood waiting.

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