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JUDGMENT! A disquieting thought. Ever been to court? Most
of us have, at one time or another. How did you feel when you
went into the courtroom? I cannot speak for anyone else, but
every time I have set foot in one of those august chambers,
looking toward the raised bench from which sentence would be
passed, I have been a bit awe-struck. "Oyez, oyez, oyez,"
intones the bailiff in calling for order and inviting those with
business to draw near. The judge is introduced. "All rise!"
And a black-robed figure bustles in and takes the chair behind
the lofty bench. "God bless the United States of America and God
bless this honorable court. Be seated." Awesome.
Now move that scene up exponentially - the picture painted
in our lesson from Revelation. The entire universe is
transformed into a courtroom, and everyone who ever lived has
been subpoenaed there. Presiding over the proceedings from a
lofty bench is the Lord of all creation. Amidst the shuffling
and shifting, the papers are arranged and the books are opened.
"Call the first case." Awesome.
Is that how it will be...at the end of time? Hard to say.
After all, the pictures we get throughout the book of Revelation
are more poetic than photographic. What we CAN and DO say is
that "I believe...[Jesus will] come again to judge the quick and
the dead."
A brief word on the language here. "The quick and the dead"
refers not to pedestrians trying to cross High Point Road at rush
hour where one had better be quick or else end up dead. The
"quick" of our affirmation is simply Elizabethan English for
"living" or "alive." The point of what we say is that no one
escapes this process. Even death is no escape.
Is that what you believe? Jesus is coming and will judge?
Have you THOUGHT about it? From conversations I have had with
you, many HAVE considered the question, but despite the fact that
week in and week out we say "from thence He shall come to judge
the quick and the dead," there is not much clarity about the
affirmation.
Break it in two. Consider just "He shall come." Scripture
says so. In the upper room with his disciples, Jesus himself
said he was going away but promised to come again.(1) At his
ascension, the two angels declared, "This Jesus, who has been
taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you
saw him go into heaven."(2) There are all those bumper stickers
declaring, "In the event of the Rapture, this car will have no
driver." Those refer to a portion of a letter which Paul wrote
to the church at Thessalonica where he says,
I heard a good deal about that as I was growing up. Perhaps
you did too. Mostly, it was shared as a way of keeping sinful
teenagers in line (and I suspect that has been the case for every
generation for almost 2,000 years): "Do not be caught somewhere
or with someone or doing something which would be an
embarrassment if the Lord should come back right then and see
you." And there was the reminder that the Second Coming could be
at any moment, so BE READY! Did the warnings work? Well...
Is the Lord coming back? As I say, scripture says so, and
so do we from week to week: "from thence He shall come..." But,
so saying, the return might not be in the way that traditional
understanding has taught (and I can promise it will not be the
cause of massive traffic accidents because of driver-less
vehicles - what kind of God would cause such a mess?). So
saying, I am satisfied to leave the details in the Lord's hands.
I am content to know that, one day, whether individually at the
end of my earthly journey or as one of a great band of believers
at the end of history, he is coming for me, and I will see him
face to face.
Now, what about the second half of our affirmation? "To
judge the quick and the dead?" How are we to understand God's
judgment? Again, the concept is thoroughly biblical. In the Old
Testament God's judgment is demonstrated concerning nations,
their rulers, and individuals. In the New Testament, divine
judgment is a both a PRESENT reality...John's gospel: "And this
is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and
people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were
evil"(4)...and a FUTURE certainty...John again: "The hour is coming
when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will
come out, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life,
and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of
condemnation."(5) In the scene we encountered in Revelation, the
basis of judgment is both from the Book of Life and also from the
books of works.
Here is where questions come. Some ask if Christians go
through the judgment just like everyone else. After all, it was
Jesus himself who said, "Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears
my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and DOES
NOT COME UNDER JUDGMENT, but has passed from death to life."(6)
The issue is eternal destiny - for believers, it is settled and,
as scripture affirms, is not a subject for judgment.
But the story does not end there - there is that matter of
this judgment of our works. I know, I know, I know. We who are
the heirs of the Reformation have a fit on that one. Were we not
always taught by the Apostle Paul, "By grace are you saved
through faith...not of works, lest anyone should boast?"(7) True
enough. But Paul also taught, "For all of us must appear before
the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense
for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil."(8) He
talked about the quality of our works - some terrific, as if
gold, silver or precious stones, others not so terrific, in
quality like nothing more than wood, hay, or stubble. Come the
day of judgment, the good stuff survives and is even refined, but
the bad is just wiped out, gone in a puff of smoke. The worker
is saved, but the works are gone.(9)
So the question comes again: are believers subject to
judgment? And that wonderful answer - yes and no. NO,
concerning our destiny; YES, concerning our behavior. "From
thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead"...ALL of
them, you and me included.
I have had occasion to be in court recently. Not long ago,
my David got a traffic ticket. I had gone down to Charlotte to
bring him home from college for the weekend. He was the driver
for the return trip. Passing by Salisbury, a State Trooper
pulled him over. He may have been exceeding the limit a little
bit, but he was keeping with the flow of traffic and not driving
unsafely. If he had been, I would have been giving him more
grief than any officer, because, as he will be the first to
attest, I am one of the world's most vocal and vehement backseat
drivers. We thought and thought about what might have caught the
trooper's attention, and the only thing I could figure was, at
some point, as we traveled cheek-by-jowl at highway speed with an
eighteen-wheeler five feet from my face, I probably said, "Get
past this guy." He did, and the blue lights began to flash. For
the first time in his life, David was pulled over.
"License and registration, please." He handed them over.
The trooper took them back to his cruiser, did whatever troopers
do in such situations, then came back with a ticket. David was
being charged with exceeding the speed limit in a work zone and
fined $230!!! He could mail the money in and be done with it, or
he could dispute it. $230??? The punishment did not fit the
crime. We would take this one to court. There was a preliminary
appearance to determine if we might accept a lesser plea. No.
The date was set.
We arrived at the courthouse early, the first ones there.
We had been told that cases were arranged with order of arrival
taken into account (and such is apparently the case in
preliminary appearances), but early, schm-early, on this day it
made no difference. We took our seats in the Criminal Court
amidst a packed house. Case after case was called. Drug
dealers, wife-beaters, petty thieves - this was not the "cream of
society" forming the passing parade but rather the curdled milk.
Hour after hour we watched and waited. The judge was impressive:
fair, open, tough when he needed to be, merciful when that
appeared called for. Sharp. Recess for lunch. More watching
and waiting. Hour melted into hour as the crowd slowly dwindled.
The courtroom was almost empty now. The biblical irony was not
wasted on us - "the first shall be last," and we were. The last
case of the day.
David had prepared his defense. There may have been a
breach of the speed limit, but it was not in a work zone despite
the charge, and thus should not be subject to an outrageously
high fine. He had drafted a careful diagram of the scene to
demonstrate the contention. He had driven to Raleigh for an
official copy of his heretofore unstained driving record.
Suddenly, he was being asked to play Perry Mason. This was
formal. Witnesses were sworn. The District Attorney examined
the trooper. Cross-examination? "And YOU have to do this son,
not your father."
GULP. "Uh, no questions, your honor."
David's turn. He took the stand himself. In his hand he
held the painstakingly prepared diagram which the court examined
with care. He offered his recollection of events and answered
questions from the judge.
"All right, son, stand down," said the judge as he continued
to look at the diagram. "How long have you been driving?"
"Three-and-a-half years, your honor."
"Have you ever had a ticket before?"
"No sir. My record is spotless." He approached the bench
and handed over the copy of his driving history. The judge
smiled at the forcefulness of the answer.
With the evidence at hand, the judge was not comfortable
declaring him Not Guilty, but he was not going to convict either.
"Prayer for Judgment," he said, (the North Carolina equivalent of
Probation without Verdict). "Pay the court costs, and slow down
when you are passing Salisbury on your way home from school."
Hallelujah!
I share that story as a parable. You see, when it comes to
passing judgment, more is involved than rendering a sentence. A
good judge is going to do his or her level best to have things
come out RIGHT for all concerned. Our judge that day did. The
Judge of all the Earth whom we meet in the pages of scripture is
no different.
You see, in the biblical tradition, "judgment" is not
primarily punishment; it is the restoration of order; it is
setting right a situation that has gone wrong. When we affirm
our faith in a final judgment, we are trusting the divine Judge
to fix things. Listen to the way our Southern Presbyterian
"Declaration of Faith" put it a few years ago:
My friend Al Winn suggests that since this is the way it is
going to be ultimately and finally - perfect - let us begin NOW.
Let us tell the truth NOW. Let us stop playing games with each
other NOW. If we are to be judged by how we have treated the
least of these, Christ's brothers and sisters, let us begin NOW
to reevaluate who is important. Let us approximate justice NOW.
Let us practice compassion NOW. Let us stop worrying so much
about what people think and what people may say and what the
newspaper may publish NOW. Let us ask what the Judge will think
and what the Judge will say. Let us ask NOW.
Dr. Winn recalls a friend who was a pastor in South Carolina
at the height of the civil rights struggle. One of his members
came to him, very upset, to ask why he preached so much about
justice to black people. "Because," the pastor said, "I believe
in the last judgment. In that day you will know the truth. You
will understand clearly that the way you treat powerless people
is the way you treat Jesus Christ himself. And when all that
hits you, I don't want you to look across at me, your pastor, and
ask, 'Why didn't you tell me?' I want to be clear of your
blood."
"Do you really believe in the last judgment?" asked the man.
"Literally," said his pastor.(11)
So do we, we say. "From thence He shall come to judge the
quick and the dead.."
Amen!
1. John 14:3 2. Acts 1:11 3. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 4. John 3:19 5. John 5:28-29 6. John 5:24 7. Ephesians 2:8-9 8. 2 Corinthians 5:10 9. 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 10. Albert Curry Winn, A Christian Primer: The Prayer, The Creed, The Commandments,
(Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990), p. 150 11. ibid.
For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the
archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet,
will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will
rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will
be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet
the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord
forever.(3)
Whether Paul wanted us to understand that literally is open
to question. Regardless, it is one more biblical affirmation of
Christ's Second Coming.
All things will be renewed in Christ...
Again, we reach for our anchor in this series of messages:
"As we believe, so we behave." What does our affirmation about
final judgment mean to us?
As he stands at the center of our history, we are confident he will stand at its end.
He will judge all people and nations.
Evil will be condemned and rooted out of God's good creation.
There will be no more tears or pain.
All things will be made new.
The fellowship of human beings with God and each other will be perfected.(10)
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