B, Post Pentecost 16 Proper 18 - James 2:8-13 "Mercy Triumphs over Judgement"
Mercy triumphs over judgement. We all like it when others are merciful
towards us. Not so much when others are
merciful towards those whom we condemn and not us. So, the command of Jesus hits hard in the
ears and hearts as you’re told to, “Love your enemies and pray for those
who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:44–45a ESV)
Mercy triumphs over judgement. This in James is the law of liberty or
freedom. The law of coming and going
without restriction. Judgement that
doesn’t end in mercy lands sinners, who have received mercy, back into the same
judgement they’ve used on others.
Judgement is not necessarily a bad thing. However, Jesus says, “Judge not, that you be not judged.
For with the judgement, you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure
you use it will be measured to you.” (Matthew 7:1–2 ESV)
And again, he says, “Do not judge by appearances, but
judge with right judgment.” (John 7:24
ESV)
The Greek word “to judge”, krino, is the parent word for many English words such as critic,
criticise, crisis, criteria, and hypocrite.
One half of our brain God created to make judgement, so judgement is in
our DNA. A right judgement will allow
mercy to win the day, since to judge something is to discern, or assess, to
resolve, and it can even mean, to believe rightly. Yet the judgement in our fallen DNA, leads you
and I to make bad judgements when we forget what Jesus did for each of us.
Jesus’ judgement of your situation led him to absorb what you
and I rightly deserve, which he paid for in full on the cross. The cross is both the place of crisis but
also profound compassion for us whose hearts are full of evil, defiling us
before our Father in heaven. Knowing
this about ourselves we make right judgements, leading to our necessity to be
merciful without partiality.
The book of James is a letter to the twelve tribes in the Diaspora,
the Dispersion of Jewish believers in Christ.
These are those who in freedom, are called to come and go into God’s
presence through Jesus Christ, now that the curtain in the temple at Jerusalem,
has been torn from top to bottom on Good Friday.
Having been grafted into this freedom of entering God the
Father’s presence through Jesus Christ, we Gentiles, together with believing
Messianic Jews, participate in the law of liberty. Through mercy we sinners are also
saints. We’re called to believe this
mystery of the cross. One hundred
percent sinner, but at the same time, one hundred percent saint. This is mercy triumphing over judgement.
Judgement needs to occur, but if mercy is not the
completion of judgement, we stand under the judgement we make. How much better is it for you and your
enemies, for your judgement of self and others, to find your peace in mercy? Your guilty verdict has been overturned with
a pardon of freedom. When you condemn
others in their guilt, aren't you opening the way for your guilt to be reinstated?
Why would you want your stay of eternal execution lifted? Why would you swap
mercy only to be delivered once again into destruction and death?
Last week we heard Jesus judge the Jewish scribes and
Pharisees as hypocrites when they question his disciples for eating with
defiled hands, while their hearts were defiled with evils that break the
commandments.
Today we hear Jesus move amongst those, the Jews considered
as “defiled Gentiles” of the Syrian-Phoenicians, and the ten cities of the
Decapolis, where he heals the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman, and
restores a deaf man’s hearing and speech somewhere to the east of the Sea of
Galilee.
James calls believing Jews to, “…show no partiality as you hold the
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by
the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one
point has become guilty of all of it.” (James 2:1,9–10 ESV)
Having been grafted into Jesus Christ, these words in James
are for us too! In the same vein as
Jesus speaks about the evils that come from the heart of man, he reminds us with
the law, of our condemnation and the sentence or judgement of death too. But as Jesus mercifully frees those with his
healing word, we too are called to receive and believe the same law of liberty
and compassion, having been forgiven, and pass it on to our enemies!
James instructs, “So speak and so act as those who are
to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who
has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:12–13 ESV)
Just as the beast of burden pulls a cart of produce, we are
called to allow the work of judgement to be connected to the free-wheeling
carriage of God’s mercy. The cart needs
to be connected to the horse! But the
cart always comes after the horse! What
I’m saying is that mercy comes after judgement, and once mercy is in play,
judgement must always be merciful! Mercy
triumphs over judgement!
When you allow desire within you to entice you back into a
judgement that puts the cart in front of the horse, so to speak, you allow the
law of condemnation to mute mercy. This
judgement is doubting and double-minded.
Here again the Greek word krino appears as the substance of the word “to doubt”, which is a
hesitation, withdrawal, discrimination, or partiality in making a right
judgement. James says those who do lack
wisdom, in making right judgements, are encouraged to pray and trust God will
give.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all
without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no
doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and
tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive
anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:5–8 ESV)
Asking in faith is in fact, the law of liberty at
work. Despite our lack of wisdom, we
have the freedom to come into God’s presence and receive forgiveness. We do so without doubt, knowing that
judgement has fallen on Jesus and will not fall on us who continue coming in
and going out from God’s presence having been forgiven and fed by Jesus Christ
in word and sacrament.
His word and sacraments serve a two-fold function. Not only are we forgiven and fed for eternal
life, but we’re protected with his impartial protection in this life. The Holy Spirit works within you, despite
your struggle with your sin and the struggle to forgive others as God has
forgiven you, to reflect the mercy that has triumphed over your judgement! Amen.
