Lectionary: Luke 18:10-14
Why is judging other people so bad?
Let’s explore that question, together. Because, today I hear Christ tell a story that clearly shows that judging other people, placing myself above other people, is not a quality that I am supposed to imitate. It’s a quality that I am told very strongly to avoid.
But what is really so bad about judging people? Is it simply that it’s rude? That it’s not nice? Is it just that it’s not my place to do so? What is the big deal about this Pharisee judging this Publican? Is he not correct in his judgment? The Pharisee is doing everything he’s supposed to be doing. This Pharisee fasts, and he tithes, and he participates in the life of the temple, precisely as he should. He does the right things, and professes the correct doctrine.
Meanwhile, this Publican, a tax collector, a traitor to his own people: he’s not doing what he should be doing. So then, what is so wrong about the Pharisee looking over and seeing someone failing and just simply acknowledging what is true? What’s the big deal?
Brothers and sisters, what Christ reveals to us today, through this story of the Publican and the Pharisee, is that judgment – judging others, being prideful of ourselves - is not simply wrong, it is totally self-destructive.
As Christ tells us today, everything that this Pharisee has done, all of this work that he has put into his life, into his obligations, to his Faith, and to the temple: because he judges the man next to him, all of this work that he has done is now meaningless. All of the labors of piety, labors of philanthropy: by using those labors in order to place himself above another, he reveals that these efforts were always self-serving. Sure, he followed the law, he professed the teachings of God. But through judging others, this Pharisee reveals within himself that all that he has done was not for the glory of God after all, but rather for the glory of himself.
So then, his works are not simply “diminished”. It doesn’t just mean that there’s now an easily- ignored asterisk placed upon his otherwise good deeds. No: we hear that everything that the Pharisee has done is now meaningless. Unjustified. No good was done. He threw it all away, just so that he could have a moment of pride, so that he could feel – for just a moment - better than someone else.
That’s what’s so wrong with pride, brothers and sisters. That is what is wrong with judging other people.
For as I stand here before you, as I prepare to approach the Eucharist with you, the very body and blood of Christ, if I receive my Savior today merely as a symbol of status, if I receive this Eucharist, simply as an excuse to now place myself above those whom I consider to be less than me: then that gift that have I received today, I turn it into ashes in my mouth. It does no good for me. I take the Gift of Christ, and I receive it, not for my own justification, but to my own condemnation.
And so, just like any sin, I have taken the gifts of God, and I have corrupted them for my own purposes. So what do I do? If I find myself judging other people, and using my own faith to do so, how do I climb out of such a mess? How do I possibly come back from slandering God in this way?
Thankfully, brothers and sisters, our Lord gives us the solution in this very story. For the Publican, too, has failed. The Publican has done wrong. And like the Publican, we all have before us a path of reconciliation, a path of making things right. That path is shaped by Repentance. We see the Publican do this. An acknowledgement of where we are, where we have failed, and how far we have to go. And this acknowledgement can be as simple as “God, be merciful to me, a sinner”.
In such a statement, our focus is not on others. Our focus is downwards, bowed, acknowledging what we’ve done in our own lives, our own sins, and then focusing our attention on the only person who can eradicate such lowliness, that can elevate such fallenness: Jesus Christ. This is why this story, this parable, always comes in the weeks preceding Lent, because it is the perfect lesson for us: we Orthodox Christians, we who are participants in the fullness of the Faith.
Today Christ presents a question to us:
Do we take our faith, our traditions, our beautiful liturgy, our sublime theology, and do we use it to lord ourselves over others? Do we use it to judge, to hurt, to justify ourselves? Or do we imitate the Publican, and use this knowledge of God, this intimate relationship with Christ, as an admonishment of ourselves, as a mirror shining back to us the image of Christ, showing in the reflection how far our own image has fallen and become obscured by our own sin?
Today, let us give thanks to our Lord for this example, this parable, this question. For it encourages us to enter into Lent with renewed humility. For the natural endpoint of humility is service, sacrifice. Serving those around us. Sacrificing ourselves for others, even those who judge us. Even those who hate us. We place all before us and above us, in service to the humility that is exemplified by Christ. Exemplified most perfectly upon His own Cross, dying for those who love him, those who hate him, those who do not even know him, so that we all might live. What humility, what mercy, what love!
Glory to God for lowering himself so that we might have such things.
Glory to Jesus Christ!
