Zephaniah 1:14-17a (NIV) 14 The great day of
the Lord is near — near and
coming quickly. The cry on the day of the Lord is bitter; the Mighty
Warrior shouts his battle cry. 15 That
day will be a day of wrath— a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness
and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness — 16 a day of trumpet and battle cry against
the fortified cities and against the corner
towers.17 “I will bring such
distress on all people that they will grope about like those
who are blind, because they have sinned against the Lord.
John
9:39-41 (NIV) 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see
and those who see will become blind.” 40 Some
Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind
too?” 41 Jesus
said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin;
but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
What do you see when we talk about the judgment of
God? If you are like most people in our society today, you may see nothing, or
you may see “sinners in the hands of an angry God.” It may be
that even if we do wonder about the judgment of God it has little influence on
our life. Do we have illusions of utopia that can be accomplished by human
effort? Are we blind?
Hebrew Scripture speaks to a Day of
Judgment when God will make everything right. The Day of Judgment is called “That
Day,” and it represents a terrible day, a day of fury, of trouble and distress,
or darkness and gloom. But when “That Day” has passed, God would leave the
world good and fresh and clean.
But, something has changed about
“That Day,” and what has changed is that Jesus is the judge. Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world,
so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” In Jesus
we see that judgment never comes from a malicious God, but from His compassion
and love, though not a soft, sentimental love that says our sin doesn’t matter.
The love of Jesus is a judging love.
There is much that I do not
understand about that judgment, but one thing seems obvious. If the judgment is
from Jesus it is the judgment of suffering love. And the purpose of His
judgment is that those who do not see may see. This, too, is a mystery. How is
it that some people have their eyes opened by judgment and others do not? Some
see where they have been wrong and acknowledge the wrong they have done. They
make amends and they change. Others do not. Judgment opens our eyes to see what
we are doing that is hurtful and destructive to ourselves and to others. That
is the work of Christ for us. That is the will of Christ for us, that judgment
will open our eyes to see.
From a sermon preached by Henry
Dobbs Pope March 20, 1994
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell
No comments:
Post a Comment