Inviting Judgment

Throughout Jesus' passion experience, we have countless moments of judgment.

Ironically, the God of the universe subjects himself to the judgment of a contemptuous humanity.

The contrast is that Jesus is innocent and mankind is guilty.

The judgment by humanity is that Jesus should be tortured and crucified despite his innocence.

On the flip side, mankind is guilty, yet God's ultimate judgment does not fall on us; rather, it is absorbed by himself.

Ironically, the crowd chanting for Barabbas' release and Jesus' crucifixion invite judgment upon themselves while Pilate washes his hands of the matter.

There's something unexpected to this idea of inviting judgment that Jesus models by allowing himself to be judged and that the crowd embraces — although for the wrong reasons.

What Jesus provides through the cross is a way to boldly face (and even celebrate) judgment because we'll receive that judgment from God as if we are Jesus himself. His righteousness covers us so that God sees us that way. And over time, he transforms us into his righteousness.

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" - Paul, the Apostle, 2 Corinthians 5:21

Resentment of God's Judgment

While inviting judgment is a powerful exercise, it is the rejection of the idea of judgment that appeals to us humans.

It's a resentment that can lead to us despising the idea of judgment itself. This resentment is also an outcome of people manipulating others by falsely asserting God's judgment on them.

Famous comedian Bill Burr captures this idea in one of his viral comic bits as follows.

"You die and then you go up to get judged, right? God pops in the DVD of your life... "I don't know about this right here, mind explaining yourself?"

[Applause]

This might be the most arrogant thing I say all night, but I actually resent the fact that I'm gonna get judged someday. Like, if that's true, that somebody's gonna judge me, that doesn't even make any sense. It's like dude, you made me, so this is your fuck-up. Let's not try and turn this around on me, you know.

Jesus Christ... you give me freedom a choice, you make whores, you have me suck at math and you don't think this thing's gonna go off the rails? You set me up to fail and now you've got the balls to now question your own goddamn work.

If I made a car, I built a car that didn't run I wouldn't like, burn it forever... you evil piece of shit. Light it on fire. I wouldn't. I would troubleshoot this. Is there gas in the engine? Is the battery charged. Anything beyond this, I got to get a real man to look at it. I believe in you. I'll try and help you out." - Bill Burr - Judgement by god After Death

Below the surface of these laughs, there are two core ideas worth exploring.

The first is the contempt and blame for being accountable. Barr wants someone to blame for his moral failures. Ironically, Jesus provides this for us by taking responsibility for our sins and giving us someone to blame; absorbing our wrath upon himself.

That leads us to the second idea, at the end of his quote. Barr is implying that God judges us, but doesn't understand what's wrong nor does he work to help us. This is why the framing of the first part is so contemptuous.

What Barr is missing is that God actually knows what the problem is with the car, and he solved that root problem at the cross. And all of human history is designed to rectify humanity across time. Simply put, God is doing what Barr laments that God should do. He's helping us out. He's prepared us to face judgment by resolving judgment upon himself.

But, this dynamic of resenting and forgetting God's ultimate judgment has real-world consequences.

A Loss of Faith in Judgment & Totalitarianism

Like anyone, I am vulnerable to self-deception. If I am wrong, let my prayer be for God to bring people to show me where and how. Open my heart and mind to hear what they have to say.

The self-deception of not believing in the last judgment is a dynamic Hannah Arendt illuminates in her book about Nazi and Soviet totalitarianism.

Here's how she describes it, as contrasted with the two dynamics the judgment fosters.

“Nothing perhaps distinguishes modern masses as radically from those of previous centuries as the loss of faith in a Last Judgment: the worst have lost their fear and the best have lost their hope. Unable as yet to live without fear and hope, these masses are attracted by every effort which seems to promise a man-made fabrication of the Paradise they had longed for and of the Hell they had feared.” - Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Page 446

For those who hope for justice, the disappearance of ultimate judgment causes a loss of hope. For perpetrators, it emboldens them to continue their lies and wrongdoing.

Living in this tension allows for our transformation but absent of it, a nightmare instead.

Avoiding Judgment by Becoming The Judge

It’s impossible, on our own, to actively face the ultimate judgment we deserve. We humans quickly become justifying attorneys swiftly building a case for what is right and wrong based on rules that would make us fare much better. And we place that on others.

This is necessary because, by God’s moral standards, we’d utterly fail. We need to be graded on a curve and we need to bend that curve in our favor.

Why would we do anything else other than fight against judgment? To invite judgment is also to accept its consequences. 

The consequences of our brokenness are too much to bear. To face judgment is to face the cost of our sin and our recognition of being unable to pay it. It's like spending on a credit card and then looking at the bill and dealing with collections later.

Facing the difficult reality and truth before us is explored in Paul Zahl's book, Who Will Deliver Us?

“...assimilation of negativity means taking in or embracing, as part of one’s conscience self, the sadness, disappointment, and dark experience. It is the opposite of splitting.

Splitting is the phenomenon of distancing our conscience self from unacceptable feelings and experiences to such an extent that a fissure opens between the conscience self and the unconscious self…

The key to integration is the removal of judgement. For it is judgement that forces us to split. The atonement of Jesus Christ has removed the Damocles’ sword of judgement that has been overshadowing our lives.”  Paul F. M Zahl, Who Will Deliver Us, p46-47

Instead of facing judgment, through Christ's atoning work, we split instead. 

We deny, avoid, or attack that which judges our sins as wrong. We justify our badness as goodness.

And, as long as we're splitting, we're going deeper into self-deception which enables us to keep sinning and feel good about it.

Shedding our shame in any way other than the atonement of Christ does not resolve our brokenness but enables more of it. We feel shameless to say and do horrible things. One of the nastiest lies we embrace is when people convince us that their judgment is God's judgment. They project their judgment on us, and tell us, it is from God. They conflate God's judgment with how they want us to behave. This is a tragic form of spiritual abuse and how toxic religious leaders can control others.

God’s judgment on humanity was a spiritual death that led (and leads) to our eventual physical death. 

But, Jesus faced the consequences of Adam’s sin by dying on the cross. With Jesus’ life among us, He experienced what it was like as a human to be on the other side of God. 

And, this allows us to embrace the assimilation of negativity as Zahl describes. And it allows us to embrace judgment without fear. It liberates us from the toxic and manipulative religious leaders who would seek to control us by stating this as not true.

Facing God's Judgment Today

In Jesus' passion, we see the crowd invite judgment as a trade for Jesus to be crucified. They lust for his torture and death.

Unexpectedly, Jesus allows mankind's judgment and invites God's judgment upon himself.

Before my 2013 nervous breakdown, I went through an interesting spiritual exercise with God, in this vein of judgment. I pondered what judgment after death was like. What if I were to die and face that judgment? What would happen, how would it play out and how would I respond to this eternal scenario before God?

Since God is going to judge me, I wondered, why not go ahead and get this judgment out of the way now? Why not just face Him here on earth instead of waiting until I die? So, after a season of reconciliation, I invited His judgment. I didn't know I was getting myself into a wild roller coaster ride.

Ultimately, my expectation was of His wrath but I instead got a receipt of grace and mercy. And he transformed me through the process of justifying grace. I realized I no longer needed to justify myself because I was justified by Jesus.

It was a powerful experience in contrast to the way I was feeling and behaving.

And, a beautiful benefit on the other side of God's judgment, is that there is no fear of our fellow man. We are free from the judgment chains religious leaders would place upon us.

Facing Man's Judgment: Nothing to Lose

"The ugly troll in my world, is usually the Judgment that [my clients] assume is going to come upon them if if they change." - Julia Starr, The Art of Alignment: Finding Your True Vocational Path 

In the Gulag archipelago, there’s a section where the author discusses the few people who stood up to the corrupt Soviet totalitarian machine, and their disposition. 

It was God’s judgment they invited that empowered them to face evil with confidence. It is our idols that tether us to evil’s bidding. But these unshakable people shed those idols.

Here's how he describes it.

"My life is over, a little early to be sure, but there's nothing to be done about it. I shall never return to freedom. I am condemned to die — now or a little later. But later on, in truth, it will be even harder, and so the sooner the better. I no longer have any property whatsoever. For me, those I love have died, and for them I have died. From today on, my body is useless and alien to me. Only my spirit and my conscience remain precious and important to me…

Confronted by such a prisoner, the interrogator will tremble. Only the man who has renounced everything can win that victory…

There is nothing you can do with me even if you cut me into pieces. After all, you are afraid of your bosses, and you are afraid of each other, and you are even afraid of killing me (They would lose contact with the underground railroad). But I am not afraid of anything. I would be glad to be judged by God right this minute." - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Wow.

We have true freedom when we know that we have nothing to lose, and it's grounded in Jesus' righteousness. Without this freedom, we're likely to conform to the most dominant of people and groups, even when they lie or participate in wrongdoing.

In the second season of the Rings of Power, an insurrectionist usurps power through a coup from the queen of Eregion. As a result of this and other events, her top commanding officer, Captain Elendil, is condemned to die.

This new king says he will spare Elendill but he must publicly vocalize his commitment that this new illegitimate King was the legitimate ruler so that he can shore up kingdom loyalty. Elendill rejects this demand.

The queen and Elendill's daughter beg him to relent and submit. Elendill rejects this plea and states the following.

“Faith is not faith if it is not lived.”

His true and good conviction for freedom and against tyranny grounds him in a place where he has nothing to lose.

He places his fate in God's will.

It's knowing that our ultimate home is not in this world, but the one to come that grounds us. It's knowing that, even when judgment arrives, we'll be perfect children of God because of Jesus' atoning work for our sins on the cross.

To God, through Jesus, we are his perfect children! This empowers us, giving us hope to face the despair and the lies that come during seasons of tyranny and deception.

It's a loss of faith in this judgment that decays society. It's also inevitable, without intervention.

But for the righteous, which is everyone who repents and accepts the righteousness of Christ, judgment is a celebration and something to invite and to which we can look forward.