VII.
Let’s take the last phrase in our reading for this week and spend time taking notice of any words or actions that help us to …

“… judge with right Judgment.”

VIII.
John 7:14-24 (NRSVue)

About the middle of the festival Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach. The Jews were astonished at it, saying, “How does this man have such learning, when he has never been taught?” Then Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine but his who sent me. Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own. Those who speak on their own seek their own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing unjust in him.

“Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you looking for an opportunity to kill me?” The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is trying to kill you?” Jesus answered them, “I performed one work, and all of you are astonished. Because of this Moses gave you circumcision (it is, of course, not from Moses but from the patriarchs), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath in order that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I healed a man’s whole body on the Sabbath? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

IX.
Might this passage even give us an example of judging with the wrong judgment?

Those at the Temple hear Jesus teach and ask, “How does this man have such learning, when he has never been taught?”

What of that statement is right judgment and what is wrong judgment?

This suggests to me that they know what Jesus teaches is true. Hence right judgment.

Then in saying “… he has never been taught,” I hear them suggesting his “learning” comes from a source outside the normal and expected channels for a rabbi to be trained. Which we can regard as right judgment. But, I find an implication in their words that Jesus’ teaching is not to be trusted since he hasn’t been taught by recognized religious authorities. Am I reading too much into their words?

Then we hear from the crowd, “You have a demon! Who is trying to kill you?”

Can we agree that accusing Jesus of having “a demon” is wrong judgment?

How do we move beyond judging “by appearances” to “right judgment”?

Do we come back to Jesus’s statement that –

“Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own.”

And then he adds –

“Those who speak on their own seek their own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing unjust in him.”

He speaks of “right judgment” from two sides. First, those who “resolve to do the will of God;” and second, “Those who … seek their own glory.”

Might be say – obedience and humility?

Or, should we say – disobedience and pride?

One more question for today. What is involved in “resolving to do the will of God”?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}