Don’t Judge Me Judy
Tuesday May 4th
“Beauty fades, dumb is forever.”- Judge Judy
Here is one lady you who’s wrong side you want to avoid. She has been executing swift judgement (peppered with the odd insult) during the eight-televised minutes of her show for 13 years. At the end of it someone goes to jail and those of us watching television at one in the afternoon are slightly less bored than we were before. She calls it “A show where justice is dispensed at the speed of light”.
This is someone who has a pretty firm belief in their ability to judge people correctly. And she’s not interested in your opinion on it. “The only attitude I tolerate around here is my own! You speak, then I rule, and after that you shut up. Do you understand?”
Nobody likes being around someone that judgmental. Unfortunately, Christians get some of the worst flak for judging. Which is kind of backwards, because according to the passage we looked at this week, if you’re an honest-to-God follower of Jesus you shouldn’t be judging anyone. This is the quote from Jesus: “Do not judge or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Jesus was a carpenter by profession, so he made a neat little illustration using wood lingo. He says to deal with the 2X4 sticking out of your eye socket before you go pointing out flakes of sawdust in your friend’s eye. Josh paraphrased this accurately by saying “To all you grumblers and cynics out there, check yourself before you riggity-wreck yourself.”
Okay, fair enough. If you’re a criticizing jerk, people will be criticizing jerks to you. All this said, we are not saying that we should be so ‘non-judging’ that we let people get away with murder. Literally. There must be such a thing as ‘correct judgement’.
As much as we might not like Judy, we like the fact that certain criminals get penalties for their actions. So some judgement is good. Without it our world would fall apart. But Correct and Fair judgement relies on their being a correct and fair Judge. Judy thinks she’s up for the job: “Of course I’m right; I’m always right. I’m like a truth machine.”
Most of us, most of the time are going to have an inaccurate judgement of others and their actions. This is what Jesus is egging at: Don’t judge but external appearances. It says elsewhere in the Bible that humans look at the outside, while God looks at the heart.
Assuming that you can’t read someone’s soul, play it safe and don’t judge people. Unless you’re Judy who apparently is so smart that “If you live to be a hundred, you will never be as smart as me. On your Best day, you’re not as smart as *I* am on my Worst day.”
