Condemning Like Jesus

Reviewing the gospels and the first chapter of Acts, I was looking for every instance Jesus was recorded as condemning people, including telling people they were sinners destined for eternal condemnation. What I found flies in the face of so many emphases on sin I encountered in the evangelical arena and popular Christianity at large. Part of that is likely due to some of the emphases from evangelists striving to “get people saved.” Their stress on salvation following a certain set of scripts like “Four Spiritual Laws” or “The Romans Road of Salvation” would have us think Jesus went around telling people to repent of their sins and ask him into their hearts to be saved. The gospels paint a startlingly different picture of Jesus’ ministry and message.

John the Baptist indeed comes on the scene preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin. As Jesus begins baptizing and preaching, however, that is not his message. Jesus speaks of repenting, or changing course, in recognition that God’s Reign has approached. The Baptist is featured in John’s gospel as claiming that Jesus carries away the sin of the world, but presents nothing to unpack that. John made declarations of the people’s injustices, but he told them to change course rather than condemning them for past injustices.

Jesus’ healing of the paralytic speaks to sin and forgiveness, but on a very different plane of reality. Jesus tells the paralytic about his forgiveness and follows that up with healing to demonstrate the reality of his proclamation. Repentance from sin does not come into play. This man never asks to be forgiven, nor does he demonstrate remorse, contrition, or anything else we relate to repentance from sin. If anything, Jesus tells him to sin in the eyes of the religious community by taking up his pallet to walk on the Sabbath.

As Jesus takes up his ministry of teaching and preaching, we find him focused on healing people, but also eating indiscriminately with all sorts. When he gathers with “tax collectors and sinners,” as the religious label them, we find no hint of him condemning them. We find no indication that Jesus told them to change the direction of their lives, calling them out for their sinful ways. Rather, the religious community challenges Jesus for eating with sinners, as well as for healing people on the Sabbath. Jesus’ answer tells them people are of greater import than any specificity of rules and regulations.

In the Beatitudes, we find nothing about condemning people. Sure, Jesus talks about sin in the balance of that sermon, but is in the sense that laws and traditions do not go far enough in presenting what is or is not acceptable. He addresses tradition invalidating God’s commandments. He says our righteousness must exceed that of the visibly religious. The only condemnation he offers regards how we treat others. He speaks of our unlimited forgiving as a requirement for accomplishing God’s will.

Jesus continually calls out hypocrisy. It appears the most condemnable of sins. This is about the only sin he seems to condemn outright, and it is the sin of the religious community, not of those among whom he ministered. He challenges the hypocrisy of pretending to be better than others. He calls out the hypocrisy of placing rules ahead of the people on whose behalf the rules were established. He calls out the hypocrisy of failing to treat one another in accordance with each other’s needs. Matthew devotes a whole chapter to Jesus calling out the hypocrisy of the religious. Jesus calls out the hypocrisy of trying to look good while oppressing the poor. He calls out the hypocrisy of condemning the guiltless as a result of our failure to understanding mercy and justice. He calls out the hypocrisy of placing obstacles that impede others.

Jesus speaks repeatedly of forgiveness, and this forgiveness has no limit. Forgiveness is required for receiving forgiveness. It is tied inextricably to reconciliation. Reconciliation is the healing response to sin, for sin breaks relationships, harms people, and refuses God’s way of love. Forgiveness leading to reconciliation is foundational for God’s Reign. None of this has to do with condemnation. It has to do with restoration. More than once, we see Jesus declaring someone forgiven when they have not requested it, have shown no repentance, have confessed nothing, and have shown no contrition. This forgiveness is a one-sided gift allowing for restoration and reconciliation.

Jesus sends the disciples out on a mission representing him and preparing for his arrival. They are to proclaim the coming of God’s Reign and heal people. There are given no message of condemnation. When the disciples ask Jesus about calling down fire from the sky upon people who have rejected him, he tells them they have missed the point. Sure, they were to understand that people were being called to account, but the message they were given was not revolve around condemning those they encountered.

While correction is different from condemnation, we also find that Jesus does not come close to either on greeting Zacchaeus. Forgiveness and reconciliation call us to do better, but that comes from within, even as Jesus reminds us multiple times that evil also comes from within. As we recognize our faults, we are to do better. That is not, however, a product of condemnation.

When the religious grumbled about sinners, Jesus answered with a cycle of parables about finding joy in the reconciliation of the lost. He then paints them in the character of the elder brother who can find no reason to rejoice in his brother’s return home. The father in the story offers only grace, not even allowing the returning son to ask forgiveness. The father was only interested in reconciliation from the start.

The summary of Jesus’ message was that doing unto others as we would have done unto us was the kernel of all the Law and Prophets. The most basic form of this way of life is how we deal with the poor and vulnerable. Matthew devotes most of a chapter to discussing that how we treat others is how we look upon and treat Jesus.

The first time we find condemnation in Mark, it is not from Jesus. It is directed at him. It comes from the religious community. Jesus had many opportunities to condemn egregious actions. He didn’t follow through. John claims he did not come to condemn. He offered no condemnation to the woman at the well. He did not condemn the man born blind, while all assumed his blindness the result of sin. Jesus said it would have been better for Judas had he not been born than that he betray Jesus. He did not, however offer him a word of condemnation, but washed his feet and included him in the last supper. He told the disciples in the garden that his betrayal was at hand, but he condemned none. He condemned neither those arresting him, those putting on a farce of a trial, those torturing him, those sentencing him, those crying out for his crucifixion, those nailing him to a cross, nor the disciples denying him or fleeing his presence in fear.

People found all sorts of reasons to condemn Jesus, like eating with ritually unclean hands, preparing grain on a Sabbath, healing on a Sabbath, not fasting, and making claims the religious community could not accept. He responded that people were more important to God than regulations, traditions, interpretations, and rules. Eating what was unlawful was of less consequence than allowing people to go without. They brought a woman before him in an effort to trap him, but he did not rise to the bait of condemning them or her. He brushed aside their desire to use her to condemn him by calling them to carry out their execution, beginning with the one among them who had no sin. Then he released her from any condemnation with grace.

Jesus had many things he could have condemned, but John tells us he refused to jump down that rabbit hole. He had not come to condemn. In fact, he said that condemnation was already in effect and had no need to be announced, highlighted, or preached from rooftops. The message he entrusted to his disciples was that the forgiveness of sin was available to all—forgiveness, not condemnation. Even as condemnation was already in effect, so was grace and abundant living.

The one thing Jesus said would not be forgiven was blasphemy against the Spirit, where one turns God’s word and action around as coming from God’s opposition. He would leave his word as judge. He called on people to reflect not only on his words, but also the character of his actions. As they could see that they had origin in God, they should judge him accordingly and respond accordingly. As they were seeing Jesus in the flesh, hearing his words, and watching his ministry, they had a greater responsibility for what they witnessed than the people of Tyre, Sidon, Sodom, and Gomorrah. Nineveh and the Queen of Sheba had repented over much, much less. They needed to weigh his words by his actions.

Sure, they would be called to account, even as we would expect to be called to account. At heart, however, lies the question of how we treat one another. At the conclusion of that parable of the lost son returning home, Jesus spoke of God’s call for all to attend the wedding banquet. One needed not only accept the invitation, one also needed to enter dressed for the occasion. It is taking on an ongoing life of faithfulness that prepares us for that banquet.

The message is not that we need to condemn everyone and shame them into coming to Jesus. The message is that Jesus has already accepted us, already forgiven, and already invited us into a reconciled life with God and one another. In Jesus final words on the cross, there is nothing about condemnation. There is empathy; there is forgiveness, there is promise; there is confidence; there is provision; there is acceptance; and there is fulfillment. It seems Jesus ignored the condemnation we tend to love.

— ©Copyright 2023, Christopher B. Harbin 

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