“He Shall Come to Judge…”

A Sermon Based Upon John 5:17-29

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

March 5th, 2017, (Series: Apostles Creed 10/15)

How do you spell “HOPE”?  For a smart little boy growing at a catholic ‘giveaway’ charity for the poor, he spelled hope, “R-I-N-G”.  As you might know, children of the poor are often mature beyond their years.  Some of them have even helped to raise their own parents.  At a certain catholic charity, or ‘giveaway’, each person coming was allowed six tickets for selecting 6 items.  This young little fellow came through the checkout line with his arms already full, but he was asking for the ‘nun’ in charge to allow him to have one ticket to select one more item. 

With confidence that he would get what he needed, he explained that he was looking for a “ring” for his mother.  He looked at the nun with those big brown eyes an asked, “May I please have one more ticket to find a ring for my mother?  He continued “She’s not married and I must find a ring for her.“  What would you have done if you had been the person in charge?   He never flinched, never begged, and never doubted, believing that if this place was what it was supposed to be, he would get what he needed.   R-I-N-G is how that little fellow spelled hope (As told by Joan Chittister In Search of Belief (Kindle Locations 2178-2190). Liguori Publications. Kindle Edition, 2006).

So, how do you spell “HOPE?”  We spell it different ways at different times in our lives don’t we?  When we are young, hope might mean getting a new toy, or, as it was once for me; getting to pick my own dog out of the litter.  One of my earliest memories, is going somewhere off the Salisbury Highway, not far from my Father’s work at JC Penny Warehouse to choose that puppy who came up and untied my shoes.   “He’s the one I want, Daddy!”  Getting that puppy I named “Prince” was how I spelled “hope”.

When we get older, how we hope changes, doesn’t it?  It could be hitting the ball into the outfield, getting the clothes we like, or finally, getting our driver’s license.  We dream about going to a certain college, getting a certain job, or meeting Mr. or Mrs. Right.  Then, we start our own family, and hope changes to having a healthy child, and getting raise them, and watching our own children develop, and mature.  As we get older, we want to see our grandchildren, have enough money to comfortably retire, or keep our health as best we can.  But we all know too well, and some have already discovered, somewhere down the line, even the best hopes we have in this life, will one day run out. I’ll never forget, as a Hospital Chaplain, hearing a mother desperately wish that her cancer treatments that summer could only get her through to seeing her son graduate high school next spring.  One more year of life was the only prayer request she had.

So, knowing that our hope for this life will eventually run out; and for some sooner than others, this Apostle’s Creed, we are considering, now offers us this hope that some day, and in some mysterious and revealing way, the Jesus who sits at the Father’s right hand of power-- “….shall come to judge the living and the dead.”   The point of everything the creed has said comes down to this one final hope that Jesus will be judge.  If we don’t have hope beyond the very limited and sometimes terribly unfair realities of life, there is no enduring hope at all.  

HOPE IS NOT HISTORY; “You Will Be Astonished”   (John 5:20)

I’ll never forget the rude awakening I had in my first, freshman, high school science class.  Mr. Harold Mitchell was my first teacher in Physical Science.  As I recall, I learned a lot of new things about the world in that class.   We learned about states of matter; solids, liquids, and gasses.  We learned about the properties of matter; volume, mass, and density.  Then, we learned about motion or velocity; that every ‘action’ is a ‘reaction’ caused by another cause until you get back to the very first cause.  We also learned about the substance of matter; atoms, which were the smallest particles called protons and neutrons (until quarks came along after my schooling).  We also learned about the periodic table, and many, many other very interesting realties of our physical world.

But one of the most shocking and perhaps the most basic law of all physical science was ‘The Second law of thermodynamics.’     Maybe I’d heard of it earlier in elementary school, but the word and its meaning had not yet become permanently ‘etched’ in my brain.  This ‘Second Law’ of physics stated very simply that everything in this world; all matter, all energy and all of life, is slowly, gradually, and eventually winding down and will stop.  The universe is like a clock that has been wound up, but is now winding down.  This is not going to happen for billions of years, so most of us go on living our lives as if nothing could go wrong; or we still live as if ‘life’ will go on forever. 

A few years ago, I was watching astrophysicists on PBS discussing the origin of the universe.   What the Bible means when it opens with God saying, “Let there be light” (Gen 1.3) is really scientifically agreeable with the intense explosion of energy called the ‘big bang’.   Interestingly, most of Science and Faith are together when they affirm that somehow, someway, in an unknown future, the universe will eventually die.  The now-expanding universe will eventually run out heat energy, run out of velocity, or ‘run out of steam’ as Mr. Mitchell would have explained it, and it will implode in upon itself.   Science calls that future moment, the ‘big crunch’.   Very poetically (without benefit of Science) the great prophet Isaiah wrote: “All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies (will) roll up like a scroll…. (Isa. 34:4).   Jesus gave us another ‘graphic’ picture of in Matthew, when he said, ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken’ (Matt. 24:29).  Though speaking ‘poetically’ and ‘figuratively’, Isaiah and Jesus both described the same eventual ‘end’ underscrored in the Second Law of Thermodynamics, proving that all things that exist have a limit.  In scientific terms, that law states that ‘entropy’ (chaos) increases until everything returns to its ‘equilibrium,’ also named ‘absolute zero’.   The Bible called it ‘formless’ ‘void.’ (Gen. 1.2).

But what will ultimately happen to this universe, this world, this earth, and to your life, is finally unanswerable by science.  That same PBS special pictured a collapsing, imploding universe that would ‘roll up’ into a cosmic black hole, might explode again, and again, and again.  That’s the somewhere this physical could have come from and where it might be headed—a somewhere which is nowhere, that still means absolutely nothing, without God.  So, since the very best of human knowledge cannot give the universe, nor you or me, any real hope, the only answer science might give was expressed by American poet T.S. Eliot, in his famous post-World War I poem, “Hollow Men.”: “This is the way the world ends, This is the way the world ends, This is the way the world ends , Not with a bang but a whimper.”

The point I’m making is not a science lesson, nor a lesson in despair, but to affirm where our hope must come from.  As Dr. John Polkinghorne wrote: “ …One way or another, the universe is condemned to ultimate futility… and humanity will one day be history. This bleak prognosis for the universe puts into question any notion of evolutionary optimism…  An ultimate hope will have to rest on an ultimate reality, that is to say, in the eternal God himself, and not in his creation” (From J. Polkinghorne, The Faith of a Physicist, Fortress Press, 1996, p. 162).

When in our text Jesus dares to make ‘himself equal to God’ by saying, “The Father is still working, and I am working…,”  he means that this creation is still a ‘work’ in progress: “The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him GREATER WORKS than these…” (John 5:17, 20).  Do you catch how hopefully he says: “He will show him greater works SO THAT YOU WILL BE ASTONISHED (NRSV) …or AMAZED (NET).   The astonishing hope to which Jesus points us to, no human can dare to ever suggest. Science can only say what it observes as physically real—that someday the universe will implode.  What Jesus dared to say, even if it got him killed, was the most important thing you will ever hear if you want to have hope for an ultimate future.  This is not a hope found in a manned mission to Mars, nor is it hope for the development of some supercomputer we can all upload our brains into just before the end comes (Frank Tipler).  This hope is much more personal and very particular, if not scandalous: “Indeed,” Jesus says, “just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also THE SON GIVES LIFE to whomever he chooses (v. 21).

When it comes to having a hope that touches the deep longing of the soul, our ultimate hope rests in the ultimate reality who is God the Son: “Do not be astonished at this,” Jesus concludes, “for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out---“ (v. 28).  And just as amazing, is that this very life that is promised at the end, is a hope that can be realized as the future comes right now, when ‘anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life….’ AND ‘has passed (already) from death to life’ (v.24).  This is the kind of hope you can’t ultimately find with the money you have in the bank, nor will you fully find it in the ‘love of your life’, nor just in your children, in your own abilities, or in your greatest aspirations.  All of these, no matter how great, will all ‘wind down’ or ‘run out’.  No, the ‘hope’ explicitly revealed and offered in this wonderful gospel of Jesus is a hope that offers ‘eternal life’ in both the promise and power of God.

THE KINGDOM IS COMING: “The Father granted the son to have life” ( 5:26)

But how do we come to this ‘hope’ for a ‘future’ through God’s son?  Or better yet, how does this hope come to us?   ‘If we want to know about what’s happening in the world we read the newspapers.  If we want to know what’s happening to our retirement funds, we watch the stock markets.  If our political leaders want to know what's happening in other countries, they consult secret services.  But what do any of these sources really tell about what is actually going to happen?  What actually happens always turns out differently than how anyone expects.  Who could have predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall?  Who could have predicted the rise of terrorism or attack on America?  Who can even predict what will happen tomorrow, or what will happen to us?

So, if we want to know about the future, which belongs only to God, where do we look?  We certainly won't find out anything from astrologers, or from fortune tellers.  Even the best consulting firms or our best theoretical guessers can’t guess anything for sure.  Some have positive feelings, yet others live out of their worst fears, seeing their future as ‘no future’ at all: “Eat, drink, be merry, for tomorrow we die”(1 Cor. 15:32).  As simplistic as this may sound, the only sure hope for a future is the hope revealed in the good book---the Bible, which is hope found in God’s own words.

If, we look into this Bible as a whole, and would ask a few of its main characters about their hope for a future, what will we hear? Abraham and Sarah would tell us about God's promise, which turned them from being a hopeless couple into in a hopeful family who could bless others. Moses and Miriam would talk about the God of their Exodus, freedom, and the vision of the Promised Land.  Isaiah and Jeremiah would speak about the coming messiah and the new covenant.  John the Baptist, Mary, Peter, Paul and others would tell us about Jesus, and about the kingdom of God which has come near in him.  From the beginning to the end, these people of the Bible were people of hope.  All of them saw the star of promise in this dark of this world. They glimpsed the very first streaks of light for the promise of God’s new day.  They all set out to look for this future in God, finally accepting the invitation: ‘Come unto me’ (Matt. 11:28), ‘God’s kingdom is near, repent, believe? (Mark 1:15);  “Now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6.2). 

This is how ‘Bible people’ found hope for the future, but is this hope for real?  This hope of theirs did not calm all the fears about this world.  There is still much to be concerned and to pray about. We live very limited lives and we still see dark clouds of reality constantly building on our own horizons.  But life is not all dark and clouds; because we live in an age of light and hope too.  At the same time the world seems threatened and lost; new ideas, new technologies, new medicines, and new relationships offer us hope. At the same time we can't believe how low people go, we suddenly see, hear about, or experience a most caring, exceptional, loving soul.  Those ‘Bible people’ didn’t have much medicine; they had almost no technology and hardly any freedom, wealth or possessions, but they still found hope.  Where?  How?  We have so much, and most of us today live like kings, but we still feel depressed, despondent, and negative about the future.  Why?  Is there a way to have hope when we want to have everything else but hope?

During those Rio Olympics we were all inspired by the hard work, determination, comebacks and success of great athletes, at home and elsewhere.  One of the most popular among them was America swimmer, Michael Phelps.  But did you know that not long before final Olympic Golds in Rio, that he was convicted of DUI, felt his life had no meaning, was thought his situation in life was hopeless?  Even with all his gold medals, he almost took his own life.  But while  he was in Rehab, locked in a room, trying to get himself together, Phelps was visited by friend, Baltimore Ravens football star, Ray Lewis, who handed him pastor Rick Warren’s ‘Purpose Driven Life’ which had helped him find purpose and hope in his own struggles. Phelps called Lewis several times to talk and ask about that book’s spiritual content.  After his Rehab was complete, Phelps worked to rebuild his fractured relationship with his father.  He credited the biblical truths in “The Purpose Driven Life” for renewing his sense of purpose and hope (From The Biblical Recorder, August 13, 2016, p.16).

An even more telling witness to hope for me was from Alyson Felix, the most medal-winning woman track and field athlete, who comes from a strong Christian home in South Carolina.  When she lost her chance for gold in the 200 meter race because of an ankle injury before the 2016 Olympics, and she only got Silver in the 400, because another runner dove across the line ahead of her in a photo finshed, she was disappointed, but shrugged it off gracefully, saying “I’m just glad I got to be here.”  What she told her fans was most impressive: “You're going to have obstacles. There's going to be adversity. But, let your spirit shine through. Keep fighting, no mater how hard the cards are stacked against you. Don't let that get you down." (http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20996464_21024703,00.html).   

When we turn our lives toward God purposes, and toward God’s kingdom that has come near in Jesus, and is still coming through him, we are not necessarily optimists—for we still can have fear for life in this world.   But, even in dark days, we don’t have to be pessimists either. We don't trust in the world, but we believe that because God loves this world, God will never let us, or his creation, go.  We, who trust in God and his kingdom that is still coming don't need the power of positive thinking.  Nor, do we have to surrender to the dying world’s negativity. People who hope in God know that no matter what happens, God is waiting for us because God is already our hope within us. In life, and even in death, we answer God’s invitation to the only hope for a future, as we prepare for the coming kingdom of his Son.

In this our text, Jesus tells us that ‘the Father’ has ‘granted the son to have life in himself’ (Jn. 5.26).   This is not just life now, but it is ‘eternal life’ (v. 24) which is fully realized when, as the creed says, He (Jesus) shall come’ (‘come again’, Jn. 14:1) to ‘judge the living and the dead.”  It is the ruling, reigning, judging Christ, who brings the coming kingdom that is ‘not from this world’ (Jn. 19:36). This coming kingdom of hope finds its roots in all the way back to Daniel’s vision of the coming ‘Son of Man’ given authority and dominion to rule over an everlasting kingdom (Dan. 7: 13-14).  This is the kingdom Jesus taught his disciples to pray for ‘on earth, as in heaven.’  It is this coming kingdom Jesus described in parables to be hidden and secret now, that will be fully revealed ‘when the Son of Man’ returns in his glory.  It is this kingdom that ‘this same Jesus’ will ‘restore’ when, as Revelation says: ‘Hallelujah! The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ.   And he shall reign forever and ever (Rev. 11:15).

The church has certainly not taken this promise of Christ’s coming ‘Kingdom’ as seriously as we should.  Perhaps we’ve gotten tangled up in the temporary ‘kingdoms’ we’ve established for ourselves.  Or we’ve gotten bogged down in the more negative, pessimistic doomsday predictions, that overlook the promise of God’s will shall be done, because God’s  heavenly kingdom will come down to earth (Rev. 21:1ff).   This Creed should help us keep our focus on the promise that ‘He will ‘come again’ (Jn. 14:3), as the most glorious judge of all things, so that ‘every eye will see him’ and ‘every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord’ (Phil. 2.10).  Paul’s most vivid ‘blessed hope’ was Christ’s coming, ‘glorious appearing’ (Titus 2:13) as Lord, King and Judge, when Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: ‘the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thess. 4: 16).  Why on earth would ‘the dead rise first’ unless Jesus will actually come to establish God’s eternal kingdom ‘on earth, as it is in heaven?   Everyone, both the dead and the living, will ‘meet him in the air,’  (v. 17), not because we will become ‘rapture rockets’ blasting up into space, but we meet him ‘in the air’, because ‘the air’ is the ‘high, heavenly place’ where  ‘the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places’ (Eph 6:12) and the ‘powers of the air’ (Eph. 2.2) have once ruled, but will ‘rule’ no more, because Christ will be rully revealed (1 Pet. 1.7), and God’s people will be empowered to ascend to ‘reign’ with Christ (Rev. 20.6) in a “transformed’  (2 Cor. 3:18) and ‘made new’ (Rev 21:5)  world in the coming ‘day of God’ (2 Pet. 3:12).  

No one can decipher exact details or make a calendars of how the future unfolds.  Since Jesus, nor the angels, nor we know when or how (Matt. 24:36), it may very well be that it has not been decided because then ‘when’ may depend on us, as Scripture says, ‘their end will match their deeds’ (2 Cor. 2:15).   But what is clearly promised, as expressed in John, is that when Christ comes, both ‘dead’ and the living, who hear God’s voice are granted ‘a resurrection of life’ (5:29) to live under ‘new heavens, on a new earth, where righteousness is at home’ (2 Pet. 3:13). This will be not be the end of time, but a ‘new’ beginning God’s eternity, as God transforms ‘all things’ (Rev. 21:5) as ‘the first things have passed away’ on the ‘last day’ when the Son grants life those who ‘believe in him’  (John 6.40).

TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND DEAD….   “He has given him authority” (v.27).

But finally, how can this hope come with a ‘coming’ judge?   Well, to begin with, underline what Jesus is saying by saying, “As I hear, I judge; and my judgement is just…” (Jn. 5:30).

To grasp what Jesus means, we must start with what John already said: “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (Jn. 3:17-18 NRS).  This means we must not turn this Jesus of love, kindness, goodness, and grace into an oppressive, unfair, condemning judge.  His ‘judgment is just’.

To say that Christ’s ‘judgment is just’ is good news for those who experience unfairness, evil, oppression, and the negatives of this life, but it’s also ‘just’ to those who continue to reject, or oppose God’s love in Christ, whom John names having ‘the spirit of antichrist…already in the world’ (1 Jn. 4:3).  Paul name those ‘antichrist’ to be part of ‘the mystery of lawlessness…already at work’ (1 Thess 2.7) who along with the ‘lawless one will be revealed…to be destined for destruction’ (1 Thess. 2:3).  Here, the focus is not just on what comes at the end, but we must not overlook the ‘condemnation’ and ‘judgment’ already in upon evil, sin, and spiritual darkness, which often becomes darkest before being exposed or revealed by God’s coming ‘light’ (1 Thess 5: 4-5).   So, what this Creed asserts, when it says ‘He shall come to judge’ is that no destructive evil, no matter how bad it is or how bad it gets, will ultimately stop the coming, redeeming, and saving work of God  (2 Thess. 2:8).  

 Also, in Second Thessalonians, Paul instructs his readers not to be fooled by the lies, deceptions and delusions believed (2:11) by those who only prove they ‘are perishing because they refuse to love the truth’ (2:10).  Paul tells the believers and lovers of the truth, in contrast, that ‘God chose (them) …for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit…(2:13),…’to obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (2.14).  He tells them ‘to stand firm’ and ‘hold fast’ (2:15) and asks them ‘to pray… that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly’ (3:1) and finally encourages them not to ‘be weary in doing what is right’ (3:13).   This means what we do on earth matters.  It matters not only because what you do with your life matters, but it also matters because you ‘will be ashamed’ (3:14) when you stand exposed before God’s Son, who is given ultimate ‘authority to execute judgment’ (Jn. 5.27) upon the ‘dead’ ( John 5: 25) and the living (1 Pet 4.5, 2 Tim 4.1).

Mister Rogers was the meek, mild, humble Presbyterian man who went to seminary, then after seeing the power and possibilities of TV, decided to turn his clerical collar into a sweater to start his show, “Mister Roger’s Neighborhood” which ran many years, as a children’s show on PBS.   I didn’t watch Mr. Roger’s that much, because he was just too nice.  His world was always loving and perfect ---which seemed too perfect.   But many children did watch, especially hurting children like one with with Cerebral Palsy.  When his mother came to believe watching Mr. Rogers keeping him alive, she worked it out for Mr Rogers to come for a visit.   When he did, Mr. Rogers surprisingly asked the boy, “Would you pray for me?”  After he started praying for Mr. Rogers he didn’t want to die anymore.   When a reporter witnessed this, he thanked Mr. Rogers for being so smart.  But Mr. Roger’s didn’t know what he meant.  He really wanted the boy’s prayers, saying “I think anyone who goes through challenges like that must be really close to God.”  Another boy with Autism hadn’t said a word until he said, “X-the Owl”, the name of one of Mr. Roger’s puppets.  Later the boy had never looked his father in the eye, until he did and said,  “Let’s go to Mister Roger’s Neighborhood.”  They drove all the way from Boise Idaho to Pittsburg.   After that the boy started reading and speaking.  Another boy without obvious problems ran up to Mr. Rogers, yelling and waving a big plastic sword.  Mister Roger’s whispered in the boy’s ear, the boy put the sword away and hugged Mister Roger’s.   Mister Roger’s explained, “Oh, I just told him he really didn’t need that sword to be strong on the outside, because he’s already very strong on the inside.”

These kinds of stories are all written up in a book about him, but perhaps the greatest story told by journalist Tom Junod, was when Mister Roger’s got a lifetime Emmy award.   “There in front of all those Hollywood stars, he made small bow and said, “All of us have special one who have loved us into being.  Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are….Ten seconds of silence.  The he lifted his wrist, looked at the audience, and looked at his watch, and said softly,  “I’ll watch the time,” and there was, at first, a small giddy hiccup of laughter from the crowd as people realized he wasn’t kidding.  They started to realize that Mister Roger’s wasn’t some convenient eunuch, but rather a man, an authority figure who actually expected them to do what he asked…and so they did.  They had too.  One second, two seconds, three….and now the jaws clenched, the bossoms heaved, the mascara ran, the tears fell upon the be-glittered gathering like leaking rain down a crystal chandelier, and Mister Rogers finally looked up from his watched an said to the hushed crowd, “May God be with you” to all his vanquished children.”   

Later, writing again about Mister Roger’s in Esquire Magazine, after his death,  journalists Tom Junod wrote, “Mister Rogers was not only the kindest man I’d ever met, but he was also one of the most fiercely disciplined, to the degree that he saw nothing but good in other human beings.  When he saw the good in me, he fixed on it, and there was never a moment in which he didn’t try to make me live up to it, by word, or by example, or most often by prayer.” (From James C. Howell’s “The Life We Claim”, Abingdon Press, 2005, p 99, 100).

This is the kind of ‘judge’ I most imagine Jesus to be.  There are, of course, many unanswered questions about Christ as ‘judge’ and how his final judgement will be ‘just’, but none of these questions can be settled by us: “The Father… has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man” (Jn. 5:27).  The one who loves, who was born of a virgin, suffered under Pilate, was crucified, dead, buried, descended into hell, was resurrected, ascended to the Father; this is the same Jesus who will come in that same kind of ‘glory’ to 'judge the living and the dead'.  Nothing appears fully decided until he comes with his ‘judgement’ that ‘is just’.  

And Christ’s judgement is not meant to be judgmental, nor to be condemning, but it is, as Jesus said, intended ‘to save’ (Jn. 12:47).  However, “on the last day the word that (Jesus) has (already) spoken will serve as judge….” (Jn. 12:48).  A just judge will not make his judgment on a whim, but he judges based on the truth he lived, and whether we have also lived what we have said: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom …, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. (Matt. 7:21 NRS).  The fairness of Christ’s judgement is based upon God’s love and grace, but it can’t, for eternity’s sake, be finally refused or ignored.  Jesus is not only ‘judge’, but he is also the ‘way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to Father, except through him’ (John 10:10).  Because ‘the Father’ has ‘granted the Son to have life in himself’ (Jn. 5.26) the judgment of ‘eternal life’ belongs only to him.  He will come to judge, but have you come to accept his judgment?   You must, you will.  His word is the final word, or there is no word at all.  Come!   Amen.