Most grandmothers teach their grandchildren how to make cookies. My grandmother taught me how to make a gin and tonic. That was the easy part. What was hard was getting the gin bottle out from inside the raw chicken, where it was hidden in the fridge. A card carrying eccentric with a devilish sense of humor, seldom without a Pall Mall cigarette in her hand, she was a great fan of an outfit you seldom see anymore: the psychedelic caftan.
My grandmother had a badly behaved dog named Amos, who was known to knock over her neighbor's trash cans in the middle of the night, leaving them to clean up a mess of tin cans and old food. She denied it was her dog, but there were witnesses. The neighbors were relieved when Amos finally passed away. There would be peace in the valley.
But just two days after Amos's death, the neighbors awoke to find trash and garbage everywhere. And then about a week later, the same thing again.
Clearly, this was not Amos. The community, in their smug superiority, had been so quick to judge the eccentric woman with the odd habits, and in turn her eccentric dog.
In those weeks after Amos' death, when they cleaned up their garbage, they began to wander over to her driveway one neighbor at a time, and speak a few awkward words of apology. "We were just certain it was Amos," they said. "I mean, we saw him out there once or twice."
Years later, someone in our family actually spied the creature that was knocking over trashcans, a very rare species of scavenger heretofore unknown in the small Southern town. It was a Pall Mall-smoking, lace bathrobe-wearing grandmother, sneaking out every few months at 3 a.m. to knock over her neighbor's trashcans and avenge the memory of Amos, years after his death.
For she would not be judged. Even though she was wrong, she would make them wrong, too. But of course, none of that made it right.
And it didn't work for her in the end either. I mean, who wants to be out 3 a.m. knocking over garbage? There have to be better things to do with our time.
Jesus once said, "I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world."
My hunch is that he sees all of us in our cycles of blame and shame, and waits patiently for us to save each other. There are worse things than garbage-eating dogs. We human beings can inflict more pain than we can imagine, but we also have a much stronger power: to love one another as God has loved us.
Follow Lillian Daniel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lillianfdaniel
What is this woman smoking? He never said that. The closes he got to that was in John 3 where he says:
"God did not sen the Son of Man [referring to himself, of course] to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him".
But Lillian wants to ignore what he immediately went on to say in his reply to Nicodemus:
"He who believes in him [in the Son of Man], is not judged; but he who does not believe is ALREADY CONDEMNED [judged] because he did not believe in the name of the only [or 'only-begotten'] Son of God."
No doubt even the next verse is embarrassing to Lillian, since it completely overturns the position she takes in the whole article:
"And this is the judgment: that the Light came into the world and men fell in love instead with the darkness since their deeds are evil".
Think about it.
I admire your spunky grandmother and your description of her. At the end of your post, however, you take a sharp turn that confused me.
Quoting:
'Jesus once said, "I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world."
My hunch is that he sees all of us in our cycles of blame and shame, and waits patiently for us to save each other.'
I think it is important to continue reading beyond your quote of John 12:47. Look at the very next verse, John 12:48:
"The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day."
Maybe it wasn't fair for people to judge your grandmother or her dog, Amos. But it's pretty clear that Jesus is talking about something very different in this passage. In the larger context, it's very clear that Jesus is warning against those who claim that there is no judgment just because he didn't judge. There is a judgement, and the way to escape it is to accept Jesus and receive his words. We ought to be compassionate to our neighbors, but we can't save them. Neither is God sitting back watching. He took decisive action in sending his son, Jesus Christ, to save us.
John 8:15 "You judge by human standards; I pass judgement on no one (I.e., secularly)."
John 12:47 "As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it."
John 12:48:"The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word (logic/rationality) that I have spoken will judge him on the last day."
Jesus' judgement can be said to be based rationally, Matthew 5:17.
I suggest that an argument can be made that Jesus is speaking about separation of Church and State, speaking specifically against a theocracy.
We judge by human standards, i.e., secularism, and we judge that way necessarily or chaos, discrimination, prejudice, sexism, etc., would exist as it did for thousands of years under theocracies. Iow's, we have leash laws for a reason, and not because God said so, but because it is rational and logical to have leash laws and it is not rational or logical to violate them.
That said, Jesus judges spiritually, not secularly, and specifically says so. As I see it Jesus has distinctively and decisively separated Church from State. I suspect he has done so because he is familiar with the irrationality and often utter insanity of religious laws, and oft times secular law.
Recognizing my humanity, I also recognize that there are some people I just can't love, or may not be able to love; lack of love does not have to necessitate hate by default. In my humanity I recognize that there may be things I can't forgive, even won't forgive, even refuse to forgive......and then I pause and reconsider. I can always "give" that to Jesus, as the verse above implies, unloosening them and myself from a vicious cycle. Lack of forgiveness is not vengence by default, nor is it purposefully seeking to hurt another, sometimes it just our humanity.
I post because I know that there are people who have suffered horrible tragedy in their lives and to burden then with "having" to love, or "forcing" them to love when they can't, causes them to feel blame and shame, is coersion, potentially dangerous, and separates them from the love of Jesus Christ; and potentially entangles them in a love/hate relationship with those who have egregiously hurt them, and separates them from Jesus.