... Because for those of us who have grasped this, the power of the cross and resurrection means the transformation of our lives. The ruler of this world has been driven out of our hearts; the Saviour of the world is there instead. God does not condemn us - and God’s grace helps us to learn how to hold no condemnation for other people. Jesus people are not judgmental people - we are people gifted with the spirit of human flourishing, the Spirit of God in us which fulfils us as we build each other up, as we love and serve together in harmony. This is not wishy-washy niceness; this is the consequence of a man’s decision to go through an execution for us, and to come through the other side: this is the power of life over death. This is what Christianity is about.
What this means for us in practice is that, in Jesus, we can remove ourselves from the judgmentalism of the world. We can still enjoy our Saturday evening TV judging panels, for instance, but we don’t need to adopt the same poses as the judges. We can watch Come Dine With Me with fascination, understanding more keenly why people are acting out as they do, maybe using it as a mirror on ourselves. And we can challenge judgmental attitudes towards others, when we feel them rising in ourselves, and hear ourselves and others voicing them; we can work out our salvation by asking Jesus to help us replace those attitudes with thoughts and words and actions which lead towards human flourishing. Jesus said,
‘Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life’.
‘Those who love their life’ - their judgmental life, dead set against others - ‘lose it’ - for that sort of life comes from the ruler of this world, and he has been driven out.
‘Those who hate their life in this world’ - those who see the destructive forces at work in their society and in their hearts and daily commit to challenge and reverse them - ‘will keep [their life] for eternity’.
The world judges us in ways which drain life from us and condemn us to all sorts of little deaths each day. But Jesus judges us in absolute love and forgiveness and brings us into an eternal life of human flourishing. His actions at the cross and the resurrection make it possible for us to turn to him. We who have chanted 'crucify!' can now sing 'halleluia!'. Thanks be to God for the power of the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
- from my talk for Passion Sunday, Now is the judgement of this world.
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