Trinity 1 The Sunday of Lazarus and the Rich Man June 14, 2020

Trinity 1
Luke 16:19-31
June 14, 2020

“How Does God Judge?”
A Sermon on Justification and Love

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

When someone’s on trial in court, attorneys know how important their appearance is. For better or worse, the people on the jury are looking at that person on trial and making all kinds of judgments just by how they appear. After all, the jury members can’t see into the person’s heart. So the question is—do they look guilty? Attorneys know the right dresses to wear, the right suits, the right colors. Because we judge by appearance.

It’s almost comical at times. You’ve heard of these politicians paying big bucks for people to tell them which color tie to wear. Silly stuff like that. Have you noticed in the news how they will find the most unflattering pictures ever of people they don’t agree with? They’ll find a picture, for instance, of Joe Biden in mid-sentence looking all angry and sinister. But if they like Vice-President Biden then we get a nice, stately-looking picture. It’s silly. But they do it because they know that we judge by appearances.

What a terrible shock to us then when we learn that God doesn’t judge by appearances. You all could dress up in thousand dollar suits and dresses and come to church looking like a million bucks—or you could come to Church in your pajamas. And God’s judgment of you wouldn’t change. He’s not fooled at all by outward appearances. He sees through all of that.

That’s why Jesus tells the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. He wanted to show the Pharisees that God doesn’t judge like they do. The Pharisees were “lovers of money”, it says just a few verses before Jesus tells this parable. They loved things that looked good. Another time Jesus tells them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matt. 23:27).

You can dress yourself up all you want before God but He’s not judging by outward appearance. He’s using His X-ray vision, His MRI vision, to see directly into your heart, soul, and conscience. He isn’t fooled. He doesn’t need your outward works or show. Psalm 51 says, “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite hearts, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:16-17).

So how do we ever stand a chance before the Almighty Judge? There’s only one way. We must stand with Jesus. The only clothes that matter before God is the robe of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. God looks at your sinful, dirty heart and soul, and then He looks at Jesus who gave His perfect, holy, and innocent life for you, and God says to you, “Because you believe in my Son Jesus Christ, I pronounce you righteous and holy and innocent.” That’s how God judges you. Not by your appearance. But by your faith in Jesus Christ. God says, “I see your sinful heart. But you are baptized into Jesus. You receive the body and blood of Jesus. Your sins are forgiven in Jesus. And so I count you as Jesus is—perfect and holy. Right and innocent.”

Let’s take some specific examples of this. First, Abraham. We look back at folks like Abraham with rose-colored glasses but he wasn’t quite the perfect saint that we might imagine him to be. Two different times Abraham was scared for his life—once in Egypt and once before King Abimelech. So he told his wife Sarah to say she was his sister. That way the king would take Sarah and spare Abraham’s life because of her. A real upstanding husband, right? Puts his wife in danger to save his own skin. Then, of course, there’s the fact that he had children with more than one woman. When Sarah can’t have children at first then he sleeps with Hagar, her servant, and has his son Ishmael. A great guy, huh?

So if Abraham had to stand before God based on all of that—how would God judge him? It wouldn’t be good. Abraham was just as sinful as any other man. But let’s look at Genesis 15 again, our Old Testament reading. There Abraham stands before God to be judged and we can see exactly how it goes. Here’s the conversation:

God says: “Hey Abram! Don’t be scared! I’m going to take care of everything. And you will receive a great reward.”

Abram: “Are you kidding me, God? What are you going to give me? I don’t have any children! Look, God! I’ll have to give all my inheritance to one of my servants.”

God: “No you won’t, Abram. Come outside a minute. Look up at the stars and start counting. That’s how many descendants you’ll have.”

Abram: “I believe you, Lord!”

God: “You, Abram, are righteous and innocent and perfect in My sight because you believe My Word.”

You see how this goes with God? You see how He judges? Not by appearances. Not by our works. He judges by faith. Genesis 15:6, “Abram believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.” That’s the judgment. Do you believe God’s Word and promise? Do you believe in Jesus?

God doesn’t judge by appearances. He judges by faith in Jesus. Now let’s look at the case of Lazarus and the rich man. By all appearances the rich man was on top of everything. He had the finest clothes and the best of food. He was a king in his castle. Surely this is the type of guy after God’s heart. Money talks, right? And this guy has the money.

And then there’s pathetic Lazarus. Sitting at the gate every day like the beggar that he was. A site for sore eyes. Covered with sores all over his body. The dogs licking him. Surely this isn’t a guy that God cares to look at, right?

If you brought these two guys before a jury who would they say is guilty? Yet God doesn’t judge by appearance. He judges by faith in Jesus. And the beggar Lazarus believed God’s Word. And God counted him righteous because of it. And so when he dies the angels carry him to—guess who? To Abraham! That’s right. To the king of faith, Abraham. He knows about trusting God’s Word. And Abraham comforts Lazarus and welcomes him into paradise.

But the rich man is shocked to find out that God doesn’t care about his money at all. God doesn’t care about all his fancy clothes and food. God is looking into his sinful heart and sees that he does not believe God’s Word and promise. He doesn’t believe in the Savior. He only believes in himself. And since he wanted nothing to do with God, God gives him exactly what he wanted—life apart from God in hell. And it’s miserable.

So who are you? Are you Lazarus or the rich man? The truth is that you’re neither one of them. You are you. And it doesn’t matter how rich or poor you are, it doesn’t matter how fancy your clothes, how fancy your food, it doesn’t matter how good other people think you are, it doesn’t matter how much worse or better you are than the other people in the pews today—God doesn’t judge you by appearances. He sees the bum you really are. Yet because you believe and are baptized, when He looks at you He sees Jesus. He judges you by your faith in Jesus.

So here’s the conversation between you and God.

God: “Hey, don’t be afraid. I’m going to take care of everything. Your reward will be huge.”

You: “Are you kidding me, God? Look around. The world’s a mess. I’m a mess. You’re going to send me to hell. I know it.”

God: “No, I won’t. Come here and look up at Jesus on the cross. Look here at Your Baptism. Look here at My forgiveness. My Son died to give you life.”

You: “I believe you, Lord.”

God: “And because of your faith in Jesus, you are righteous and holy and perfect before Me.”

That’s how God judges. Not by works. Not by appearances. By faith in Jesus. Finally then, how do we judge? Once we have new life in Jesus we begin to learn to judge as God judges. We begin to see Jesus in others just as God see Jesus in us. We begin to truly love others as we’ve been loved.

That’s the other big part of the Lazarus and Dives story. The rich man didn’t love Lazarus or give him anything to eat because he only judged by appearances. So he judged Lazarus a loser and didn’t love him. I’ve already told you that we are prone all the time to judge by appearances. But God’s Spirit works in you to judge a different way. To judge with love.

How do you judge others? Do you judge them by how good they look on the outside? Do you judge them by how much money they have? Do you judge them by how much they agree with you? Do you judge them by how successful they are?

Or do you judge as you’ve been judged? Do you see them as a sinner that Jesus died for? Do you love them as one so precious that Jesus shed His blood and died for them? Do you love as you have been loved?

Some of us Christians have offices where we certainly do have to judge right and wrong and guilt and innocence. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. Here we’re talking about our office as Christian brothers and sisters—and here we judge with love. We see Jesus in every other sinner just as God sees Jesus in us.

God doesn’t judge by appearances. He judges by faith in Jesus Christ. His perfect love drives our all our fears. And through His perfect love we love others.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.