Judgment and Growth

Fr. Tim Nunez

Meg and I had a wonderful week of vacation. Many of you have seen the pictures I posted online of beautiful water, beaches and other sights. It was a truly lovely trip in that way. But the real draw wasn’t the tropical island of St. Maarten. It was the opportunity to spend a full week with my parents. We only get to see them in person a couple of times a year at best.

Of course, you know the core joy in that comes in sharing memories and telling stories; stories about trips and family and incidents. And, because it was just the four of us – my parents and my wife – a chunk of those conversations were recounting things about me. Things that I had said, including the fact that I was completely verbal before the age of two and basically haven’t shut up since. And then there were stories about things that I did. Most of those were familiar but some happened before I could remember and others filled in perspectives around the events of which I was unaware.

When these sorts of recounting sessions happen, at some points my conscience winces at the errors of my youth and of my life. It’s not just me. My older brother will occasionally apologize for the fact that he won every fight we ever had and I will apologize for provoking them. And I’m sure every one of us has such memories for sins, known and unknown, things done and left undone. That is in effect a judgment seat we hop into in such moments.

But that one is private, often unspoken.

Few of us go to court more than a time or two in our lives. Court – civil or criminal – is public. People can search court records and documents in person or online. But not many go and most of us don’t look unless we have a reason.

Judgment in the Roman Empire in the first century was even more public. Cities would have a judgment seat set out in a public square, right with the shops and so forth, places where the public was generally and would naturally gather. Cases were brought before the governor or his representative right there, in front of everyone and anyone who cared to listen could. Recall that Jesus went before Pilate on the judgment seat “at a place called the Stone Pavement” or Gabbatha.” (John 19:13.”)

Paul had, himself, been brought to the judgment seat in Corinth before. We see that in Acts chapter 18. Paul arrived in Corinth and started teaching about Jesus in the synagogue. They threw him out, so he shook the dust off his feet and planted the church in a house right next door. After about 18 months the Jews took the fight to the governor. The Lord had already assured Paul that and lost. They all surely know that story, so the analogy is very much alive. We must all go to court, go before the judgment seat of Christ, “so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.” (2 Corinthians 5:10)

We tend to think about that happening after we die, when we go to heaven. That’s not precisely correct. Scripture tells us it will happen on the last day, or the Day of the Lord, when God gives us our resurrected bodies. In any case, we are assured it will happen. Jesus says so repeatedly and Paul does as well. There is no getting around it.

We often think of that, then, as a sort of pass/fail final exam where Jesus rescues us from ourselves at the last minute. We go to court. We go to the judgment seat. Our failures and good works are tallied and we would fail except Jesus gives us a ton of extra credit for repenting so we are forgiven and saved by grace through faith in Him. Yay! That’s all true, that is our destiny. But what does that mean for today?

When an acorn germinates in the ground and you see that little volunteer pop up, what you are seeing is an oak tree. It’s small. You could easily pluck it out, but nevertheless everything about it is an oak tree. It has all the DNA and all the structure of roots, bark, tiny branches and leaves. It’s all there, and it will grow. With care and nurture, it will grow faster and stronger. Ignore it and it will struggle along. Or you could run the mower over it every week, poison it or pluck it out of the ground. My father-in-law planted two oak trees after Hurricane Charley wiped out the ones he had in 2004. One is about 25 feet high with a big canopy. The other is about half as high – alive and well but not nearly as developed. The difference is the big one was planted near his septic system drain field, so it gets constant water and nutrients.

The Kingdom of God is, of course an idea, a concept a vision of our future. But it is also a new creation planted inside you. If anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation. Once that new creation is planted in our hearts, it is a living thing. That future tree shapes and guides how we tend to it today. It is a growing thing today, right now. It holds the essence of who we are going to be, who we are becoming, as well as who we are. Our attitudes and actions feed and nurture it, or they neglect or even harm it.

On our trip, the normal complications of air travel have been complicated by COVID protocols. Everyone on an international flight has to check in at the counter, no curbside or doing it on your phone the day before. Everyone. So lines are longer and it takes a lot longer. We were advised to arrive three hours early and thankfully did. Along with your passport you have to have your negative COVID test and we had to have advance approval from St. Maarten to get on the plane. All of that kind of brings out Fr. Hulk. I was crackling with an anxiety that I tend to reserve for airports. All of that is not good for nurturing my new creation, but I was worried about getting on that plane and making our connection.

Meg knows that, anticipated it, saw it and called me on it then, which really helped on the way down. When our return flight was delayed and our window for passing through customs and getting on our connecting flight home was getting rather small, Fr. Hulk came back again. She called me on it again, setting me before the judgment seat, and we had to talk about it after we got home. She held me accountable to that new creation, the way I’m supposed to be. I’m not just some guy over-worried about catching his flight. I’m a Christian growing toward Christ.

We are to regard that new creation in ourselves as precious and requiring attention. The more we attend to it, the stronger it grows. And we are to regard each other in that same way, not from the human point of view but seeing each person as that beloved child of God, that new creation. It may need more weeding, or pruning, or fertilizer or light or water, but we have a care for what it will be as well as what it is. God loves us as we are but it is his will for our ultimate future that shapes us. We are always in effect before that judgment seat.

And in some way, I see that judgment seat reflected in the way my parents look at me today. They are well aware of my past sins, at least the ones they saw and the ones I’ve told them about. And they know my character, the ways I regret my sins and failures and take some joy in the good things. Taking all of that into consideration, the most important thing is that they love me. Their love has shaped me my whole life and always will. God’s love works though and beyond our love to shape us forever.

AMEN!