Judgement or Judging

Yesterday's propers included a reading from Matthew 13 commonly called the parable of the Wheat and Tares. No one knows what a tare is nowadays, so the NRSV calls them weeds.

In the parable, the Kingdom of Heaven is like land owner who sews good seed, only to have an enemy come after him sewing weeds. When the wheat and weeds rise up together his servants express dismay, and offer to pull up the weeds. The land owners tells them not to. In their zeal to pull up the weeds, they will also destroy the wheat. He says that at the harvest he instruct that the weeds be harvested first, and bound together and burned. Then the wheat will harvested and the grain gathered into his barn.

A similar message is found in another parable of the kingdom. In this one the Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a fisherman who hauls in a net full of fish, some good and some bad. After the fish are brought ashore the good fish and the bad fish are separated.

The message of these two parables seems to be multifaceted. First, there is a difference between good and bad. Second, there will be a time when the good and bad are separated, the good for entrance into the kingdom, the bad for expulsion. Third, judging between the good and the bad (deciding who is in and who is out of the kingdom) is not a human prerogative. Only the angels (whose only will is God's will) get to separate the wheat from the weeds, or the good fish from the bad. Perhaps that is because our understanding of good and bad are so imperfect.

"Judge not lest ye be judged... "

At the same time, there are abundant scriptures that call for us to separate ourselves from people and conduct that would lead us from God. I think of Psalm 1, "Happy are they who have not walked in the way of the wicked," or of Paul's admonition that we are, "in the world but not of the world," or ultimately of Paul's command to the church in Corinth (2nd Corinthians) that they should expel a man who persisted in a particularly flagrant sin.

We are not to judge, but we are to show good judgement. How do we find a balance between these two seemingly contradictory teachings?

For me, if I error, I think is should be on the side of refraining from judging others. I will always try to show good judgement about my personal conduct and associations, but I am grateful that the decision about who is in and who is out of God's Kingdom is not mine to make. God will do the judging, and much will happen between now and the time when that judging takes place.

What do you think?