Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Jesus versus the religious vigilante

Because I enjoy the Western movie genre, I’ve seen a lot of stories about vigilantes.

A drunken cowboy from out of town gets into an argument in a saloon with a local drunken cowboy. Pistols are drawn and the local fellow is killed.

Soon his friends form a “committee” to track down and string up the stranger. Then, just in the nick of time, the heroic marshal steps in to save the killer from the vigilante mob.


He must hang legally, in the hands of the proper authorities, the marshal says, and not at the hands of ruffians.

If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it a hundred times.

That’s a good way to think about what Jesus told his disciples.

“Judge not, that you not be judged,” Jesus says in Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 7 verse 1.

He goes on to say that one who judges without authority will himself be judged according to the same standard he used against others. Ouch!

After all, God has already pronounced his judgement against our sins. That’s the whole reason Jesus died on the cross. It’s why Christians have hope.

So when we see someone’s life spinning out of control it’s no time for us to play God and claim his authority for ourselves.

At those times we have a choice: be a religious vigilante anxious to pronounce sentence and string them up or come to their aid with the Gospel and imitate Jesus who seeks repentance and forgiveness for everyone.

By the way, here’s a picture of my Matt Dillion, U.S. Marshal badge that I’ve had since I was a kid.


Pastor Balvanz


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