Sermon: Overcoming Disrespectful Judgments
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
We often think we know about what others intend to do. The key word in that sentence is: “think.” We assume what their thoughts and intentions are, and then we act or react accordingly. Unfortunately, many times our judgments are incorrect and because they are, we often inflict damage on our relationships, especially those closest to us.
Dr. W.F. Haley best describes what a disrespectful judgment is. He writes, “A disrespectful judgment occurs whenever someone tries to impose a system of values and beliefs on someone else.” This is exactly what the Pharisee was doing in the parable that Jesus told. The Pharisee wrongly believed that God was impressed with him because of all the good things that he had done. He also wrongly assumed that the tax collector could not receive forgiveness from God. And he was wrong in thinking that God was more pleased with him than He was with the tax collector. Because of his wrong assumptions, he treated the tax collector with contempt and had no meaningful relationship with him.
How often we do this in our own lives. If we are going to have strong, healthy relationships with others, we must learn to overcome our own tendency to inflict others with our disrespectful judgments. To do this, we must treat others with respect, look out for the best interests of others, test our opinions and be willing to admit we can be wrong. We will talk more about each of these as we continue the sermon series, “Lovebusters” this coming Sunday. Hope to see you then!
