Executing Judgment
“Judgment” has a PR problem, especially with our young people and not without good reason. They’ve read the news and heard the stories about people and systems exerting control over the lives of others. Perhaps the problem, they surmise, is any claim of moral authority that might lead to that kind of control. Here in America, the young people use this phrase: "You do you." After all, who are we to judge?

I have to come clean here—I like this sentiment! I don’t want to get into the business of judging, and I certainly don’t want to be labeled judgmental. As a Christian youth worker, it’s pretty clear to me that the last thing God’s Church needs is another authority figure in the lives of young people who alienates them further by claiming some kind of moral superiority to which they must conform. You do you, I say! Who am I to judge?

Investigation and Defense
Read John 5:19-29.

When we encounter Jesus in this passage, he’s in big trouble, and he knows it. Earlier in the chapter (John 5:1-18), he meets a chronically ill man and tells him to stand up, take up his mat, and walk (v. 8). The trouble is, it’s the Sabbath, and as all properly religious people know, only God can work on the Sabbath. When the religious elites confront Jesus about it, he digs an even deeper hole for himself by asserting that he was indeed working on the Sabbath because his Father was working. In other words, Jesus claims his divinity here, and the religious elites are having none of it. In fact, they double down on their efforts to kill him (v. 18). Not exactly a “you-do-you” kind of reaction.

Jesus defends himself with an exhaustive forensic case and rhetorical skill. The real issue for him isn’t what he did or didn’t do; the issue is who he is. As he describes his divine identity and relationship with the Father, it becomes clear that Jesus isn’t actually the defendant here at all—he is the judge! These religious elites think they have put him on trial, but Jesus explains that the real courtroom isn’t even human. While their court of law might condemn someone to death, Judge Jesus raises the dead (v. 21, 24, and 29; cf. Lazarus in John 11) and grants eternal life (v.24 and 29).

Judging Jesus
The gospels provide us with a front row seat to how Jesus wields his authority to judge. From dinners with sinners and healing of outcasts, from forgiveness of sin to raising the dead, Jesus rules again and again in favor of mercy, compassion, and love. In this, Jesus reveals his judgment as good, just, and worthy of trust.

When young people express their disdain for judgment, I wonder about the gulf between their experience of judgmental Christians and the biblical revelation of Jesus’ authority to judge. I wonder about when I have exercised bad judgment, the kind that ever gave young people the impression that they could not be themselves in all their beautiful, messy complexity that is so beloved by God. I pray to Judge Jesus for the forgiveness of my sin and ask for the help to do better.

‘You do you,’ I hear him say. ‘As always, my verdict is love.’