Lev. 19:15-19
Is. 30:1-15
1 Thes. 2:14-20
Lk. 18:1-8
Today church gives us the message that “Don’t trust in man and his codes of judgments, but trust only in the judgment of Almighty God, who alone is our loving Father.” We are in the seventh Sunday of Kaitha. Kaitha also exhorts us to trust in loving God, who is the trust worthy Judge of this world and who judges us with heavenly principles. Only God is the real and trustworthy judge. He alone can satisfy us with righteousness. So we need complete dependence in Him.
In Leviticus chapter 19: 15-19, we see that God’s commandments to the Israelites. In this we see that God tells them “You shall not render an unjust judgment.” (19: 15). In philosophy we study that man is an imperfect, contingent, limited being. So as a deficient and contingent being he cannot judge selflessly. So his actions, words, thinking everything will be defective in this sense. That is why God instruct the people of Israel that “you should not make false judgments.” Then what they have to do? “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (19:18) God knows that a narrow minded person cannot love others more than he loves himself. Only God can love the man more than Himself. That is why he gives this golden rule to be followed. If we follow this rule in our life we will not show partiality to the poor, will not slander among the people, will not try to profit by the blood of the people and will not hate anyone.
When we come to the book of Isaiah chapter 30:1-15, we see Isaiah’s oracle against Egypt. Here the prophet blames the people, who go against the plan of God and trust the Egyptians. They experienced the unconditional love of Yahweh in exodus. He made everything for the good of Israelites, but now they are going against His plan and make alliance against His will. In this prophets warns the people, who goes contrary to the will of God, that Pharaoh cannot protect them. He cannot provide eternal shelter to the Israelites, because Egyptians are simple human being and they can offer only limited protection and shelter. The protection and shelter given by Pharaoh will bring them shame and disgrace. So what they have to do? They have to return to the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel. So prophet conveys them that “in returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”(Is. 30:15)
And in the 1st letter to Thessalonians chapter 2: 14-20, Paul is telling to the Thessalonians that share in the suffering of Jesus. He conveys them to be genuine in the sufferings. Because in Thessalonian church there were much oppositions and persecutions. But Paul tells them that in these difficulties and oppositions they have to trust in Jesus. Jesus showed us the real path of God’s love. He loved us more than that he loved himself. That is why he gave his own life for our salvation. Paul also knew that this oppositions and sufferings are limited, but what is ultimate is God’s love and His judgments. So when he comes for the second coming our suffering in his name will be our justification. That is why Paul asks us “for what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus Christ at his second coming.” (Thes. 2:19) It is nothing, but our suffering in the name of Jesus Christ.
When we approach the Gospel with same feeling, we can see that in Luke, chapter 18:1-8, clearly expresses that God is the only trustworthy Judge, through a parable of widow and the unjust judge. Who is a Judge? Judge is the one who judges justly. But in this parable we can see the contradiction. It is written that unjust judge. How can a man who is unjust can become a judge? And again it is said that he had no fear of God and Man. In our ordinary language we can call him “GUNDDA” not judge. And when we see the characteristics of this judge we can understand him, he was selfish, unjust, not respecting others and no fear of God too. But he thinks in certain situation “I will grant her justice”. Why does such a hard hearted person think that I will do justice? Only because that widow always disturbed him. She was constantly asking to grant justice to him. Even though he was unjust, selfish, not trusting God, she pleaded for justice. That disturbed him and he decided to grant her justice. Because of her trust in him she could change the hard hearted Gundda. That was her trust. She pleaded for justice constantly. Here Jesus is tells us, even this poor widow trusted an unjust judge. She trusted this simple, imperfect, contingent man. Do you trust your Lord, your God, who can give you everything? Do you believe in me, who can judge you for heaven and for the hell? Gospel tells us that God grants justice to his chosen ones, so trust in him trust only in Him. So don’t believe in human standards and judgments. Trust only God.
Let us think about ourselves, do we really trust in God’s judgments? When problems comes to our life, what are we doing? Going and trusting the human persons or trusting and praying to the Lord Almighty. In our family if there are some tensions do we pray to God or call human mediators for solving the issues? When personal disasters unexpectedly come to our life, do we wait for the judgment of God or direct our life to drunkenness. When we are in need of money, do we really pray to God or go for smuggling? In these situations God tells us “don’t trust in human judgments, but trust in me your God Almighty.”
It is time for us to change. Let us closely observe our life. Do we really trust and pray to God? Do we really trust the loving Father? Otherwise we have to keep in mind that the simple human beings cannot help us. Only the Almighty can help us. We should not be like Israelites. We should be like Thessalonians. In persecutions and oppositions let us wait for the second coming of Christ. Let us trust him fully. Let God grant us this grace. May God bless you. Amen.
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