Neither Judge Nor Justify  (March 20, 2016)

 

12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy.

But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?  (James 4:12)

 

            Today, March twentieth, is the birthday of the Norwegian dramatist and poet Henrik Ibsen. Born in the year 1823, he was a well-known critic of the social standards of his day. Many are familiar with his stage play A Doll’s House (1879) in which he criticized two types of moralists he observed in Norwegian society. The first type were those who adopted a paternal attitude toward others and attempted to keep moral order by judging them and holding them to a severe standard that even they themselves were unable to keep--thus inviting this type of moralist to engage in hypocrisy (or self-righteous blindness). The second type of moralist Ibsen criticized was the idealist who pursued self-gratification at the expense of everyone else. In the play, this attitude was demonstrated by Nora, a self-centered flighty housewife who, in the end, pursued her own (selfish) goals in life, abandoning her family.

            We should understand Ibsen's critique because neither of these approaches to morality are worthy of our imitation or respect. In the hyper-feminist atmosphere of today's American culture, many today believe Ibsen was championing the cause of the wife and her choice to pursue self-realization, even if it meant abandoning her family; they see Nora as an example of courage in the face of an oppressive morality. Having once sat in a class at the university where this play was being discussed, the professor had hoped this would be the very conclusion her students would choose. She was shocked when most of those in the class found Nora’s decision repugnant and inexcusable! The professor tried to understand the reason why so many came to this conclusion when it became obvious that many of those in the class had reached their conclusion based on bitter experience: they were children of divorce and (justified or not) felt their parents had made a  similar decision to Nora’s, pursuing their own selfish goals at the expense of their family's well-being.

            Our example for making such decisions is our Lord Jesus. He chose to side, neither with the hypocrites who spend their lives acting as superior judges, nor with the libertines who use their freedom to serve their own selfish pursuits. “Rather,” as the apostle Paul counseled the churches in Galatia, we should “serve one another humbly in love.” (Galatians 5:13)