“Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.“ – Matthew 7:1-2
I was reading this passage the other day and thought, “Wait a minute, is Jesus teaching Karma?” If you read the passage, you might see why I felt that… Jesus’ reasons for not judging are about how that judgment will return to you. Isn’t that what Karma is all about? As soon as I had these thoughts, I knew deep down that it wasn’t true, but I honestly didn’t know why, because it seemed so similar on the surface. So, I did a little research and discovered that the concept of Karma is much more complex than the popularized, watered-down version I had come to understand. I thought Karma was just the relatively innocuous idea that, “what comes around goes around,” or “you reap what you sow.” What I realized is that it is much more insidious than that, and learning about what is different has helped me appreciate how much better the way of Jesus is!I found that Karma is a pretty dark philosophy. It teaches that in the entire universe, there has to be a balance between good and evil at all times. This means that whatever good you do in this world will be counteracted by evil actions done somewhere else in the world. It may not be now, but it will happen at some point. The problem with this view is that you can never put enough good into the world to change that equation. It would seem that there is no point in trying, because if I do good, that only ensures that someone somewhere will be forced to do evil to balance out the universe.
This is not what Jesus is teaching. Karma says that evil can never be defeated, but Jesus came to defeat evil once and for all on the cross. Jesus consistently taught us to live in such a way that others “see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Jesus did not assume that somewhere, somehow, in this life or the next, that good and evil need to be balanced. Instead, Jesus knew that we could join him in overcoming evil with good (see also Romans 12:21). He knew that a potentially infinite amount of good would come about because of the evil perpetrated on Himself on the cross. Jesus was assured that there would be a day when evil would be no more. I long for that day!
Josh Rose
Family Pastor