“Judging”
Luke 6:37-42”
Have you ever made a judgement about someone without really knowing what was in their heart or mind?
Or perhaps, you had heard other people say negative things about a certain someone.
And so, you formed negative thoughts about that person.
And when you met them, you didn’t trust their motives.
But later on, Lord willing you had come to know the person, and found that your judgments were completely off base?
I have.
I think that is just one of the many reasons Jesus warns us not to judge.
But I’ll tell you, of all the teachings of Jesus, this one ranks right up there, perhaps, in the top 10 or so of the hardest commands.
If you are like me you are making judgments all the time.
For example, I read somewhere where a person wrote about a universal rule of the road.
It goes like this:
“Everyone who drives slower than you is an idiot.
And everyone who drives faster than you is a maniac.
To the speeding driver, everyone’s an idiot.
To the slow driver, everyone’s a maniac.
But one rule applies to all: My speed is always just right.”
We do have a tendency to overlook our own sins but judge others, do we not?
A high school Senior was filling out a questionnaire to help determine roommate compatibility.
By the questions: “Do you make your bed regularly?” and “Do you consider yourself a neat person?” he checked the box marked “Yes.”
His mother read his answers and, knowing they were far from the truth, asked why he had lied.
“I don’t want to have them stick me with a slob,” was his reply.
We are all prone to excuse our own faults and magnify the faults of others.
For instance, if someone else is late for an appointment with us we might think, “How inconsiderate! Doesn’t that person know that I am busy?”
But if we are late for an appointment, we might think, “That person will just have to realize that I am a busy person. I couldn’t help being late.”
Or if we are in a hurry, we might ride the tail of the person in front of us, muttering, “Step on it! I don’t have all day!”
But if someone is riding our tail, we might say: “Back off! What’s the big rush. I can’t stand tale-gators.”
Jesus knows our tendency to justify ourselves and blame others.
One person has said, “It feels good to judge those who deserve it…
…The pedestal—of my own construction—on which I usually stand grows taller when I can look down on someone else who is obviously not measuring up.”
Have you ever felt that way?
Is this something you can relate to?
I think many, if not most of us can.
Our Gospel Lesson for this morning follows immediately on the tail of Jesus’ teaching about loving our enemies.
And that teaching ends with Jesus saying to us: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
And so, I think what God is calling us to this morning is to focus a bit on introspection or self-examination.
“Do not judge,” Jesus says, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?...
…You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
Now there can be no doubt Jesus is using a very vivid word sketch here, and it’s meant to be funny.
Try reading it like that, and you’ll see a dry humor coming through.
I mean, can you image a person walking around with a plank in their eye?
It’s kind of like a cartoon.
Someone with a plank in their own eye is trying to take the little speck of sawdust out of someone else’ eye.
Jesus uses quite a bit of humor in His teaching, if we look for it.
But what this little scene has to say to us is very important.
Jesus intended for us to remember it, and so He made it a bit outlandish, funny.
Have you ever found yourself judging someone else for doing the exact same behavior that you do yourself?
Or have you ever found yourself judging other people, talking bad behind their backs, thinking bad thoughts about them, wishing them ill?
If so, does that bother you?
Do you wish you didn’t do this?
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” Jesus tells us in verse 36 of Luke Chapter 6.
But this is hard.
It is basically impossible to be “merciful, just as” God has been merciful to us.
But what a goal.
What a mission.
What a journey.
What a great “becoming.”
What an amazing opportunity we have.
Imagine living a life where you were free from the debilitating consequences of revenge…of judging others…
…because ya know…
…in all truth, FREEDOM is grounded in mercy!!!
Throughout the Gospels Jesus is talking to us about mercy.
He tries to get the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law to be merciful rather than judgmental and unbending.
He tells us: “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy not sacrifice.’”
And Jesus lives what He preaches.
He spends His time healing people, accepting people, inviting people, and forgiving people.
And as a result, so many, so many people are set free.
They are set free to begin again.
And to learn to love themselves, love God and love other people.
They learn to empathize rather than judge and to have compassion rather than condemnation.
And they are set free to become part of the community—the community called the Church.
And they are set free to live-into God’s love for them…
…to be transformed and thus transforming…
…to be light in this dark world…
…and to bring hope to the hopeless…
…by the way they live…
…and to help open up others to Jesus’ Christ’s invitation to: “Come, follow Me.”
And that is what happens to us, is it not?
This is the way it works.
The language in the verses we are looking at this morning suggest action that is directed toward ourselves.
The sight metaphor implies that our main goal as disciples is understanding.
And action is taken to clarify our own vision.
“Can a blind person lead a blind person?”
“Will they not both fall into a pit?”
While the context suggests that we are involved in some sort of leading of others…
…the overall emphasis of the parable is that the one leading must do a lot of self-correction and introspection before leading others.
And this suggests our ongoing need for self-inspection.
This faith thing, this following Jesus thing is a journey.
It is continuous.
Salvation may come in an instant, but sanctification, or what happens after we are saved goes on for life.
Therefore, when Jesus says, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye?...
…first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye…”
Jesus is basically saying, “You will never be in the position to judge your brother or sister.
You will never be in the position to take the speck out of your brother or sister’s eye.
Because the plank in your own eye is so big and complex and full that it will take a life-time of self-inspection to rid yourself of the plank in your own eye.
It is God Who is the judge.
It is God Who convicts a person of sin.
It is the Holy Spirit Who works in a person’s life to enable a person to see the sin in their life, repent of it, and seek to be rid of it.
No person can do that for you.
Will God use other people in the process?
You bet!
Otherwise, there would be no leaders.
There would be no reason to say: “Can a blind person lead a blind person?”
But leading, is serving.
Leading, in Christ’s Way of leading is a humble servant leadership.
It is not the kind of leadership that lords it over on someone else.
It is not authoritarian leadership.
It is not yelling and screaming.
It is not self-righteous.
It is a leadership that is so free from all that junk that it barely recognizes that it is leadership at all.
It is more of a role modeling.
A loving someone into the Kingdom through humble kindness.
It is organic.
People come to want to emmulate the other because they see the good fruit which is being produced through the other person’s life.
Do you know what I’m talking about?
Do you have or have you had people who have loved you into wanting a relationship with Jesus Christ?
Perhaps it was a mother, a father, a preacher, a teacher, a friend.
Perhaps it was a combination of people like that, if you were really blessed.
What is our job as disciples of Jesus Christ?
Is it to judge the world and tell the unsaved how wrong they are?
Is it to demand our rights and sue if we don’t get our way?
Is it to condemn sinners?
Is it to take specks out of people’s eyes?
Or is it something else?
One time an expert in the law tested Jesus with this question: “Teacher which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’
Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
In other words, “It’s all about love.”
And what does this love look like?
Well, it looks like Jesus.
And we learn how to live in this love by reading God’s Word.
And we also learn about how to live in this love by watching and studying people who are putting His Word into practice…
…people who are loving God and loving neighbor in real and tangible ways.
And when we see this, we want what they have.
What was it about the early Christians that made others want to be a Christian?
It was: “See how they love…”
“I want to love like that.”
It wasn’t, “See how judgmental and self-righteous they are, I want to be like that.”
And so, when Jesus is teaching the people in Luke Chapter 6 He is telling them that they must not only love their friends, their family members, those who think and look like them, and those who love them back.
They are even to love their enemies.
This love thing in Christianity is all-encompassing.
It doesn’t discriminate.
It is radical.
And there is a lot to learn about it.
And that is why we have Jesus’ teachings…
…because Jesus’ teachings are ultimately about how to love.
And love does not judge.
Love, seeks to better oneself in order to love better.
Love seeks God’s guidance in becoming more and more like Jesus.
Love prays.
Love repents.
Love is humble.
Love reaches out to those in need.
Love does not think oneself is better than others.
Love sees oneself in the Mirror of Reality—as a sinner, saved by grace—through the mercy and forgiveness of Christ alone.
Love sees oneself as a person who was hopelessly alienated from God, guilty of violating His Holy Law…
…unable to do anything on one’s own to be reconciled to God.
Dead in sins without Jesus.
Headed to hell without Jesus.
Living according to the flesh without Jesus…
…and wholly dependent on Jesus for any good that might come through one’s life.
Therefore, love is grateful—ever so grateful for God’s mercy and love shown to them while they did not deserve it…
…and in turn seeks to show that same mercy to others, who, like them, don’t deserve it.
Often, when we are wronged, if we are living according to our flesh—we want someone to pay for what they did.
But, what if God had that same kind of attitude toward us?
We would be paying for our sins in hell!
If we know God as our merciful Father, then we must, as His forgiving and adopted children, show God’s mercy toward those who have wronged us.
And to show mercy is to pardon them, not to judge them…and to be generous toward them.
And this is hard.
But it is right.
And it is good.
And it is freedom.
And it is the gospel.
And it is what frees us.
And it is what makes us truly human.
And it is what makes this life worth the living.
“For it is by grace [we] have been saved, through faith—and this not from ourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
That is the great news of the gospel!
And as those who have been forgiven much, we are to forgive.
As those who have experienced God’s great mercy shown to us in Jesus Christ, are to be merciful toward others—can be merciful toward others—must be merciful toward others.
And this is freedom.
This is life.
This is salvation and sanctification.
Praise God!
Amen.
