Jesus Journal #6

I was flipping through the journal I've started keeping about the life of Jesus and I came across a few of my comments over Matthew 7:1-5. The passage's subheading in the ESV is "Judging Others." In light of all the political hoopla over the Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day, called by former Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee, I thought the passage fitting.

As I mentioned yesterday, many people were getting hot and bothered about the event--on both sides. People for it and against it had things to say, some very heated and vitriolic. And, no doubt judgments were made.

Now my intention is not to "go off" on this or throw some Bible verses at you about how judging is BAD. In fact, to not make judgments about things is nearly impossible. Rather, I want to print the passage and then give a few comments in hopes of giving a new perspective.

Matthew 7:1-5:

 “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. ³ Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."

I've always thought about this judgment in terms of judging sins. But don't we make so many more types of judgments? Don't we "judge" whether or not we can make it through a yellow light before it turns red? Don't we "judge" whether or not the milk is bad when we see that it's out of date? Don't we "judge" when we see someone's face is cast down and then ask them what's wrong? Don't we make all sorts of "judgments" like these ALL THE TIME?

Sure we do. So if this is the case, then maybe Jesus isn't just talking about pointing out people's sins so we can help them.

Jesus' primary point seems to be that people should be aware of themselves before seeking to help others with--well, I'll use the term "sight problems," since Jesus gives an analogy of specks and logs in the eye. We should be aware of how we "see" before we go and help others with their sight. 

In other words, a key aspect of this so-called "Judging Others" passage has to do with point of view or perspective. This, of course, is why so many of our judgments are made in the first place, isn't it? Don't we make judgments of other people because they see the world differently than we do? Sure, sometimes these differences are sin issues; but sometimes they're just differences in understanding, learning, up-bringing, experience--any number of things.

I'm not trying to soft hand sin. God hates sin, judged his own son because of his people's sin. Still, we need to see that Jesus is talking about perspective and sight problems. And, whether we like it our not, part of the reason why we think other people have issues that we need to "judge," is because of our own sight problems. It may turn out that our own issue is much greater than the issue that we're judging... we just can't tell because we're seeing other people's specks through our logs.

Uh... some just wanted to eat mor chikin.

Chick-Fil-A had a big day on August 1, did they not? My wife and I drove by one of the restaurants this afternoon and then again this evening. People were lined up out the door and cars carrying even more people were waiting to pull into the parking lot, blocking a major roadway here in Tyler.

We did not stop to get any chicken of any kind. Still, it was a sight to see so many people coming out to...

Well? What were they doing? Were they all trying to say something for the world to hear/see? Surely many of the people patronizing Chick-Fil-A today were trying to make a statement of some kind:

"We support you, Mr. Cathy."

"We're against gays."

"We're against those guys."

"We're Christians."

"We're protesting."

"We're supporting."

"We're full of love."

"We're full of hate."

"We're ___."

You get the idea. At the same time, for every reason someone had for going to Chick-Fil-A, there were people sitting at home or passing by or buzzing around the various strains of social media assuming the people at Chick-Fil-A were making a statement. And that the people NOT at Chick-Fil-A were making a statement. People were making all kinds of judgements of so-called "statements" both ways.

I don't necessarily want to weigh in on the whole "Chick-Fil-A" appreciation day politic. I just want to point out that we're making statements by our actions. Even if we're not trying to make a statement, people assume we are and they are reading our statements and they are assuming things about us. And then there's the whole morass caused by false assumptions and being misunderstood. 

Ha. I'm even making a statement by NOT making a statement about the appreciation day. People are going to read this (well... I hope some people will read this) and think things about whatever statement they think I'm making.

It's kind of daunting, to tell you the truth. (But I'm apparently not that daunted; I'm still posting... .)

And what about the people that went to Chick-Fil-A today with the sole purpose... of getting something to eat? They were making the shocking, outrageous, offensive, combative statement "I'm hungry."