Lacking All Sense of Judgment ...

How does that guy end up with that girl?  Men think these questions to themselves, as from looking at the external beauty of the woman, and the relative comeliness of the man, the pairing just does not seem to make sense.  Could this beautiful woman truly not understand just how beautiful she really is?  Or could she truly not understand just how homely her partner is?  Does she just lack all sense of judgment or perhaps is her eyesight just that impaired?  Even the series of questions reveals a thinking about the judgment of men, that it is based in the appearance and little else.  Perhaps the judgment of the woman is based in something deeper, something more meaningful, something that will last.  But then …

Does this dress make me look fat?  I can’t wear that dress to the event because “she” is wearing one just like it.  The reasoning of women often seems grounded in insuring their own appearance remains at its peak condition, and cannot be confused with any other woman.  Having two women show up at the same event wearing the same dress is only acceptable if both are bride’s maids, and even then, both resent it.  Something about wearing the exact same dress is simply intolerable for women.  Yet as they examine the sea of men that accompany them to these events, they fail to realize that tuxedo’s, and even most formal suits, are so close in look and feel, that only designers can easily tell them apart.  Men are content to wear the same formalwear, without a second thought.  Women are content to allow them out of the house this way, in fact, most prefer it.  But two identical dresses require one women to go home and try again.  A self-imposed rule, but one as solid as any printed in a book of law.

Why a man questions the happiness of a couple where the woman is stunning and the man is at best “normal”; and why a woman constantly questions her own appearance; are questions of judgment Angels find great mystery in.  Would, that our lack of judgment only extended to our appearance.  But it does not.  Humans have a nasty way of taking what we have learned, and instead of building one brick of knowledge upon another, until we form a magnificent structure of understanding, we pick up our brick and run with it.  We ignore all other truth, even the question about how other truth might fit with our own to form greater truth.  Instead we grab the nugget of truth that makes up our brick … and we immediately proceed to slam someone else in the head with it.

We make our brick, the sole basis of our gospel.  We push aside any attempts at greater understanding, and we make our brick the determining criteria of whether others will find themselves in hell, or not.  Should they accept what we say, and how we see things, then they are fine for now.  Otherwise, hell and damnation are surely the punishment coming to anyone who would ignore the plain truth of our brick.  And since that is the eventual outcome they must face, slamming them in the head with our brick now, seems like the right thing to do.  And so, even in spiritual matters, we find ourselves lacking all sense of judgment.  We find our core doctrines as rigid as those of our Pharisee forefathers.  We find our propensity to curse any who refuse our beliefs, as natural and rigid as any zealot who ever walked the earth before us.  We may not kill others who disagree.  But we are comfortable condemning them in the afterlife to eternal death, believing they must convert or be eternally punished for their lack of insight.

But the truth of Jesus Christ is not found in the eye alone.  Nor is it found in the ear alone.  The eye and ear have radically different functions and perspectives and BOTH are correct.  The foot moves us to a better place.  The hand reaches out in comfort and affection.  The arms hold.  The brain discerns.  It takes every part of the body to even begin to understand the Truth of Jesus Christ.  Thinking the eye’s alone have it, makes the body deaf, and mute, and crippled.  Thinking the brain alone has it, makes the body cold, unfeeling, and unable to move at all.  But this kind of body analogy forces believers to begin to accept the reality that “their” brick is not the ONLY brick, that makes up a picture of truth.  It reveals that even in spiritual matters, we are ill equipped to judge.  And so Matthew continues recording the Sermon on the Mount in chapter seven of his gospel.

Jesus continues in verse 1 saying … “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”  When we judge others, we reveal something about ourselves.  It is automatic.  It is unavoidable.  No matter the subject, from bad fashion, to bad doctrine, what we use to judge others says MORE about us, than it will ever say about them.  And so, our Lord, the One we claim to follow, gives us a simple instruction that we should just not judge.  He continues in verse 2 saying … “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”  The brick of truth we use to slam others in the head, will eventually be the same brick that slams us.  As our insight into truth deepens we will come to realize the using truth to slam others is the wrong use of truth at all.  Truth without love, is “truth” outside of Jesus, and therefore less about truth and more about opinion.  Doctrines are meant to point people to Jesus, not divide people who claim His name from truly loving each other.

Jesus continues in verse 3 saying ... “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? [verse 4] Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? [verse 5] Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.”  This analogy is not just about fashion, or about whether a couple is evenly matched in beauty and physique.  It is about something deeper than this.  It is about doctrine.  The mote that is in our brother’s eye represents some misunderstanding our brother has in related to scripture, that we think we know better about.  The condition of our brother is not even made in dispute, Jesus does not even argue it.  But, the beam that is in our own eye, represents a FAR greater error by orders of magnitude than the little misunderstanding our brother has.  I dare say, it is the beam of doctrines, rigid and large and all-encompassing that have no sense of love within them.

While we take an unusual interest in the small error of our brother, we reveal our complete misunderstanding of love at all.  Love is not meant as an excuse to sin, it is meant as a motive to seek Jesus who can change our very desires to want sin no more.  Love does not destroy doctrine, it becomes the foundation for them.  For if doctrine cannot be forged in love, it is merely opinion, not truth.  Truth is unafraid of new thinking, of questions, of growing larger than it is today, because our understanding grows larger.  We begin to incorporate other perspectives of the body, the eyes, the ears, the fingers.  And instead of shrinking, our truth becomes greater and more beautiful.  The man sees himself through the lens of Christ and sees that love reflected and true, is a great attractive quality that any woman would cherish.  The woman sees herself through the lens of Christ, and realizes that perfection is not brought about by Maybelline, but by submission to Jesus who makes her of infinite value to His Kingdom and the heart of any man.  Families are formed, with Jesus as the foundation, and nothing Satan can throw can rip them apart.

We learn to obey the simple edict of our Lord, to judge not.  Then the strangest of things happens.  Jesus proceeds with a text that is nearly the exact opposite of the entire lesson He just lays out.  Jesus continues in verse 6 saying … “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”  Yikes.  We just went through the entire idea of Judging Not, His exact words, but now dogs and pigs are introduced.  How can we know who a dog or pig is?  Isn’t the point of the gospel to be shared with those who do not know Jesus?  If we begin by thinking they are all dogs and pigs, who would ever get to hear the gospel.  It makes no sense, or does it?

Take a closer look at the preceding texts.  The beams and motes, are in your “brother’s” eye and your own.  It would seem as though these verses are specifically targeted at members, at believers in Jesus.  We should be avoiding the doctrinal brick in the head between those who claim the name of Jesus, of those who believe in Him.  The generic admonition not to judge, allows us to spread the gospel of love to everyone without judgment.  Where the dogs and pigs begin to emerge is where love of others is rejected in favor of love of self.  Those who would twist the gospel of love, into blanket excuse and permission to love themselves with abandon, without limits, and at the expense of others.  Those who claim forgiveness is their get out of jail free card, while having no intention of change, or desire to change.  Those who would twist the life and sacrifice of Jesus as a way to sin and claim forgiveness, never even attempting to see if the sin itself might be transformed away from them, removed from their desires, and replaced by something more holy.

The pigs who would turn and rend you, cut you with sharp teeth and no concern, can easily be those whose version of life and philosophy is self-centric and do not want it disturbed.  They can certainly be out of the church, but they can populate it as well.  Those who do not understand love, may not want you to upset their perception of love for others.  They may be greedily feasting on doctrines who do not require them to love, only to obey the lists of do’s and don’ts outlined in the traditional interpretations of men.  It is not up to us to pre-determine who the dogs and pigs are.  It is up to us to be careful when we encounter them.  And to take heed not to become them.  The latter the far more dangerous outcome of our embrace of the rigidity of doctrine than the former.  To keep our pearls, and keep what is holy, we must center our love in Jesus Christ, and insure it always turns outward, away from ourselves, to those in need.  When our love is rejected on occasion, we must be more careful in its expression, and pray more for change.

In this way, we adhere to the counsel of Jesus, avoiding judgment, and still passionately pointing the world to Jesus to find relief from sin, not a continued embrace of it.

And the sermon was far from over …