SEEING AND JUDGING
“The basic sin, for Christianity, is rejecting others in order to choose oneself, deciding against others and deciding for oneself.”
This statement from Thomas Merton jolts me today because it sounds so familiar to my own survival function. I reject others and decide against others in order to save me and put me on top of others both consciously and unconsciously. I do this subtly and masterfully, justifying my actions of rejection and decision against others. I don’t know what should bother me more, the conscious part or the unconscious.
In order to “save” and elevate myself (which is an ego function), I put others down. In this mindset, there simply is no room for choosing myself and others at the same time. There is also the notion of “the basic sin” applying to group dynamics (especially in religious communities and not just Christianity) trying to save themselves in place of others. Muslims accuse Christians of the Crusaders and the historical impact it has had on the Muslims, including modern-day colonialism, while Christians accuse Muslims of 9/11 and terrorism. We all have learned to compare our group’s best with the other group’s worst. We think that is the only way to survive.
In this vein, one of the hardest teachings of Jesus is found in Matthew 7:1-5 (ESV), not because it is difficult to understand but because it is so true (if we are honest).
Matthew 7:1-5
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 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? 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? 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.”
Jesus, with his usual over-the-top forceful emphasis, challenges us in seeing the log in our eye before seeing the speck in our brother’s eye. The word judge is to condemn, pronouncing an opinion concerning right and wrong. Seeing “the speck” implies that it requires careful and focused work on our part to notice the tiny matter and make it seem big. We are straining and squinting our own eyes to see the speck. In other words, we are trying so hard to see the wrong in others based on our definition of “wrong.” “The log” is so big compared to the speck that everyone can readily see it, except us.
The word hypocrite in Greek can be translated as “stage performer” or “actor”, which states that it is not our authentic self, but fake self performing. I think one of the reasons why Jesus uses the word hypocrite is because we “act” as if we don’t see the log in our own eyes. It is like we are choosing not to see the log which means we are choosing for our benefit while rejecting or calling out the speck in others. A scary thing is if we act long enough, we begin to believe that is our true self. Seeing and taking the log out of our own eyes requires humility and courage. Our ego does not like it at all.
Until not too long ago, I used to judge people who were into taking care of God’s creation. My judgment was harsh in that I was convinced (and thought I was right) that they were wasting their time and effort. Furthermore, I used to think “what kind of gospel message do they even believe in?” I believed that it was far from what God wanted (notice how I was using God to justify my judgment). Whereas I, I was doing the most crucial work of getting the gospel to the ends of the earth. So forth and so on... I realized over time that my understanding of the gospel then was seriously truncated, and I was the one who was blinded and did not see the call and the Kingdom prayer of God’s Kingdom coming on this earth as it is in heaven. Talk about not seeing or choosing not to see and judging… I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I feel I must share.
Back to Matthew 7.
What immediately follows this passage is often a head-scratcher in verse 6: “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.” Often, we read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and normally think of it as an unrelated collection of pious Jesus sayings, but I credit Dallas Willard in his magnum opus book, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God (this is a fabulous book exploring the Sermon on the Mount in such depth that we can no longer live the same), for making me appreciate the punchiness and germaneness of this verse. Willard writes, “It is not worthiness that is in question here at all, but helpfulness.” Later he sums up, “The point is not the waste of the ‘pearl’ but that the person given the pearl is not helped.” Even the so-called “good” and “precious” things we offer to others may in fact not help them or perhaps even damage them... “When charity destroys dignity...” What Willard captures as “pushy irrelevance” or “stubborn blindness” is a form of judgment, disguised as doing good. We “think” we have the solutions, so we offer them without patience or humility. I cannot agree with Willard more when he writes, “... we are always to respect other people as spiritual beings who are responsible before God alone for the course they choose to take of their own free will.”
Hear this language of letting others choose out of their own free will? Nobody is choosing for others. Choosing for ourselves for our sake and giving freedom for others to choose for themselves are at the heart of Jesus’ teaching here.
Then the next section on asking, seeking, and knocking is mostly concerned with horizontal human relationships. Thus, rather than condemning and judging each other, instead ask, seek, and knock is what Jesus invites us to do. This is not to say that asking, seeking, and knocking is restricted to horizontal human relationships as it clearly spills over to our relationship with the heavenly Father. Leaning heavily on Willard again, he writes, “Asking is indeed the great law of the spiritual world through which things are accomplished in cooperation with God and yet in harmony with the freedom and worth of every individual.”
Then we finally come to Jesus’ succinct Golden Rule in verse 12: “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
Later, in the same journal entry, I think it is helpful to end this post with what Merton captures.
“All this (choosing yourself, approving yourself, and offering yourself as “chosen” and “approved”: my addition) implies the frenzied conviction that one can be his own light and his own justification, and that God is there for a purpose to issue the stamp of confirmation upon my own rightness. In such a religion the Cross becomes meaningless except as the (blasphemous) certification that because you suffer, because you are misunderstood, you are justified twice over—you are a martyr. Martyr means witness. You are then a witness? To what? To your own infallible light and your own justice, which you have chosen. This is the exact opposite of everything Jesus ever did or taught.”