(note: the images referred to are those of motorcycle riders) What would you think if this guy moved in next door? How would you react if these guys were passing you on the highway? What is going though your mind as you look at this guy? As your travelling along this summer and at the rest stop you saw a bunch of these would you pass by? What if I told you that all of these guys are Christian bikers? Would that change your view? Maybe, maybe not. My point is that each of us here had formed an opinion about people who may look like or dress like these guys. I happen to belong to a motorcycle club to which some of these guys belong. I ride a motorcycle. Does that change your opinion about me?
We all suffer to a degree with this ailment of judging others. Oh, admit it, you do. I admit that do. I sometimes will look at another person and think I have them figured out –just by a short glance. He’s riding a Harley, wears leathers and has a scruffy beard –biker –bad news! Or, he’s a pastor, he must be perfect! Yeah, right!
These little pre-judgments are normal to everyone. Where it grows to be a problem is when we see ourselves as better than someone and begin to judge them in relationship to ourselves. One of the clearest examples of this is the issue of slavery –particularly as it was played out in the history of the US. Because of skin color I am better than you! We can see the devastating impact such judgment of others can bring.
And as Christians we are not immune. There can be a tendency to think of oneself as “holier than thou.” We are better than someone else because we are Baptist, or we are long time members, or we have attended Sunday School for eons. When I was growing up we used to get these little pins (probably done here too) for attendance in SS. There was one gentleman who had pins each year for perfect attendance for over 50 years! He took great pride in this and often mentioned it almost looking down on others who had few if any pins.
In the time of Jesus this religious righteousness was quite prevalent. Jesus addressed it many times in his ministry. There was a particular group called the Pharisees who took great pride in their religious position. They looked down on others, even thanked God they were not like others. They judged people over the bridge of their nose! They thanked God they were not like the gentiles, or like women. They judged themselves as being better, more righteous, closer to God. Jesus gives a strong warning against spiritual pride and a call to live a life of grace rather than judgment.
Read Matthew 7:1-5.
Before we read the passage I mentioned that Jesus gives strong warning against spiritual pride and a cal to live a life of grace rather than judgment. Some of you who are bible scholars may immediately want to challenge me on that. Why? Well for one thing Jesus doesn’t mention the word grace in this passage, nor anywhere else in the Sermon on the mount. In fact, Jesus never utters the word grace that we can find in scripture. The only time it is mentioned is in a description of Jesus in the second chapter of Luke and the first chapter of John (read 14-17).
Even in the OT we rarely find this word grace (6 times -1in psalms, 4 in proverbs and 1 in Isaiah). It isn’t until after the resurrection as the church is emerging that we find this word grace becoming descriptive of the church and the follower of Jesus. Grace is mentioned or used in every other NT letter except I and II John. But does that mean we ignore it here? Does that mean we do not examine it for our lives and our growth in Christ? Of course not.
Look again carefully at John 1:14-17. WOW! Jesus is full of grace and truth. Jesus is the fullness of God’s grace! Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ! It is in Christ and through Christ that grace has been poured out, as John record here in chapter 1, from the fullness of his grace we have received one blessing after another (wave after wave!). But even more, Paul expands this in Ephesians.
Ephesians for me is one of those tingle books –When I read it I get all excited, my heart rate picks up, my energy increases. Even as I prepared this I noticed my typing reading I noticed I started to type faster and my pulse increased. Let me read some of these fantastic words by Paul through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in his letter to Ephesus.
-1:3-8
-2:1-10
-3:14-21 (no mention of grace but you can hear it crying out in the background!)
4:1-7
By his grace we are justified, by His grace we are chosen, by his grace we are provided for, by his grace we are forgiven, by his grace we are given sufficient power to move ahead, by his grace we experience peace and joy and love, by his grace we may approach his throne, by his grace we saved and lifted up and seated in the heavenly realms, by his grace we are united by his grace we are given strength and purpose, by his grace we are helped in time of need, by his grace we are judged according to his grace, his love, his son Jesus Christ, by grace we are saved through faith, not of works that anyone should boast, be proud or stand in judgment of another! Do not judge lest you be judged!
Jesus uses an analogy from his own life –that of a carpenter. You can imagine him standing in the carpenter’s shops learning the trade from his earthly father Joseph. Like us, I can well imagine Jesus getting splinters and yes, even small pieces of dust or wood in his eyes (they didn’t use safety goggles!). And when that little splinter gets in there, it can be HUGE! It is a matter of perspective.
Just take your thumb and point it up and hold it as far away from your eyes as you can. Now slowly move it towards you left or right eye. Gets bigger! Now, if you want jab it into your eye! NO! has the size of your thumb changed? No, but the perspective has. Do not judge the splinter in another’s eye when you have a plank in your own!
Jesus says that we should look first to our own "speck/plank" before we look at others. Our sin is just as great as anyone else’s, we are all sinners, we all fall short of God’s glory and His righteousness. We are all saved by grace –not works, not righteousness, grace, grace, God’s grace, grace that is greater than all my planks! Do we see our own sin? Do we see our destitution before God? Do we cry out over our position?
Jesus says remove your own plank from your eye. How do we do this? We find the solution in I John, one of those letters I mentioned that does not mention the word grace, but let me read a verse many of you know –If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cease us from all unrighteousness. Let me put it to you this way. If we admit we have a plank –something in our life that is against God, that hurts his law, that hurts our relationship with others, that separates us, we confess it “I have a plank!” He, the only one who can, Jesus Christ, is faithful and just, he is the judge to come and say Yes you have a plank, he is faith and just to forgive, to remove our plank as only he can do by his grace, by his love, through his power showed in the cross (interesting that he who was killed on a plank now removes planks!) and cleanse out our eye of the plank, the unrighteousness, so we can see and he as he alone can do, and then he gives us clean eyes to see that others also have specks and we can help them as brothers in Christ, as forgiven followers and those who live by grace, as ones who have experienced forgiveness, then we can help those who have specks –not in judgment of their sins not in our own righteousness, but in Christ’s –because he has cleansed us we can now be peacemakers to show others the one who removes splinters!
Brothers and sisters, beloved in Christ, this is a powerful lesson for us all. Let us remember where the sermon on the mount started –with the beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit –those who know they are lost and separate from the Father, blessed are those who mourn over their sin. We all fall short, we all have planks in our eyes, we all are blinded because of our lostness. Blessed are those who in meekness place their lives in the hands of God, that He takes out the planks, that he removes out sins, that He is in control, that He and He alone pours out his grace, wave upon wave, into our lives, that he alone forgives and cleanses. Blessed are those who are merciful who after being shown mercy and having their planks removed are merciful to others. Blessed are the peacemakers, those who bring others to the Father that they may find peace with God and yes, have the linters in their lives removed.
Only when the planks are removed from our lives, only when we have received and experienced the carpenter removing out planks can we show others to the carpenter –and who better t know about removing splinters than Him!
I encourage you to read from Eugene Petersons “The Message,” a paraphrase of Matthew7:1-5, and then here is a rephrase verse 1-2 in terms of grace. “Show grace to one another and you too will be shown grace. For in the same way you show grace to others, you will be given grace and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
One of my biker friends, several years ago was not going to church. When asked why he said, “because I don’t have a suit. I am scared to go into a church dressed like this. The church that is supposed to love me will not accept me unless I look like them!”
Judge not, lest you be judged. Show grace and in the same way grace will be poured out to you!
Beloved, we must never forget that we all fall short of God’s glory and perfection. This passage reminds us that we are to find grace from God and give grace to others that they may find God.
The call to authentic discipleship is one that realistically sees yourself and seeks to help others, not to judge out of selfish arrogance and pride, but to live in grace.
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