Keys to the Kingdom by Carolyn Tucker
Cataracts and Logs
At a recent family gathering to celebrate two birthdays and one wedding anniversary, I was talking about how dim my car’s interior lights were. Well, immediately my daughter and son started joking about cataracts. And I responded, “Yes! I do have cataracts (unbeknownst to them) in both eyes! But compared to the lights in my previous vehicle, these are simply not as bright!” Well, then both of them guffawed about me “having a log in my eye” preventing me from seeing well. My kids are pros at turning an ordinary conversation into a nutty comedy routine…and I’m usually the butt of the joke. And I’m usually the one laughing the loudest.
But no one was laughing when Jesus spoke about our “eye” in the New Testament. He was clearly illustrating that Christ followers must conduct a thorough self-examination before criticizing and judging others. Jesus didn’t pussyfoot around when He spoke to those gathered about Him: “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ’Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye” (Matthew 7:3-5 NLT). Jesus didn’t want His followers displaying the same fault of criticism like the Pharisees.
A lack of love and mercy always distorts our vision of others. Judging someone else has been described as casually looking at ourselves through rose-colored glasses but scrutinizing our fellowman with a magnifying glass. Why would believers be so determined to focus on one flaw in someone else’s life when we have multiple glaring flaws of our own? It’s so easy to try to set someone straight when we’re not evaluating ourselves honestly and truthfully according to God’s Word.
Other Bible translation comparisons are: sawdust and beam; very small particle and beam of timber; splinter and telephone pole; little piece of dust and big piece of wood. Jesus was teaching in hyperbole to get us to understand and remember the seriousness of judging and being critical. I certainly understand this method of exaggeration. When my late husband and I were newlyweds, I couldn’t seem to remember that he preferred mayonnaise over whipped salad dressing on his sandwich. Finally, after forgetting several times, he very calmly used hyperbole to get his point across: “I would rather have dog poop on my sandwich than whipped salad dressing.“ Welp, I finally got it and I never forgot it either!
Jesus wants His followers to honor God by simply living in humility and honesty. This enables us to be in a position to really love, care, and help serve others. The problem with judging others is that we always set ourselves above those we judge. Oswald Chambers warned his readers: “Beware of anything that puts you in the superior person’s place.“ Jesus’ words strongly suggest that it would be well for the critic to remove the huge obstruction from his/her eye first before attempting to retrieve the itsy-bitsy particle from someone else’s eye. In other words, clean up your own backyard before you criticize your neighbor’s. What Jesus is basically saying on the Sermon on the Mount is, “You can’t help the other fellow until you get rid of that critical attitude you have” ~ Ralph Earle.
The Key: Don’t let cataracts or logs impede your vision when trying to help others.