What did HE say? (continued)
Thoughts on The Sermon (Part 9)
We have come through Chapters 5 and 6 of the Gospel of Matthew which are the first two of the three chapters of Jesus teachings from the Sermon on the Mount. We have now reached Chapter 7, the final chapter devoted to His Sermon. Up to now we have seen teachings in various forms on:
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The Beatitudes as a listing of 8 blessed virtues of man.
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The nature of discipleship as the salt and light of the world
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The ‘but I say unto you‘ statements that reinterpret the old law into new terms for the new dispensation of Christ.
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His teaching on the personal relationship between a person and his God and the need to keep our giving and praying and any form of physical or mental discipline such as fasting from becoming public displays or self-aggrandizement.
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His teaching on knowing where one’s treasure is and understanding who one may be serving.
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His teaching on relying on the provisions of God by seeking His Kingdom and the inability of one to think or worry things into being.
We now enter into His teaching on a more personal level insofar as it deals with our relationship with others in direct interaction. He sets forth here some basic rules for living in this world as Sons of God. He starts with: “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Matthew 7:1-2). There should be no question as to what these verses mean; the word judge is pretty straightforward. However, since we are not ‘judges’ appointed or elected to that office and since this is not who Jesus addresses here, let us view the word from the perspective that the Master uses it. From Webster’s we find this definition: to assume the right to pass judgment on another; to sit in judgment or commendation; to criticise or pass adverse judgment upon others*. In this definition is the essence of this teaching; when we assume the right to judge another for any action on their part we are putting ourselves in position to reap the same treatment. First from our own souls for in judging or condemning our brothers we are taking our conscious selves out of the Light of the Christ Within and using the faculties of the carnal nature. Second, if we vocalize this ‘opinion’ about another, we are supporting a negative about our brother and, whether true or not, expressing or encouraging others to express some form of anger or hatred toward that person. Thirdly there is the karmic aspect of reaping what we sow; if we are judgemental this becomes our outer appearance to others and we will be treated by others based on this that we come to stand for.
Jesus is telling us that we shall be judged and He extends this idea to work with the type of judgement as well saying that with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. If our judgement is harsh or merciless or, maybe even worse, based on prejudices and hatreds, or if it is arbitrary, so will any judgement be to us. He goes on to what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again here can be seen the measure of the condemnation in the judgements that we make or the punishments that we may ascribe to any offence. In the Gospel of Luke we find a variation of this teaching as the Master is quoted as saying: “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven” (Luke 6:37). Here we find the additions of condemning and forgiveness but the view should be the same. What we pronounce onto others will be pronounced onto us in any of the variety of means cited above and more. Some parts of the church like to use the words of Jesus from the Gospels of Mark and Luke regarding what measure ye mete but tend to neglect the statement above. These verses have a much more positive slant than that found in Matthew. In Luke we find “for with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again” (Luke 6:38) used in relation to good measure being given to us in return for our own giving of such. And in Mark He says: “with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you” (Mark 4:24) in regard to what we hear; this saying in part that if we listen and hear the word we can have more. This is all well and good but we should not forget the admonition in our verse above regarding our judgements and the measure of them.
Now none of what we have said mentions that Judgement that is of the Lord and on this there is much to be said but this particular post is not the place. Suffice it to say that there is a greater judgement for most all we do; this judgmental attitude included. The greater lesson to be learned in these verses is that which we saw in a previous post from the teachings of the Buddha where, speaking on violence (and are not judgment and condemnation violence) He says: “See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do? For your brother is like you. He wants to be happy. Never harm him“*◊. This is the theme of Jesus as well as can be clearly seen as we progress to the next verses. We are all the same; Spirit beings living out lives in form. We have the same dreams and the same fears which change only based on our customs which depend on our place of birth, what we have learned and on our race and our religion also. Regardless of all these factors we are all however Spirit in this form and as Spirit we are, all of us, made in the image and likeness of God the Father. In Spirit we are all one and the same as individualized parts of divinity. It is on the ability to see the Divine in our brothers that we are able to offer that Love to all that the Christ teaches us of. We can easily Love our neighbour when we can see our self in him; when we can see the Oneness and the Unity of all people. My personal dedication is to this Unity and my adopted theme of life is One World, One God, One Humanity and anyone who will look at the these three without prejudice or preconception will see the reality of this saying.
Taking this theme of Oneness, the Master leaves off on His talk on Judgement and goes on to say: “and why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 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? 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” (Matthew 7:3-5). Now we should see these verses as an extension of the prior verses on judgement for they are founded in judgement. We look upon what others do and cast aspersions on them when we know, or should know, that we are guilty of the same ourselves. We attempt to ‘fix’ another’s behaviour when we have the same or similar behaviour. This is one of the few places that the Master outright calls us hypocrites for this behaviour of calling out what one person does as wrong when we have the same wrongs hidden in ourselves; this is the very definition of a hypocrite.
We must also consider in these verses the understanding of our human nature, even to today, that the Master has. See here how He magnifies this hypocritical offense by His choice of words which in the Greek are karphos and dokos. It was not enough for Him to point out the wrong in calling out a persons fault or offense when we have the same; He, by the use of these words shows us that not only are we guilty as well but we are much more guilty. The King James Version (KJV) translates karphos as mote which Strong’s defines as speck, chip, particle; the (KJV) translates dokos as beam which Strong’s defines as plank, beam of wood. You should begin to see the point here; we see a speck in a brothers eye and we judge or condemn or ridicule him for such when in our own eye is a plank and we do not offer to ourselves the same judgment nor condemnation nor ridicule. For this the Master calls us hypocrites and He is so right in doing so. We should note also the relationship between these verses and the Golden Rule which kindly says do unto others as you would have them do unto you but which the Lord so strongly says as “therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12). See here the wording of Jesus is so that we know it is in all things whatsoever; not some things or this or that, all things. This verse will be covered in more depth in a future post as it is part of our current series on the Sermon. A final note from the teachings of the Buddha on this same issue of removing a brother’s speck while we have that plank. He says: “how easy it is to see your brother’s faults, how hard it is to face your own. You winnow his in the wind like chaff, But yours you hide, like a cheat covering up an unlucky throw. Dwelling on your brother’s faults Multiplies your own”*◊.
The last point on this ideal and the virtue of not being this kind of hypocrite is that this is not a teaching restricted to Christianity but most all world religions hold it true; this is, of course, the same with all virtue. Most of our misunderstandings about other’s beliefs stems from what we have been told; little of what we think is true comes from proper reading or research. Our misinformation could come from our church or from our educational systems or just general feeling in our community or from our peer groups. Look at this phenomena too as fitting so well into today’s verses. We judge and we try to correct others without any idea of what their faith actually is.
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.
….incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path. When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee (Proverbs 2:2-11) A rather long Quote of the Day but in it are the hidden secrets of our relationship to God. It is in sound wisdom. Wisdom is knowledge, and the capacity to make use of it*.
- * Websters Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
- *◊ Dhammapada Translated by Thomas Byrom
