The Speck and the Beam

Introduction

I want to take you back to your childhood. In particular, I want to take you back to school. Now, for some of us, that’s a short trip. For the rest of us, we have to pack an overnight bag. But I want you to think about school. And I’m not talking about the school itself or even your classmates, but I want you to think about the teachers that you had in school. And in particular, I want to ask you one question. Who was your favorite teacher? Now, again, for some, that might be an easy question. You might immediately, one name pops into mind as the teacher who meant the most to you, had the greatest impact on you, or did the best job of just educating you.

But for others of us, it might be tough. You might have a pretty long list. Let me tell you about the teachers that I had. I can really only think of two bad teachers that I had. One was really bad. She scared us all. Mrs. Hill was just mean.

Bad teacher in my memory because I had so many others that were just so good. It’d be hard for me to narrow it down. Maybe to who was my favorite or my best teacher. On that list, it’d have to be Mrs. Bridges, my second grade teacher. I loved her not because she was the first to give me a spanking in school. But I love her because she could tell stories. Funny stories. I’m sure she told them over and over thousands of times. But I love Mrs. Bridges because she could educate us by telling good stories. I had her husband, Mr. Bridges, was a teacher in the same school. We had a lot of husband and wife teachers. I don’t know if that was unique to where I went to school, but Mr.

Bridges taught kind of middle school and high school. I remember Mr. Bridges for different reasons. I remember Mrs. Bridges because she could tell such great stories. Mr. Bridges, I remembered him because he was so cross-eyed. And you would think you were getting away with something because he was looking over here, but he saw everything you were doing. Through those cross-eyed. He was so cross-eyed he cried one time and the tears went down his back. But I had other good teachers.

Mr. Guthrie was highly intelligent. He taught, we had a community college in the county that I grew up in. He taught part-time at the community college, full time at my high school. And I have to tell you that Mr. Guthrie is now my favorite teacher. Although he wasn’t my favorite teacher when I graduated. Benefit of hindsight made him my favorite teacher. He taught with discipline. He taught with intelligence. He taught with humor. And he taught me a lot. But Mr. Guthrie became my favorite teacher 31 years after I graduated. Because my mother and father died three months apart, 31 years after I graduated high school.

And out of the blue, 31 years after I had seen him, Mr. Guthrie called me. He had to do some research because he called me on my cell phone. And we talked.

And say, I heard your folks die. And I’m sorry. We shared stories from school. It amazed me that at his ripe old age at that time and 31 years plus removed of what he remembered about me and my classmates. He told me things I had forgotten. He still laughed at me and some of the jokes that I told about one of the girls in school and a boy she was dating, and I would pick on her about her boyfriend. Back then we caught it flirting. But he still remembered how I would pick on her and the jokes I told and how it made him laugh then and now.

Maybe the favorite teachers at the time were the ones that would let you goof off and didn’t require much discipline or homework. But looking back, you appreciate that discipline. And maybe even the sternness.

What made Jesus such a great teacher? Well, the obvious answer would be the subject matter. And so maybe your favorite teacher was aligned with your favorite subject. Jesus is a great teacher because of the subject matter that he taught. But he taught with sternness, didn’t he? That makes him a great teacher. But he also taught with love and compassion. And that makes him our favorite teacher. But do you realize that Jesus also taught with humor? And maybe that’s why so many are drawn to his teaching. Would you go with me to Matthew chapter 7, where our Bible reading was this morning? Jesus taught both with sternness, compassion, and humor in Matthew chapter 7 in the Sermon on the Mount, where he says famously, maybe one of the most quoted and misunderstood passages of all the scripture, chapter 7, verse 1, judge not.

And then he goes on to tell this funny story. Because if you try to picture it in a literal sense, you can’t help but smile or chuckle at the scene of someone with a beam sticking out of their eye, trying to help someone else get a speck out of their eye. Completely clueless to the fact that they have that beam in their own eye. That’s a story of humor, sternness, and compassion all wrapped into one. I’d like for us to talk about that story. And the elements of that story, the beam that may be in our own eye. And then we’ll talk about the speck that may be in your brother’s eye. Let’s remind ourselves of the context of this story. And the context is really in the idea of the Bible here and in numerous places cautioning us about judging.

1. Misunderstood on Two Opposite Extremes

Now it’ll come as no surprise to you, maybe that Matthew 7, this dissertation of Jesus about judging, is one of the most misunderstood passages in all of Scripture. And it’s misunderstood on two opposite extremes. We might say that it’s misunderstood by those outside and those inside. Those outside know this verse because they know those first few words, do not judge. Don’t judge me. And what they often mean by that is just let me do what I want to do. No matter how bad, how sinful, how harmful it might be, just leave me alone and keep your mouth closed, because the Bible says, do not judge. I can be whatever I want to be. That’s not what Jesus said. But it’s also misunderstood and misapplied on the other extreme by those of us sometimes what we might call on the inside.

When we point out that’s not what Jesus meant, in fact, the scriptures give me the right and the authority to judge you. And boy, am I going to do it? I’ve crafted this skill over years of judging and being judgmental and even hateful. And if you slip up, I’m going to be there. And I’m going to pounce. With the most sarcastic, hateful epitheth you’ve ever heard. Because it doesn’t really say you can’t judge at all. And so I’m the judge. And guess what? That’s not what Jesus said. As often as the case, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. The Bible does say that we are to be discerning. Stay in Matthew chapter 7. And what isn’t it ironic in this very same chapter that begins with the words, do not judge, which in fact are really talking about the method of judging, not judging itself.

That this text goes on to say there’s some judging is allowed. Verse 5 says, first remove the plank from your own eye, then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s. It doesn’t say leave the speck in there, does it? I’m to see the speck in your eye, and I’m to help you to remove it. That requires some discernment on my part, doesn’t it? Verse 6, don’t give what’s holy to the dogs. Don’t cast your pearls before swine. That took some discernment, didn’t it? To identify people as dogs and as swine, maybe in some sense unworthy of that righteousness. Skip down to verse 15 and 16, still in Matthew 7, beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

You will know them by their fruits. Not only discernment is called upon in that verse, but pretty good discernment because they’re disguised, aren’t they? They are wolves, but they’re in sheep’s clothing. And so I have to be not just discerning, but very discerning.

That’s what this text is about. Judge not that you be not judged, for with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. Is that not a caution about judging? All the verses that follow say there’s some discernment that needs to be made and to be had, but isn’t it also saying, but be careful how you do that? Go with me to the book of James and in James chapter 4. Jesus, as you’re turning to James chapter 4, Jesus would say in another place, in John chapter 7, verse 24, to do not judge by outward appearance, but judge with righteous judgment, a caution about judging. But look in James 4, verses 11 and 12. Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law.

But if you judge the law, you’re not a doer of the law, but a judge. And he goes on to conclude this in verse 12 by saying, Who are you to judge another? And so both extreme understandings of our passage in Matthew 7 are wrong. And if those of the outside were here, I would talk to them about how wrong it is for you just to say, I get to do what I want to do. You leave me alone. But since they’re not here and you are, I want to talk about that other extreme that’s wrong. That Jesus addresses in the story of the beam and the speck. Of what Scripture continues to caution us in regard to judging. And maybe one point of that story in Matthew 7 is this.

2. The Most Effective Form of Judging Is Judging Ourselves

To those of us with the beams in our eyes, maybe one lesson is the most effective form of judging is when we judge ourselves. Isn’t that at least part of the point of Jesus in Matthew chapter 7? You are a hypocrite, he said. Get the beam out of your own eye. Look in the mirror, recognize that you have faults that need to be addressed. And glaring faults. You’ve got a beam in your eye. Now, what did Jesus mean by that? We understand that, again, that use of humor surely wasn’t literal. Because if somebody has a beam in their eye, a log, as some translations say, you probably are aware of that. But here was someone who had that but wasn’t aware of it. So it has to be a metaphor, doesn’t it?

It has to be a metaphor of some glaring inconsistencies, some glaring thing wrong, some big sin that you’re unaware of. Because unlike a literal log in your eye, you can walk around with those beams and not be aware of them. What was the beam that was in their eye? Was it sins of their own? Were they doing the same thing that the speck people were doing? That’s a possibility. Go to Romans chapter 2. That’s what some were doing that Paul addressed in Rome. Let’s cite the context very quickly of Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 1, Paul famously speaks to the Gentiles in his audience. The Gentiles who were without excuse because God had revealed himself to them, but they worshiped idols instead. And Paul was saying, you’re just wrong.

And you can imagine, you can hear the Jews in the audience. They never amend a sermon anymore. Than Paul, when Paul was excoriating the Gentiles for their ignorance and sin. But when Paul let loose of those Gentiles, he turned his attention to those judgmental Jews. And says, You’re without excuse as well. Because God hasn’t just revealed himself in nature to you, he’s revealed himself in the law to you. And so he says this in Romans 2, verse 1, therefore you’re inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things. Oh, I take back my amen, Paul. I thought you were talking about them. As the old saying goes, you’ve quit preaching and started meddling.

Because now you’re talking about me. Skip down a little further in that same chapter in Romans chapter 12 and pick up in the reading in verse 21. You therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You say, Do not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You abhor idols, but you rob temples. You make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God with breaking the law? There was some being people, wasn’t it? He’s saying, you’re doing what they’re doing. He doesn’t explain how. But in some way, they were as guilty of the same sins as the people that they were pointing to the speck in their eye. So maybe that’s what Jesus meant.

Maybe there’s times when we are just rank hypocrites because we’re doing the same thing. But maybe the beam’s a little different. Maybe it’s not the same material of lumber. It’s possible that the beam was just the sin of hypocrisy.

Maybe the beam was the sin of ungrateful forgetfulness. Forgetting that though I’m a Christian, that I’m a child of God, that I am a Christian and a child of God, only by the grace of God and of his forgiveness of my sins. But I’ve forgotten that when I want to point out your sin. Imagine how much better we would be at this thing called Christianity if we expended as much energy judging and correcting ourselves as we do judging and correcting others. Why is it so much easier to spot a speck a mile away and to be cluelessly walking around with a beam in my own eye, and I’m completely unaware of it. But another lesson that I want us to consider from the story that Jesus told in Matthew chapter 7, when he says, you hypocrite, you’ve got a beam in your own eye.

3. How Do You Remove a Speck?

And what does Jesus say? First, look at yourself. Judge yourself by the light of the word of God. Look into the mirror, as James would say, into the mirror of the flawless royal law of liberty and judge yourself and make your own corrections. But then Jesus does say, once you’ve done that, then go to your brother and address the speck that is in his eye. He doesn’t say leave that speck in that eye. He says, begin with judging. Now, now you’re equipped and ready to go and to help the brother remove the speck that’s in his eye. But how do you remove a speck from someone else’s eye? I have three options for you. You choose which is best. Option number one is you have their open their eye as wide as they can, and you smack them in the back of the head.

Maybe with the beam you just took out. Kind of three stooges style. Hit them so hard that that speck will go fly. Is that the best way to remove a speck? Is that the way we try a lot of times? Can we reject option number one? As tempted as we might be to do that to someone at times? Well, here’s option number two. How do you remove a speck from someone else’s eye? I tell you what, here’s what we do. Let’s ridicule them and shame them until their own tears flood the speck out of their eye. That’s the reproach Jesus would have us take. Is that the approach that someone who’s just shockingly realized that you had a beam in your own eye that you were unaware of would take towards someone with a speck?

Let’s think about Jesus’ own approach. Yes, he turned over tables. And yes, he strongly denounced, even with name calling, the scribes and the Pharisees. We might pause there and recognize that when he did strongly denounce those scribes and the Pharisees, it was because they were doing what he talked about in this story. They were hypocrites. But how would Jesus remove a speck? Even though he never had a beam or even a speck to remove from his own eye. Turn with me to John chapter eight. John chapter eight, and let’s read a story here of Jesus removing a speck from someone’s eye. John 8, verse 1, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Now early in the morning he came again to the temple, and all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.

Then the scribes and the Pharisees, then the scribes and the Pharisees who were experts at spotting a speck in someone else’s eye, who would have gladly taken our first two approaches to smack them in the back of the head to remove the speck, or to shame them until the tears washed it out. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery. And when they set her in the midst, they said to him, Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do you say? This they said, testing him, that they might accuse him of something. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger as though he did not hear.

So they continued asking him.

And again he stooped down and wrote something on the ground. Then those who heard it being convicted by their conscience. It was then, and only then, that they caught a glimpse of the beam in their own eye. Then those who were convicted by their own conscience went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, even to the last. Ever wondered why the oldest went first? He had more specks and more beams. Because he had lived longer. And Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus raised himself up and saw no one but the woman, he said to her, Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you? And she said, No one, Lord. And Jesus said to her, Neither do I condemn you.

Go and sin no more. How do you remove a speck? Gently. Gently. And carefully. And compassionately. Jesus is the great teacher that he was, not just because he taught with humor, as in this story. Not that he’s just taught with discipline and sternness and with compassion. But because Jesus showed us not just by word but by his actions. And here Jesus is removing a speck from someone’s eye. How do you remove a speck?

Conclusion

Like Jesus would. And so when everybody else is picking up stones, you be the one who shows grace and mercy. And you lovingly say, Go and sin no more. Because you know that the way that you judge is the way that you will be judged. May God help us to be more like Jesus in removing the speck from other people’s eyes. God help us to see that the church isn’t intended to be a resort hotel for perfect people. But it’s to be a hospital for the sick, where they can come with beams or specks to have them addressed. Not to be ignored. Jesus didn’t do that with the woman caught in adultery. He said, sin no more. To be addressed, but to be addressed lovingly. Let the story of the beam and the speck remind you of what we’re doing.

That whether it’s judging myself in light of the word of God, or whether it’s trying to help you, Lord, help me remember that we’re just trying to get to heaven. And that what really we’re about is that we’re just walking each other home. And may we never forget that. Lord, I pray that you’ll help me see the beams in my own eye. And that you’ll give me that gentle, meek touch when I see the speck in another’s eye. When you look into the light of God’s word, what do you see? Do you see a speck or a beam? There’s probably something there that needs to be corrected. Do you need to obey the gospel this morning? Maybe you’ve never named Christ in obedience. Then it might be a beam you’re wielding in your eye.

And why not come to him and know that whether you’re here this morning or you’re watching us online, that you can come, whether with its speck or a beam, and you’ll find people who love you, and will gently and meekly help you remove whatever it is that’s separating you and God. Would you obey that gospel that this morning? Would you reach out to us for a Bible study this morning to be able to see what God can do to wash away your sins? Maybe you’ve done that in the past, but there’s a beam that needs to be removed. Maybe it’s the beam of hypocrisy. Maybe it’s something else. And why not seek the loving, compassionate help of Jesus Christ this morning? Can we help you? Let me remove the beam from my own eye so that I can be here to help you remove the specks that are in your life.

Would you come right now as together we stand and as we sing?