It’s been a long week and I am late posting my sermon from last Sunday as I continue through the Sermon on the Mount; this week, Matthew 7:1-6. The translation I used read this way:
“Don’t write people off, so that you won’t be written off. You’ll receive the same judgment you give. Whatever you deal out will be dealt out to you. Why do you see the splinter that’s in your brother’s or sister’s eye, but don’t notice the log in your own eye? How can you say to your brother or sister, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ when there’s a log in your eye? You deceive yourself! First take the log out of your eye, and then you’ll see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s or sister’s eye. Don’t give holy things to dogs, and don’t throw your pearls in front of pigs. They will stomp on the pearls, then turn around and attack you.”
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If we were to open our pew Bibles this morning and read our passage for today from the New Revised Standard Version, I think you would recognize the verses because they are some of Jesus’ words that make him sound like he was the Hebrew predecessor to Ben Franklin:
“Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For the judgment you give will be the judgment you get, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.”
In fact, those words have taken their place as a saying separate from Jesus, words we use to offer caution: judge not, lest you be judged. But that’s not the only reason I am grateful for our alternate translation. The words Susan read—“Don’t write people off, so that you won’t be written off—do a clearer job of helping us see the kind of judging that Jesus was talking about.
The fact of the matter is we all judge other people—and that’s not all bad news. We read reviews to find reliable repair people, or to choose a physician. We send our plate back to the kitchen when we judge that it was not what we ordered. But more than that, we face situations where we have to choose between what is right and what is wrong, or even what is best over what is just okay. Evaluation is part of life. A necessary part.
Jesus was talking about something different that evaluation. As our translation works to show, he was talking more about condemning someone, writing them off, whatever the reason. The easiest cultural connection we can make is the way entire groups of people can be written off because of one aspect of their lives, such as their religion, or their political affiliation, or their orientation, without any regard for their humanity, their intrinsic value. That’s a good connection, yet it’s not just about groups. We write off individuals as well because of the way they are dressed, or perhaps the way they speak, or the job they hold.
My short list of things is far from complete, and Jesus did not appear interested in creating a list of reasons for why we write people off, only that it was destructive to do so. The kind of judgement Jesus was describing had less to do with having a good reason than deciding someone wasn’t worth it and then figuring out something to justify our perspective.
The Message translation paints an even more vivid word picture:
“Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own.”
“That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging.”
Two things come to mind as I read that sentence, two ways to interpret it. The first is that we often can’t live up to the standard we set for others. That’s how I understand what Jesus was saying about telling people they have a splinter in their eyes that keep them from seeing the world correctly when we have a log in ours. We can’t get an objective view of ourselves.
The second thing is that when we write other people off, we write ourselves out of relationships. We will end up alone because when we have told everyone else they aren’t good enough for us, they may believe us. They may decide we are no longer worth the effort. At some point, Jesus said, we may realize we needed to have built bridges rather than burned them.
This is another place where it helps to look back at what Jesus said just before he began warning people about judgment. In the verses we looked at last week, Jesus said,
“. . . seek after God’s economy—God’s community—and God’s way of doing what is right, and all these other things will be given to you as well. So don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Today’s aggravation is plenty for today.”
Then he said,
“Don’t write people off, so that you won’t be written off. You’ll receive the same judgment you give. Whatever you deal out will be dealt out to you.”
Last week, we talked about worry being rooted in fear, that it was different than being concerned about something. We all have things that concern us, that even weigh on us, but worry is wasted motion, an emotional spinning of our wheels that only deepens the rut.
When we look at the two side by side, we can see that a judgmental spirt is much the same. When we write people off we do well to ask ourselves what fear has taken hold of us. That kind of judgment is not the same as a thoughtful evaluation. It does damage and leaves us disconnected and distressed. We are the only people we have. We are all wonderfully and uniquely created in the image of God and worthy to be loved. We can’t afford to live without each other.
And then comes the last couple of sentences in our passage, and things take a bit of turn:
“Don’t give holy things to dogs, and don’t throw your pearls in front of pigs. They will stomp on the pearls, then turn around and attack you.”
Don’t throw your pearls in front of pigs. On the heels of telling people to not write anybody off come these words that offer strong caution about how we share ourselves, inviting us to see once more the creative tension in which we are called to live.
We have to hold both things: to not allow our fear to undermine our relationships so that we don’t write people off and to remember that trust is a tender and valuable thing and not everyone is trustworthy, even though they are created in the image of God and worthy to be loved. Choosing to not be too vulnerable is not the same as deciding someone is worthless.
Life can’t be boiled down to a handful of maxims or easy sayings—even when Jesus said them.
What I mean by that is the truth that is in sentences like, “Don’t worry about tomorrow,” or, “Don’t write people off so that you won’t be written off,” or, “Don’t throw your pearls in front of pigs,” takes a lot more than a sentence, or even a sermon, to unpack and truly embody. Life is hard work. Love requires effort and intention. We don’t get a practice life. This is it. So may our kindness abound in the way we treat one another. May we have the courage to admit our mistakes and to ask questions rather than pass judgment when someone does something that hurts us or shakes our trust in them. May we be slow to jump to conclusions and intentional about fostering connections, because if we are not, life is going to be very lonely. Amen.
Peace,
Milton