Splinters, Planks, and Lots of Eyes

Here’s a quickie: have you ever considered that one of *the* most radical teachings of Jesus is wrapped up in the analogy of the splinter in a brother’s eye? Suppose for a moment that we’ve reduced an earth-shaking truth to a rather trite reminder that “we’re not perfect either.” Stay with me for just a minute, then see what you think. According to the Genesis account of Adam and Eve, man did not even have the knowledge of good and evil until after he disobeyed God – and that knowledge then became NOT a benefit to the man, but a curse. Consider that we see within humanity so much “righteous” anger (or is it really self-righteous?) levied at those who someone or some group considers wrong, irresponsible, greedy, lazy, arrogant, too permissive, too rigid, too dangerous, and on and on. The simple reality of our situation is this – we would not be able to see the wrongness in others if that very same sort of wrongness were not already present in us. And the more strongly we react against against it – the angrier we are with those who are “ruining our country, ruining our communities, ruining our faith,” et cetera – the more we become the very thing we rail against. So railing against an enemy may get some sort of results, but it is not at all what Jesus teaches us to do. What He teaches sort of lets the air out of our judgmental sails, because it’s tough to motivate your “army” without an enemy to demonize. In fact, Jesus teaches people to love their enemies, leave vengeance to Him, turn the other cheek, give up their coats AND our cloaks… He’s pretty unusual like that – the ultimate, uncompromising relinquisher of personal rights and power. He suggests the sorts of things that tend to get you kicked out of ANY political party, social scene or organized religion. Hmm. Maybe He’s onto something.

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