Slideshow image

As most of you know I had major eye surgery that I am still recovering from. That surgery left me with a nitrogen bubble holding everything in place in my right eye. I must look through that bubble until it is absorbed which means I’m not seeing clearly or correctly. Closing one eye or looking over the bubble corrects my vision only slightly. I seem to be about an inch or two off trying to grab something, keying something in on the phone, going around door frames which if you’re wondering, still do not move when you run into them, and various other difficulties.

 

This got me thinking about Jesus’ words to the Pharisees in Matthew 7:3 ESV, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”

 

The Pharisees had set themselves up as the ultimate example of how to live right and obedient before God. They had all the answers on how to live a moral life and to fully worship God.  They believed that the unwritten traditional interpretations and legal rulings passed down from Moses carried equal weight to the written scriptures. If you did not live your life exactly like they saw it, interpreted Scripture exactly like them and adhered to all their minute traditions - you were considered unclean and to be avoided.

 

Jesus was quoting a well-known Jewish idiom much like when we say it is “raining cats and dogs”. When Jesus used the word “log” He was not referring to a simple tree log you would find in the woods, but a piece of timber used in construction. This log was used to build something upon it. Something was being built on the log in the Pharisee’s mind when they began leaving mercy and grace out of their lives and judging others as clean or unclean before God.  Jesus scolded them in Matthew 23:23 NIV, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness.”

 

Log was also the same Jewish word used for a spider building a spider web. You know spider webs are sticky, and the purpose is to capture something that accidentally flies into it. As a boy I would catch grasshoppers and throw them into a spider’s web to watch how the spider responds. I wonder what that says about me? Anyway, the spider would run to it and begin wrapping or entangling the grasshopper in its web to be consumed later.  Now that is a great example of what spiritual pride desires to do in our lives.

 

Using the construction and spider web themes, I wonder what we are building or catching in our lives because of the way we view others.  The Pharisees were catching pride and judgmentalism in their spiritual spider web. We see this when Jesus spoke about a Pharisee and a Publican going to the Temple to pray in Luke 18:9-14. The Publican was a Roman tax collector. Yea, Jews working for the Roman government to collect taxes from other Jews. It is easy to see how this could be a problem. Now I may have not liked what the person did to make a living, but was he unclean before God simply because of the way he provided for his family? I will admit, normally at that time Publicans were cheats and swindlers by charging more taxes than the government demanded and pocketing the excess, but does this mean he is forever exiled from the presence of God?

 

We see this in Jesus’ illustration in Luke 18:9-14 ESV. Two men went to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee and the other a Tax Collector. The Pharisee’s prayers show his heart in verse 11-12, “11 God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.” The Tax Collector’s prayer was this in verse 13, “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’” Now here Jesus’ question would have been, “which man would have been justified before God?” Verse 14 answers that question, “I tell you, this man (tax collector) went down to his house justified, rather than the other.”

 

It is so easy to build spiritual pride in our lives in America where there is so much good available to us. We gather around us like minded believers with like minded worship and like minded experiences then are surprised when we are tempted to pull back at those who don’t quite meet our understanding or desires of what a Christian should be.  We forget Jesus came to seek and save the lost, not sit and soak with the saints. If your first question is, “What’s up with them” rather than “What mercy or grace do they need” maybe we better check which one Jesus would sit with. Or maybe like me today you have a bubble of pride in your eye and just not seeing clearly.

 

Randy Harwood, Pastor, Spokane First Baptist Church