Judge?

Good Morning,

Matthew 7:1-5 (NIV)
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." (Emphasis mine, DRB)

At first glance one might think that these are harsh words that were spoken by our Lord. If we are to think that, well, we're right. They ARE harsh words and, I believe, they were meant to be harsh. You see, when I picture Jesus talking and He says something like, "You hypocrite..." I certainly don't picture Him saying it in a gentle manner. No, I see Him saying it very, very firmly and even raising His voice to make His point. OK, enough of going on about that. On to today's subject: Judging.

I heard the following story some years ago and it has stuck with me ever since. I hope you get as much out of it as I did.

A business man on his way to his office was on a subway in New York City along with many other passengers. Among the many passengers in that particular subway car was a dad and his two small children...about 6 or 7 years old. The kids were being very rowdy, making a lot of noise, and generally being a total nuisance to everyone around them. The father of the children just sat there and didn't reprimand or correct them in any way. He just had a "faraway" look in his eyes as his children wreaked havoc, pretty much, at his feet.

The well dressed business man rose from his seat and went over to where this small family was sitting. He said to the young man, shabbily dressed in old blue jeans and a fairly ragged t-shirt, "Why don't you do something about your rowdy children? Don't you see that they are upsetting the rest of us in the car? We would like some peace and quiet on our commute this morning."

The young man looked up at that business man and said, "Oh, I'm so very sorry. I guess I'm just not paying attention very much, am I? You see, my kids just lost their mom this morning. She passed away at the hospital and we're on our way home. I guess they just don't know how to act at this time in their lives. They are very confused and frightened. Please, accept my apology and I'll try to get them to settle down."

Needless to say, that business may said nothing. He turned away, a tear in his eye, and returned to his seat. You see, he had judged...very wrongly, it turned out...that this young man simply didn't care that his children were misbehaving so badly.

The moral of this is that we often have no idea of the reasons for people's behavior; for what they might say; for how they are acting at any particular point in time...but we judge them anyway. We judge them because they aren't doing or saying or acting as we think they ought to. We judge them from an eye that has a plank in it. Oh, how dangerous that can be. At least if we are to believe what Jesus said about it. It's dangerous, of course, because God will be judging us just as we've been judging people. Pretty scary, isn't it?

Now, I don't know about you, but I certainly don't want to be judged as I have judged others in my life. I am so very thankful that Jesus is my advocate in facing the Father on that day and I'm even more thankful that Jesus has provided the payment for my sins in this life. But, even with that said, I believe that we are to take Jesus' words to heart and stop the judging that we tend to do without really knowing who or what we're judging.

So, the next time we are tempted to get up on our high horse and be all judgemental, without even knowing the situation we're judging, let's remember the story of the young man and his two young children. You see, there are times when certain behaviors or words are not what they seem to be.

Love, peace, and blessings,

David