Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
And why do you look at the spec in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, “Let me remove the speck from your eye”; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
-Matthew 7:1-5, NKJV
This is one of those passages I’ve heard since before I was born and it is so familiar that it’s easy for me to ignore it. The hyperbole here is a bit far-fetched: a plank in my eye? And of course, the speck in my brother’s eye is nothing compared to the plank in my own eye, so it’s best for me to “judge not” and not even mention the speck in my brother’s eye, or I become a hypocrite.
And so, the best of us don’t ever criticize anyone else, because they consider everyone else to be better than themselves (per Paul’s admonition) and they rise above the temptation to point out flaws they see in others. They don’t judge, and they likewise avoid judgment.
But there’s a problem. Following this reasoning, I should equate “confrontation avoidance at all costs” to the peace-making Jesus refers to in the beatitudes. And when I pursue to its logical conclusions, I find that Jesus would promote codependency as a virtue. I should turn a blind eye to evil in others so that God will forgive me of my own sins.
Yet, this interpretation is in stark conflict with other portions of scripture which says God is just, admonish our brothers and save them from sin, and “to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8) Is codependence and turning a blind eye to evil the same as mercy? If so, mercy would trump justice, and Micah 6:8 would be completely impossible to implement, even for God.
So I need to look again at my long-held interpretation of the planks-and-specks passage.
First thing I saw this morning is that, at the very end, Jesus admonishes us to remove the plank from our own eye, and then we can see clearly to remove the spec from our brother’s eye. So, we are not being told to leave the speck in his eye after all! Codependency is not a virtue. (I’m a “recovering codependent.” For most of my youth and early adulthood, I found it difficult to accept the notion that codependency isn’t a virtue, and in fact thought it was quite sacrificial and Godly. Although I’ve learned the merits of overcoming codependency, my prior interpretations have been difficult to dissuade. This morning I think I’ve been granted some progress.)
So, then, what is the plank in my eye? In the past I’ve always assumed it was a bigger offense of the same type represented by my brother’s speck, and that it would be so big that having it stick in my eye would be a lot more bothersome than a mere speck (which, as we all know, is a bothersome irritation and sometimes temporarily debilitating). After all, isn’t Jesus merely using hyperbole here? One can’t have a plank in their eye, so he must just mean a really big speck. But if I suspend the hyperbolic interpretation and reframe my image of this to see the image Jesus is painting, then a “plank” would be more like a 2×4 or a 1×6, or even (if we use the pirate-ship notion of plank, as in “walk the plank”) a scaffold-size board of 3×24. This is quite a big board! Instead of it sticking in my eye like an irritation, it merely needs to be held up before my vision to blind me. The plank represents my blinders.
Of course I need to remove my blinders before I can help my brother with his bothersome speck!
What could my blinders be? This morning I brainstormed a list:
- Prejudice: anything causing me to decide categorically that something is good or bad, without really looking at the circumstances or individuals involved;
- Presumption: my deciding upon the solution required for a circumstance based on my past experience with similar circumstances, before really looking at the nuances of the current situation and individual involved;
- Ignorance: sometimes what I don’t know is a blinder to what I can see.
I’m sure there are others as well, but this triad is pretty helpful for me to start with. God knows I make ample use of each of them on a fairly regular basis.
One thing I notice is how general my blinders are. No matter where I look or what I’m looking at, if I have a plank in front of me, it will keep me from seeing whatever I’m trying to look at. Whether I’m searching for a speck in my brother’s eye or the beauty of God’s creation, this plank will thwart my vision. But the interesting thing about a plank in front of my vision is that, since it obscures my entire vision, I may not even realize it’s there. I may (or may not) realize I’m having a hard time seeing, but my vision is so completely and uniformly obstructed that I have to arrive at some awareness about the nature of it before I can even identify the need to have it removed.
But once I do have it removed, suddenly it’s a lot easier to see my brother’s speck and remove it from his eye.
Catching the meaning of the plank in this way allows me some additional freedom to explore the meaning of the speck in my brother’s eye. For example, do I walk around looking for specks in the eyes of my friends and neighbors? After all, I’ve been enlightened enough to have detected and removed the plank from my eye, who better to help you with your speck? I should walk up to anyone I meet and say “Let me look to see if you have any specks in your eye… ah yes, I see a few. Hold still while I remove them. Careful, this may hurt a bit… but it’s for your own good. Stop squiggling.”
This would be my tendency, bouncing from one extreme to the other. I don’t think this interpretation conforms to Jesus’ image, either. He’s using the image of a speck in someone else’s eye. When someone has a speck in their eye, such as a seedling, a piece of sawdust, a stray eyelash, or whatever, it bothers them immensely; they know it’s there, yet often they are unable to remove it themselves. The discomfort is real, and they want it removed, and so they ask someone else for help.
Depending upon the nature and location of the speck, it may even cause them to keep their eyes completely shut, even when I’m trying to remove the speck. It may take a while for me to look in and see the offending intruder. Once I find it, I may be able to use my fingers, or I may require a more specialized implement. (I find that often the speck is a piece of fuzz so small it’s hard for me to see, especially without my readers, so it may take a bit of investigation and searching before finding it.)
So, as of today, I’ve decided that Jesus means I am to help others remove the specks from their eyes when they ask me for assistance. I need to be invited to provide assistance. Before I attempt to assist them, I should be sure to survey and assess the situation, not jump in with judgment, prejudice, or presumption. Check those attributes at the door. I may even need to do some research to combat my ignorance or lack of knowledge about their predicament.
This attitude transforms me from being codependent to inter-dependent. That seems to be a Godly characteristic.
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