“First take the log out of your own eye,

and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.”

–Luke 7:5

A friend named Ellen told me of the moment her father met his eventual son-in-law. She was 19 and Leon was 21. The year was 1972 and her beloved, despite the heat of their native Texas, had the long hair and scraggly beard many of his contemporaries wore. Her father was in the oil industry and I picture him in a short sleeve white shirt with a skinny tie.  Likely, he had a closely cropped haircut, too. As his only daughter, Ellen tried to prepare for the first meeting.  

On that day, Ellen kept saying to her father “Don’t judge a book by its cover. Don’t judge a book by its cover.” She, of course, had no idea what her father would say, but wanted him to see beyond the long hair and beard to the gentle and unassuming man who had won her heart. When Leon walked into their home, Ellen greeted him at the door and then took him into the room where her parents waited. As Ellen held her breath, her father looked at Leon, stuck out his hand and offered him a beer–perhaps that uniquely Texas brand known as Shiner. All was good! 

Amidst vastly different circumstances, Jesus spoke about how we are to judge others, too. Toward the end of his Sermon on the Mount, he said “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged and the measure you give will be the measure you get.” In that moment, Jesus was not saying we should never form opinions about others, their abilities or intentions. Nor was he saying that we should never speak up against a known wrong or offer a voice in protest as if somehow that would be judgmental.   

No, the word translated as “judge” in our passage refers to moments in which one condemns or puts on trial another person–not in a legal setting, but in our private lives. A situation according to one scholar in which we “make final judgments on anyone…speak assuredly of people’s real character [or] pretend that we know God’s verdict on other people’s lives.” (Bruner, Dale. Matthew: A Commentary. Dallas:  Word Publishing, 1987, p. 272). 

Jesus went on to offer one of his most familiar analogies. “Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye while the log is in your own eye?” The image, of course, is hyperbole and maybe even meant as humorous. Still, Jesus is raising the very real dynamic of how we can overlook our own shortcomings while naming the identical issue in someone else. Thus, Jesus called for openness as we meet and respond to each other. Something that he modeled continually.

That’s another way that we can grow in being more like Jesus. To resist the idea we think we know all we need to know about a person by their looks or accent, their job or political views, their facial hair or clothes.  And instead of judging to act upon the truth that only God truly knows the other.      

There’s one more piece to the story about the moment Leon met his future father-in-law.  Not only did the welcome he receive set the tone for their relationship, but decades later when his only daughter brought home for the first time the man who had won her heart, Leon responded as had his father-in-law.  

“For with the judgment you make you will be judged,” Jesus said, “and the measure you give will be the measure you get.” Thus he encourages us in all moments to “First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.”  A starting point which may even lead us to conclude the speck is not that important after all. 

All knowing One, you see our hearts and still love. Help us do the same with each other. Amen.