Pointing Fingers

Jesus was on a roll. As He taught the people in what we now know as the Sermon on the Mount, He moved through topics such as the "be-attitudes", divorce, love for enemies, oaths, adultery, murder, giving to the needy, prayer, fasting, worry, to name a few. To His captive audience, it must have seemed that His teachings left no area of life untouched.

Then as if He could not have gotten any more personal, He did. According to Matthew's narrative, Jesus admonished His hearers, "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" (Matthew 7:1-2, NIV, 1984). However, He did not stop there, but continued, “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?" (vv. 3-4). Some in the crowd were probably "experts" at pointing out the fault of others while being oblivious to their own faults. Maybe some of us know some people like that. Or, maybe, we are like that!

Jesus had strong words for this kind of behaviour: "[H]ypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye" (v.5). Being called a "hypocrite" was not a compliment. It speaks of putting on a false front or false appearance of virtue or religion. In other words, Jesus is not impressed with the hypocrite. Before finding and pointing out the faults of others, we first need to take care of our own. In Jesus' example, the faults were not even the same for the person with the plank in his eye was pointing out the dust in the eye of another! Now, that was being hypocritical for sure.

Steve Maraboli was right when he said, “When you're too religious, you tend to point your finger to judge instead of extending your hand to help.” It is that kind of religion that Jesus spoke against. Our awareness of our own faults should cause us to be gracious towards others struggling with their own faults. Let us, with God's help, see ourselves first in the mirror of the Word. As we trust Him to help us with our faults, we are then in a position to help our brother or sister with theirs. For in the process of pointing a finger at another, our thumb points to God, the only judge, and our remaining three fingers point directly back at us. Try it. I believe that's exactly how God intended it.