Wednesday, May 9, 2018
Moral plank
Luke 6:41
And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye?
There are quite a few idioms about the donkey, many of them centred on the donkey’s ears. Experts say that that the donkey’s ears, larger than those of the horse, by comparison, are a result of the adaptation for the donkey’s lifestyle and environment.
Donkeys, in their natural habitat, tended to live and graze in the desert where the vegetations was sparse and spread out over vast areas. As a result, the herd was often quite dispersed as individuals searched for food. This meant that the donkeys had to communicate over long distances. Their ears are thought to have extra sound gathering capabilities to effectively hear each other. They, like some other animals, can move there ears to find the direction from which the sound is originating.
In Guyana where I live, this capability of the donkey led to a proverb on which our reflection today turns. We say, “donkey gat ears fuh hear he mattie story but not he own.” That was not written in any of the formal orthographic systems used by linguistic experts in Guyanese Creolese language, that was just an attempt to get close to what it sounds like for readers. Put in English, “the donkey’s big ears help it to hear what is going on with others but often he doesn’t hear his own business.”
When this saying is used, it is directed at someone who is not paying attention to their own life but is meddling in the affairs of others around them. Often in these circumstances, the individual being likened to the donkey has the same or similar issue in their life or household and needs to pay attention to it and leave the other person alone.
Jesus, in the key verse today, is using exaggeration, or hyperbole, to make the point that the practice of condemning and criticising another person’s ‘faults’ when you are apparently blind to your own is both stupid and hypocritical. People often want to appear to take moral high ground and condemn others when their view is jaundiced by their own circumstance.
Jesus further suggests here that often the matter about which we condemn the other person is a mere speck when compared with our own issues which are like a plank.
So often we tend to speak out of our own biases, prejudices, upbringing, experience, education, training etc, with absolutely no understating or deference to the other person’s circumstances. This does not mean that we should not correct error, what it does mean is that we should correct our own errors first.
American politicians and preachers are very well known for this these days (not only Americans but their stories are well known and well publicised). We hear them in loud condemnations of others only to see them resign in disgrace as their victims or the media, or both, ferret out and disclose their numerous similar failing.
Many are often baffled, not by the politician’s moral failing, or by the preacher’s hypocrisy, but by the vehemence with which they openly criticised and condemned others while they themselves either pursued the same behaviours and pleasures, at the worst, or at best, were struggling with the same sins and failings.
If they had taken a little advice from Jesus, the preachers especially, they would have taken the time to clean up their own lives, “First remove the plank from your own eye,” find deliverance from or victory over their own sins and moral failings. That would have been the qualification to then help others who are failing, “and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.” Luke 6:42.
One of the lessons learned from dealing with our moral planks is that after we remove them, and examine the thing that was removed, we are not just filled with sorrow and remorse. We are humbled. That humility constrains our future conduct and our love and understanding for others. When we see someone else caught in the same sin we draw close to them to guide, and counsel and help, rather than moralising in the public square.
There are very few stories recently, if any at all, of one pastor or politician reaching out to the other and counselling them through moral failure based on the counsellor’s own victory over his sin. Rather it is a long line of disgraced preachers falling, by themselves, one after the other.
The Apostle Paul addressed this in his letter to the Galatians writing, “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.” Galatians 6:1. The humbled, the spiritual, are the ones who have the moral high ground and can seek out the one who is failing or sinning. That spiritual person is characterised by gentleness, being conscious of what they were delivered from, and cognizant of the real risks of falling into sin.
King David understood this well. When he was caught in sin with Bathsheba he sought to fix himself first, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. Psalm 51:2,3. It is only he dealing with his sin before God that he thought that he would be able to face others over their sin. “Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.” Psalm 51:13
If we want to take the moral high ground me must be prepared to first deal with our planks.
Think on these things:
- What is (was) your moral failing or secret sin?
- Are you guilty of condemning others of the same things you are guilty of?
- Is there anyone you know that you could help by your experience of confronting your sin and getting your deliverance and victory over it?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would be diligent to search our own hearts and learn how to genuinely help others through their dark times.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex
