Luke 6: 41- 42 The Splinter.

Luke 6: 41- 42 The Splinter.

“Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own? How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,' when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother's eye.”

The second short parable Jesus tells is about removing the plank in our eye. Why look at others’ troubles and judge them? Why try to busy yourself with their issues when you have your own problems? Begin with yourself, Jesus says, with your own spiritual improvements. It is a peculiarity of human nature that we find it easier to judge others than to judge ourselves. Why is that? Our ego or pride gets in the way. We want to believe we are better than others. I think this is especially true where religions are concerned. How does God see us? He sees us all as who we could be - our best selves – and loves us for trying to achieve that and forgives us for the times we fail. Just a few days ago we heard about God’s capacity to love even the wicked and the ungrateful. God loves us even though we have a plank in our eye. He wants us to remove it, then to help others, but always without judgment and with compassion.

One final note: I can’t but help noticing how negative Christ feels about hypocrites – those who accuse others of what they themselves do or fail to do. Again we see that warning against blindness, judgment, lack of compassion. In contrast we see Jesus as humble and generous and loving, our ultimate example, our ultimate model.