Matthew 7:1-11

We measure things all the time.

We commonly use rulers and tape measures and

scales to get a proper reading for some property of an object we want to know more

about.

We almost can’t help ourselves when we measure things. We always want to know

how big something is or how heavy something is. We use height and weight and oth-

er things to be able to understand what something even is.

But what if there is a problem with the way in which we measure something?

What if the tool we use to measure with is broken? What if it doesn’t measure properly anymore?

We want to measure but we cannot always be assured that we measure properly.

There is a problem in between what we measure and how we measure.

We can see how this is important in terms of height or weight, but why does how we measure matter elsewhere?

In the same way we love measuring height, we love to measure worth. We love to assess the value of something or someone else based on how we measure. We all have versions of what is right, what is wrong, what we want to be right, what we want to be wrong, and sometimes we get those mixed up.

Sometimes we pick up the wrong measuring device, or a broken measuring device and pronounce judgements on something based on a broken way of seeing it. We judge. But we don’t do so with good intent, or proper assessment. We do it to make ourselves feel better.

We use broken measurement to help elevate ourselves using the other person as a footstool.

Why does it matter in the first place that we talk about measuring?

Because measuring wrong can be detrimental to you and your relationships

IF we measure wrong, we can get hurt. Have you ever bought a new pair of shoes

that are too small? You measured wrong? You may be able to get them on but it

smooshes your feet? You can walk but you limp? If you measure wrong it is easy to

hurt yourself in the long run.

If we measure wrong we can hurt others. We might be driving and we can measure that we can take a turn before the other oncoming car gets to us, and we turn but

we didn’t measure properly and the car runs into our drivers side door. A wrong measurement can hurt others.

We need better measurement. Jesus is our clear measure for life.

we are not likely measuring consistently or accurately. And we are going to find that coming to Him and understanding our lives through the work of Christ is the most appropriate and consistent measurement we can find.

Matthew 7:3–4 ESV

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?

Notice what Jesus is saying here. He is not saying that you have something incredibly wrong with you. He is not saying that everything is your fault. He is not saying that you are guilty and the other person is innocent. He is adjusting our measurement.

Jesus is saying we have an issue with proportion.

He is saying that we easily find someone else’s issue and try and take care of it for them.

That we look to the stuff in someone else’s lives before our own.

We love doing that.

Why?

Because it’s way easier pointing out the messy stuff in someone else. When we do that we feel better about our lives. And for a moment we can ignore what we are dealing with. But Jesus is adjusting how we measure.

It is not that the speck is not there, not that they do not have fault. But the issue is

that you do not have perspective to take it out.

We are going to see the call to care for another person through restoring them back to Christ.

That our role is reconciliation and that does mean working on taking out the specks in each others eyes. But it primarily means taking the log out in our own.

What we have to understand here is that the work of the Gospel, the reconciling work of Jesus, is not always for the other person. It is primarily for you.

If we don’t spend our time working out the log in our eye we will disproportionately react to things that are not involved in the issue. We will not be able to see clearly to address the issue.

Seeing clearly is hard work because we rarely have an accurate picture of what is really happening. Last week I went to the optometrist for an eye exam. He did all sorts of measurements and then dialated my eyes toward the end of the exam. He asked if I wanted sunglasses to walk to my car but I said I was fine.

It was a bright and sunny day and I left the dr office and headed outside to my car. As soon as I got into the parking lot I literally had to shield my eyes. For a moment I thought as I was blidnly finding my way to the car, that it was really sunny out.

It was not any more sunny out than it was when I went in. My eyes had changed. I was blaming the sun for something that was wrong with me.

It is so easy to do this. We think the problem is everyone else but really the issue is that we cannot see correctly. Jesus addresses this.

We are Called to See Clearly

Matthew 7:5 ESV

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

The command is to take the log out of your eye. What Jesus is getting at is that it is imperative that we see clearly. The concept of seeing clearly is important in the SOTM.

Because seeing clearly helps us to see what is important.

Good vision in order to utilize good action.

We will get to the results of good action but we need to first talk about what it means to remove the log from your eye.

Jesus is saying that we cannot see past what is directly in front of us. What is in front of us is what is the most important to us.

And this isn’t just stuff around you that you find important. This is stuff you find so important you will curse the sun because obviously the problem is with it and not with you.

The log in our eyes is whatever we find more valuable than the King of the entire forest.

And when we find the log in our eye the most perfect, the most distinct, the most valuable, we can easily treat everything else as lesser than. Because nothing is like the value of having that thing you want.

Jesus is calling us to deal with that. Because the thing we have sold ourselves as the best thing is really only making us blind. It is not offering us the life we thought we would get.

A job

Or a hobby

Or a relationship

Security

Significance.

We have these ideas of the ROI on these things. That we will get a great return on our investment. But the return is often that it just makes us blind. We end up only being able to see how people either help you get that thing or keep you from getting that thing. Everything else is an enemy.

This is why addiction is so difficult. Because eventually everyone is just an enemy.

An enemy that threatens that which is most important in us, an idol. The log in our eye is often the idol of our heart.

The Log in our eye is often an idol in our heart

We have to get the log out of our eye. We cannot keep up with the demands that an idol makes of us. Eventually we will make everyone an enemy. Whatever is closest to us (the log in our eye) will get the most attention and credit.

What is that for you? What has the priority of your attention right now?

What is the thing, if threatened, will cause the most reaction in your life?

It does not have to be sin. It may even be good. But we are endlessly creative and

will stick all sorts of things in our eyes.

Whatever it is, it is not helping you to see that close.

Allow the Lord to unstick the log in your eye

Once we know what it is, we have to take it to the Lord. Give it to Him. Allow Him

to begin to unstick it in your life. But He has also given us the church. Share that will

someone else. Bring it into the light.

Start with Confession

The only way to unroot it, to unstick it is to do the hard work of sharing that bur-

den with someone.

The work of confessing to God and sharing it with a

Christian brother or sister is good work. Then when you get the log out, don’t put it

back in your eye. Do whatever you can to keep it out.

Once the log is out, you can see. Jesus calls us in this place to take the speck out .

I took my kids hiking a few weeks ago. It was an overnight trip in new hampshire. We hiked about 15 miles in two days, following a specific trail. The trail was well marked in a number of places, on trees, on rocks, on signs.

There were a couple of times in our hike where we got a little lost. We ended up on a wrong trail. And the only way to figure out how to get back was to backtrack to the last yellow sign we had seen. So we walked back. We found the sign and then went on our way.

This is confession. To realize that we are not on the right trail. And the work of confession is to walk back to find the last marker. Christ leads us in this. This is the work of seeing clearly.

Measure twice cut once: Be careful on how we judge

This passage is a warning to be careful how we judge. Because we usually can’t see and

we think that we have 20/20 vision. Let’s look at the first part of the passage

Matthew 7:1–2 ESV

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

Jesus is not saying don’t judge at all.

Or that you are called to be the judge.

He is saying that judgement is not a small deal. It is a heavy responsibility and we should not take it lightly.

The way that we treat judgement is often like getting behind the wheel of a forklift

and telling everyone that we can drive it perfectly even though we have never driven

one. I know exactly what’s going on. Judgement makes easy promises.

And I promise, you don’t. I don’t. And so Jesus warns us of how we use judge-

ment.

He first tells us not to bring the judgement of condemnation.

Judgement is fixed. Be careful how you judge

But we love using our words to condemn. To state that something is the way that it is or that person is the way that they are. That there is no change available.

We often judge to pronounce a fixed and permanent state on someone. That is just the way that they are. They cannot change. That is judgement. That we have seen an individual’s life and they will not change.

The only reason you and I are here right now is because that statement is utterly untrue.

We condemn others as that which is unfixable while ironically proclaiming the

ever changing grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We have to understand that judgement is not something we can wield easily or

quickly. And we usually have something in the way.

We have to allow Christ, who can see better than we can, to actually understand

the situation more clearly and do something about it.

Even Jesus is withholding judgement until the last days. Even Christ is saying, let’s

see how this goes.

2 Peter 3:8–9 ESV

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Even the metaphor that Jesus uses log and speck can both be removed. There is nothing that is so fixed that heaven cannot remove it

So we want to agree with the reconciling work that Jesus does. And we agree with

that through how we live and how we speak.

We often think of judging as drawing lines in the sand, so to speak. That We say

this far and no further. We draw lines between us and another. OR more detrimentally,

we draw lines between others and God.

Maybe instead of drawing a line between others and God we have to think of

what Jesus is talking about here is not condemnation but rather amendment of the

other. That it is not a line in the sand but it is a line that helps to show the way. It is an

8arrow not a barrier. Go this way. To respond to what Jesus is calling us to do is to not

draw barriers but to draw arrows.

We direct, we guide. IF we see clearly through our

logless eyes, we can use our words and actions to draw lines.

Here is what life looks like! Here is where to find it! We direct, we guide, we navi-

gate.

That is the fullest sense of our lives and work. We point to Christ who is the life giver.

Who is the log remover, the sight restorer. We come to Him and instead of building

walls between us and others and God, we draw arrows.

Our best bet this morning, with clear eyes, able to see, is to point to the only One capable of judging but who offers grace. Use your clear vision to help people amend, to point, to orient to Christ.

Our judgements are at best, temporarily clear. The role of the church and the Christian is to be able to understand how hard this is and to instead of drawing lines in the sand, draw arrows that ultimately lead to Jesus.

LEt’s celebrate communion, a giant and enduring arrow that leads us to Christ.