“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?”
Matthew 7:3 (NIV)
Let’s face it. Jesus wouldn’t have been a very interesting person to follow if he didn’t throw a little humor around every now and then. I think that when we read the words of Jesus we have a tendency to always hear Him, in our minds, with a stoic or serious tone. We tend to hear Him as the professor who teaches his class with intensity all the time. When you stop and realize that Jesus was indeed all God and all human at the same time, though, you realize that He certainly did have some comedic timing. Matthew 7:3 is the perfect example of this. Yes, He was trying to drive a point home, but He also wanted to make sure people weren’t falling asleep to droning. Imagine it for a moment. Jesus has a rather decent audience around Him. In a calm but authoritative voice He starts His teaching. “Do not judge, or you 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.” (7:1) He pauses and lets everyone soak up the thought, and ponder one of the many Proverbs that He is speaking of when bringing up being measured. Then at just the right moment as everyone is staring at Him waiting for Him to continue, Jesus lets out a little grin and says with a little jeer in His voice, “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?” Everyone lets out a little chuckle and the point is made through a ridiculous example.
I know I, for one, have always taken Jesus way too literally. I spent a long time thinking, wow this guy is intense, but I think my understanding has been far too serious. Don’t get me wrong. Jesus being on Earth teaching his people was serious business, but don’t, for a second, think that God came down to Earth just to be all fire and brimstone; intense and overbearing. He came down to Earth through Jesus Christ to embrace living with His creation to the fullest extent. He came down to show love. He came down to show grace. He came down to have a few good laughs while admiring – from the ground level – His greatest creations. I didn’t really have a message pertaining to the specific verse today. Obviously, I have driven my point home in previous posts. Jesus calls us to not judge. I could dive into the actual Proverbs that he was on about. I could get up on a soap box and bemoan the injustices of judging others, but that is not the point of this text today. Today I think it is important to remember that Jesus was God in human form. Jesus came to teach, but also to love, and God got to spend joyful time, even when teaching, with his creation. For me, at least, that brings a smile to my face. There is something so much more comforting knowing that Jesus knew how to teach with a comedic twist.
Imperfect Faith 