Yesterday morning, Libby came upstairs and asked me to go to her bedroom with her to check out what was scratching at her window. On the way down the stairs, we discussed the possibilities and the only thing we could think of was that a mouse had dropped down into the window well and was trying to get out.
I slowly pulled up the blinds and, sure enough, there was a little brown mouse furiously scratching at Libby’s window. I tapped back on the window and said, “Go away! You cannot come in my house!” The mouse ran across the window well, trying in several different spots to climb out of this huge hole it had fallen into and then came running back to the window as if to say, “Any other bright ideas? Don’t you think I have tried to get out another way?” (Talking mice. Yes, I have definitely watched too much Disney in my lifetime.)
This came back to me this morning as I was reading Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. How often do we see the situation someone else is in and wonder why they are not doing something to get themselves out? Why is it that we come up with solutions to other peoples’ problems so much easier than we come up with solutions of our own? When it is someone else who has gotten themselves into a situation, the solution seems so easy and obvious.
“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.
“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your own eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye” (Matthew 7:1-5).
Jesus is not saying here that we should not help each other; that we should only worry about ourselves. He is commanding us to stop judging each other for the help that we need. We need to first examine our own situations. When we do this, we will most likely see that we, too, are not perfect. We make mistakes and get ourselves into situations we should not be in, just like others around us.
The messages of Jesus are consistent with the idea that we reach out and help those around us, loving them the way we would want to be loved (there’s that Golden Rule again). Jesus is not saying to ignore the single woman with three kids because “she should have known better than to marry that guy.” Jesus is not saying to criticize the parents whose kids are out of control because “this would not be happening if they had just made them obey when they were younger.” The list goes on and on. The answer to all situations is that Jesus wants us to reach out in love to one another, not sit in judgment of each other.
At the beginning of the week, we looked at the Sermon on the Mount from Luke’s gospel. Let’s look again at how he retold this portion of Jesus’ sermon.
“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”
Then Jesus gave the following illustration: “Can one blind person lead another? Won’t they both fall into a ditch? Students are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher.
“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying, ‘Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.
“A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart” (Luke 6:37-45).
“What you say flows from what is in your heart.” What we say about other people flows from what is in our heart. A good person produces good things from their heart, an evil person produces evil things. This is good to remember next time I am in the mood to gossip or to say something critical about someone else.
Lord, please forgive me for the evil things that have spilled out of my mouth. Forgive me for my criticisms of others. Lord, my desire is to help others. Please take this log out of my own eye so that I can reach out to others with a pure heart. Amen.
Just in case you were just dying to hear the rest of the mouse story…After school, Libby and her cousin Brittany climbed down into the egress window, scooped the mouse into a trash can (with much squealing and laughter), and then drove the little guy to a nearby forest. They named him “Pepper” and videotaped his release back into the wild. All is good and quiet again this morning at the Sherwood household:)