He also told them a parable: ‘Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher. Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbour, “Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye”, when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye.
‘No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.
‘Why do you call me “Lord, Lord”, and do not do what I tell you? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house.’ Luke 6:39-49
Haven’t we all met people who try to correct our faults while being blissfully unaware of their own! And (while we’re being honest) haven’t we done just the same thing to others? Trying to correct someone else’s flaws while not understanding our own shows a real lack of self-awareness. We’ve all done it, and Jesus’ words here about dealing with specks and logs in the eye (the Gospel reading for this coming Sunday) show us that it’s obviously not just a modern problem. The thing is, we can’t reform others without first undergoing some major reforming of our own – which is rather a pity, because it’s so easy to come up with a bunch of good ideas about how everyone else needs to live their lives.
Seriously, this is about how followers of Jesus should behave towards others within the community of faith – and behaviour is linked to character. Who we are is revealed by what we do or (as Jesus put it) we can tell what sort of tree we are by the sort of fruit we get. I’ve discovered how true this is since shifting house last year: a random tree in the back garden – trunk, branches, smallish leaves – turns out to be about to give us a large harvest of feijoas. If we are disciples (students) of Jesus, our behaviour needs to be modelled on his. That’s what will help us give good fruit and demonstrate what sort of character we have. And it makes sense that if we’re really listening to Jesus we’ll act on his words, making them the foundation of our lives.
Maybe we’re too familiar with the destructive power of floods and earthquakes to enjoy Jesus’ closing image of the person who builds a house without first digging decent foundations. If ever there was something that should resonate with us this is probably it. But the problem is we can’t get past the picture – after all, in some parts of Waiapu we’re still recovering from Cyclone Gabrielle – so we can lose track of the point Jesus was making. Let’s focus on the question that lies behind his words: how are we living? And how are we treating one another?
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