Matthew 7

One Christmas in Kananaskis

Matthew 7

This chapter continues the “do this, but not that” series of admonitions, beginning with “Do not judge, or you too will be judged,” a much quoted verse in a day when fine points of doctrine are in dispute. Fortunately, the following verses add nuances to what Jesus is reported to have said here, or much of our “discernment” about the right/wrong/innocuous nature of day to day events would be rendered moot.

      Speaking to a prayer breakfast once upon a time, I used this text as foundation for a caution that we ought to rethink blanket pronouncements on the universal dishonesty of politicians, claiming I'd known one or two personally who would be falsely judged under such a general condemnation. The response from one attendee was that we can't ever make distinctions between right and wrong except we exercise judgement.

      Something cries for clarification here.

      Verse 2 provides a nuanced version: For in the same way you judge, you will be judged,” and goes on to say that the measuring stick you use to judge others will eventually be used to judge you.

So what measuring stick do we use to judge the actions of others?        

     Most recently we've been impaled on the horns of a judgement dilemma in Mennonite circles: Is a married, same-sex Christian couple eligible for inclusion in the worship and work of the church, or does their unique situation automatically exclude them because their union doesn't fit with our confession of faith, nor does it seem to conform to the opinion of the church fathers in the Bible, including the writers of the Gospels? By whatever “stick” we measure when we reach our judgement, that will be the measure by which our conclusion on the matter will be judged. Some will judge by the written words, deductively applying their understanding of the "what's been written" as their measuring stick. Others will continue to contend that in a changing time and with changing knowledge, it's the bearing of fruit, the forgoing of judgement "lest we be judged," the unconditionality of our love that is the proper measuring stick. It ain't always a slam dunk.

      And then comes the added caution: don't judge others unless you've first looked to your own healing, have made your own confessions, removed the plank from your own eye before seeking to extract the sliver from someone else. It's basically a posture for being helpful, for equipping yourself to be a healing force around the sliver-in-the-eye sufferers. This seems to be a preparation that will prove constructive as well as up-building to both parties.

      But this sermon of Jesus' crosses a number of topics: be persistent seekers, is one; answers will be found by those who don't give up. The God whom you petition is not the kind that gives stones when bread is requested; retain your confidence in what I'm telling you here; the fruit will grow only on trees that remain strong and faithful.

      And after all this comes what could be called the “clincher,” the zusammen fassen zum schluss (the summary in conclusion). “But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.”

The Sermon on the Mount was not just a filler between the hymns and the offering and the benediction, it was delivered and recorded by Matthew to provide us with a template for life in a kingdom that would thrive while all around was in decay. In its content, it carries the seeds for communities of faith that actually work, that thrive and continue to bless the world around them.

      “When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”

      Ironically, there is no series of instructions here about how to build a church; the foremost thrust of the Sermon on the Mount recognizes that we are, in the end, not people of religion, but people of family, people of neighbourhood, people of community. It's so unfortunate that we substitute the promising essence of Christian communion with religion, with liturgy, tradition, convention and with written-down confessions, by-laws and orders of worship that bind when the Sermon on the Mount seeks so clearly to cut the cords that tie us down.