Jesus’s Sermon on the Plain, unlike the more well known Sermon on the Mount, contains parabolic teaching that Luke is ever ready to transmit. Look with me at the next four verses.
39 And he spoke a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? 40 The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. 41 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 42 Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.
Parabolic teaching, using stories that convey the truth you want to expound, has not been popular for a few hundred years in Western culture. Yet the most profound truths are delivered in parables. Here Jesus uses a metaphor of blind men to represent religious teachers that will not see the truth before them. How can someone follow one of these and expect to arrive at the truth himself? If your leader is not on the way of salvation, where do you think you will be led? Jesus is provoking us to think it out for ourselves because we will understand it better than merely stating it outright.
He says a person who follows a teacher cannot rise above the level of that teacher. If the person who is mentoring you in the faith is not very far along himself, how far do you suppose he can lead you in the path?
Next Jesus takes aim at those who look for other people’s faults. The Greek word that we derive the word hypocrite from means an actor in a play. Jesus is pointing out that the fault-finders are play actors trying to impress other people, when they should be serious about impressing God. No one is without a fault of their own. A few weeks ago on Facebook I posted, “I believe in fighting sin, but I don’t have to go looking for the sins of others. I have enough sin of my own to keep me busy fighting sin for a lifetime.” This is a distillation of the philosophy on sin that the desert hermits in the Fourth Century held. There is a story about one, Moses the Ethiopian, who, when asked to judge another monk for his sins, at first refused to go. Then when the elders insisted on his presence, Abba Moses took a gourd with a hole in it, filled it with water, and carried it under his arm to the place of judgment. When the elder asked him, “Abba, what is the meaning of this?” he replied, “My sins run out behind me like water, and I cannot see them, and today I am asked to judge the sins of another.” As the story goes, they forgave the brother who was in error and went back to their cells.
The intent of the act is what Jesus is talking about again. If you are trying to deflect attention from your own sins by pointing out the sins of others, you are merely acting the part, not living it. If instead you are diligently working to rid yourself of all that misses God’s mark, you won’t have time to judge others for their sins. The sin of hypocrisy is far worse than any sin you may find in another’s life. Work to be sincere in Christ, “Seek first God and His kingdom,” then you will see, as God does, that the things you would be stressing about in another are of no import compared to the sins you are ridding yourself of.
This is an echo of the same teaching Jesus gave on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel. It is important enough to Him to repeat it many times, often enough that two of the four Evangelists included it in their accounts. If it means that much to Christ, it ought to mean as much to Christians.
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