Spiritually, We Need to be Able to See

^{NIV.Matt.7.1.}“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. ² For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

³ “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? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Today’s devotional is from an unnamed writer who we feature for the first time. The article was sourced at Posts Along the Way: Life is a Pilgrimage. Clicking the headline which follows will take you to where it first appeared.

Spiritual Blindness: A Log in the Eye

In Today’s gospel from Matthew 7:1-5, Jesus tells us not to judge others as we will be judged in the same way. He also tells us we are in no position to act as judges until we are completely free from sin (“remove the log from your own eye first, then you can remove the speck from your brother’s eye”). Since God is the only one free from sin, we really are in no position to judge anyone.

This teaching almost immediately follows Jesus’ teaching about the eye as the lamp in Mt 6:22-23: “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

I see these two teachings as directly connected to one another. Clearly, when Jesus refers to our “eye,” he is referring not to our physical eyes, but our spiritual eye, the “third eye,” the eye of the soul. This is the eye through which God communicates with us. It should remain clear and free at all times. If we are in sync with God, it will be so. However, if we see only fault in others, and judge others because they are different from us, the “log” in our eye renders us blind, and we see only darkness. We see darkness because we refuse to see the light in people – we see only darkness, and we are cursed with that same darkness we put upon others.

In the context of these two teachings, it seems that the “log” teaching should have come first, since it is the log created by judgment, hatred, jealousy, anger, and a host of other sins that build that log, and it is the log that blinds the eye and causes darkness. In other words, when we see through a lens of hatred and animosity toward others, our eye becomes darkened and we become so blind, we can see only hatred. Hatred separates us from God, which increases the darkness ten fold. If, however, we see through a lens of love, mercy, kindness, and empathy, we are in full communion with God, like Jesus, and our eye remains clear.

Jesus tells us we will be judged by the same judgment we give out. Doesn’t it make sense, then, that if we give out hatred and judgment toward others, we condemn ourselves to the same? Like a boomerang effect, our judgment comes back at us and blinds us. Our blocked eye cannot see God, so we condemn ourselves through judging others.

When we judge our neighbors rather than loving them, we also judge God. Why? Because we are judging a person God has made in God’s own image. When we refuse to see the good in others, we refuse to see God. We are blind through our own doing, and the blindness creates a darkness in our soul that feeds and grows until the whole body is dark.

If, however, we see one another as an image of God, if we look at someone, especially someone different from us, and see God in them, our eye is open, clear, focused. Judging people through an eye blinded by hatred or prejudice is like yelling into a dark cavern – our judgments are echoed back to us multiplied, and our eye becomes even darker, our separation from God greater. As Jesus says, “how great is the darkness”!

All we need to do remove the log, to see again, is to let in the light by embracing God’s love for all. Know that God has all in hand, and we are not to act as judges against our brothers and sisters, especially not out of hatred, prejudice, bigotry, or anger. Once we remove the log, the light gets in and opens us to life with God and communion with others. We begin to care for one another. We gather community. We sow peace. Remove the log – it is a creation of the Evil One, anyway. Remove the log. Clear the eye. Open to God’s love.

Once we open to God’s love, remove the log, and allow God to clear the darkness from our eye, we may just find that the speck we saw in another’s eye wasn’t really there at all. It was only that, in our blindness, the speck we saw in our neighbor’s eye was actually merely a small reflection of the log in our own.