A pastor, who needs to change, on ministering to people in need of change
Matthew 7.1-12
Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 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? 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? 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. ‘Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. ‘Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
When I was teaching, it would not be uncommon, on a staff training day when no students were present, to hear someone say: ‘School would be great if it wasn’t for the kids.’
I wonder whether those of us pastors labouring in the church feel like that at times – ‘Church would be great, if it wasn’t for the people’. After all, it is the people who cause the problems, the people who complain, the people who give us sleepless nights.
They need to change!
Yet, of course, the church is the people. People like their pastors, saved by grace and yet still in need of change. Still requiring the ongoing transforming work that God does through the ministry of his Word, his providence and people. In pastoral ministry we can become acutely aware of the need for change in those we minister to. We pray for such change, and we teach and disciple to grow in godliness. Yet, equally, the discouragements of church life make it very easy to become preoccupied with the weaknesses and failures of a congregation.
At the end of Matthew 6, Jesus exhorts his followers to be those who ‘seek first the kingdom’, to be those who live with unswerving devotion to himself and an unwavering trust in the Father. How easy on the back of such a challenge to be aware of the need for change in others. Yet, as if Jesus anticipates the tendencies of our hearts, he says: ‘Do not judge…’
Jesus, of course, cannot be saying do not make any judgments whatsoever. A few verses further on he calls his disciples to be discerning about where they throw pearls. Later he warns of false teachers. At times we do need to evaluate others. But, as many commentators point out, the focus here is on a critical or judgmental spirit. We are all too familiar with this tendency. We can be so aware of certain members of our congregation failings that they immediately come to mind whenever their name is mentioned. It is such a spirit that Jesus challenges.
In verse 2 he does so by bringing eternity into view. He asks us how we want to be judged. On which scale do you wish your life to be measured on that great and awesome day? Of course, all of us will appeal on that day to be judged according to God’s grace. Like the psalmist in Psalm 25, we will cry: ‘Remember not the sins of my youth or my rebellious ways, according to your steadfast love remember me, for you O Lord are good.’ And so to the point, do we measure those we minister to by law and the ‘sins of their youth’ or by grace. Jesus is gently leading us towards the second path.
Yet how do we measure those we minister to by grace? Grace is not permissiveness, as if we say wrong does not matter. If sin is okay, we do not need grace. As Jesus continues to speak (vv. 3–12), we discover the model and the means of ministering to those in need of change by grace.
The model – humility
The parable from the carpenter’s shop (vv.3–5) teaches us that we must measure others with humility. After all, any assessment of the two individuals in the story would suggest that they have similar issues. Both have something in their eye. Both objects are made of wood. It is a reminder that we are much more like those we minister to than unlike them. The things that irritate us in others are often the very things we struggle with.
Consequently our measuring of others with grace will begin with self-evaluation that leads to repentance in our own lives. Surely this is what it means to remove the plank from one’s own eye. It is to recognise, not just theoretically but in reality, that sin, whether similar to others or unrelated, all too easily entangles our lives. Daily we are in need of forgiveness and grace. Is there a danger as ministers of deceiving ourselves that we are beyond the need for change? We are those in need of change, in need of what only grace can give.
But notice that the repentant person, Jesus says (v.5), who has experienced afresh the grace of God, is now in a position to minister to the one with the sawdust in their eye. This parable is not a command to focus on your own struggles and ignore those of others, but it warns against a critical spirit and places us, as ministers of the gospel, to be an instrument for change in the lives of others.
The parable models the gracious and humble way we should minister to others. It suggests that we should never give the impression in our ministry that we are better than others. In all Jesus’ interactions with people you never get the impression that he acted as if he was above them.
Yet a clear focus is given in what Jesus says next. For while Jesus calls us to minister with humility and grace, in verse 6 he makes it clear that this is not at the expense of truth. Grace never trashes what is sacred. It never suggests that obedience to God’s truth is optional. Liberal Christianity has for many years tried to display the tenderness of Christ while ignoring the teaching of Christ and such churches are devoured by the surrounding culture.
The means – dependency
Who is up to such a task? I often ask myself was I too soft, or too hard? Verses 7–12 remind us of the means by which we can be ministers of grace. We can only do what we should do through dependency on the Father in heaven, the chief minister of grace. These verses are all about the generosity of God, not the politeness of the asker or the sharp-sight-edness of the seeker. As we seek to measure others with grace, and minister out of grace, we need to know the grace of the Father who (v.11) gives good gifts to us ‘who are evil’ and very much in need of change.
It is the incarnate Son of God who speaks these words and that reminds us that God himself does not have a critical or judgmental spirit towards human beings, although he would has the right to. Instead God in Christ humbled himself, got down on our level (not that he had any planks in his eye to remove) and he positioned himself out of love to minister grace to us – the pigs and dogs who turned on him, offering him up to death. The gospel declares this the very means by which God measures us, not according to the sins of our youth, but according to his love. He judges our lives with mercy while acting justly to those who ask, seek, knock. Here is the source of grace by which we long to be measured and which is the means through which we can act as agents of grace to others.
The good gift
Governments wish they could emulate the vision of verse 12, that citizens would do to others what they would have done to them. Our liberal, secular society believes this can happen through legislation that allows people to be who they want to be and silences those who would judge. They pretend that specks of sawdust and planks are not really there, or even make them a virtue of modern living.
But the grace of God does something much more incredible. Grace, experienced through the good gift of the Father, not only deals with our brokenness and sin, but shapes us to act with love and grace. It creates ministers of reconciliation and peace. This is God’s work, the very work he is about today. It means that in our churches, in our ministries, Christ is at work for grace-empowered change. Because of that we can have hope that his transforming grace is at work in us and through us.
