I fear that we are living in a land of hypocrites. Everyone is passing judgement, but no one is seeing clearly. Jesus warned of those who can readily discern the sins of others, but fail to discern their own sins.
Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is 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 brother’s eye (Matthew 7:3-5).
I fear that we are all – right and left, liberal and conservative – blinded by the spirit of this present age. The specks and logs in our eyes distort our vision. We are stumbling around like bumbling fools while claiming to speak prophetically.
Like the Pharisees, we are experts at using scripture to justify our political traditions and scandalize our opponents (Mark 7:9). For those on the left, Donald Trump is a racist tyrant. For those on the right Nancy Pelosi is the embodiment of Jezebel. Why can we not see that we have all been corrupted by the spirits of darkness? Why can we not discern the toxicity of American politics – right and left?
Like the Pharisees, we have become blind guides of the blind, venerating white-washed tombs. We have substituted socio-political rhetoric for the language of the Gospel of Christ. We seek a reckoning rather than reconciliation, revolution rather than restoration, and identity politics rather than unity.
In rebuking the Pharisees, Jesus has told us the most important aspects of God’s law – justice and mercy and faithfulness (Matthew 23:23). But, in our blindness we have distorted these. We desire justice without mercy which leads to the legalism of a cancel culture (on the left) and the demonization of immigrants (on the right). We desire mercy without faithfulness which leads to licentiousness – every person does what is right in their own eyes. In the end, we are faithful only to our distorted vision of a corrupt world.
In truth, there can be no justice without mercy, and both depend upon a single-minded faithfulness to God. So, I pray that Jesus will confront us in our blindness, that he will spit on the ground and make mud with his saliva, then rub it firmly into our eyes so that we may be healed of our blindness and see that He is the Light of the World! (John 9:1-7). Only then can we rightly discern our sinfulness and then we will seek justice, mercy, and faithfulness.
