I recently came across a great line: “Every Olympic event should have an average person competing for reference.” I am not sure who said it originally, but it is brilliant. First off, it’s funny. I can only imagine what it would be like to race against world class athletes as an out of shape, middle-aged man. More importantly, there is an edge of truth to the idea. Comparing the elite to the average makes it clear what is really going on in the race. I may brag that I can outrun my neighbor, but only because I am not talking about racing Jesse Owens or Usain Bolt. At the end of the day, my best on the track isn’t particularly good. I can only make it seem good by comparing myself to people who are worse than me. I believe this is the reasoning behind Jesus’ repeated admonitions against judging our neighbors. Several times in his teachings, Jesus warns against judging your neighbor or picking sawdust out of your neighbors eye while ignoring the log in your own. In context, Jesus was talking to people who were “okay” in their outward behaviors for the most part, but puffed up as though they were elite superstars of the moral world. Mind you, I don’t think this is an unusual pattern of behavior reserved specifically for religious hypocrites. Most folks, when looking at their own behavior, positive or negative, tend to compare themselves to those who don’t stack up well. If my sin of choice is greed, it’s much harder to admit that I am greedy than to compare myself to the billionaire CEO who raised the price of a life saving Epipen by 550% purely out of profit motive. Very few people who are considering their own greed/generosity traits point to Mother Theresa as the standard for their own behavior. It’s easier to point out that we are better than wicked people than to try to be more righteous ourselves. Gossiping over another’s shortcomings is far easier than confessing our own. When Jesus teaches us not to judge, he is pushing us to recognize our own faults rather than to ignore all of the brokenness in the world. The major change that takes place in the heart of a person who truly deals with their own sin is simple: humility. Humility and its sibling empathy are missing when we point to other’s sins as the measure by which we proclaim ourselves righteous. Humility causes us to look at the sins of others and say, “I’ve been there” or, “I’ve done that and worse.” A crazy thing I learned years ago while climbing out of the ditch of my own moral failures is that the sins of others work better as a mirror for our own lives rather than as a target for our judgement. When I can look at the other guy and consider my own sin, I am challenged to be better myself and to lovingly walk with the other guy as he does the same. Ultimately, when it comes to comparing our own moral uprightness, the standard the Bible tells us to use is Jesus himself. When we look to him we find a model to strive for, rather than a lesser man to declare ourselves superior.
There’s an important disclaimer I need to include here: It’s easy to read the preceding ideas and use them as an excuse to heap condemnation and shame onto ourselves. In truth, the proper understanding of the teachings of Jesus includes understanding that we are all sinful and constantly fail morally. God, realizing this and out of love for us, sent Jesus to live perfect and take punishment for our sins in our place. When God saw Jesus on the cross, He beheld our lust, greed, envy, and every other sin. God punished Jesus for our sins. When God looks at those who follow Jesus, He sees Jesus’ goodness. It’s like we switched permanent records. For a Christian, self-superiority is madness, because everything that is good within us is a result of His gift of a clean slate. We didn’t do anything to deserve it.
