Judging Others

Matthew 7:1-5 (New International Version)

1"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For 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? 4How 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? 5You 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.

There is a story told about two farmers in Tennessee (my home state, of course). It seems these farmers were walking together in one of their fields, when an angry bull suddenly appeared and began to chase them.

The farmers--not being foolish, realized they were not going to be able to out run the bull, so they wisely split up so at least one of them (presumably the fastest) would be safe.

As luck would have it as the bull chased one of the farmers, he came upon a tree and safely climbed out of the angry bulls reach.

The bull, still raging mad, whipped around and spied the other farmer as he was headed toward a hill in the distance. The bull immediately headed for the frightened farmer, but once again as luck would have it, the winded, frazzled farmer spied a small cave and dove into it just before the bull could reach him.

The enraged bull snorted, pawed the ground and headed back to the tree, looking up at the farmer he could still see. Suddenly the other farmer came racing out of the cave toward the bull. This distracted the bull, and he chased the farmer back to the cave, just missing him as he once again dove into the cave.

The bull returned to the tree, bellowing in anger at the farmer in the tree. To that farmers amazement, the other farmer again raced out of the safety of the cave toward the furious bull. With disbelief he watched the bull chase the farmer toward the cave. He was overcome with gratitude for the other farmer trying to give him a chance to escape--but he knew he wasn't going anywhere until the bull was long gone.

The farmer in the tree thought it might be good to give his friend some timely advice. As the other farmer dove for the cave once again, the farmer in the tree yelled, "You know, if I were you and I knew that bull was out here, I would stay in that cave!"

As the other farmer made a desperate leap into the cave he yelled back, "And if you were me you would know there is a bear in that cave!"

Now as with most stories like this, there is a moral to this story. The moral is that it is easy to sit safely up in a tree and make judgements about other peoples lives and actions. The trouble is, that usually information is limited. You have not lived their lives, walked in their shoes nor understand their situation. But somehow you feel that self-righteous duty to pass judgement on our fellow humans.

Perhaps in the future--it would be wise to remember the words of Matthew in the 7th chapter above, and always remember there could be a bear in the cave we do not know about.

Have a blessed day!