Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets

 

 "Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.  And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye?  Hypocrite!  First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.  

 

"Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!  Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."

 

- Matthew 7:1-12 

 

We are presently reading through the Sermon on the Mount.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus taught:  "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?  So why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow:  they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." 

 

"Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.  And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye?  Hypocrite!  First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."  My study Bible comments here that we will be judged with our own level of judgment because we are guilty of the things we judge in others (Romans 2:1).  We ourselves also have failed in repentance and in fleeing from sin.  To pass judgment is to assume God's authority.  The second part of this verse is found in Mark 4:24 and in Luke 6:38, each in a different context; no doubt Christ repeated this particular message many times.  It teaches us, also, how basic this concept is to our faith and our lives.  There is yet another important message here, and that is the means whereby we seek to clarify our own perceptions, to cleanse ourselves of false beliefs and values through repentance, and whether or not we have practiced our own spiritual learning and discipline in order to properly help others.  For without the discernment that only comes from one's own experience of repentance and spiritual growth, one fails to perceive clearly or properly.

 

 "Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces."  My study Bible explains that while dogs and swine would refer to heathen peoples in the context of the time (Philippians 3:2, Revelation 22:15), they also would include Jews who do not practice virtue.  According to patristic literature, "dogs" are those people who are so immersed in evil that they show no hope of change, while "swine" are those who habitually live immoral and impure lives.  Of course through continual evil behavior, this is possible for any one of us.  The pearls are the inner mysteries of the Christian faith, which includes Christ's teachings (Matthew 13:46) and the great sacraments.  These holy things are restricted from the immoral and unrepentant, my study Bible explains, not to protect the holy things themselves, for Christ needs no protection.  Rather, we protect the faithless people from the condemnation that would result from holding God's mysteries in contempt. 

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"  My study Bible points out that the verbs ask, seek, and knock are, in the Greek of the Gospel, present progressives.  In other words, Jesus is saying we are to "be asking," "be seeking," and "be knocking."  It asks us to note the synergy:  our effort is commanded, but never apart from the immediate help of God.  We ask in prayer; we seek by learning God's truth; and we knock by doing God's will.  Human beings are called evil here not in order to condemn all of us, but to contrast the imperfect goodness in people (our goodness is also mingled with sin - fallibility and imperfection), with God's perfect goodness (see Matthew 19:16-17).  My study Bible comments that if imperfect and even wicked people can do some good, all the more will God work perfect good.

 

"Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."  This is the "Golden Rule" which fulfills the demands of the Law and the Prophets.  It is also the practical application of the commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself (Matthew 22:39-40).  My study Bible says it is a first step in spiritual growth.  The negative form of the Golden Rule ("Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you") was well-known in Judaism.  Jesus' form here is positive:  this is the action that begins to draw us toward God (see Luke 6:31).

My study Bible calls the Golden Rule ("Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets") the first step in the road toward God.  That is, when we simply begin to consider treating others as we'd like to be treated, we are making a first start on Christ's road of perfection, of being His disciples.  I daresay there are times when we'll find, in this practice, that there are others who don't like being treated as we'd like to be treated (that is, they don't necessarily want the same things from others that we do), but this becomes part of the learning curve of spiritual discernment and proper boundaries.  It is part of the learning curve of discipleship, even of how to deal with those who don't love or appreciate or treasure the "pearls" that we do.  Nonetheless, that very basic understanding of proper respect for other human beings becomes a first step in the journey of discipleship; it sets out a sense of what we might call boundaries, and lays down a foundation of how we approach Christ and neighbor.  It will teach us also that there are limits to what "doing good" means; what is good to us is not necessarily what others think of as good.  Moreover, it is the first step to discerning those who do not wish to receive the "pearls" which God has given to us.  On another level, it is important to understand that the road to Christ is the long learning curve of love.  What is good for people, what they truly need, may vary from person to person.  Sometimes love asks us to let go; sometimes love is reaching out.  Sometimes love means having to say "no" to what another person wants from us.  All of these things are integral to the spiritual life of discernment, the level of discipleship we have integrated and towards which we wish to move.  Jesus says earlier in today's reading, "First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."  He emphasizes that it is this spiritual experience, this discipleship journey, that makes us qualified to even begin to help another:  not only to recognize the "speck" in another's way of perceiving, but even to understand our own difficulties in perceiving and doing away with the flaws in our ways of seeing, the places where we are blind.  In terms of how we treat others and the Golden Rule, the more blind we are in our own way, the more we seem to project our flaws onto others, and fail to see where we also need change and repentance.  The things we fail to see about ourselves on this road of discipleship become the places where we fail to "change our minds" in repentance, and so to correct our own spiritual sight.  In the midst of all of this, Jesus promises great help:  "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."  We do not do spiritual seeking on our own; the level of change we need is one that is addressed through asking, seeking and knocking.  It is through a life of prayer that God can help us to know our way; this is not a journey that we judge nor undertake ourselves.   It is only God's love -- and the help of Father, Son, and Spirit and the saints and angels with whom we pray -- that can lead us on this journey, teach us, guide us, refine us, and help us to know what we need to cast away.  And this is where real discernment comes in, when we realize our dependency upon God, and that we cannot undertake this journey without the practices of our faith and the loving hand of the Helper (and other helpers) always there, and the communion we find in the great cloud of witnesses, both seen and unseen, by which we are always surrounded.   We are taught to "judge not, that you be not judged.  For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you."   It's only with God's help that we can seek good judgment, and discernment -- for everything begins with the Golden Rule.

Our Father in heaven

 Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples."  So He said to them, "When you pray, say:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us day by day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one." 

And He said to them, "Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and he will answer from within and say, 'Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you'?  I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.

"So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  If a son asks for bread from any father among you,  will he give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?  Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"

- Luke 11:1-13

Yesterday we read that Jesus entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.  And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word.  But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?  Therefore tell her to help me."  And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.  But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her."

 Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples."   My study bible comments that the request, "Teach us to pray," expresses a universal longing to be in communion with God.

He said to them, "When you pray, say:  Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name."  The first words of the prayer establish the Father/son relationship for us that is a reflection of the Father/Son relationship within the Trinity.  That is, just as Christ is Son, so we each, male and female, have the capacity for sonship (and therefore to be heirs) of this Kingdom.  My study bible says that Christ, the Son of God, grants us the privilege of calling God Our Father by the grace of adoption (Galatians 4:4-7).  It notes that as a "son of God," the Christian is called to love, trust, and serve God as Christ does the Father.  This is a saving and personal relationship, a communion that only comes by the grace of adoption (see John 1:13; Romans 8:14-16).  Hallowed means "holy," while Your name indicates the presence of God which extends throughout God's kingdom and all that may belong to it, similar to anything which bore the seal of the Emperor.

"Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  This second line of the prayer establishes what we pray for:  that the presence and reality of God's kingdom be manifest on earth as it is in heaven, which fully includes God's will.

"Give us day by day our daily bread."  Daily is a misleading translation.  In Greek, the word here is epiousios, a special word found only in the Gospels and in the Lord's Prayer alone.  It means literally "above the essence" or "supersubstantial."  That is, a kind of bread that contains more than simply bread.  My study bible says that the expression daily bread indicates not merely bread for this day, for earthly nourishment.  Rather it is the bread for the eternal day of the Kingdom of God, for the nourishment of our immortal soul.  The living, supersubstantial bread is Christ Himself.  So, in this prayer, Christ directs us to ask not only for material bread for physical health, but for the spiritual bread for eternal life (John 6:27-58).   We ask to be nourished with the bread that nourishes us as members this heavenly Kingdom manifest on earth.

"And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us."  Sins and debts are interchangeable as concepts; these are spiritual debts (see Matthew 18:21-35).  My study bible makes note that the request to be forgiven is plural, which directs us to pray always for the forgiveness of others.

"And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."   God does not tempt anyone to sin (James 1:13).  Temptations are from the evil one, the devil.  My study bible explains that temptations are aimed at the soul's giving in to the sinful passions of the flesh (Romans 7:5).  No one lives without encountering temptations, but here we pray that great temptations; that is, tests beyond what we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13), should not come to us.  We pray also for deliverance from the evil one.  In Christ's role as Redeemer, He is also Liberator and Deliverer.  We pray for our true spiritual freedom.

And He said to them, "Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and he will answer from within and say, 'Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you'?  I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs."   Here is a parable given by Jesus to illustrate God's faithfulness to those who are in need and who pray with persistence.  A patristic interpretation of midnight is the time of our death and also one of great temptation.  The friend is Christ; He is our only source of grace, and therefore provides everything we need. 

"So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  If a son asks for bread from any father among you,  will he give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?  Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"  My study bible points out that the Greek verbs translated ask, seek, and knock indicate a continuing action.  They would be better translated as "keep asking," "keep seeking," and "keep knocking."  It notes that God responds to us when we persistently ask for things that are good.  Bread, fish, and an egg are images of life.  They symbolize the gift of the Holy Spirit (see John 14:13-14; James 4:3). 

Jesus guides us to persistent, consistent prayer.  St. Paul teaches that we should pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).  In the Lord's Prayer, or the Our Father, we are given Christ's prayer for us, explicitly in response to the request from His followers.  It is, in some sense, therefore, the perfect prayer, and one central to worship services.  Its framework gives us an understanding of Christ's mission, and our own place as faithful.  We pray to our Father in heaven, and it is a prayer for the full manifestation of His heavenly kingdom in this, our world.  We do our part as well in this plan, by forgiveness, an exchange, understood as the forgiveness of debt.  We ask for the supersubstantial bread that feeds us not only for our own health, but for life in this Kingdom.  We pray that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  It gives us an orientation of where we are and who we are, and the activities and energies in which we are directly participating as sons and heirs by adoption.  Moreover, Jesus gives us the direction of continual and persistent prayer.  Participation and communion in this Kingdom through prayer means that we keep asking, seeking, and knocking -- and that our participation is through the grace of the Spirit, the plenitude of which He guarantees we will receive.  The goal here for His followers becomes clear:  this is a spiritual reality in which true followers desire to participate.  The name of God the Father is hallowed, and we who wish to participate in this Kingdom seek the grace and holiness of the Spirit in our own lives.  How do we get there?  Let us consider His commands for persistent prayer, asking and seeking and knocking -- as well as our petition in the prayer, that we wish to be forgiven as we give up to God the debts of those who've sinned against us.  This is membership in the Kingdom, what it means to participate, and to grow in communion.  Let us pray this prayer always, remember what we ask for, and the reality in which we seek to live, and to bear within us. 

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you

"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your own eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

"Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

"Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."

- Matthew 7:1-12

We have been reading the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's Gospel. We began last Monday with the Beatitudes. From there Jesus taught that His disciples were to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Expanding on the Law, Jesus taught about the law against murder, and expanding our understanding of what provokes hatred and conflict. He taught us to watch our thoughts, to choose what we dwell upon and what we "cast out" from ourselves. He taught about justice, and expanded our understanding of what that is, how to live righteously. He then taught about spiritual discipline, and gave us a prayer to our Father in heaven. We must choose carefully between a love of the outward show, the material, and the life of the spirit and heavenly values -- what is our treasure. And finally in yesterday's reading, Jesus taught us clearly about our own natures: we must choose what we worship and serve, for no man can serve two masters.

"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your own eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." This extremely important teaching will figure prominently in every Gospel. And again, it goes back to the divine economy with which we have been concerned so strongly in the teachings from the Sermon on the Mount. What could be more clear than "with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you"? It is similar to the teaching on forgiveness, also included in the Our Father. To my way of thinking, there are two things at work here. First of all, in the infinite scheme of God's perspective, we don't see fully either the depth of a person or their future or past; we don't even know ourselves that well. Only the "heart-knower" has that information. Secondly, a focus on others takes the focus off of ourselves. It is to our own efforts and progress we must look! This is another important teaching on our own natures, what it is to be human beings, akin to the information that we must choose what we serve. We can't truly help another until we have made that spiritual journey of change and transformation ourselves. In our humility, we can truly serve others. Otherwise we are "hypocrites," "actors" - Jesus' greatest criticism of false spiritual practice.

"Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces." My study bible says, "Jesus warns His disciples to turn away from opponents and those incapable of receiving His message, and to turn toward those who are receptive." This is a kind of warning about sharing what others aren't ready to hear, what will not be valued by them. It's interesting that it follows the teaching about the speck in a brother's eye. People must be receptive to what He has to give -- it is not to be given to those who are not capable of receiving them in a worthy way, with all the value they truly impart. Jesus' teachings are pearls - and so are the mysteries that we may be privy to in life. There is a complex set of values at work here: what is spurned or degraded that is holy might cast a deeper darkness on the one who spurns it. Yet, the emphasis seems to be on what we treasure. We recall Jesus' teaching to the wealthy young man, to sell all that he had -- a teaching given in love (to someone who lacked only one thing for eternal life), not condemnation.

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" Finally the great law of the spiritual economy is given to us here. What mysteries of the spiritual life we would seek, we ask of our Father. There will be a reply. This is also a commentary on the powerful nature of prayer, of our seeking in relationship to God and to the kingdom of heaven. My study bible says that this "threefold exhortation, ask--be given, seek--find, knock--be opened, promises the availability of God's help. The verbs are present progressives: be asking, be seeking, be knocking. Note the synergy: our effort is commanded, but never apart from the help of God. We ask in prayer; seek by learning God's truth; and knock by doing God's will." So often this teaching is used to seem to tell us of demanding a kind of material list of desires -- but the context is in the spiritual treasures of the kingdom. We are told not to give what is holy to dogs, nor our pearls to swine. This seeking is for those who would truly seek the kingdom of heaven, and God's answers for their lives -- who would become truly disciples and servants of love, and even includes learning about "the plank in our own eye." In all things, we have God's help, we work in relationship and love.

"Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets." This is also known as the "Golden Rule" and is a positive form of a similar, negative, teaching in Judaism: "Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you." Jesus also changes this to an active form of love, rather than only refraining from harm. It is a complete restatement of the Law and the Prophets, a summing up of the command to love one's neighbor as oneself. My study bible says, "This is the action which brings us to the God who forgives."

So, if we think about it, Jesus teachings are multiple-fold to us today. We have a loving relationship with our Father in heaven, who wishes us to have the treasures of the spiritual life. But to find it, we must understand how to practice good judgment: we seek our own healing and cleansing, to remove the plank in our own eyes. The whole emphasis is positive: how do we go forward? We are not here to judge others. We don't cast pearls before those who cannot accept them - and avoid useless conflict this way. Instead we move forward, and dwell in loving relationship to the Father, asking, seeking, knocking. And finally, what is active love? What does it mean to actively love others? Certainly we all have different preferences in life, but I find that it is so rare to give praise - to tell others of the things we value about them. What do you value in your life that you can share with others who are willing to accept it? Even praise initiates a reciprocal relationship some may not be prepared to accept; something good is another "pearl" others may trample under who are not ready to receive it. Therefore let us consider active love, and active practice. What do we share, and when do we not? This is how we live as His disciples, with treasures we seek from our Father in heaven - and seeking an understanding of where we need to go to follow Him better, and to actively practice the love He teaches us.