“CHRIST NAILED TO THE BEAM TO REMOVE THE BEAM”
Saint Luke 6: 36-42
4th Sunday after Trinity: 14 July Anno Domini 2019
Father Jay Watson SSP
Being a Pharisee could be bad. Sure, there were members of that sect that followed the Apostle’s God guided path to The Way, but most did not. Being a sinner in the year 2019 is just as bad. It’s even more tragic when it’s someone professing to be a Christian, or an actual follower of The Way. We call theses sinning Christians hypocrites. And since you are the only ones sitting in the Nave at this moment, I will address this homily on a parable to this group of hypocrites.
Christ’s truth is that NO…NO, the blind cannot lead the blind. The heathen or pagan cannot lead the other unbeliever to salvation. The hypocritical, un-merciful Christian cannot lead any other Christian to Christ’s deeper and fuller love, much less the non-believer.
Adam wanted to be the Master and not the servant son. That is your sin. That was Satan’s sin. The blind man is the unbeliever. The blind man will either stumble into hell on his own, run into hell in defiant egoism, or be led into it by an equally blind guide.
The Lord does not want you to be blinded by your sins and does not want you in hypocrisy to harm others.
Like the parable of the 5 wise and 5 foolish virgins, one must guard against straining at gnats and focusing on too much on “wood” and “detritus” minutiae. Doing word studies on beam, plank, speck, mote and 1st century Palestinian ophthalmological practices, is not the point! Christ is preaching and teaching forgiveness. Jesus wants you to confess your sins. Jesus wants you to make use of The Office of The Keys—Individual Confession and Absolution.
The man with the diseased gall bladder does not perform self-surgery and the sinner guilty of hypocrisy, and all other sins, does not forgive himself. The danger of criticizing the other guy for his blindness and his visual/BELIEF obstructions is that one ends up pointing the finger and wagging the tongue. One becomes Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin—judging and condemning rather than forgiving and restoring.
As no pastor should hear private confessions without also going himself to his own Father Confessor, so too no Christian should criticize, harp-upon, back-bite, waggle the tongue, gossip, attack, mock, and slander anyone—especially without ever confessing said list of 8th Commandment Trespasses. The danger in constantly attacking the Pope, the President, the Pastor, the Parishioner, is not that it forms you into a mean, bitter, and blind spoiled brat; but rather that it shows you don’t appreciate and cherish Christ’s own forgiveness of you and your sins. Spend the time God gives you to be about God’s business. Use your hours not devoted to providing for your food and board in loving God and your neighbor. You do this by “drowning the Old Adam,” i.e. having our sins forgiven. That which is extracted from your eye is not so much a beam as it is twin-tablets of stone penetrating right through the ocular cavity into the brain, heart, soul, and spirit. The beam is removed by Jesus’ own pierced and blood hands—the hands not of a Surgeon but a Surgeon/Savior/Sacrifice.
Of course, you want to help others. It’s natural and necessary to desire sharing the Good News of Jesus with the blind, and those fellow Christians struggling with all the other “seeing issues,” to be sure! And yes, you sometimes, well, most times, you will need to apply all of God’s Word (not your words or improvements) which includes The Law—the forthright “calling out” of sin as sin. But always, ALWAYS before presuming to indict others, Jesus says “cast out first the beam out of thine own eye.” Then you will be able to speak the truth—Jesus-in love, bearing your brother’s burdens in empathy, sympathy, understanding, and patience. It’s all about the forgiveness of sins because Jesus is all about the forgiveness of sins. That is what His Person, Life, and Cross are all about.
Busybodies, and hypocritical morality police, and blind guides who misinterpret Moses and the Torah, REPENT. Don’t just sit there and let the word “repent” fly over your head—but Confess your sins and receive the joyous and liberating Grace-filled super abundant release, loosing, and atoning flood of life and salvation.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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