The Beam in Your Own Eye
“Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to notice the beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while there is still a beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
— Matthew 7:3-5 (BSB)
This comes from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus, a carpenter's son, reaches for a picture from the workshop, and the people listening knew exactly what he meant. The word for speck meant a tiny bit of dry wood, a chip or a shaving. The beam is a heavy timber, the kind that holds up a roof. A man with a roof beam in his eye bending over someone else's wood chip is a deliberately ridiculous picture, and the crowd may well have laughed. The word hypocrite comes from the Greek theatre and meant an actor playing behind a mask. The text does not forbid noticing other people's faults. The ending even assumes that someone will one day help a brother get that speck out, only first he has to be able to see. An eye is a place you operate on very gently, so you need a steady hand and good sight. The only person who can really help someone else is the one who has dealt with himself first.
What annoys you most about people? Being late, talking too much, always knowing better, never being the first to call. It is remarkable how clearly you can see it in others, including your own child, your mother-in-law, or a colleague down the hall. Often the thing that rubs you most in someone is something you have yourself, only you call it something else: in him stubbornness, in you principles; in her gossip, in you honesty. Jesus told it as a joke, with a beam in one eye and a wood chip in the other. It may be good news that you can laugh at this. Next time something irritates you in someone, you already know where to look.
Say to yourself: me too
- 1When someone irritates you today by being late, by their tone, by talking or by the mess they leave, stop before you say anything and find the same thing in yourself, even in another form. Say to yourself: me too. Only then decide whether and how to speak.
- 2If nobody irritates you today, think of the person you most often talk about with an edge, and name before God what the two of you have in common.
God, I see other people's faults very well, and I can find nice names for mine. Show me my beam today, the one I cannot see. Not to shame me, but so that I can see clearly. And give me a light hand with people who are just like me. Amen.
Before I point out someone's fault, I look for it in myself and say: me too.
Is this a ban on judging other people?
Not quite. The ending assumes someone will one day help a brother get the speck out. What it forbids is the wrong order: your own eye comes first.
What does hypocrite mean?
It comes from the Greek theatre and meant an actor playing behind a mask. This one is playing the eye doctor and cannot see a thing himself.
Why is the picture so exaggerated?
Because it is a joke. A roof beam in someone's eye is deliberately impossible and funny. People who knew a workshop may well have laughed, and laughing makes it easier to admit.