As we move toward the end of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, it is important to keep in view the full context of what Jesus is saying, avoid legalistic readings, and misinterpretations of what Jesus says. I’m going to divide up this section a little differently than how your Bible translation likely placed the subtitles. Most notably, I believe the teaching about “pearls before swine” stands on its own and has little to do with judgment. Also, the “Golden Rule” stands as a summary on the sermon and the “Narrow gate” teaching acts as a transition to the end of the sermon.
7:1-5 - Judging Others
Much like Jesus’s prayer where we are called to forgive others because God has forgiven us, Jesus calls us to be generous in our judgment of others because God is generous with us. Jesus gives this basic teaching through a ridiculous image of a person with a log in their eye trying to preform precise surgery on someone else’s eyes who has some sawdust in theirs. We must avoid reading this as mere good advice about people treating you as well or as badly as you treat them. While there is truth in this, Jesus dives deeper into God’s divine judgement. We also need to avoid the pitfall of interpreting this teaching a license to not take sin seriously, “If you tolerate the sins of others, you will escape the last judgment unscathed.” The basic application of this teaching is this: If you are harsh in your judgement of others, when God is so generous in his judgement of you, you must expect to be judged harshly by the one who judges all. This seems to have some echo in the parable of the unmerciful servant in Matt 18:23-35.
After God has dealt so graciously with our many shortcomings, how then can we dare treat others with such mean-spirited judgementalism? Judgementalism draws conclusions before asking questions. It cares not about relationship or restoration. This kind of view places the focus others while doing very little to be present to the transformation needed in your own life. This passage reminds us that the call to follow Christ begins with your own submission to Christ’s transforming presence in you before you attend to the transformation that needs to take place in others. Jesus’s teaching brings to light that destructive criticism is counterproductive and harsh and petty faultfinding becomes corrosive and erodes relationships in a community called to work together to become salt and light in the world.
v6 - Pearls before Swine
Verse 6 is an odd fitting comment for the discussion on judgment. “Dogs” and “Swine” were common labels for Gentiles, with “Swine” often being used in reference to the occupying Romans. Many scholars believe Jesus is giving a brief teaching about allegiance as he transitions into the teaching on asking for the good gifts the Father is ready and willing to give. Your allegiance is a precious gift to give. Are you giving it to the Kingdom or to those who will “turn and tear you to pieces” as soon are you are no longer useful?
7-11 - Ask Seek Knock
When you knock on the right door, and give your allegiance to the right Kingdom, good gifts will be given. This teaching is not a prescription for a kind of persistent prayer that twists God’s arm if you ask enough for whatever you want. It is to say that you have a King, a Father, who is intent on giving you good things. Is your allegiance to those who only have their best interests in mind or will you knock on the door of the one from whom all good gifts come?
v12 - Golden Rule
Jesus wraps up this part of his sermon with what is called a “therefore ethic.” So much of what Jesus says up to this point can be summed up in what is known as the Golden Rule: Do to others what you would have them do to you. In its Christian context, the Golden Rule is deeply connected to the love for and nonviolent response to our enemies (Luke 6:3 makes this connection more directly), giving it a loftier ideal than a mere calculating of one’s self-interest in applying the rule. Take some time to explore the “Rule” within its context in Luke. Matthew places this rule at the end of Jesus’s teaching on righteousness (beginning in 5:20), making it a summary of all his ethical teachings. It is a kind of shorthand for how to do life in the Kingdom of Heaven.
13-14 - Narrow Gate
Many sermons have been preached articulating how we are doing Christianity correctly and others are doing it wrong. I’ve heard this passage misused as a way to say one groups narrow understanding of a passage of scripture is justified because “narrow is the way” and therefore the way others read the passage “leads to destruction.” This is a dangerous form of judgementalism that misses the intention of this text all together. I really like the summation of one commentator’s writing, “It is not necessary for us to know the ratio of damned to saved. What is essential is that we take with utter seriousness our responsibility to do what is right.”
Jesus will end his sermon saying, “Wise are those who hear these words and put them into practice.” The one who engages in the difficult journey of transformation where the sermon is put into practice is the one who has chosen the narrow gate. Neglecting the disciplines Christ calls us to as his followers places us on the broad road where destruction is the outcome. Or as Jesus says it, “the rains come and the house goes splat.”