NOTES for Mat 7:1-8

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you..." Here it is fitting to recall an ancient wisdom spoken by Ovid, in order to see how close and at the same time how distant these two worlds are: enlightened, golden antiquity and the small community of the early Christian Church standing opposite it. "Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi, sed saepe cadendo." "The drop hollows the stone not by force, but by falling often." It would seem that this says the same thing: constancy in seeking. It sounds like a call not to despair when no result is visible, but to dare further. Yes, the similarity is obvious... But if we look at this picture a little more closely, we notice that there is something dead in this stone, some indifference to the drop, and a cold static quality shows through the whole situation.

Christianity is entirely different. The main thing that distinguishes Christ's words is the presence in them of a living answer. Yes, this too is a call to constancy in seeking, but in a completely different way: it will be opened to you, it will be given to you... What can a drop expect from a stone? Nothing, only dead silence. Here, however, we have a living answer. There is a striking expression: if a person, praying to God, does not expect an answer, he is simply an atheist. And sometimes someone hopes to get through to God with monotonous prayers, morning and evening, which, like that same drop, resemble one another day after day, performed without creativity and, most importantly, without dialogue... No, the way to Him is only dialogue, only creativity, only standing over the abyss.

Jesus' urgent counsel, "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged," can be paraphrased this way: "Be merciful toward others, so that mercy may also be shown to you." Yet the apparent simplicity of this thought is complicated by the fact that the second part of the saying speaks not of human judgment, but of God's judgment. At the same time, it is clear that in life those who show mercy rarely receive it in return, and even when they do, there is little reason to look here for a direct connection between one person's kindness and the kindness shown to that person by third parties, so to speak.

It is another matter that Jesus does not call His followers to seek any indulgence for themselves. Christians are simply required to remember how deeply tangled worldly life is: relationships, actions, disputes, conflicts, and everything else that fills human existence, and under no circumstances to pass final judgments, still less verdicts, about what we dislike or what at times truly breathes malice and sows destruction. This is not worth doing if only because every person is merely "a reed shaken by the wind," capable of great nobility, great folly, and even desperate madness...

For this reason, the words about the speck and the log follow in today's passage. Jesus is not simply advising us to be more modest or humble, and certainly not to try to convince ourselves that "I am worse than every creature." In His words one hears a simple friendly wish for every listener or reader: evaluate yourself soberly, and do not indulge in self-abasement. More than that, there is a call to action here: there is no need to pick over other people's bones, and no need for self-digging either; nothing is gained that way. Just wash the eye into which something has come from outside, and look at God, at His generous and understanding attitude toward people; imitate Him, and there will be no need to teach anyone, rebuke anyone, or grumble at anyone. What will remain is only love that persuades without words and builds everyone up...

The beam and the speck are things of the same nature, but of a different "order." And it may seem that, because of its size, the beam in the eye keeps a person from seeing anything at all. But the point is precisely that the one who carries it in his eye is blind only with respect to himself. With respect to others, it works like a magnifying glass, helping him make out the smallest offenses of others. And then the desire is born to help another person get rid of the speck (see Matt. 7:4).

Yet a person suffering from a severe form of some disease cannot cure another person of the same disease, even if it has only just begun. Besides, with such a "magnifier" it is easy to confuse the sizes and prepare a saw instead of a scalpel...

Only a person who is already healthy, who has passed through the pain of healing, because when Someone takes a beam out of your eye it hurts, can help another. That is why Christ says: "First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly how to take the speck out of your brother's eye" (Matt. 7:5).

The psalmist calls us to acknowledge God's almighty power and goodness and to turn our hearts toward hope in His mercy. And Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, adds: if we want His mercy, then we ourselves must be merciful, not search out other people's faults or condemn them. It is interesting that the beam in our own eye does not keep us from seeing the speck in another person's eye, but it makes it completely impossible for us to help that person.

When the Lord Jesus Christ heals the paralytic whom four people brought to Him after taking apart the roof of the house, He says: "Your sins are forgiven you." At this the Pharisees and scribes are indignant, because, they think, no one can forgive sins except God. Today, reading a passage from the Sermon on the Mount, we hear a similar thought from Jesus Himself. And after the resurrection He says to the disciples: "Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven..." It is important to try to look at these Gospel episodes together, in order to understand what the Lord says about forgiveness.

Then, in the house of Peter's mother-in-law, the Lord does not refute the scribes' initial premise, but emphasizes that, unlike people, the God-man can forgive sins by virtue of His divinity and by right of the sacrifice of the Cross. In the Sermon on the Mount He says that only the one who is righteous himself and whose sight is not damaged by sin can judge. And finally, the Lord gives the Church the command to forgive sins because He Himself is her head, and the Church is called by Him to transmit His forgiveness.

But in practice it is important for us that His words "Do not judge, that you may not be judged" are, if one may put it this way, a "technical" principle by which you can pass from the world of condemnation into the world of forgiveness. This requires acknowledging one's own inability to judge and one's own sinfulness, that is, repentance. Most importantly, it requires desiring precisely forgiveness, not "just recompense."

The Lord Jesus Christ says: “your sins are forgiven” to the paralytic brought to Him by four people through the house roof when He cures him. Pharisees and scribes resent on this, because they thought nobody can forgive sins, except God. Reading today the fragment of the Sermon on the Mount, we hear the similar idea from the mouth of Jesus Himself. And He says to the apostle after resurrection: “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven to them”. It is important to try to look over these evangelical episodes together, in order to understand what the Lord says about Forgiveness.

The Lord does not deny the initial premise of the scribes then in peter’s mother-in-law house, but He emphasizes that unlike people, God-man (God Incarnate) can forgive sins by virtue of His divinity and by the right of victim of the Cross. In the Sermon on the Mount He says that only the one who’s just himself and whose opinion is not injured by sin can judge. Finally, God bestows the decree to forgive sins on the Church, because He Himself is the “head” and the Church is called by Him to transmit His forgivenesses.

But it is important for us in practice that His words “Do not judge so that you will not be judged” are if we can express like this “a technical” principle, which using, we can move over from the world of judgment to the world of forgiveness. But this requires the acknowledgement of our own inability to judge and our own sinfulness, which is repentance. And the most important is that, it requires to desire forgiveness, but not a “fair reward”.

God uses customary material facts of that time to elucidate the idea of His spiritually significant words. In fact, to us, for the word “measure”, we don’t understand at all the reality of daily trading relations, but all were very clear for Jesus’ listeners: by which measure we measure the seed, by the same measure shall our partner measure let say for example salt. There cannot be two different measures. Accurately also there cannot be two standards in evaluation – such a way that we evaluated “by justice”, and they evaluated us “by compassion”. The word “to judge” is multiple-meaning; it means both “to evaluate”, “to control” and “to condemn”. It is clear from the context that precisely condemnation is flatly not recommended to us, if we ourselves would not like to fall under condemnation.

Jesus' words about judgment could be seen as a continuation of a tradition going back to one of Israel's great teachers, Hillel, who said: do not judge your neighbor until you yourself have been in his place. Other teachers also thought that a righteous person should not rush to condemn his neighbor, even when, at least at first glance, there is something for which to condemn him. Jesus, however, appears to modify Hillel's saying somewhat: He says that before condemning a neighbor's sins, one must see one's own sin.

Of course, this counsel also has a spiritual and practical meaning: until you understand how to fight your own sins, you will not understand how to help your neighbor fight his. And it was understood as a matter of course that it made sense to look closely at a neighbor's sins only in order to help the neighbor get free of them. After all, in the Judaism of the Second Temple period, the generally accepted view of the Torah was that it was a guide on the path of righteousness and a means of fighting sin, not a kind of religious club with which to beat the sinner over the head for his sins.

In fact, Jesus calls for great caution in judging a person, not only in the sense of condemning him (no one would have thought of taking upon himself God's prerogative anyway), but in the sense of evaluating him as a sinner or a righteous person. Indeed, in order to give such an evaluation, one would have to know the human heart as only God can know it. Evaluating specific deeds and actions is another matter: anyone who knows the commandments and understands the essence of the matter being evaluated can assess them more or less adequately.

But the question of who is worthy of the Kingdom and salvation, and who is not, is not ours to decide, if only because we ourselves receive this Kingdom not because we are worthy of it. Besides, its story is still far from complete, and so the time for final evaluations has not yet come. And when it does come, in any case, we will not be the ones making them. Therefore our task is not evaluation, but the struggle against the sins that hinder us and our neighbors from walking the path of righteousness, so that we may complete this path in the Kingdom, where each of us will finally be freed from everything that prevents him from living life in its fullness.

Here we are again invited to come out of the captivity of our own egocentrism. How easy it is to revel in our own limitations, to regard our judgments about people, and about the world around us in general, as infallible. But Jesus lets us see the limits of our horizon. And although understanding another person can be very difficult, it is precisely by seeing the boundaries of our own understanding that we begin to overcome them, and therefore draw closer to understanding other people. Then we find ourselves in the place of the person we recently judged, and we begin to understand another person even better... The words about the speck and the log have been familiar to us since childhood; fortunately for us, this gospel wisdom turned out to be one of those things acknowledged even by many hardened atheists. True, there is a great temptation to poke at one's neighbor: "but you have a log sticking out," yet in substance there is nothing to object to here.

It is harder to notice that immediately after these words comes the warning about the inadmissibility of giving holy things to dogs and pearls to pigs. Let us recall, by the way, that in another place in the Gospel the Kingdom of God is compared to a priceless pearl. What unites these sayings? It appears that here Jesus is warning us about the danger of a hasty desire to become teachers. After all, even the preaching of truth can be turned into a way of self-assertion, when admiration for one's own eloquence hides from the speaker those to whom he is speaking.

But we should not amuse ourselves with illusions, even ones that look outwardly pious. Reality will inevitably break through the illusions, and it will be good if that happens without tragedy.

Today's reading is devoted to two themes that, at first glance, are not directly connected. On the one hand, it speaks about judgment and about the fact that Christ's followers would be better off not acting as judges (vv. 1-5). On the other hand, Jesus directly advises His disciples to ask the Father for everything they may need (vv. 7-11). And this advice is introduced by words about a careful attitude toward what is holy (v. 6). At first glance, these are completely different things; but if we think carefully, we can notice that here too Jesus is again speaking about the Kingdom. Indeed, if a person can "not judge," it is only and precisely in the Kingdom.

In our fallen world, any evaluation almost automatically becomes not only a judgment, which is permitted to us, but also condemnation, which is forbidden. Evaluation without condemnation is possible only in the Kingdom, where the very environment in which communication takes place is different. In such an environment one can compare oneself with others without at the same time determining whose step on the hierarchical ladder is higher. And not because everyone in the Kingdom suddenly becomes the same, but because the ladder itself loses its significance there. In the fullness of the Kingdom each person receives his own fullness given by God, and then the comparison so familiar to us in our world becomes meaningless.

But how can such vision be attained in our fallen world? Obviously, only by preserving the Kingdom that is already given to every follower of Christ now, in this world. It is no accident that the Savior reminds us of the need to keep what is holy pure, without defiling it with anything unclean (v. 6). "Dogs" and "swine" are mentioned here for a reason: they are unclean animals that in the Bible often become symbols of uncleanness as such.

And the call to treat people as we would want them to treat us (v. 12) also reminds us of the Kingdom. It would seem that before us is only the well-known "Golden Rule" of ethics, but that is still not exactly so. The point is not to treat people the same way they treat us, but to treat them as we would want them to treat us. In that case it becomes clear that we can treat people only with love and certainly without condemnation: it is hard to find anyone who would not want to be loved, or would want to be condemned, even if that person understands that there is not much to love him for and that there is plenty to condemn him for. Here it becomes clear that in our fallen world this is impossible. But what is impossible here becomes possible in the Kingdom.

If we relate to our neighbors exactly as Jesus commanded us, then the Kingdom has already become reality for us, and then we can ask as people ask in the Kingdom, where God gives without measure. The point is not that while we are here He cannot give us everything He could give there. It is simply that in the Kingdom, having learned to give without remainder and in fullness, we will also learn to receive in fullness - as people give and receive in the Kingdom.

There are several meaningful sections in today's reading. The first of them, perhaps, (vv. 1-5) is the clearest in meaning, although the hardest of all to put into practice! Verse 6 gives an example of a fairly typical stylistic device in oral speech called "chiasm," when a phrase is built on the pattern "ABba." In our case, "trampled underfoot" refers to the pigs, and "turned and tore" refers to the dogs.

But what is all this about? Are we really supposed to consider someone dogs and pigs? Let me recall that both were considered unclean animals. Hardly! The preceding verses do not allow that. It is probably about the fact that even the most objectively good things, whether objects or ideas, do not necessarily turn out to be subjectively good in concrete situations, and therefore wisdom is needed in using them. The next section (vv. 7-11) not only urges us to persistent prayer, but also assures us that the Heavenly Father always answers it, and specifically with what "gives good things." In another Gospel this passage says that He "will give the Holy Spirit," who, of course, is the ultimate "good thing." That is, the answer from God may be "not exactly" what we expect.

Hoping for God’s help is as natural as it is for a child to expect care from its parents. If you cannot deceive your own child, how can the heavenly Father fail His children?... These words were not spoken for “naive believers” unfamiliar with life, but for perfectly ordinary people who knew that things are not so simple, that God does not always answer prayer, and that hunger, sickness, and death exist in the world. So what is this: yet another religious idea, opium for the people, or is it nevertheless true? And if it is true, how are we to understand it? It seems that it can be understood only in the context of the joyful News that the Ruler of the universe becomes Father to Jesus’ disciples. For it is one thing to know how to receive good and evil, suffering and joy, with gratitude from the hand of the Master; it is another to know that, in every circumstance, a loving Father will always be more faithful and closer than the people dearest to us...

"In this are the Law and the Prophets"... That is, Jesus reduces all Old Testament teaching to a short phrase, a slightly altered ancient saying known as the "golden rule of ethics." How does He change it? He translates it from a negative form ("do not do...") into a positive one, and this is very important.

How often people suppose that religion is the opium of the people, that Christianity is a convenient psychological niche in which one can hide from the problems of the surrounding world. At times Christians themselves think this too, and that is probably why outsiderhood was so widespread among "underground" Christians in Soviet times. But Jesus sets a much higher standard for oneself. "A city set on a hill cannot be hidden"; the Christian position in the world is a position of action, of transforming this world, not of fleeing from it.

But of course not every action will be right. The Lord considers that every person still loves himself, and He invites us to act toward other people from the same motive: love.