There comes a time in every man’s life when the road and path traversed become confusing. You have been journeying in the same direction and heading towards the same goal, but something is different. At first, you think it is the terrain, a change in circumstances. Then you begin to blame the well-trodden path. The fact that the path is easier and wider should give you a clue, yet instead, you become frustrated that such a clear and easy path is causing you a crisis of confidence. Am I heading in the right direction? I am on the same path as always, am I not? Then what is different? What seems to be the problem?

The problem is ourselves. We navigate away from the narrow path and instead take the easy road, the broad path, and find ourselves closer to the wide gate that leads to destruction. (Matthew 7:13). How could this be? Because we are blind to how bad we are at orienting ourselves to face east. We wander too far from the Good Shepherd who knows the Way and makes the Way, and suddenly we are hitting the troublesome trail.

O soul, are you weary and troubled?

No light in the darkness you see?

There’s light for a look at the Savior,

And life more abundant and free!

When you set your eyes off the Good Shepherd and sink the eyes of your mind and soul upon the heart’s desire, you quickly grow blind. Your discernment is untrustworthy because it is not resting upon the guidance of God, but upon the whims and fancies of man’s deceitful desires. We grow blind not only to the Way of the Good Shepherd, but worse still, we grow blind to our own error and tend to double down on the misdirection we commit ourselves to. We refuse to walk back to the Way, and think ourselves superior and wiser than the others – even our Lord – and to our own peril.

Christ calls us to have a right judgment in this life. We must look up and not down at our feet as we journey with Him, else soon we will find ourselves alone and off the Way. Our Savior beckons us to look up to Him and set our eyes upon Him and His judgment as to where to go next. However, far too often we sink our eyes down into our own thoughts, and then we begin to self-justify. We forget mercy and prefer our self-judgment. Yet the Lord tells us, “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” (Gospel Lesson, Luke 6:36-38, KJV).

When we no longer look to Jesus and the great love, mercy, forgiveness, and grace He has for us, then we look back towards the demonic west and we reap the bitter fruit of death: self-justification, self-exaltation, and spiritual blindness. The Lord Jesus will have none of it. The forgiven wayfarer must be forgiving to all those he meets along the Way. The Lord is asking us to do three things as we follow Him. First, stop being blind and falling into the trail of temptation and instead remain wayfarers on the Way. If we do not keep our eyes on Jesus, then we shall become blind guides who lead other blind men off the Way and into destruction. (“Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?” Luke 6:39, KJV). Second, we must not think ourselves greater than another, but instead tend to our own plaguing sins so that we may help our fellow sojourners along the Way. “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.” (Luke 6:41-42, KJV). Thirdly, our Lord reminds us that while we are not greater than our brother along the Way, we also are not lesser than our Master’s call. “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful … The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master.” (Luke 6:36, 40, KJV).

We must be about our Father’s business, and He is in the business of mercy for the lost, forgiveness for the sinner, and repentance for the redeemed. How then can you follow Jesus? Not by telling your lost brother how to follow you in your lostness. Nor is it by looking down at your feet and pulling yourself up by your hiking boots. It is only by turning – repenting – and locking your eyes firmly upon your Savior who is leading and trailblazing the Way of salvation.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace.

Unfortunately, like the evil one it follows, the world only knows how to twist God’s Holy Scripture and quote it out of context. There are many God-deniers who will quote His Word as a weapon against Christians: “Judge not.” They conveniently forget the Lord’s words are not a command to stop godly judgment and discernment, but are a call towards repentance. We must first repent and then show our brother their error and help them in their own repentance: “Cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.” (Luke 6:42, KJV).

However, the evil one wants us distracted, doubtful, and dumbfounded when the unbeliever hurls “judge not.”

Leave them with the dust shaken off your feet. They are blind guides trying to blind you.

You keep your eyes on Jesus and continue repenting, following Him, forgiving, following Him, and showing mercy, all the while following Him. Keep plucking out your beams and get back to pulling the splinter out of your brother’s eyes, for you are your brother’s keeper. You fail to be “merciful, as your Father also is merciful,” if you do not help your brother’s splinter because you once had a beam that needed to be surrendered at the foot of the Cross.

Thro’ death into life everlasting,

He passed, and we follow Him there;

O’er us sin no more hath dominion–

For more than conqu’rors we are!

We need to develop calluses. Not upon our hearts, but upon our feet. The ground we trod after our Savior is full of thorns, like the crown He wears. Sometimes the thorns are in the flesh, a messenger from the evil one as St. Paul suffered from, yet was told by the Lord it was for his benefit. Other times the thorns are our sins that need plucking and handing over to the Lord. Many times the thorn is a fellow sinner who is still lost, yet is close enough to the path that you could almost pull him onto the Way, if only they would see the Savior you follow.

Friends, we need to develop calluses of holiness. When the fellow sinner sticks a thorn into your side because of your hypocrisy, own it and pull out that beam by the power of the Holy Ghost. Do not cast your eyes down and try to pull out the beam alone, for then you will be lost. Instead, turn your eyes again upon Christ and tell Him in prayer about the beam in your eye so it may be removed. Then keep those eyes upon Him and start walking towards Him. Walk on the hard rocks and shed the old skin. Develop bruises and aches in your joints. Harden your body by holy living. Suffer now and grow ever closer to Christ so that His holiness becomes your own. Then the thorns thrown by Satan and sinners alike will diminish and the lost will gain their eyesight to see the Living God who indwells you as His holy temple.

Again, I say unto you, pray. Pray for God to give you eyes to see the beam so you may take away the splinter from your neighbor. Remember, the Father is “the protector of all who trust in thee.” (Collect of the Day). Take the distractions of the shortcuts, the side trails, and the broad paths and ask for eyes to see clearly enough to see Christ so that you may follow Him closer upon the Way. For the Father is the One “without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy,” and we are called by the Holy of Holies to follow the Holy One while we are indwelt by Holiness Himself. (Collect of the Day). The Father is willing to “Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy,” so we may have mercy even upon our chastisers. Never let your detractors become your enemies. Let them become the ones you pray for the most, especially for your own transformation as a saint, so that you may be a better witness to them. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Epistle lesson, Romans 8:18, KJV). They snipe at you today, but tomorrow they may be shining alongside you in the Spirit and singing the same sanctus, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” (Revelation 4:8, KJV).

Keep your eyes upon Jesus. Keep your lips praying to the Father. Keep your feet callused by the Holy Ghost, who is making you into a new creation. May we groan as the Holy Ghost bruises this old body to prepare us for the new. May we groan alongside the Spirit who “also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” (Romans 8:26, KJV). May we groan alongside all of creation, which is groaning in anticipation “for the manifestation of the sons of God.” (Romans 8:19, KJV). May we “which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” (Romans 8:23, KJV). Keep the faith, for you are not following a blind guide, but the One who makes the blind see. Almighty God, “thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal. Grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake, our Lord. Amen.” (Collect of the Day).

His Word shall not fail you–He promised;

Believe Him, and all will be well:

Then go to a world that is dying,

His perfect salvation to tell!

Turn and Be Turned

The Fourth Sunday after Trinity

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