I am looking at this passage as a portrayal of the Christian journey of faith. Like all journeys, the Christian pilgrimage through life has a point of departure, a destination, and a route through which we travel from one to the other.
Verse 39 shows us a pilgrim who has just begun the journey. Jesus describes this person as ‘a blind man’ who is naively attempting to ‘lead [another] blind man.’ Only one thing can come of this: ‘they [will] both fall into a pit.’ The beginning of the Christian journey is fraught with hazards, largely due to our residual pride and inexperience. We may attempt to take on more than we can carry. Our spiritual muscles are not yet developed, and, in trying to negotiate the steep incline, we may experience muscle fatigue and failure. We have seen the light, and we blind other people with what we think we have seen.
During the summer after my junior year at Baylor, a few friends and I went to the Pacific Northwest and joined a team of ‘summer missionaries,’ as we were called. We went from city to city in the states of Oregon and Washington, staging what churches billed as ‘youth-led revivals.’ We were probably not qualified to be doing what we were doing, and I’m not sure how many we revived—but we were there. There was a young woman on our team—I can’t remember her name—but she, like the rest of us, was a very young Christian…and a very critical one. She criticized most of the young men on the team, pointing out our laziness, our lack of solemnity, and what she saw as our spiritual immaturity. She was probably right, but her criticism did not help. She seemed to speak more out of contempt than love, and her rigidity contributed to a climate of division on the team. I myself have been guilty at times of trying to correct other people, not because they invited my correction and not because I was qualified to offer it but because I didn’t know better than not to give it. Paul says in Rom. 14:13, ‘Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.’ And you may recall that, when Peter asked our risen Lord about what would be expected of one of the other disciples, Jesus said, ‘What is that to you? You follow me!’ (John 21:22). It is characteristic of immature Christians always to be busy with other people’s business, but we need to grow beyond that.
So, what Jesus does next is, He takes us to the finish line of our journey. He skips the route we must travel and shows us the goal toward which we are to move. You see this in v. 40: ‘A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.’ I love this verse because it shows us that maturity in the faith is a process. When we are born again by the power of the Holy Spirit and receive Christ by faith, we are like children. We may be seasoned adults, but, spiritually speaking, we are—as Peter says—‘like newborn infants, [who] long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it [we] may grow up into salvation’ (1 Pet. 2:2).
So, as we make our journey, we recognize that we are ‘not above [our] teacher.’ Our teacher is Christ, and He is above us. So we must learn not to get ahead of Him.
I lament how often in my Christian journey I have tried to do the Lord’s work without the authority or the guidance or the power of the Lord. I have tried to do good things on my own steam: preach sermons, teach the Bible, counsel the heart, visit the sick, comfort the brokenhearted. We can’t do such things with mere human ability. No, not in the least. And as we move along the path of Christian maturity, we have to learn that the Christian life is a supernatural life. To quote Peter again, we are ‘partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Pet. 1:5). And part of what that means is that the good we do, we do in His power at His leading—or it is not good that we do. He gives us grace to do good works. Just read Ephesians 2:10 to see that: ‘For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.’ You see, we are to be instruments in His hand, arrows in his quiver. We are not living for God in our own strength. We are living for God through God’s strength. Else, we are not living for God. So we are not above our teacher, right?
Now, as we grow toward our destination, Jesus says the day will come when we will be ‘fully trained.’ If we may continue to think of the Christian life as a journey, that means that the rhythm of our gait has a particular cadence. I once had a secretary who tell who would be coming in the office door just by listening to their footfall as they approached the entrance. The Christian pace is distinguishable. It is a pattern of repentance and faith, repentance and faith. I turn from evil in repentance—every day!—and, as I do, I turn to Christ in faith. He is my all. I renounce in my thoughts and practice whatever it may be that dishonors and offends Him, and I turn to Him for strength to trust and obey Him, to desire what He desires for me, and to love Him with all my heart and my neighbor as myself. That’s the aim of being ‘fully trained,’ and we won’t arrive at such fullness—such perfection—until glory, but we ought to be moving toward it. Right? We long for His appearing because we know that, ‘when he appears, we shall be like him’ (1 John 3:2).
Most of us are in the middle of the journey. We’re not just starting out, and we’re not altogether mature. We’re in the middle. That’s where Jesus takes us next. In vv. 41-45, He describes what it’s like out here on the road between our point of departure and our arrival at our destination.
As we look at verses 41-42, we see that we are still struggle with some of the early traps we fell into at the beginning. Jesus asks, ‘Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, “Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,” when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye?’
I’m still guilty of that at times, aren’t you? It’s a vision problem. Jesus tells us that beginners are like the blind trying to lead the blind. And here we are, well past the beginning of our journey, and we’re still having trouble seeing. But now we know why! We have an obstruction to our vision! We have a huge old 2 by 4 in our eye, and here we are trying to remove the piece of sawdust in our brother or sister’s eye.
But there’s a remedy. Jesus tells us, ‘First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.’ Again, we must clean our own house before we show up at our neighbor’s house, broom and dust pan in hand! Confessing and forsaking our sins and relying on the mercy of God in Jesus: this is the rhythm of life in Christ. It requires humility, contrition for sin, faith in Christ, obedience to God, and submission to the Holy Spirit. In other words, it requires a new nature.
And that’s what we see in vv. 43-45. At the conclusion of His remarks, Jesus uses the image of different types of trees. ‘No good tree,’ he says, ‘bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. This makes good sense, doesn’t it. Apples and oranges, as they say. You don’t go to a banana tree to find a pear. So, what makes the difference? The nature of the tree, right?
And that’s the way it is for us. The Christian life is a supernatural life. It is not powered by human effort, although you will want to ‘do your best to present yourself to God as one approved’ (2 Tim. 2:15). But your effort is fueled by grace. In His grace, God gives you a new heart, filled with new desires and affections. And that determines the result of your life. Jesus says, ‘The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.’
How do you I get a good heart? There is no other way than a spiritual heart transplant, performed by the Great Physician Himself. The Lord says in Ezek. 36:26-27, ‘I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes….’
‘I will…cause you to walk in my statutes.’ The Christian life is a walk. it’s a journey. We start out as beginners, but let’s not stay there. Although we may yet be in the middle of the long pilgrimage, let us not grow weary, but ‘let us…lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and’—the what?—‘perfecter of our faith’ (Heb. 12:1, 2). Or, again, let us ‘walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which [we] have been called’ (Eph. 4:1). Friends, stay on the path, for ‘he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ’ (Phil. 2:6). Let’s talk up the walk.
