Luke 6:39-42

Luke 6:39-42

And He also spoke a parable to them.  “Is a blind man powerful enough to guide a blind man?  Will they both not fall into a pit?  A disciple is not beyond the teacher.  But having been equipped, all are as his teacher. And who sees the thin twig that is in the eye of his brother and you do not perceive the beam that is in his own eye?  How are you powerful enough to say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me cast out the thin twig that is in your own eye,’ while you do not see the beam in your own eye?  Actors!  First cast the beam out of your own eye.  And then you will see clearly to cast out the thin twig that is in your brother’s eye.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

With respect to the blind men, I think this is one of my favorite parables.  Jesus is really blunt.  A person with a particular difficulty is not going to easily help someone with the same difficulty.  An alcoholic cannot really help another alcoholic.  A drug addict cannot help another drug addict.  However, when we combine this parable with the next teaching we get a really nice understanding.  The alcoholic who does work on his own issues first can be a great benefit to another alcoholic because he knows the struggle.  While we are rolling in our own sinfulness we will only help other people with similar struggles find trouble.  But once we have dealt with and overcome our struggles we can be a great asset to the people around us.

Do you ever see people with certain struggles trying to help other people with the same struggle while they aren’t working on their own struggle?  Where are you guilty of doing this?  How does this usually end?

Second Thought:

Jesus points out an interesting fact with respect to human beings.  We love to see the flaws in others – even the small ones!  But we are unable to notice our biggest flaws.  Jesus brings us to a point of self-realization.  We need to know this is about ourselves.  We need to work against this.  We need to be naturally more gracious to the other people around us because we tend to be naturally critical.  We need to be more perceptive about ourselves because we tend to develop natural blind spots.

Where are you overly critical of others?  With whom are you overly critical?  Where are your natural blind spots about yourselves?  What things do you need to work on about your own life?

Third Thought:

In the end, Jesus’ point in this parable is that we are to think of other people.  When we remove that beam from our eye, we are doing it so that we can be in a position to help the person beside us.  This shouldn’t surprise us.  The Father sent His Son not because He needed to die or deserved to die; He sent His Son for our benefit.  God was thinking of us when Jesus was sent.  We are to think of others in our relationship with the Father, too.

Who do you think of as you are working through your own faith?  Why is it important to consider others as we work out our own faith?

Passage for Tomorrow: Luke 6:43-46