CRUMBS!

This very peculiar painting of the unpaintable is by Domenico Fetti (1589-1623). Baroque, indeed.

7 Do not condemn, that you may not be condemned.

² for with the same judgement with which you judge, you shall be judged, and with the same measure you measure with, it shall be measured to you.

³ `And why you look at the crumb in your brother's eye, and the beam that [is] in your own eye you do not even notice?

⁴ or, how will you say to your brother, Let me take out the crumb from your eye, and look, the beam [is] in your own eye?

⁵ Hypocrite, first get rid of the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to get rid of the crumb out of your brother's eye.

The theme here, is of course a variant of “do as you would be done by”. It urges the hearers to look at themselves before looking – crossly, judgementally – at their brothers. [The usual translation of the opening verb is "judge", but "Matthew"'s Greek word would, for its first readers, have had a thoroughly negative overtone, and a connotation of taking to court and/or condemning.] It reminds us that we tend to see small faults in others more clearly than large ones in ourselves. As such, it is neither very original nor very complex. And yet. In the first place, it is much easier said than done. We do tend to be more indulgent with ourselves than with others, and expend great ingenuity in finding good excuses to do so. 

            Secondly, the injunction goes much deeper in its implications. To begin with, who is my brother? Well, that one was answered in the story of the traveller and the Samaritan. But then, of what part of the Torah is this an example? Well, it takes us, the hearers, back to “eye for eye and tooth for tooth”; and thus it takes us back also to the way that equitable rule was contested, or rather, “completed” by Yeshua. And thus, also, to the question of inwardness.

            We have seen inwardness to be the root of Yeshua’s completion of the Torah. If, then, we look here, we see not the spirit of observing a proper distinction and, if necessary, a proper sanction of a brother’s fault, but a self-questioning, a confrontation of self with self without illusions or excuses. In fact, an inwardness. And that inwardness, if it takes place, completes the Torah by fulfilling one of the Great Commandments: loving my brother as myself.