Judging Others – Part III

Luke 6:40

Take this verse out of its context and it’s very straightforward: “A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.” On its own, this sentence makes sense in a very commonsensical way.

John quotes Jesus saying something similar over in his gospel (13:16) in regards to a servant not being greater than his master or a messenger being greater than the one who sent him. That context is about Jesus setting an example he expects his disciples to follow.

But what does this verse in Luke have to do with the verses that come before and after? In Matthew’s parallel teaching on judging others (7:1-5), this verse is not to be found.

Our temptations are one of two directions. One, we just take this verse at face value and ignore its context. Let each verse be a stand-alone. Or, two, we consider whether this verse is indeed part of the original sayings of Jesus. Maybe Luke (or whoever wrote this passage) added it in, or maybe the Early Church did so many years later.

What each of these temptations – one by “literalists” and the other by those who don’t think the Bible can be taken so literally – do is to miss out on the fuller meaning of the text. It may not hurt to take it face value and it may not hurt to examine the writings of different scholars as to its source, but as with most temptations, these are easy ways out. Maybe, just maybe, this is how Jesus actually said it. Then what was he after by putting this sentence in this particular context?

The larger context (verses 37-42) is all about being careful not to judge others, first, because in the way we treat others, we will be treated; and, second, because we can’t judge others very well when we haven’t dealt properly with our own faults. In judging others, we lead them, or attempt to do so. That is why we judge people, to set them straight, to “put them on the straight and narrow.” But how can we who are blinded by our own faults see clearly enough to lead others? If we try to do just that, we will all fall into a far greater mess. It is in this context, Jesus says, that a student is not above his teacher.

In China, I directed various schools and educational programs. One time I had a wonderful history teacher at our international school who was intimidated by her high school students, all who had lived in China far longer than she had. The intimidation came from having to teach them a year of Chinese history, something any one of them knew far better than she already. But she knew something they did not – she knew historical methodology. She knew how to take facts, data and information and turn it into useful historical analysis.

So I told her she didn’t need to teach them Chinese history as much as she needed to guide them in how to formulate what they did know and then add to that body of knowledge according to the historical analysis already formulated. Which is exactly what her class did under her tutelage. By year’s end, her students had designed a whole year’s curriculum in Chinese history for high school students.

I’ve often explained to teachers that a teacher really has to be only one step ahead of his or her students. It’s easier if you are many steps ahead, but you don’t have to be. A student is someone who has something to learn from someone else, who in this case becomes the teacher.

Then Jesus explains that when a student is fully trained he or she will indeed achieve the level of his or her own teacher. Our job is not to judge others as much as show them the way and help them gain skills in how to improve. No one is perfect. If this is true, then who can teach? Our job as humans is not to cast out the sin in others, but to point everyone to the One who can. It is the Holy Spirit actually, Jesus says elsewhere, who convicts of sin. But as followers of Jesus, we can point people to Jesus and to his Word. And his Spirit will take care of the rest.