It felt like God had given me Jesus' words to read so that I could pass them on to her. It wasn't exactly comfort I was offering her, but somehow it felt like an endorsement of her decision not to be bitter, not to repay evil for evil.
Of course it was a coincidence, but such things do happen, and they always make me want to thank God. I think it was William Temple, once Archbishop of Canterbury, who said "When I pray, coincidences happen."
Anyway, turning to today's passage: Jesus moves on to talk about the way we should think about one another. If what he said yesterday was radical to the point of being impossible, then today's words are just as extraordinary.
If there's one thing we all do all the time, it's judge one another. We take one look, and make up our minds about the person in front of us, Often we feel like other people have compared us unfavourably to themselves, and it hurts us and damages our self esteem. If you're not posh enough, or pretty enough or rich enough or clever enough for the person in front of you, you're going to feel a failure.
And if that person condescendingly offers to help us, we feel even worse. Jesus says that's like someone with a plank in their eye trying to get a speck out of yours! I like that joke - it makes me feel better when I feel like someone's putting me down. Yes they've noticed something wrong with me, but there's something even worse wrong with them.
So he warns people - don't condemn others, be generous and forgive them. The more you give, the more you'll get.
Is he right or is he right?
But of course, we're far too savvy for this homespun advice. It all seems far too unsophisticated, doesn't it? We can't be foolish, we got to live within our means, we can't take risks with what we own. That's the sort of advice that makes sense.
And on we go, as if we can't see our hands in front of our faces.
Follow me! I know where I'm going! It's this wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
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