At
first glance, Jethro’s instruction to Moses to appoint judges and Jesus’
injunction ‘Do not judge’ appear to be opposed; but I want to suggest that they
are, in fact, in agreement, on the importance of giving everyone a fair
hearing.
Moses
is carrying the unsustainable burden of arbitrating in every dispute among the
people. Jethro counsels him to identify able men of good character, and appoint
them as officers over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. I have regularly
heard it suggested that they were appointed on the basis of differing levels of
competence; but I am no longer convinced by this: they are all [to be] able. I
think it more likely that they were chosen from their ‘structural’ peers within
the existing structure of family, clan, and tribal groups, and that this had
more to do with a shared load. If you think about it, the overwhelming majority
of disputes can be settled within minutes; but if you have to judge these for
too big a group, you’d never get anything else done. Then there are the kinds
of disputes where you can hear two or three in a morning: less common, meaning
you can have oversight of a larger group. Then there are those disputes that
can take several days to weigh: a small minority, again even across an even
larger group. And there are the most serious disputes, that need to be dealt
with, and seen to be dealt with, publicly and at the highest levels. But with
Moses fielding all those little disputes as well as the big ones, the system
doesn’t work for anyone. Jethro understands not only that the load must be
shared, but that the distributed wisdom of the people enables it to be shared.
Jesus,
to, is concerned that everyone should get a fair hearing. That as a community,
we hear, and see, one another. There are always at least two sides to every
story; even if both sides are not equally right or to be upheld; even if one or
both needs to be challenged. We naturally see other people’s blind spots; but
the thing about our own bind spots is that we are blind to them. Our vision is
all too easily distorted, and especially when we are fired-up with zeal; when
we unwittingly find ourselves turning into dogs, taking an aggressive stance;
or swine, trampling the very thing we claim to value under foot.
We
live in days when such advice needs to be taken to heart; when we are,
collectively, losing the discipline of hearing and seeing our neighbour;
encouraged, instead, to jump to judgement. The cycle of judging others harshly,
and finding ourselves judged just as harshly, needs breaking. And the way to
break it is to stand back and ask our neighbour to tell us what they see in us.
What they see in our eyes. Listening in order to better be able to remove the log,
not to justify its presence. It might make for uncomfortable listening; but, in
the long run, it will be for all our good.
Jesus
continues, keep on asking, searching, knocking, until you take possession of
what God has in store for us. In everything do to others as you would have them
do to you — which summarises the whole of the law and the prophets, the
revelation and commitment to justice. Enter the narrow gate into the hard road
that leads to life, not the wide gate into the easy road that leads to destruction
— our own, and that of others. These are not a random collection of unrelated
sayings. They are incredibly pertinent words of wisdom, to enable us to see
clearly in an age of misdirection, and to hear rightly in times of disorienting
noise. In a post-truth age, where fake news has become a virtue, and tweeting —
or retweeting without fact-checking first — is easy, let us hold to the words
of eternal life. Amen.
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