In the Gospel of Luke 6:39-45, the Lord Jesus condemns hypocrisy in very strong terms. Elsewhere he had referred to the Pharisees and Scribes (who paraded themselves as the leaders of the people) as blind guides, who can only lead the people astray (See Matthew 15:14 and John 9:40). He teaches his disciples to lead a life of integrity, whereby there will be no distinction between what they believe and how they live. He says one blind man can not lead another blind man; they will both fall into a ditch. You must take out the plank in your own eye before you attempt to take out the splinter in your brother’s eye. No good tree produces rotten fruits, just as no bad tree produces good fruits. It is by their fruits that we shall know them. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart, produces good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart, produces evil. For out of the abundance of a man’s heart, his mouth speaks! He adds in the next verse (verse 46), “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?
The true disciple lives out what he believes in his heart. The true follower of Christ, like the master, practices what he preaches. Jesus Christ the Lord and Master believed in the tremendous love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness of God towards sinful humanity. In his life and ministry, he demonstrated love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness, to the extent that he died on the cross to save humanity. He taught humility by the very way he lived. He taught his disciples to pray by the way he prayed. He taught his disciples to trust and hope in God through difficult times by the way he trusted God even when all seemed hopeless, and he appeared abandoned. When in John 13:1-15, he stooped down to wash his disciples’ feet, and he told them to go and do the same. He said: “If I then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you must wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done. The Lord Jesus was surely full of goodness in his heart, and that is why everything he did was good. The disciple must be like the master, fully authentic and totally integrated in all he says and does.
It is true that any fruit tree will only produce its own particular fruit. People do not pick figs from thorns. It is the inner reality of the tree which is reflected in its fruits. So must it be with the Christian. The fully trained disciple will always be like the master. The disciple is supposed to be that good person who draws good from the store of goodness in his/her heart. God has poured a lot of goodness into our hearts by virtue of our baptism, our confirmation, our participation in the Eucharist, and our exposure to the Word of God. A lot of goodness has been poured into our hearts by virtue of the Holy Spirit that dwells in us, and the Kingdom of God that is within us. Now the challenge is for us to draw out some of this goodness in practical daily life. The challenge is for this inner goodness to show in the way we think, in the way we talk, and in the way we act. This inner spiritual goodness must show in the values that guide our daily decisions and policies and in our habits. A man is judged by his actual deeds, like a tree from its fruits, and not by his words or his intentions. Jesus insists that the exterior should correspond to the interior. The true disciple of Christ is therefore recognised by his deeds.
In the above Gospel passage, Jesus is particularly hard on those who notice the faults of others, but who are blind to their own shortcomings. In this way they pass themselves off as good, something that they are clearly not. He teaches that self-criticism is an essential part of genuine relations with other people. To be critical of others while at the same time lacking any sense of self-criticism ourselves is a profitless pastime. To exert high standards from others, while readily excusing ourselves for our own lack-lustre performance, can only be a fruitless exercise. Merely telling the truth about others is not sufficient in itself. The process may be nothing more than scapegoating. At the end of the process we often end up with a victim and not a convert. But when people know that that what we say comes from a genuine attempt to help them, they might take heed.
People will pay more attention to what we have to say when they detect that we are aware of our own shortcomings, and that our criticism does not emerge from self-righteousness. Those who frequently correct errors in others run the risk of exaggerating the evil in others and of overlooking or lessening the evil in themselves. Thus before condemning others, before pronouncing judgement on others, Jesus invites us to search our own hearts with humility and modesty, to see how far away we are from the ideal life of a Christian, and how we could become better. The process should always begin with ourselves.
Thus, criticism must come from the store of goodness in our heart. If that goodness is absent in our hearts we would do well keeping silent, for sharing a bad heart converts no one. Jesus asks us to question ourselves before changing society. It is easy to talk about the woes of Nigeria for example. It is easy to talk about corruption in high places, about ethnic prejudice, about indiscipline, etc. But it is more difficult to question ourselves, and see to what extent we ourselves are selfish, corrupt, biased and indisciplined. It is most embarrassing to observe that when while religion has become the fasted growing industry in Nigeria, and while many people are confessing Jesus Christ and shouting all sorts of slogan about being born again, there has not been any noticeable change in the social life of those who fill our Churches. Like other Nigerians who have never heard of Christ, they are often guilty of corruption, fraud, greed, ethnic bigotry and indiscipline.
Nigerian Christians must acknowledge that whereas it is wonderful to spend a long time in prayer, whereas it is wonderful to be able to pray every day during the season of Lent, and whereas it is wonderful to be able to go for fellowship on daily basis, and whereas it is wonderful to be able to preach powerfully and even work some miracles in the name of Christ, we nevertheless fail woefully as to bring about a change in our society, if our hearts are not transformed. Devotional exercises such as those listed above are meant to produce fruits in the daily Christian life. It is in this way that the Christian will make an impact in society. Unless the individual hearts are changed, there is no use talking about changing the structures of society. It is true that any fruit tree will only produce its own particular fruit. People do not pick figs from thorns. It is the inner reality of the tree which is reflected in its fruits. So must it be with the Christian. The fully trained disciple will always be like the master.
The teaching of Jesus is a continual call to conversion, but as charity begins at home, the conversion of the world and of our country must start from somewhere. The conversion process must start with oneself, otherwise all our missionary preoccupation will be hypocrisy. No one has the moral right to preach conversion to others if he or she has not a prior experience of conversion, and if he or she is not in a continual process of self-examination and self-criticism towards greater conversion. Such a person will not be a missionary of Christ Jesus. What the foregoing means is that there is no such thing as a non-practising Christian, if that is to imply that that somebody can believe and not practise what he/she believes. From the fruits of love, forgiveness, mercy, compassion, prayerfulness, faith, hope and trust, etc., we shall know whether one who says he/she is a Christian truly knows Jesus Christ or not.
