When I was a little boy, my family lived in a house near a beautiful hill where lots of families lived. The hill was managed by a gardener, but most people never saw him. My best friend Lei said, “The hill is managed by a terrible man. He is big and tall, and he doesn’t like children.” Lei went on to tell me, “Some people say that they have heard boys crying on the hill at night.” Naturally, I was curious about the hill, but very afraid of the terrible gardener.
Along the hill was a rock wall, and inside was a big garden. As my friends and I looked over the wall, our eyes saw thousands of fresh green leaves on the trees and our noses were filled with the sweet fragrance of flowers. Especially in autumn, the garden was like a fairytale kingdom: golden and gray trees, orange and red fruit, and pink and yellow flowers. There were many days when we heard an inner voice saying, “Come in, come into the garden!” But we knew that the garden had a secret guardian — the terrible gardener. As young boys, we never had the courage to jump over the wall and into the garden.
However, as we grew older, our thoughts once again turned to the garden behind the rock wall. On several occasions, we gathered the courage to climb the wall and jump into the garden to pick some flowers and fruit from the trees without being caught. But one Saturday afternoon, Lei and I went into the garden for some juicy, ripe peaches. “This tree has so many big ones,” I said as I climbed the tree and threw some to Lei. “Here you are!” But as I looked down at Lei, I noticed that he was standing still like a statue with eyes as big as saucers. Then, like a frightened rabbit, he turned and ran away yelling back at me, “Run! Run! The gardener is coming!” I had just jumped out of the tree and was turning to run when I saw a giant standing in front of me blocking the way to the rock wall. I was caught, and suddenly, I saw my life pass before my eyes.
The gardener was a big man with a heavy beard, just like the stories we had all heard. He stared at me for a moment, and then reached out and grabbed my arm. I began to cry pleading, “Please, please, let me go home!” The gardener took me to a water faucet located in the garden and said, “Wash your hands,” which I immediately did. As I was washing, some peaches dropped out of my pocket and onto the ground, and I knew that I was in even bigger trouble. He frowned and then picked them up, and handing them back to me he said, “Wash them and then put them back into your pocket.” A few minutes later, I left the hill with some big ripe peaches, and the unforgettable words from the gardener, “Next time, don’t pick the peaches, just ask me for them!”
That was a very special day for me. Not only did I get some delicious peaches, but I also met a kind-hearted gardener. Thanks to him, I realized that “Words are just wind, but seeing is believing.” The stories that I had heard about the “terrible” gardener were not true, and I learned that I should determine things with my own eyes instead of my imagination or the imagination of others. And I should always look at others without judging them, because kind-hearted people can be found everywhere, even in places where we least expect to find them. This principle has given me the courage and wisdom to face many difficulties in life ever since I met that kind-hearted, “terrible” gardener.
Additional Comments – Like my former student, I believe that most of us have had to learn some hard lessons on judging others. We all know the old cliché, “Never judge a book by it’s cover.” And likewise, we should never judge anyone without knowing all the facts. Or maybe, we should never judge anyone at all. I believe that there are some things to consider with regard to the judgment that we cast upon others. First, let’s see what Jesus said about judging others.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told the crowd, “Do not judge, lest you be judged” (Mt. 7:1). This is the kind of judgment where you compare yourselves to other people, thinking that you are much better than they are because of your own “righteousness,” or should I say “self-righteousness?” To emphasize this type of judgment, Jesus told the story of two people who went into the temple to pray, one was a despised tax collector and the other a “self-righteous” Pharisee. Listen to how Jesus portrayed the thoughts of the religious leader, “I thank God that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and pay my tithe (10% to the temple) on all that I get” (see Luke 18:9-14). Now that’s a classic description of judging others, making yourself out to be “more righteous” than others.
At the same time, Jesus encouraged His followers to judge with “righteous judgment” (Jn. 7:24). This is the kind of judgment where we “judge” between right and wrong, good and evil, and between truth and error. Every day, people stand before a “judge” in a court of law to determine one’s innocence or guilt for breaking a particular law, or laws. The jury makes a judgment as to one’s guilt or innocence. If all of the facts are correct and the witnesses truthful, then we consider this to be “righteous judgment.”
Looking at the two kinds of judgment, let’s suppose that a person is found guilty of theft in a court of law. We might be tempted to say, like the Pharisee, “I’m better than he/she is because I don’t steal.” But, we fail to see or admit to the fact that even though we may not be guilty of “stealing,” we could very easily be guilty of “coveting,” and coveting is just one step removed from stealing. Furthermore, “Thou shalt not covet” is the last of the Ten Commandments, and if we covet, we are breaking God’s Law.
A final thought for us. The writer of Hebrews tells us that “God is the judge of all” (Heb. 12:23), and we will all stand before Him. And, if we really want to get rid of some of the “junk” in our lives, the writer of Hebrews calls us to submit ourselves to the personal “screening” of God’s Word which is “…able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).
If we really want to grow in our faith, we need to stop casting “self-righteous” judgment on others and allow God’s Word to “judge” our own thoughts and motives. After Jesus told the crowd to stop judging others, He went on to tell them to stop looking at the “speck of dust” in another person’s eye when we need to take the “log” out of our own eye (Mt. 7:5). That’s where we need to start. We all need to ask God to show us those logs that we need to remove from our own eyes.
