“While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked Him to dine with him, so He went in and reclined at table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that He did not first wash before dinner. And the Lord said to him, ‘Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you.'” Luke 11:37-41
Devotional Thought For The Day
Most of you can probably remember a time or two when your mother admonished you about washing your hands before sitting down to eat a meal. In our medically knowledgeable day many people are virtually phobic about hand washing, and some of us may think of it as a gross and discourteous thing when people do not keep their hands clean. It may have been a certain sense of cleanliness that moved this Pharisee to indignation, but more so a matter of formality and “religious” purity. Elsewhere in Scripture we are informed that “the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.” [Mark 7:3,4] The Pharisee was more concerned about traditions that had become virtually sacrosanct than cleanliness, and considered the violation of such traditions equal to sin and impurity. All of this was part of their hypocritical efforts to maintain an outward appearance of piety and godliness while ignoring the more important aspects of relationship with God and genuine inner piety – honest repentance, humility before God and imploring Him for mercy and forgiveness, living in His great and gracious love and living in love, mercy, and compassion toward others.
This is a common human response to the reality of sin and the accusation of God’s law which condemns all human beings. Instead of honestly and realistically contemplating this reality and taking it up with God, we decide to play a game of charade and deceit. In that we can succeed in this with a great number of people we take solace and even pride that we really have become admirable and pious people – and assume that God sees and judges the same. Our internal life – of pride, selfishness, envy, anger, hatred, malice, lust, and ambition – remains intact and serves as our “auto-pilot,” but we take great care to allow none of this to be revealed in our external behavior [and if it does we have ready explanations to justify our sinful actions, some of which are extremely sophisticated and complex]. And even if they are ultimately incoherent we know that if we argue them forcefully enough others will give up trying to convict us. At the same time we invent a variety of “pious” behaviors through which we can demonstrate our superior spirituality and “closeness” to God – things which He does not command in His Word. We use these things to ignore and excuse our failure to live according to the more extreme [and insane to our sinful nature] things that God does command – utter repentance and humility, dependence upon His grace and mercy alone, and a full sacrifice of our entire life to the good and welfare of others without thought of our own benefit or gain.
Jesus reminded the Pharisee [as He taught on numerous occasions] that “He who made the outside made the inside also.” The point is that what is on the inside is more important to God than what is on the outside, and that what is external, if it is not a truthful and genuine reflection of what is on the inside, is essentially worthless – a hypocritical sham. So the call to repentance, and especially repentance for the many ways in which we outwardly portray ourselves as “better” than other people, more righteous, more pious, more holy, more devoted, and much less sinful, is essential to true piety. Instead, we wash our hands! But Jesus taught that if what is on the inside is clean [humbled, repentant, forgiven, and renewed in His love] then the fruit will also be good. [Matt. 12:33] There is no short-cut, no other way, regardless of how convinced we and the vast majority of humanity may be about this. So we must take care in our judgments – for washing one’s hands does not prevent all illnesses, and not washing one’s hands does not always result in illness. It is not our judgments and rationalized spirituality that prevails, but rather truth, God’s judgments, and His Word is clear: “For God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all.” [Rom. 11:32]
Those living in God’s mercy are not called to start all over again – this too is a ruse the evil one uses to draw us back into hypocrisy and white-washing. Rather, Jesus states the simple reality: “But give as alms those things that are within [what you are and have], and behold, everything is clean for you.” If cleansed on the inside by God’s gracious mercy, forgiveness, and love, and if our “alms” [our good deeds] are given out of humble faith and knowledge of God’s love, then in spite of the fact that they may be “as filthy rags” [Is. 64:6] Jesus declares them to be clean. These are not great and pompous religious acts done to impress others, but rather humble, simple, and sacrificial things done for “the least” of Jesus’ brothers [Matt. 25:40], and usually when this happens the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing; we are unaware that we have done anything of great significance, and we certainly take no pride in it. [Matt. 6:3] Again, we are not called to start over from scratch, but to take stock of what God has done for us in Christ and allow His love to move us – from the inside out – to do what we can for others, out of humility and genuine love. Indeed, He Who makes the outside also makes the inside, and He makes us clean from the inside out in Christ Jesus.
Prayer For The Day
Dear Lord Jesus, impress upon us that hypocritical external behaviors, especially those that have no explicit basis in Your Word, are not only useless but damnable sin. Forgive us for our participation in these religious charades, and humble us in repentance to receive Your gracious, cleansing, and renewing love. Keep us in an honest walk with You that what is on our outside is a reflection of the goodness You have made on our inside. Draw us ever closer to You and Your will. Amen.