Dirty dishes. We can hand wash them, or put them in the dishwasher and run it. Most of the time they come out pretty clean. But occasionally you grab something like a cereal bowl or coffee mug and look in to see Jupiter style coffee rings or cement-like pieces of yesterday’s breakfast stuck to the inside of that bowl like barnacles. Or worse yet, could you imagine doing the dishes but only washing the outside and ignoring the inside? It would look nice, wouldn’t it? But would you use it? No way.
My heart has been broken over the tragic loss of life in the shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fl last weekend. I have been praying for the families that lost loved ones and for comfort and healing for the wounded. Throughout social media I have seen some great Christian responses to the tragedy and some shameful Christian responses. Have we forgotten that we are ALL broken image bearers of our Creator God?
Jesus is tender toward the wounded and brokenhearted in scripture but has a severe wake up call for people who think for one second that they are “better” than anyone else. I’ve been praying this week that God would give me a correct view of myself. What is my cup full of? Self righteousness that stinks like a sink full of week old dirty dishes? Or the grace of God that he wants me to pour out generously on everyone around me, gay, straight or otherwise?
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.“ Matthew 23:25-27
The word hypocrite was a term used to describe an actor who would wear a mask for entertainment, but here Jesus uses it to accuses the Pharisees of living a false life. Their outward actions are righteous to onlookers, but their hearts are full of greed, self-indulgence, hypocrisy and lawlessness.
A sinner can be saved, but a hypocrite will cling with a death-grip to the mask they fashion for themselves. The hypocrite believes that if they can’t be inwardly righteous then maintaining some facade of outward holiness will make them acceptable to God and other people.
Let’s take a look at the four traits of the Pharisees Jesus mentions here and ask God to show us where we might have some “dishwashing” to submit to. It’s uncomfortable, but a necessary part of repentance for the disciple of Christ.
Greed
Defined as an intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food. Its close cousins are envy and coveting. We have such a strange culture when it comes to greed. Advertisers constantly use a scarcity mindset to trick us into thinking we must buy what they are selling. It’s a “limited edition” and a “limited time only.” We are constantly barraged with the message that we don’t have enough.
When our pastors touch on the subject of finances at church we think about how hard we work for our money, and how much we deserve, and maybe we’ll give later when our finances are better. The question is, if we are not being generous with what we have now how can we expect to all of a sudden have a generous heart when we have more money? The answer is we won’t. The whole point of giving to God is that our finances were never meant to be our savior.
Self-Indulgence
This is an enjoyment to excess. While the Pharisees should have been helping the common people they were instead showboating their own righteousness. It fed their bloated egos. Praying loudly for all to hear, fasting to show off their holiness, tithing from their spice cabinets…
“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward… “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward… “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.” Matthew 6:2, 5, & 16
Are your spiritual practices done between you and the Lord or have you been seeking the approval and appreciation of man? The opposite of that self-indulgence is compassion. Eyes that see the world as Jesus did when he looked at the crowds and saw them as sheep with no shepherd. The Pharisees should have been taking care of the lost sheep of Israel but were instead showing off their own self-righteousness and lording their power over the people.
Hypocrisy
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:9-14
We fight against the hypocrisy inside ourselves with a humble admission of where we fall short. I heard a pastor say once that God’s Plan A is humility and that his Plan B is humiliation. What a wake up call. We all know someone who spent years hiding behind a mask of self-righteousness to eventually be humiliated openly by some secret sin. Maybe you have been or are one of them. Totally me, when I was living a double life as the good little Christian teenager but partying and sleeping with my boyfriend and ended up pregnant at 16.
If this is you humble yourself and come out of hiding now. Cry out, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” And he will be! There is forgiveness and healing. It’s the beauty of the Gospel, the Good News that tells us Jesus washes away ALL our sins, even us hypocritical Christians.
Lawlessness
But wait a minute… Weren’t the Pharisees the most law abiding? Maybe on the outside but not in their hearts. And that’s Jesus’ whole point. They looked like amazing men of God. They insisted on the keeping of the letter of the law but missed the heart behind it. They were circumcised in their flesh but not in their hearts. They loved themselves and their positions of power over the people but they did not love God nor his people. It’s why they constantly criticized Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. It’s why they accused him of being demon possessed. It’s why they conspired to take him and had him killed.
What does this mean for us modern Christians? Is it possible that we can become lawless? James gives us an important insight.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. James 1:22-25
What is “the perfect law, the law of liberty?” Jesus freed us from the law of sin and death to the law of liberty. Not to be made free to continue in sin and unrighteousness but to be free to love in grace and mercy.
When a lawyer asked Jesus which of the commandments were the greatest his answer was so deep, yet so simple.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40
Luke 10:29 tells us that next the lawyer asked, “Who then is my neighbor?” to which Jesus replies with the story of the good Samaritan.
So I’m asking myself today, what’s in my cup? What is my response to the tragedy in Orlando?
First it is to cry out, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” To let the Lord cleanse me inside and out.
Second is to love my neighbor, no matter who they are. To pray for the broken and hurting and help by any means possible. To be the opposite of the hypocrites who are full of greed, self-indulgence, hypocrisy and lawlessness and strive daily to walk in generosity, compassion, humility and love, in the name of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
As always, thanks for reading. I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to email me or leave a comment on this post.
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