Seeds for 01/11/2024 - Matthew 23:25-28
Scripture: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”
Observation: I do the dishes. There’s little more disappointing than opening the dishwasher to find that the water ran but the trap with the detergent soap didn’t open. They’ve had a bath, but they’re far from clean. More than once I’ve pulled out a cup or bowl and confirmed it—yep, gunk on the inside.
That’s a modern nod to Jesus’ woes for today.
The outside looks good, but the inside tells a different story.
Curated. Performative. Posturing. Masking.
Apparently these have long been temptations of the human heart. In our day, we see them most acutely in social media and the careful selection of how we present ourselves to the world. We’re under no obligation to share everything with our slice of the watching world, of course. That said, deciding what to share inevitably invites us to consider not only what we’d like others to see, but what we’d like them to think. Here we crash into Jesus’ critique of the Pharisees and teachers. “Hypocrite” meant “play-actor” and Jesus says they are pretending to be something they are not.
The tough thing is that if (when) you know you’re dirty on the inside, you may greatly desire for people not to know. Hence the curation of the image, the performance of the role.
The first woe includes the antidote to this sort of behavior: “First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and the outside will also be clean.”
Salvation is about reconciling our relationship with God, yes. But it goes further—restoring us in the image of God. The theological terms for this are justification (reconciliation of relationship) and sanctification (maturing and restoring in us the Divine image).
God’s transformation is inside-out. That’s why it begins with repentance. The crowds flocking to John the Baptist knew that their inside needed transformation. So instead of carefully curating their image, they marched down to the river. It turns out that the water splashing over their bodies matched up with the cleansing happening in their souls. That’s what God can and will do for those to come to faith in Jesus too.
Application:
What inside-out transformation might you need God to work today?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
If you liked this post from Seeds of Faith, why not share it and/or subscribe?
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™