Inside Out

Matthew 23:25-28

²⁵“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.

²⁶You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

²⁷“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. 

²⁸So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

No one would deny that we a culture obsessed with looks. When People Magazine publishes their list of the 100 Most Beautiful People each it year flies off the shelves. We care about how our car looks, our house looks, and even how our pets look. And in this regard we are strikingly similar to our ancient ancestors. Apparently outward appearances have always been important – to everyone except God. The Pharisees have been listening to Jesus try and teach them about the futility of this attitude and clearly those words are falling on deaf ears. Jesus continues with analogy after analogy in an attempt to help the Pharisees see the hopelessness of their “outward appearances” approach to spirituality. This time He compares them to a cup that has been used for something unclean and to a grave. His point is plain – if you’re dead on the inside what you look like on the outside simply doesn’t matter.

For a Jewish person to touch a grave would mean they were ceremonially unclean for 7 days. This rule caused them to actually paint the graves white so that they were clearly marked. This painting was usually done just before Passover. You wouldn’t want to be excluded from the celebration just because you accidentally touched a grave! Jesus uses those whitewashed tombs to point out the futility of such a practice and even goes so far as to compare their interior spiritual lives to that of those graves; nothing but dead and decaying bones on the inside. It’s a gruesome picture.

We too have to look at our own spirituality and honestly ask ourselves if we’re just going through the motions or if we are actually in contact with the Living God. While I’m sure that there are many who exercise their spirituality so that others may see them I think that in today’s culture people might be more honest. They just don’t go to church. Since that isn’t considered something to be admired anymore, why bother with the pretense? But God chose to put these verses into the text so we have to pay attention to them and hold our own lives up to the exposure of their light.

Lord, where I am but a whitewashed tomb, please expose my wrong thinking and bring me to my knees before Your throne in humble repentance. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.