[Jesus continued his condemnation:] "What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy — full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too."
The problem with external, Jesus reminds us, is not the attention on the outside cleanness. He does not criticize the outside cleanness. Instead, he is furious with the Pharisees' preoccupation with the outside cleanness while ignoring the interior world of the heart, motives, intentions, and desires. As he did in the Sermon on the Mount in specific detail (
Matthew 5:21-22,
27-28,
6:1-8, 16-18, 7:12), Jesus once again reminds us that no amount of preoccupation with external cleanness will make the interior world clean. Greed (an excessive desire for things, including things gotten by cheating others) and self-indulgence (pleasing only oneself) are the seeds of all sorts of unclean thoughts, motives, and actions. The outside cannot be made truly clean unless we address those internal issues.
Almighty, holy, and awesome Father, please purify my heart, my desires, my motives by the cleansing power of your Holy Spirit. I want to reflect your character in both my interior and exterior worlds. May the words of my mouth, the thoughts of my mind, the motives of my heart, and the actions of my hands be pleasing to you. In the name of the Jesus Christ, my Savior and Lord. Amen.
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