25 “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. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Matthew 23:25-26
Okay, this seems like a loaded and harsh verse for an uplifting blog but hear me out. Julia and have been taking time every night to read the actual Bible to the boys and not just a watered down baby version. I’m not bad mouthing Baby Bibles because I love the ones with the squishy pages you can chew…..I mean the babies can chew.
So the other night were reading Matthew 23 from the New King James Version. I love reading the NKJV, but the problem is that when you get about 3 chapters in a row of Jesus speaking, those “red letters” start to blur and you feel like you’re being punched in the face with wisdom over and over and over again. It is a challenge to sort it all out. But Matthew 23 gave us a fun thing to do because Jesus is really laying into the scribes and Pharisees. How do I know he’s laying into the scribes and Pharisees? Because in a chapter with only 39 verses, Jesus calls out the scribes and Pharisees by name 7 times. Not only does he call them out but he calls them hypocrites. We were actually doing this devo with extended family so anytime the verse popped up we all started shouting “HYPOCRITES” together. We’re a weird family. And then, just for fun, Jesus mixes it up and calls them “Serpents, brood of vipers” in verse 33. Suffice to say we were a bit disappointed we didn’t get to yell “HYPOCRITES” again. As I said, we’re a weird family.
So weirdness aside, what Jesus was explaining is that the scribes and Pharisees were more focused on looking like righteous men of God instead of actually being righteous men of God. Jesus called them out because He knew their heart. He knew that with all the glitz and glamor they tried to showcase to people, what they desired was self promotion. I’m sure you’ve all dealt with someone in your life like this. It reminds me of the shady used car salesmen from tv and movies. They take a clunker of a car, give it a paint job to shine it up real nice hoping someone buys it without looking under the hood only to get it home and find out the engine is just two gerbils running on a wheel. Thus Jesus calling the scribes and Pharisees “HYPOCRITES!” So the easy way to end this blog is to say, “It’s not about what’s on the outside but what’s on the inside that counts” and then quote 1 Samuel 16:7. But that’s dumb and too easy. What I want you to understand is that it’s not just about what you do but why you do it.
Jesus told the Pharisees in verse 25 to clean the inside of the and then the outside will also be clean. When there is a true, inward change of our heart that chooses to follow God and accept Christ as our savior, it creates a new outward approach to how we live our lives. The question stops being “how can doing this thing benefit me” and becomes “how can doing this thing benefit God’s kingdom”. It’s easier to do something when it benefits us, just as the Pharisees did. But God is looking at the heart. He’s looking at the “Why?” Someone once told me the best part about getting to know God is that He loves to answer the “Why” questions. Because that is something that we can only find the answer to deep within ourselves. And nobody knows that part of us better than God. So I ask you today, why do you do what you do? Is it to benefit you or is it to benefit the Kingdom of God? Calling Christ our Lord and Savior means we choose to hold ourselves to a higher standard, inside and out. Through Him, we can Look the part as well as Live it with righteousness. Unlike the scribes and Pharisees, (everyone all together now), THE HYPOCRITES!
