Choosing our direction

Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in, and reclined at the table.

Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering." When He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects, plotting against Him to catch Him in something He might say. (Luke 11:37, 52-54 NASB)

The trouble started in the most innocent of ways. Jesus had spoken to a crowd. One of the Pharisees was present and invited Jesus to have lunch with him. At that time, Jesus was wildly popular, gathering huge crowds everywhere He went. Having Jesus to lunch was a little like winning a prize, I imagine, and the Pharisee invited some of his friends to join him and meet Jesus.

From the start, there was conflict. The Pharisees were unhappy that Jesus did not obey the laws about ritual cleansing before meals. Jesus quickly explained that there was a difference between cleaning the outside of our bodies and allowing God to cleanse our hearts. The Pharisees had been so intent on obeying the rules of law (especially the manmade ones) that they had missed the Spirit of the law. They were like dead men walking, leaving the odor of death everywhere they went.

The lawyers present quickly complained. "You're talking about us, too." Jesus agreed. Yes, He was talking about them, too. The lawyers not only weighed people down with unnecessary rules that they did not follow themselves, but they had the key of knowledge that could have unlocked the kingdom of God. They had studied the Scriptures since childhood, knew the Messianic prophecies, yet refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah. They actively prevented anyone else from knowing Him.

After Jesus left the luncheon, the Pharisees and lawyers began to be hostile. The wording implies that they weren't hostile while He was present. After He left, the enemy found a foothold and stirred up trouble. They seethed about the confrontation with Jesus, simmering like a pot of soup. Seething led to plotting. Plotting led to schemes, then, eventually, to murder. 

When God confronts us with our sin, we have two options. We can embrace His truth and allow Him to cleanse and change us or we can respond as the Pharisees did, with hostility and anger. Neither response is the end, however. When we respond with hostility and anger, rather than allowing Him to change us, it is only the beginning. Anger begets action. Action birthed in such inauspicious beginnings is never good, and it will take us places we never wanted to go. 

Our other option, the one I want to choose, is to embrace His truth and allow Him to change the broken parts of us. That response is not the end, either. When we allow God to change us, He makes us into something better. Someone more like Christ. That change, too, can allow Him to do things with us that we never imagined. 

Every day, we stand at a decision point that will bring us closer to Jesus or take us further away. We need to keep our goal in sight. If what we want is to spend eternity with our Savior, our goal should be to steadily draw closer to Him. Every decision we make should be made with that goal in mind, especially when our own sin is concerned. 

Let's do what the Pharisee did. Invite Christ to spend some time with us today so we can get to know Him better. If He shows us something about ourselves that we didn't want to know, (and He almost certainly will) let's embrace His truth and allow Him to make us what He meant us to be, then allow Him to do more than we ever imagined with our lives.

Washing inside and out

Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in, and reclined at the table. When the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. But the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? (Luke 11:37-40 NASB)

One of the distinguishing factors of the Pharisees was their strict observance to purity laws. Intended for purification before worship at the temple, the Pharisees extended the observance of temple purity laws to life outside the temple, as well. Ritual cleansing was not only for coming before God. The Pharisees had decreed that it was for every day.

When Jesus visited the Pharisee's house, He did a surprising thing. He skipped the ritual cleansing and went straight to the table and sat down, instead. The Pharisee was surprised, but Jesus responded to the man's surprise by using it as a teachable moment. The Pharisees, he said, were diligent to clean the "outside", pouring water over their hands in ritual cleansing, while their "inside" was full of sin. Jesus called them foolish and reminded them that God made the outside and the inside. 

Washing their hands for ceremonial cleansing was supposed to be an outward symbol of an inward transformation, not a substitute for transformation. The Pharisees had turned the symbol into their objective, completely abandoning the important cleansing of their hearts. They were full of "robbery and wickedness" and had no intention of changing. They would much rather have their hands cleansed than their hearts.

What they didn't seem to understand was that the purpose of the rituals involved in worship was to demonstrate the price of sin, the payment for sin, and the need for cleansing from sin. The experts in the law had missed the meaning and interpretation of the law completely. 

Being cleansed from sin before God is vital in our relationship with Him, but that will never come by washing our hands or our bodies. Being cleansed of sin begins with a repentant heart and the blood of Christ. 

The problem comes when we like our sin and want to keep it. It is much easier to wash our hands than to allow cleansing from sin for which we are not repentant. 

Alas, if we understood how God views our sin, we might feel differently. Therein lies much of our problem. God hates the sin we love, and it is His opinion that matters most of all. He hates our sin because it hurts us and separates us from Him. It costs us more than we can imagine. 

If we could see our sin the way God sees it, perhaps we would be less eager to retain it. For today, let's ask God to show us our hearts and the sin that offends Him, but let's not stop there. Let's ask God to wash our hearts clean, too. 

What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus...