Taking the Blinders Off

Matthew 23:25 “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! 26 You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too….27 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. 28 Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.”When a person has little time to live, he tends not to mince words. Jesus knows that Golgotha awaits—and soon. So He pointedly, and with force, addresses some of the major issues plaguing the religious leaders of His day. We read these cutting words and perhaps wince a bit; however, if we had been present on that day, I think we would have been absolutely writhing in uncomfortable astonishment. After all, who talks to religious authorities this way?Here’s Jesus, name-calling on a scale that would make a politician blush, publicly, and with ferocity, exposing the flaws and fallacies of the religious elite. But why? It seems so un-Jesus-like. Isn’t Jesus full of grace, mercy and love? Yes—BUT He’s also full of Truth. And as any good physician knows, the “patient” cannot get well without an accurate—and sometimes painful—diagnosis. (We remember that Jesus considered Himself the Great Physician who had come to save sinners—because the righteous didn’t need saving.)So as we peer through a different lens, we see that Jesus is being absolutely loving (though it may not immediately appear that way), for only someone who loves greatly is willing to tell the Truth so boldly and unapologetically. He’s not “telling them off,” as it were. Actually, he’s inviting them to live authentically by ridding themselves of greed, self-indulgence, hypocrisy and lawlessness. These are soul cancers, and to be rid of them is to be spiritually healthy and whole.Jesus invites us to do the same. Periodically, for integrity’s sake, it’s necessary for us to look at ourselves in the mirror of God’s Word. We look in a mirror as opposed to a window, because through a window we look at others (it’s “their” issue / problem), but in a mirror there is only us—ME (am I being greedy, self-indulgent, hypocritical, or lawless?). Better to wrestle with the painful Truth and live authentically, than to avoid the Truth and thus exist in a state of perpetual, spiritual blindness. So…during this Holy Week, let’s courageously look inside to see what further work Jesus may like to do there!Abba Father, give us eyes to really see; help us to look inside ourselves; give us the courage to embrace the Truth, no matter how painful that may be; then restore us through Your marvelous, healing grace and mercy. Amen.A fellow beggar along the Way,greg