Doing Dishes

I once was invited to dinner at a friend's house, I knew their family wasn't the most clean-freakish family out there. When they were setting cups on the table and the outside looked slightly suspicious what do you think I did? Of course, I peeked discreetly into the cup's inside, that's the important part anyway...

39And the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 You fools[ones acting without reflection or intelligence]! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? 41But give what is inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.

42 "But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

This passage makes me think of a few times in my dishes duty days when I would quickly run a washcloth over the outside and run hot water into the cup and consider it "clean enough". I mean, the inside didn't look dirty, and what they don't know can't hurt them, right? Is that really true? Say you look nice enough on the outside, but on the inside you always lusting. The people you are devouring with your eyes might not notice (right away) so it's not hurting them, but it is destroying your view of people as more than just bodies. In essence your dirty inside is infecting you. The Pharisees were wicked and greedy- if they gave away some of the stuff they held inside- the things acquired by greed, or if they got rid of some wickedness with kindness their inside might have had a chance to get clean. Sometimes I think it's a lot easier to keep the outside clean because everyone can see it- immediate accountability right there. But the inside can be hidden pretty well, there is no one staring into your soul, ready to chide you for all the dirty things there.

The Pharisees were good rule-followers, they had the percentage of spices to give down to a fine art, but God is bigger than that. He wanted justice for the ones they oppressed. He longed for them to see the bigger picture behind the rule- love for God. He wanted them to tithe out of love for Him, instead they just tithed, did the outer deed, and neglected the inner motive of love. He wants them, and us, to both obey and love Him.