Outside Looking Inside - October 27, 2010

Daily Lectionary Readings For October 27, 2010
Psalm 3
Nahum 1:1-14
Revelation 12:1-6
Luke 11:37-52

Luke 11:37-52
"The the Lord said to him, 'Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.  You fools!  Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also?"(vs.39-40)
Jesus accepts an invitation to dinner at the table of a Pharisee.  He goes to the table without washing before dinner, catching the attention of the Pharisee and other Pharisee guests.  Jesus is, of course, after a point.  His very direct words above are a reminder of our focus on superficiality rather than depth.  Obvious external blemishes may be washed away, but they are a surface issue.  Who we are at our core is not a surface question, but a question that goes to the heart of our being.  We may play the present day equivalent of the ritual purity game, but Jesus is concerned with our internal makeup.  He cites greed and wickedness as examples and there are surely other blemishes trying to find a home on our inner selves.  The devestating cost of those blemishes is not something that can be viewed at a quick glance, but rather something that manifests in our behavior and in our relationships in ways that are destructive and deeply harmful.  Jesus encourages us to worry less about the surface and to invest ourselves in attending to our inner selves.