Luke 11:41 But now as for what is inside you — be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.
Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. said, “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” If only these words were heard today in the United States. The inside matters. Superficial is superficial. Many of the ‘woke’ posturing in today’s culture is based, not on the content of character, something over which we have some control, but over superficial differences, over which we have little to no control.
And what is inside, the content of our character, gets lived out in our lives. That is what matters. Inside character expressed in the outside life.
Luke, the writer of our text, records the content of a conversation Jesus had at the home of a Pharisee. The Pharisees were a prominent group of religious leaders with whom Jesus often clashed. Jesus was all about character. The Pharisees were seemingly all about the outward actions of people.
So for Jesus to be at the home of a Pharisee and eat a meal with them sets the stage for our text. What happened is this. Jesus came to the house and began eating the meal without performing a ritual hand washing, something a Pharisee would never do. And Jesus knows what the Pharisee is thinking, so He addresses the issue head on. I like people who can speak directly to the true issue at hand without beating around the bush, hoping the issue flies away.
Jesus addresses both the inside and the outside. Our text tells them what they need to change. They need to not be so worried about the outside. They need their insides cleaned up, and then they will act right. And the Pharisees had an issue. Money possessed them, rather than the money being possessed by them.
This speaks to their heart condition. Jesus goes on in a series of ‘woe’ statements to show both the inside attitude of their hearts and what a change to that inside would bring on the outside. Let’s take a quick look at these woes.
The first one deals with their ability to keep non-essential rules about inventory control, but missing both justice and love for God. They were able to pay the appropriate taxes, but then neglected to apply the same principles to other people. They focused on things rather than people.
They also wanted to be the center of attention, not an attractive trait in anyone. They sought out the spotlight. They loved being an ‘Influencer’ in their culture. And just like today, influencers never actually do anything of value. Like Facebook, all the profits flow one direction. It feeds off people’s worst to create a grave filled with rotting flesh.
And the third woe is perhaps the worst. In those days, coming in contact with a grave required a temporary separation from other people. I interrupted the normal routine of the day. I created a stigma of social distancing. It was not good.
So Jesus tells these leaders that being around them created an unknown stigma. People got ‘infected’ with the disease the Pharisees carried without their knowledge. They were non-symptomatic carriers. The disease was invisible and the transmission had no “Patient Zero” that could be identified, but the transmission happened none the less.
Jesus emphasizes that our inside attitude will change our outward behavior. And as people called to be holy as an outgrowth of the presence of God’s Spirit in us, our lives must reflect that inward presence of God by the things we do with our hands, our feet, our mouths, and every other part of us and in our conduct. To say or do less is a denial of the presence of the Holy God in our lives.
The Arnold Journey 