Cleaning The Inside

23“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 24You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

25“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

27“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. 28So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Matthew 23:23-28

Cleaning the inside of ourselves is what God is looking for. There are none of us without sin, none of us are perfect. I have seen this in my own heart wanting to look good on the outside and not dealing with the sin on the inside. So what is Jesus talking about here? We have neglected the weightier matters of the law. Justice and mercy and faithfulness seem to be more important than tithing. I remember as a kid, I saw many gardens with a little bit of dill planted in the midst of the garden. It was almost like a weed that cropped up but it was wanted for seasoning. It wasn't the main planting in the garden. There would have been beets, carrots, and many other vegetables in large numbers but the dill was small in number. It appears to me when they were tithing on dill it was a small thing meant to be seen by others on their adhering to the law. We have been told in the word if we do things to be seen of men, we already have our reward. Our reward is just that to be seen by men. God is wanting to work on the inside of our hearts. God wants correct attitudes: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. As I mention the word justice, I think of the six-year-old that was killed several years ago in a neighboring county getting off her school bus in her front yard. The little girl was run over by a driver that went around the school bus on the right side, the curbside of the bus. The driver has never been charged with a crime even though the driver killed a six-year-old girl. We have problems locally with justice but we want to fix Washington. We want to fix climate change, we look good but are we really doing something good when we address something big like climate change for the whole world. Yet in our backyard, a little girl has not received justice. Something is wrong but I wonder if we need to fix local issues maybe even our own hearts before we tackle the world. I really think that is how we fix the world, changing culture by fixing one heart at a time. Mercy, do we want mercy or justice? I received mercy the other day when I got a warning instead of the speeding ticket I deserved. I was doing 54 in a 30. Do we extend the same mercy we received towards others? Many times when we ask for justice, what we really want is mercy. We have all sinned. Faithfulness, is that doing the right thing day after day when it seems to go unnoticed? The Pharisees wanted to be noticed for all their good deeds but were unwilling to deal with heart issues. God wants us to be faithful, even when it seems we don't get the recognition we think we deserve. God sees and our reward will be in heaven.
I believe God is working on hearts, day after day when it seems nothing is happening. Justice, mercy and faithfulness, weightier matters of the law, what does that really mean? Are we looking on the inside?   God bless, LVZ.