Scripture Daily

Context No. 1530 of 4322 · Luke

Context · Reflection

Luke 11:33-44: in context

33“No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, that those who come in may see the light. 34The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore when your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light; but when it is evil, your body also is full of darkness. 35Therefore see whether the light that is in you isn’t darkness. 36If therefore your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly full of light, as when the lamp with its bright shining gives you light.” 37Now as he spoke, a certain Pharisee asked him to dine with him. He went in and sat at the table. 38When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed himself before dinner. 39The Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness. 40You foolish ones, didn’t he who made the outside make the inside also? 41But give for gifts to the needy those things which are within, and behold, all things will be clean to you. 42But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you bypass justice and God’s love. You ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone. 43Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces. 44Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like hidden graves, and the men who walk over them don’t know it.”

Jesus speaks of the lamp and the eye, and then, invited to dine with a Pharisee, is criticized for not washing before the meal. He answers with a rebuke of a religion of appearances. You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the dish, he says, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools, did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? He goes on: you tithe your garden herbs but neglect justice and the love of God; you love the places of honor and the greetings in the marketplaces; you are like unmarked graves that people walk over without knowing.

The image that exposes their religion is the cup cleaned only on the outside: you clean the outside of the cup, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. The Pharisees were scrupulous about outward, visible cleanness, the washings and observances that others could see, while the inside, the heart, was full of greed and wickedness. It is the perennial danger of a religion of appearances, polishing the exterior that others see while leaving the interior corrupt. And Jesus asks a pointed question: did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? God, who made both, cares about both, and above all about the inside, which we can hide from others but not from him. There is a searching warning in this for anyone whose religion is chiefly outward. It is possible to keep up an impressive exterior, the visible observances, the reputation for piety, the things others can see, while the heart underneath is full of greed, resentment, and wickedness we have never dealt with. God is not fooled by the polished outside; he made the inside and sees it, and it is the inside he most cares about. The cup clean only on the outside is still a filthy cup. Jesus calls us to attend to the inner cleanness, the state of the heart, and not merely the outward appearance that others admire. Clean the inside, he says in effect, and the outside will take care of itself; but an outside cleaned over a corrupt inside is only hypocrisy.

Do I attend chiefly to the outside, the visible observances and reputation others can see, while the inside of the cup is full of greed and wickedness I have never dealt with, and will I let God, who made the inside and sees it, cleanse the heart and not merely the appearance?

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