Following after Jesus #83

The longer Jesus was teaching and healing, the greater became the intensity of His confrontations with those who resisted the Gospel. He was always questioning tradition and conventional thinking. Like in Luke 11:

37 While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. 38 The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. 39 And 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! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is 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. 43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. 44 Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.”

One might question Jesus' manners at the dinner table here: He didn't wash His hands; He called His host a fool, and He unloaded every possible criticism against the group of which this man was a part. Jesus had a big problem with hypocrisy. The Pharisees emphasized all the wrong things: external appearance of being holy over true righteousness; minute details over bigger issues of justice and mercy; wanting to be in charge instead of humbly serving God and others.  We often claim to despise self-righteous hypocrisy as well, but we are always looking in other peoples' cups, questioning other peoples' actions and motives, sitting back in our own seat of judgment and self-made authority, when Christ alone is worthy to do so. In calling others Pharisees, we become them ourselves.  Let's come to Him with empty cups, allowing Him to cleanse us. Let us offer Him everything we have to take as much as He wants. Let us take the back seat so we can see more clearly how we can come aside those heading for danger and say: "I stepped in that mess; you don't want to go there."