Whitewashed or Washed White
Matthew 23:25-26, 27-28
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.” (NIV)
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” (NIV)
The culture of Jesus’ day was religious. To fit in, one had to practice or at least give the appearance of practicing specified religious norms. Those who failed to practice things like ceremonial hand washing or abstaining from all physical activity on the Sabbath were scorned and even ostracized. The need to stay ceremonially clean made places like graveyards and things like graves off limits.
According to Mosaic Law, "Anyone out in the open who touches someone who has been killed with a sword or someone who has died a natural death, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days” (NIV, Numbers 19:16, pg. 142). So much for being an archaeologist or a mortician.
Can you image making a three week pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover only to accidentally step on a grave and thereby disqualifying yourself from entering the temple grounds for seven days? By the time you’re clean, Passover is over.
To avoid defilement by accidentally stepping on or touching a grave, the Pharisees painted the tombs in Palestine with a lime paste or whitewash at the beginning of every year. Whitewashing accomplished two purposes:
1) it identified tombs so they could be avoided and
2) it beautified tombs so they could be admired.
In our text Jesus says that the religious leaders of His day were “beautiful.” The Greek term is horaios and originally it spoke of that which was seasonable, appropriate to its time, at its best, or ripe. These leaders appeared to be the cream of the crop. They were viewed by onlookers as being superbly fit for their lofty positions. They were beautiful.
EXTERNAL APPEARANCES
The Pharisees were definitely fastidious practitioners of the law. In Luke 18:9, we are allowed to eavesdrop on the prayer of a Pharisee. He says
11 ’God, I thank you that I am not… a robber, an evildoer or an adulterer…. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ (NIV)
This man was honest in his financial dealings. He wasn’t a robber. He was loyal to his marriage vows. He was no adulterer. In addition to not being an evildoer, he fasted twice a week and he was a tither, not to mention that he stood to pray in honor of God. You’ve got to admit that he’s doing a lot better than most of the people sitting in pews this morning. Those aren’t bad credentials, are they?
Even Jesus acknowledged that the Pharisees tithed, gave to the needy and were men of prayer. So why shouldn’t one feel good about not doing evil and about doing good?
Of course you realize that I’m being facetious. Jesus did say that these men were “beautiful,” but only outwardly. In the eyes of the people and in their own eyes, these leaders were the epitome of Judaism.
These leaders were beautiful, but an internal audit tells a different story. Jesus saw beyond the façade.
AN INTERNAL AUDIT
In Luke 18:9-12, we get the complete audit of the Pharisee’s prayer.
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about {11 Or to} himself: ’God, I thank you that I am not like other men-- robbers, evildoers, adulterers-- or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ (NIV)
In Matthew 23:23, Jesus says:
“"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices-- mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law-- justice , mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former” (NIV Matthew 23:23).
In Matthew 6:1-6, Jesus says:
Matthew 6:1 "Be careful not to do your ’acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Jesus isn’t saying that we shouldn’t give to the needy when others are looking, but that we should not give to be seen.
In the verses that follow Jesus’ rebuke of boisterous benevolence, Jesus says:
Matthew 6:5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. NIV
The giving and praying and fasting done by these religious leaders were all about appearances. Their actions and abstinence was, in Jesus’ words, a lot of whitewash.
I wish I could point my finger at these men and declare myself free from such hypocrisy, but to do so would make me the Pharisee of the Pharisees. Like them, I have been guilty of covering my filthy heart with religious whitewash.
I can tell you that no amount of
• tithing or
• fasting or
• praying or
• visiting or
• giving or
• studying
can justify the mistreatment or neglect of the poor, the oppression of the weak, or attitudes of prejudice.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says unbridled desire for the forbidden is sinful. He taught:
27 "You have heard that it was said, ’Do not commit adultery.’ {27 Exodus 20:14} 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully [with sexual desire for her] has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:27-28, NIV, pg. 893).
No wonder Jesus said, “… I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20, NIV). Remember, the Pharisees were sticklers when it came to practicing the law, yet the righteousness Jesus requires goes beyond not being a tax collector, or a murderer or an adulterer. It is more than giving, fasting, praying and being ceremonially clean.
Perhaps being caught in the act of adultery is better for one’s spiritual life than being able to maintain a whitewashed façade. Jesus said, “I would that you were cold or hot, but you make me sick enough to vomit because you are lukewarm.” Selah!
In Luke 10:25-37, Jesus was confronted by an expert on Jewish law whose intent was to “test Jesus.”
"Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" 27 He answered: "’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; {27 Deut. 6:5} and, ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’" {27 Lev. 19:18} 28 "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30 In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins {35 Greek two denarii} and gave them to the innkeeper. ’Look after him,’ he said, ’and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36 "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
How would you have answered that question? Was it the
• “priest,”
• the “Levite,” or
• the “Samaritan”?
The correct answer is obviously “the Samaritan,” but how does the expert answer Jesus? According to verse 37, “The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’” (Luke 10:25-37, NIV)
The lawyer was unable to say “it was the Samaritan who had mercy on him,” so he says, “the one who had mercy on him.” Why couldn’t he say Samaritan? Why, because the Jews hated the Samaritans. Religious whitewash allows us to justify prejudice and hatred and unforgiveness.
Jesus uses this exchange to pull the man’s prejudice into the light. He then closes this encounter with, “Go and do likewise.” In other words, “Go and love those who are different than you and love them enough to help them at your own expense.” In that statement Jesus flung open the doors of the Pharisees entombed heart and exposed its filthy contents.
In Matthew 5:43-44, Jesus says that loving our neighbor includes loving our enemies.
43 "You have heard that it was said, ’Love your neighbor {43 Lev. 19:18} and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:43-44, NIV).
In 1Corinthians 13:3, Paul told the Corinthians, “If I give all I possess to the poor…but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”
• Did you realize it’s possible to give to the poor without loving the poor?
• Do you realize it’s possible to send missionaries to foreign fields of service without caring about the missionary or the people he’s trying to reach? Don’t believe it, then explain why much of the promised support to missionaries never comes in?
• Do you realize that we can sing songs without ever worshipping God?
• Do you realize that attending church can become a duty instead of a passionate participation in the community of faith? Perhaps that is why more and more churches are cancelling gatherings instead of starting new ones! In Acts 2, the Church had everything in common and met daily to pray, study and eat. When something or someone is your life, then you can’t get enough of it or of Him. Contemporary Christianity is about being the least we can be and doing just enough to get by. It’s more about entertainment, than it is about service, but that’s another soapbox for another day!
The Pharisees were like tombs which were beautifully ornamented, but inwardly they were full of worms, the stench of decaying flesh and unclean bones.
What about us?
1. How much of your business is merely whitewash; a religious cover for the nightmare that rages within?
2. What are we hiding?
3. What does our minimal involvement in service to God and others say about our heart?
4. Is our business an attempt to avoid facing the painful truth about our heart?
5. Is our criticism of others a means of covering our own sin?
6. Do we pray and worship when no one but God is listening?
7. Do we gather with the saints because we are a part of a community or is it just a matter of doing our duty?
So, if I realize I’m into whitewash religion, what are my options, Louis?
DEALING WITH THE PROBLEM
There are three ways in which we can deal with the problems exposed by God’s internal audit.
1. We can put more whitewash on the tomb and go on with business as usual.
2. We can open the grave, admit the truth and tell everyone, “This is who I am, so if you don’t like it then build a bridge and get over it.”
3. We can abandon the whitewash and take God up on the deal He offered through the pen of Isaiah: "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool” (Isaiah 1:18, NIV).
Which will you choose?
This morning, I want to invite you to the Table of The Lord. If you need to deal with some “dead men’s bones,” this is the place and now is the time to do it. Perhaps you need to spend time alone with God or maybe you need to confide in someone you trust. Now is the time to clean the inside of the cup. Now is the time to abandon whitewash religion and be washed white by the blood of Jesus.
© 2007 by Louis Bartet. Permission granted for non-commercial use.
