From Pastor Perry

Matthew 23:25–26 (ESV)

Seven Woes to the Scribes and Pharisees  (5^th Woe)

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. ²⁶ You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

I remember a man who had a coffee cup that was stained on the inside.  He rinsed it off and dried off the outside with a dish towel, but never really scrubbed the inside of the cup.  Jesus is referring to the scribes and Pharisees to a cup that is clean on the outside, but dirty on the inside.  What’s in the heart of a person is more important than outward appearance.  I think of baptism that washes away the sin inside a person and makes him/her clean.

I pray: O Lord, you have washed me clean through my baptism.  Help me to reflect daily on you cleansing power and to live in my baptism.  Amen.