Matthew 23:25–26 (ESV)
Seven Woes to the Scribes and Pharisees (5th 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.