Lakeside Visitor July 2010

 

Last month we talked about how we can’t fool God with sugarcoated words that cover arsenic-laced intentions. That flows into this month’s bitter pill of how we can fool ourselves. Read Matthew 15:1-11 and jump on my train of thought. I have to admit, this is a difficult horse pill for me because I know, as most of you do as well, that we Christians can carry an air–intentional or not–of superiority or religious piety that hardly represents our inner lives. And in most cases we cannot separate our inner lives from the language we use. Our lips will show the condition of our souls despite our careful window dressing.

Jesus jumps on the scribes and Pharisees for dissecting his road crew in judgment for the most heinous neglect of washing their hands before they ate (parents, don’t let your kids use this on you to avoid cleanliness)! I imagine it was only too humorous to hear Jesus bust out the big guns and expose the real problem. Can you imagine neglecting your responsibility to love your wife and kids, or your parents, because you love God so much? Well, this crowd of frosty-nosed uppity-ups seemed to care more about a religious display, a cacophony of holy words, than faithful living. But Jesus wasn’t having any of that. So much for the all-loving God who lets us do whatever we want, right? Our personal convictions and ways of doing things, even when it comes to our pursuit of God, often fall miserably short of worshipping God–especially when we expect others to be where we are. Jesus knows this, and He pulls no punches.

Honoring God with papier-mâché lips, while housing a heart of indifference, doesn’t just hurt God. It defiles us. We have a way of checking our “allowances” around certain groups of friends before we finally feel comfortable to let our verbal bellies explode over our conscience belts. And it’s a relief, isn’t it, like we can breathe again? Comedian Jim Gaffigan says that he preps one group of friends about another before they meet: “Um, they don’t think I drink. And don’t be thrown by my British accent.” Jesus tells us here that we may cover our worldly reality with a spiritual accent but it doesn’t work. We cannot fool ourselves without becoming defiled by hypocrisy and deceit, which will ultimately result in turning from the faith (1 Timothy 4:1-2). I don’t think Jesus brought up the danger of false speech and actions to be a stick in the mud. He did it to help us. Will we take the lesson and be helped this month?