Matthew 23:26 - Who needs a dishwasher!?

My mom had a dishwasher. Both of my adult children have dishwashers.

I've never owned a dishwasher. I'm not complaining; no need to send me sympathy cards. Not having a dishwasher actually has some advantages.

One is that you can save on soap and water. Don't get me wrong: I do clean dishes! But if only the inside of a bowl or cup are dirty, that's all you have to clean. Scrub it out with a soap, rinse it under the kitchen faucet, and stick it in the drain rack. 

By contrast, Jesus knew some people who were experts on cleaning the OUTSIDE of their lives in a religious sense. But for someone who can wash just the INSIDE of a dish with the use of a faucet, the following metaphor seems a bit obscure.

Jesus said, “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! 26 You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too." (Matthew 23:25–26, New Living Translation, 2015)

In Jesus' day, without the benefit of a faucet, they washed dishes in some kind of tub. If they lived near a lake or river, they went to the shoreline. Either way, they had to submerge the dishes into the water. Naturally, if they submerged the bowl or cup in the water long enough to clean the inside, the outside would get cleaned up, too.

How do people try to "clean up" to look good on the outside? Go to church every week--or at least on Christian holy days (a.k.a. holidays), say the right prayers, avoid certain no-no's (which vary from church to church). But if that's all we have, it's hypocrisy. Instead, we need to be submerged into Christ Himself.* He can clean us up from the inside out. And a dishwasher isn't even needed!

Lord God, 
Deliver us from trying to live up to conventional rules just to look good on the outside. 
Then there's the real stuff we need to have cleaned up--failures on the inside.
We need the goodness, the cleansing, the love of Christ.
We need Him above us, below us,
on the left, on the right,
before, behind...
But most of all we need Him within us so we can genuinely be like Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

*For further study:

baptize/baptize = "dip, immerse, plunge [in the Bible] ..." sink, drench, overwhelm, soak" in non-Christian literature. Greek Lexicon of Arndt/Gingrich/Danker/Bauer. 

 

From the New Living Translation:

Romans 6:3–4 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

Romans 13:12–14 The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living. 13 Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.

Galatians 3:27 And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.

1 Corinthians 1:17, 30-31 For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News—and not with clever speech, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power.  ... 30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. 31 Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.”