The dirt of the dish of our souls

There is nothing like the first cup of coffee to help shake off morning drowsiness. A few weeks ago there weren't any coffee mugs in the cabinet so I retrieved a clean one from the dishwasher. Enjoying the last sip I looked in the bottom of the cup and there appeared to be something there. When I stuck my finger in the cup, out came this pile of brown, gritty, whatever-happened-to-be-in-the-dishwasher dirt. It was enough to make me sick.

This has happened to us all. We get a cup, a bowl a piece of silverware and somewhere in the use of the bowl, cup or silverware we realize -- "this isn't as clean as I thought it was."

Jesus, God the son, says that sometimes people are the same. In Luke 11 Jesus is having a meal with a Pharisee during which Jesus does something, or, rather, doesn't do something, that offends him. Before every meal the Pharisees had the practice of ceremonially washing their hands. This practice had nothing to do with hygiene. This was a symbolic practice of spiritual cleanliness. Jesus didn't participate, and the Pharisee noticed right away.

Instead of giving a list of five reasons why He didn't share the same practice, Jesus says to him, "Now, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness."

Of great importance to the Pharisee was to do all the right things, at the right time and in the right way. What was important to him was the keeping of traditions. Keeping the external.

What he failed to realize was that keeping the traditions would never bring about the results he desired. The dish of his soul still remained dirty.

What happens on the inside matters more than we think. From within our souls come evil thoughts, immorality, theft, covetousness and hubris (c/o Mk. 7:18-23). What Jesus reminds us is that we can keep all the religious ceremony and obligations we would like but, until the core problem is addressed, none of those things will change our being.

The cup will still be dirty.

Grace consumes the dirt of our souls. Through faith, God cleanses that which is within, and then faith reveals itself from the inside out. What's on the inside matters more than we think.

Rob Hurtgen is a husband, father, minister and writer. Read more from him at www.robhurtgen.wordpress.com.