Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Chew on This!


Luke 11:44 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.

The Lord is invited by a Pharisee to his house for dinner. There were a number of other Pharisees in attendance and some lawyers too.

Things quickly went south at this get together. The host criticized his guest of honor for not washing His hands before supper. So, this was it. This was the showdown at the OK Corral. How many times had Jesus admonished others to keep their peace about His ministry? "Tell the vision to no man," etc. He had stopped so many holes in the dam, but now it was time to let loose and let the Pharisees have it smack between the eyes.

"Cruddy cups!" "Dirty dishes!" "Wicked fools!" "Unloving hypocrites!" "Pious, self-serving open graves!" "Do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do murderers!"

This dinner opened a can of worms that would never get the lid back on again. They gave the Lord both barrels, hoping to catch Him slipping up in some way. But the dinner party ended with both sides going their own way, Jesus toward the cross and the religious crowd toward hell. But they had plenty to chew on.

This story behooves us "religious" types to take inventory of our motives. Are we guilty of the type of hypocrisy the Pharisees and lawyers expressed? Are we laying loads upon others we are not willing to move ourselves? Would we have been guilty of wanting to stone the righteous for simply telling the truth? Do we dot our "I's" and cross our "T's" just so-so, but ignore important things like judgment and love?

If Jesus came to our house, would there be sweet fellowship, or would He feel compelled to throw down the gauntlet?

Something to chew on.

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