Do you ever wonder why on earth Jesus gave such a hard time for Pharisees? They were decent folks, weren’t they? Here’s how Jesus saw it:

Frauds! Isaiah’s prophecy of you hit the bull’s-eye:
These people make a big show of saying the right thing,
but their heart isn’t in it.
They act like they’re worshiping me,
but they don’t mean it.
They just use me as a cover
for teaching whatever suits their fancy.”
He then called the crowd together and said, “Listen, and take this to heart. It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life, but what you vomit up.” (Matthew 15: 7-11, MSG, emphasis added)

And here’s how Jesus explained it:

Peter said, “I don’t get it. Put it in plain language.”
Jesus replied, “You, too? Are you being willfully stupid? Don’t you know that anything that is swallowed works its way through the intestines and is finally defecated? But what comes out of the mouth gets its start in the heart. It’s from the heart that we vomit up evil arguments, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, and cussing. That’s what pollutes. Eating or not eating certain foods, washing or not washing your hands—that’s neither here nor there.” (Matthew 15: 15-20, MSG, emphasis added)

What does that have to do with us? Everything. John Calvin has said “The human heart has so many crannies where vanity hides, so many holes where falsehood lurks, is so decked out with deceiving hypocrisy, that it often dupes itself.” Here’s some more clarification:

“It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this I-know-better-than-you mentality again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your own part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor. (Luke 6: 41-42, MSG)

We are all so busted. Because there is an inner pharisee in all of us. Lord, have mercy!

Even if we do walk the talk we are in danger to develop a holier-than-thou attitude. C.S. Lewis warns us this way “An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons – marriage, or meat, or beer, or cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning.”

We need to be careful to not to feed our Inner Pharisee. We need to repent and ask Jesus to whitewash out hearts and start all over again every single morning. Because if God’s love does not fill out our hearts, soon our Inner Pharisee is having a party polluting everything that comes out of our mouths. We can’t shut up our Inner Pharisees on our own. We can’t love without grace. We can’t live without Jesus. But the good news is….we don’t have to. So my resolution is to daily surrender my whole heart to Jesus and ask him to kick the Inner Pharisee out of there. I want to be filled with love and compassion. Just like Jesus. Why don’t you join me?

 

Gracious God,
We repent that we’ve let our inner pharisees pig out in our hearts.
Forgive us! Cleanse us!
May our hearts brim with your love and compassion.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: What are the lies your Inner Pharisee tries to make you believe?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you dare to open your whole heart for Jesus!

Photo courtesy of Luke Whiteman. This post is part of One Word at a Time: Resolution Blog carnival and What’s on My Heart Tuesdays.