A Cup And Dish

Matthew 23:25-26
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.

So, even though the Pharisees were pretty sure Jesus was going to take their jobs or whatever, Jesus was not making a crack about how they were going to end up dishwashers. He was speaking metaphorically.

In this metaphor, He's talking about the Pharisees. On the outside, they look great, in their fancy clean clothes and long public prayers and good deeds for God. But on the inside, they're just what Jesus said: full of extortion and self-indulgence.

So Jesus used a metaphor about dish washing to tell the Pharisees that they were ugly on the inside. What does this mean for us?

We're no different than these Pharisees. We make look like good little Christians on the outside, but only we and God know what's on the inside of our souls. Before we can truly fix what others see, we need to fix our insides. Otherwise, the filth from the inside will contaminate the outsides, and it will all be for nothing.

In His Service,
Joyce

Response Question: Why did the Pharisees and scribes dislike Jesus? Was it because He was threatening their jobs, like I said?