A Year of Prayer: Season One Weekday DevotionalsSample

How can the outside of a cup be clean if you clean the inside first? If you’ve ever washed a cup by hand, you know that the outside at least needs a quick once over, surely?

Here, Jesus employs the art of allegory - using story and simple parable to liken poetic meaning in everyday objects to deep spiritual truths within our world.

Jesus uses coins, sheep, wells, water, bread, foxes, and all manner of images to convey these messages beyond simple rules for life or ways of living. Why?

Because Jesus invites us to deeply examine and appreciate his word and will. If you’ve ever seen Antiques Roadshow, the British program that began in 1979 and has now completed its 47th season, you’ll know antique dealers' delight in handling or examining a precious item up close. Lovingly close camera shots zoom in onto obscure markings or unusual crevices. Acid-free gloves are especially useful for fragile paper susceptible to body oils and rapid decay, special lights to throw into sharp relief hidden images, and tiny tweezers for separating intricate levers or pointing to whorls and indents.

These experts give us a perfect example of a deep appreciation for something treasured and special. One doesn’t show up with a precious heirloom covered in moss, dirt, rust, and debris. If it’s truly something you’ve stored up, knowing it has deep value, you take care of it lovingly.

Jesus’s exasperation or outrage here toward the Pharisees belies the same attitude a collector might have upon seeing a rare item transported in a crushed box amidst random bric-a-brac in a trunk. ‘What were you thinking, having this as a doorstop?’ we could imagine a collector saying of a glass ornament.

‘What were you thinking?’ Jesus seems to be asking of the precious gift the Pharisees had been given in the Torah. Here, it looked okay, but on the inside, their religion was frayed, decayed, and in disrepair. Jesus was imploring them to care about the condition of the treasure, not to treat others with disregard, to love the Lord, and not to pretend behind facades. So many of us can relate to that today, two thousand years later, with God's entire Bible and message at our fingertips.

Prayer: Jesus, sometimes I know you’re thinking, ‘What were you thinking?’ when I lash out or engage in fruitless arguments or insults. Help me to understand that your will is not to shame or slander me but to invite me into a deeper treasure of your message and your gospel of the kingdom to the whole world, prince of peace.

Action: Pray and discern: What is it that God is telling you needs to be approached differently in your community? This is a 'we' problem, not a 'they' problem.