The Walking Wounded

In the book of Matthew, Jesus chastises the Pharisees for their habit of cleaning up their outward appearances while inside being full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. He told the crowds and His disciple that since the Pharisees sat in Moses' seat, they were to obey them. "But do not do what they do," He added, "for they do not practice what they preach." Ouch.

I hate the idea of being someone who gives a false impression of who I am. I saw a movie once where a character covered up his whiskey bottle with his Bible when he heard someone approaching. It made me realize that whenever I do something I'm not proud of or wouldn't want to be seen by others, I'm pretty much doing the same thing--hiding behind the Christian impression I've given publicly.

I suppose that's why I'm instructed to walk in the light. The Bible tells me that God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. That means everything I do should be able to stand up under those powerful beams that television cops shine on suspects in a line-up. Unfortunately, like certain guys in the line-up, I sometimes have guilt written all over my face.

So I have a choice. I clan clean up the outside of the "cup," like the Pharisees, and fool some of the people some of the time. Or, I can scour it from the inside out and come clean before God.

Taking the external approach is like putting a bandage over a deep wound. Although out of sight, it continues to fester. I know a lot about wounds these days--my daughter has been dealing with one for weeks and weeks, inflicted by a post-surgical infection.

No matter how much we cleaned and tended the wound on the surface, it continued to look unsightly and cause her pain. Healing didn't kick in until she began hyperbaric oxygen therapy--breathing one hundred per cent oxygen in a pressurized chamber for two hours every day. Regularly increasing the oxygen level in the blood and surrounding tissue, finally enabled her wound to heal, from its deepest point outward.

Like the Pharisees with their dead men's bones and my daughter with her bandaged foot, we've all been counted among the walking wounded at one time or another. The only cure is to plunge our cup into Living Water to slosh out the crud and stench that has become lodged. This means acknowledging our sins and helplessness before God and asking Him to give us a thorough scrubbing with lots of suds.

The result will be a cup that is squeaky clean from top to bottom, inside and out.