When I entered the room I noticed a very attractive elderly (older than me) lady sitting with an old geezer. As I neared her it became very obvious that her face had been painted on. She had done a good job but on closer examination reality was still there. The passing of decades had carved out their damage.
I fear scrutiny. Scrutiny enables others to see flaws, exterior and interior, that we wish were not. We try to paint over them and are fairly successful as long as someone doesn’t cross the room and begin to scrutinize. God is a scrutinizer. He sees underneath our pitiful efforts to look good. In Matthew 23 Jesus really went after a painting crew. He said, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”
What is frightening about this passage is I am sure most of them believed they were good men. Most of them were not maliciously treacherous. They were furious with Jesus not so much because He outted them to the masses but to themselves. They were scrupulous tithers. Jesus even told them so. But it didn’t compensate for the fact that they were human. Jesus and Darwin were in total agreement regarding the basic nature of humanity. We are climbers over the weaker.
Mercy. Grace. Forgiveness. These are the key ideas to real Christianity. Without them we are just sophisticated monkeys.
Written by Roger Bothwell on August 22, 2012
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org