Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.

Messages like this, make it easy to understand why the pharisees, wanted to kill Jesus. He was making enemies with these words. But imagine being a layperson during this time, living under the tyranny of the jewish leaders law. It must have been shocking to see a man go against the entire power structure of their time. But the faithful jew Should also have known the prophecy and recognized Jesus as messiah.

So why did they torture and kill Him instead. For the same reason that Satan fell, Pride! These jewish leaders knew that when the Lord returned, everything in their lives would change. And Jesus said as much in His preaching. He said the first will be last, and the last will be first. These pharisees, knew that to follow Jesus, they would have to give up their power, and prestige, and comfortable lives, and instead, they would have to serve. Sadly, just like Satan, they said that they would not do that, and the inevitable happened, they tried to destroy the one person that stood in the way of their power.

But instead, they actually ended up exalting Him above all men. To me the the jews of this time acted exactly the way that I would expect powerful people to act, what boggles my mind is that there are jews today that still think that Jesus was just a man. But that is a different reflection. But todays message is clear, and speaks directly to us. The outside world does not defile us, we are instead defiled by our own sinful nature, and by the choices that we make, so to repent we must seek first to change ourselves from the inside, and then the outside will follow, but the choice is yours, and yours alone.

Oh lord, please give me the wisdom and understanding that i need to identify what inside me is defiled, and keeping me from you, and help me to change and cleanse that sin from my life. Amen.