I took my granddaughter to soccer practice recently; soccer season had just begun, and we met at a fairly large park without knowing exactly where the kids were supposed to meet—turns out that they did their warm-ups and practice inside the tennis courts.

I left my folding chair in the car because I didn’t want to carry it around with me while we searched for her team (getting there early did not work out to be an advantage).  After we figured it out, I walked back to my car to get the chair.  As I was returning to the tennis courts with chair in hand, my attention was on the kids as they played; I did not watch where I was stepping. …and I slipped and fell in some mud, getting my jeans and my shoes quite muddy!

Happily, I was not hurt, and I am at a place in my life where my pride wasn’t damaged either – probably because I was able to get up and keep walking, though noticeably muddied.  As I related the experience to my daughter later in an email, I couldn’t help but relate it to my life.  I slip a lot!  Sometimes I get hurt, sometimes I hurt others, just about every time I slip up, I get muddied.  I am so grateful for the blood of Jesus that cleanses me EVERYTIME I confess and ask for forgiveness.

As I’ve gotten older, the ways I slip have changed.  They seem to be more subtle, more about my words and attitudes—not always in obvious, mud-soaked jeans ways, but in soul soiled ways.  Little grievances, little judgments, little intolerances, subtle attitudes.  No one else can tell what is going on in my thoughts or my heart, but the Holy Spirit knows. 

Jesus had something to say about that to the people who appeared exceptionally spiritual during His days on earth:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you clean the outside of the cup and plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. …first clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.” (Matthew 25, 26)

The problem with the people Jesus identified in those verses is that they were comparing themselves with obviously “muddied” people.  They didn’t understand that their religious rituals and “law-abiding” observances weren’t addressing the problem of sin in their hearts.  That’s part of the problem with setting up criteria for salvation apart from the cross of Jesus—self-righteousness and self-deception.

I’ve found that not seeing myself in the attitudes of the “scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites” is a dangerous place to be.  Though it may not be a conscious thought, or something I might confess to, it is all too possible that an undercurrent similar to “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even this tax collector…” (Luke 18:11) runs through the streams of my unconsciousness, affecting attitudes, judgments, and perceptions.

The difficulty with judgmental and hypocritical attitudes is that they affect our relationships with others—but most important, these sinful notions (whether conscious or unconscious) affect our relationship with God—for if we do not recognize our sin, how can we recognize our need for a Savior?

Which brings us to the good news!  …a difficult yet essential truth that the “scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites” failed to grasp—it is easy to clean up the outside of the “cup” or “plate,” but only God can clean the inside.  That is absolutely why we need the Savior!  We can make our lives look righteous, but only the purifying blood of Jesus can cleanse us from the sin that runs through the DNA of our human nature.

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  (1 John 1:8-9)

(1 John 1:8-9)