Jesus the Unseen Guest

“Cleanse first the inside of the cup..." 

Matthew 23:26

I have been guilty of superficial cleaning many a time. When guests are due to arrive, I dump all the clutter in my craft room, and then I am aghast when a kid opens the door, as kids sometimes do, and exposes what I have hidden inside! A "horror" guest would be one who opens drawers and peeks into the kitchen cabinets. But Jesus is always the unseen guest in our "home". He sees what is hidden in our hearts. He sees the clutter. He sees my resentment, my irritation, my impatience, all those smelly things no one else sees!!!

Here in Matthew chapter 23, Jesus is speaking to the disciples about the Pharisees and teachers of scripture. He is quite disgusted that they are hypocrites and that they only "act out" their religion. They are like whitewashed tombs! "They try to look like upright people outwardly, but inside their hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness." Let us make sure that Jesus does not say the same about us! Let us not only clean outside our cups but inside as well!