THE WHITEWASHED TOMBS (MT 23:27-32)
Prayer:
O Jesus, help me to live only in your truth.
Imagination:
Picture Jesus teaching the importance of purifying your heart.
Context:
Jesus continues to confront the Pharisees, whose superficiality doesn’t seek true change. The Pharisees say had we lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets’ blood. Jesus is foreshadowing his knowledge that they will kill the Son of God.
Gospel Text: (Read slowly, possibly aloud.)
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside,
but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth.
Even so, on the outside you appear righteous,
but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You build the tombs of the prophets
and adorn the memorials of the righteous,
and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors,
we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets’ blood.’
Thus you bear witness against yourselves
that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets;
now fill up what your ancestors measured out!
Thoughts: (Read all. Ponder those that attract you.)
- To “whitewash” is to cover over the real problem.
- Outwardly the person seems alive. Inwardly, they are dead.
- Jesus challenges the disciples to make serious, inner changes.
- Jesus is not content with external changes that leave the true inner problems untouched.
Affections: (When one touches your heart, use your own words.)
- Send your inner fire down from heaven.
- Burn away all that is evil, so I might live in you.
- Help to cleanse me from the inside.
- Jesus, help me to be authentic and live your truth.
Resolutions: (Possibly you might want to make your own.)
+ I will let my mind be touched frequently this day by the spirit.
+ I will not project a false view of myself.
Thought for the Day: (To recall your meditation.)
Seek first the Kingdom so that you can be transformed.