PROSE 1: WHITENED SEPULCHERS

It was a sign at the garden show that stated “MAN EATING FISH” To see such a fearsome monster was a chance in a lifetime and naturally everyone crowded to buy the modest entry ticket to enter the room that housed such a ogre!

However inside they did not find the denizen of the deep instead they saw a man eating Cod – fish chips!! Well taken for a ride? Yes of course – with the sign was indeed deceptive. The meaning derived by most, left them a little taken aback when they entered the room.

So who likes to be taken for a ride? Well very often religion does this to us and we swallow it hook line and sinker! Over and over again religious leaders, crazy traditions, weird norms and practices do this to us. We tend to put on the outer garb of religiosity and law abiders but our hearts are impure and adulterated.

Jesus commanded us not to be like Whitened sepulchers. The Jewish custom was that a month before the Passover, graves were whitened with chalk. Such sepulchers were all over and very religiously they were whitened by using chalk. Jesus referring to this taught the scribes and Pharisees that though the sepulchers were whitened yet inside it only contained unclean stuff. In Mathew 23: 27 and 28 the Lord clearly states “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whitened sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.”

God knew the heart of the scribes and Pharisees very well. Jesus told them in v 28 “Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”

Christ asked us never to be hypocritical. Taking the allegory from the whitened sepulchers he condemned this attitude of the scribes and Pharisees. The Pharisees were legalists. God gave the law to help us realize our depravity. The law was a mirror that showed the warts of sin but could not remove them. But the legalists had turned it into a system of works, rules, formal procedure, rituals, and traditions to earn righteousness. They were like the blind leading the blind! They had immense influence over the multitude, and were enraged at any doctrine or trend that challenged their security their leadership and their power.

The world today is full of people, leaders, teachers, and trend setters who are like the Pharisees of the years gone by. A case of the blind being led by the blind - The parable as told by Jesus (Luke 6: 39-42). It deals with several important lessons. It also highlights to us the importance of spiritual acumen, concerning what we are doing, which law we are abiding by, where we are going, who we are leading, and who we are following. It is a warning to us to be wary about false teachers and leaders. Let us not be blind leaders or blind followers. Either way we sin. Jesus was not for this, it was a matter of eternity, and thus what emerged was the SERMON ON THE MOUNT.

Institutions and individuals often have so many rules and regulations, so many of them stand out dated, some have no relevance to the changing times, but continue to be carried on under the fake garb of tradition and culture. I am reminded of a quaint story that fits this vain following of rules with no heart to essentially comply with.

Mullah Nasruddin found a diamond by the road side. However according to the law of the country finders become keepers only if they first announced their find in the center of the market place on three separate occasions. If during one such occurrence, there was a claimant to the find, or anyone else to whom it belonged, then it had to be returned.

Now Nasruddin was a religious law abiding man. He could not by any means disregard the law for then his conscience would prick and he would have to do penance to compensate for the sin of disobeying the law! So on three consecutive nights when he was sure that all were fast asleep he went to the center of the market place and then announced in a soft voice “I have found a diamond on the road that leads to the town. Anyone knowing who the owner is should contact me at once.”

One man who was standing at his window saw what Nasruddin was doing and heard him whispering in the dead of the night. When he attempted to find out what nasruddin was saying the latter told him, “I am in no way obliged to tell you. But this much I shall say: Being a religious man, I went out there at night to pronounce certain words in fulfillment of the law!”

It is vital that we reexamine what is important to our lives as Christians. Let us choose wisely between outwardly religious acts and the sincerity and truth we actually should live by. God sees the heart and humans what is on the outside. Let us place our trust in God and not on people. Salvation we obtain only through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and not by obeying laws, traditions, foolish neither acts of reverence and penitence nor is salvation found in any woman or man.

Please Remember
To be properly wicked
You do not have to break the law
Just keep it to the letter!!!

~~Crystal David John