Jesus and the Pharisees – Part 11 – “Keeping Up Appearances” – Matthew 23:25-28

One of the most viewed films in the world is “Gone with the Wind.” One of the most iconic scenes in the film is when Scarlett has a dress made from the curtains hanging from the window. She did it so that Rhett Butler, visiting her, would believe she had money and security. Rather than let Rhett see her as she really was, Scarlett put on appearances to seem to be something she was not.

A lot of people in life put on appearances. There was a TV ad several years ago about a man living the upper middle class life in America. The camera zooms in on him as he’s on his riding lawnmower. The man cheerfully states, “I’m in debt up to my neck.” Too many of us are willing to pile up debts to keep up appearances that we are doing well.

In today’s passage, Jesus confronts the Pharisees about what seems to be and what really is. In His condemnation, Jesus reminds us that we need to examine ourselves in regard to our relationship with Him.

Background

At the time of this passage, the Pharisees were developing rules about cleanliness. They had begun to set aside water for the express purpose of washing bodies and the dishes they used. Earlier in our series of messages, the Pharisees confronted Jesus about the unwillingness of Jesus and His disciples to practice ceremonial washing (cf. Mark 7:1-8). The purpose of this ceremonial cleansing was to prevent uncleanness from entering their bodies or defiling them.

The practice was relatively new, but it was already established by the time of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus uses this to remind the Pharisees and us that keeping up appearances is useless if there is no substance behind it.

Central Truth: Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their focus on appearances at the exclusion of true obedience.

Jesus pointed out:

1. The false appearances (25, 27)

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. . . Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.”

We had an acquaintance in Port O’Connor that took on work as a waitress in one of the newer establishments in town. By all accounts, she was good at her job.

One day, we were at the church after a meal, and I was helping with the cleanup. I gathered about six glasses in my hands and asked my waitress friend if I was doing it right. Her response was that I was holding the glasses securely in my hand, but I had my fingers inside several of the glasses. Needless to say, if a server came to our table to bring us drinks and he or she had fingers in our drinks, we would probably ask for a new drink.

Jesus raises this issue with the Pharisees. He points out that they go to a lot of trouble to keep the cup and dish clean on the outside, but the inside is filled with “greed and self-indulgence.” There are two schools of thought about v. 25.

There are some that say the words translated cup and dish can also be translated as body. If that is the case, then Jesus is telling them that their bodies may be ceremonially clean, but the inner being is filled with sin—greed and self-indulgence.

The second school of thought is that the words are interpreted accurately as cup and dish, but the meaning of “filled with greed and self-indulgence” refers to the way the food and drink were gained by the Pharisees. They earned the money to purchase the food through greed, and the meal is a reflection of their self-indulgence. Think of the person who insists on caviar and champagne with each meal, a demonstration of how wealthy they are.

In either school of thought, Jesus’ point is the same. What appears to be clean on the outside is far from clean on the inside.

The illustration Jesus uses in v. 27 is of a whited grave. Again, there are two schools of thought. The first school is that the graves Jesus is referring to are the ones that are whitewashed in the weeks leading up to Passover. The purpose of the whitewash was to make graves clearly discernible to the average person in order that they will not become inadvertently unclean by walking on a grave.

The second school of thought is that Jesus is condemning the practice of decorating graves to make them appear more ornamental. Think of the graves that are made for kings and nobility. If you’ve seen photos of such graves in Europe, then you’ve seen tombs with carved likenesses of the deceased and other ornate markings to indicate the person buried here was a person of importance.

Jesus’ point is that regardless of how or why we decorate a grave, it does not change the fact that the grave contains the remains of a dead person.

2. The filthy cup (26)

“Blind Pharisees! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside will also be clean.”

One of the central themes of Jesus’ messages in the Gospel accounts is that true repentance comes from the inner person. The illustrations in the Sermon on the Mount were to show that it’s not what we do or don’t do, but it’s the reason why we do or don’t do them that really matters. If we pray so others will consider us deeply religious, then we get our reward in the adoration of the people. Jesus says to pray in the inner closet in secret and God will honor such a prayer. Jesus insisted that the inner person expresses the true person.

When we use dishes, we want them to be clean. In Matthew 12:33-37, Jesus taught that the good or evil that is in a man will be exposed by the words and actions the person does. “The good man brings good things out of the good things stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him” (12:35). We can talk a good game, but in the end, it’s who we are that really matters.

One of the first funerals I did in Port O’Connor was for a young man who had despaired in his struggle with drug addiction and had finally taken his own life. The mother of the young man was concerned about his place in God’s kingdom because he had committed suicide. Others in the community shared the same concern. The Catholic Church teaches that suicide is a sin, and a person cannot confess and repent of the sin of suicide. It could be detrimental to the soul for this reason. I expressed at his funeral what I considered to be the heart of the gospel. God considers more the way we have lived than the way we die in dealing with the soul of the deceased.

If we want to have the appearance of a clean outside, then we need to make sure the inner person is purified. This is done by walking in a right relationship with Jesus, being purified by the Spirit and guided by Him in our daily living. In this way, we let the good within us be evident to all.

3. The skeleton in the closet (28)

“In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”

No matter how much we may dress up a tomb or a gravesite, the bottom line is that there is only one thing inside. The remains of a dead person. Depending on how the body has been in the grave, there is no possibility that the body inside is going to rise. That’s only happened twice in recorded history, and only Jesus never had to return to the grave.

There were laws given to Moses that stated how to handle a dead body, and anyone who touched a dead body was ceremonially unclean for a period of time. The Pharisees, being scrupulous in striving to obey all the laws, had developed traditions in dealing with the matter.

Jesus’ point in this verse is to remind the Pharisees of their spiritual state. They can have the appearance of being deeply spiritual by the things they do, but the appearance does not necessarily reflect their relationship with God.

Romans 5 reminds us that God sent Christ when we were still dead in our sins, while we were still sinners, and while we were God’s enemies. James tells us that faith without works is dead (cf. James 2:26). Jesus’ point here is that all the religious activities we can do are futile if there is no relationship with God through Christ. Unless we are born again by faith in Christ through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, then all we are doing is acting out a part.

Conclusion

Jesus uses the phrase “hypocrite” throughout this passage. The word is used to describe an actor. An actor is someone who pretends to be something he or she is not. John Wayne never was Davey Crockett, and Christian Bale was never Batman. Vivian Leigh was never Scarlett O’Hara and Lucille Ball was never Lucy Ricardo. Each of these people acted out the characters as they understood them, but none of them was the actual person they portrayed.

Jesus’ words of warning at the end of the Sermon on the Mount is a direct warning to the hypocrisy of those who play at religion but never take the time to know Him. If there is no personal relationship with Christ, then we are gravesites filled with the remains of the dead, we are cups and dishes filled with the decaying food that has yet to be washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ.

As we consider what Jesus has said, we need to ask ourselves: Do our actions reflect our obedience to Christ and our relationship with Him, or are we just keeping up appearances?