Stains that won't come clean

In Shakespeare’s MacBeth, lady MacBeth walks the halls at night in her sleep constantly washing and rubbing her hands.

Her conscience sears her peace and it will not allow her to forget she helped kill King Duncan. Though her hands are clean, her conscience still sees the blood on her hands as she goes about saying, “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!”

Sometimes even the most thorough washing is unable to make us clean. Jesus knew this, even if others didn’t.

“When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.

“Then the Lord said to him, ‘Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But for now as for what is inside you — be generous to the poor and everything will be clean for you.’” — Luke 11:37-40

Let’s not take away from this verse that Jesus didn’t wash before he ate, or that the Pharisees were ultra-clean people. Let’s step back in time a couple thousand years and look at some of these rituals in which the Pharisees put their faith.

The Pharisees sprang up from the first Diaspora. With no temple Jewish worship began to be centered around the synagogue, and the Pharisees became what we know today as the rabbis.

They believed, somewhat rightly, that the sins of Israel led to their exile, so the Pharisees began focusing on the minutia of the Law and the tradition of the elders. Some of the rituals the Pharisees followed were not a part of the Law of Moses, yet they still religiously followed them as a passed-down tradition.

This ceremonial washing was a part of that tradition. The washing wasn’t done to clean; it was done to cleanse their hands from spiritual defilement in order to keep said defilement from coming into the body by way of the food their hands would touch.

So, to achieve this cleansing, the Pharisees would dribble a small amount of water onto their hands. The amount of water usually amounted to approximately the volume of a chicken egg, and the hands had to be washed in such a way where the water had to drip off the hands and not down the arms in order to keep the defilement from spreading. If they messed up somewhere along the way in the washing procedure they would have to start over again.

It was a relatively complex ritual and it’s probably safe to say the Pharisee was aghast that Jesus didn’t take part in it. The Pharisee, at that moment, probably lost all respect for Jesus and immediately assumed he was a great sinner, but Jesus, unwashed hands and all, sets the record straight.

Jesus tells the Pharisees they worry so much about the outside of the cup and dish they forget to clean the inside, the portion of the cup and dish actually touching the food and drink.

In a parallel passage in Matthew 23:26 Jesus said, “Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.”

Just like Lady MacBeth, they fuss and moan over the outside, but what’s inside them can’t be scrubbed clean and they can’t figure out how to accomplish this internal housekeeping chore.

The writer of Hebrews, long before “Hints from Heloise” ever existed, told us how to properly clean our bodily homes.

“This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings — external regulations applying until the time of the new order.

“… How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” — Hebrews 9:9-10, 14

Unfortunately many of our modern churches have fallen under the spell of ritual. They look to acts to give them, or enhance, their salvation.

Try as we might we just can’t do it on our own. We want to. We wish coming to God was like a doctor’s prescription to, “Take two of these and call me in the morning.” Thankfully, it doesn’t work that way.

Even given the simplest ritual, God in his infinite knowledge, knew we would never be able to follow it. Sin has too much of a hold on us. Sin tears at us and looks to cleave our hearts in eternal separation from God.

Sin seeks to keep us mired in an eternal cesspool of filth, but Jesus offers the cleanser to remove the stain of sin — his own blood.

So while the blood of King Duncan could not be removed from Lady MacBeth’s conscience, the blood of Christ can wipe away those sins. The blood of Christ will cleanse our conscience and enable us to stand before a righteous God sinless, just as Christ does.

That is the promise of the gospel. The cross, that terrible cross, was a loving act of mercy that cleared us from all wrong. That mercy that promise is still there for us. It is there for us if we call upon the name of Jesus and ask him to come in and scrub our hearts clean.

Forget the dalliances in ritual; don’t put your faith in what you can accomplish for God, instead look to what God did for you in Jesus Christ.

Then, and only then, will we get the spots sin has put in our lives out.

If you don’t have this stain removing power in your life, pray this prayer, “Heavenly Father, no matter how hard I try I can’t seem to get it right. Even though I think I’m good, sin rules my every move. Lord Jesus, I ask you to enter my life and my heart right now and cleanse me from my sins and restore me in a right relationship with God. Thank you for going to the cross for me and rescuing me from an eternity in hell away from you. Amen.”

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If you prayed that prayer, then follow up. Don’t let it end there, go before the Lord daily in prayer, become immersed in his holy word and never give in to the world and patiently await the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

If you prayed that prayer a long time ago, and who have stayed close to God, turn a helping hand to the young in Christ. Give of yourself more than putting money in a collection plate. Love those around you by giving that which will never perish, the gospel of Jesus Christ.