No. 64. Hypocrisy and the Inside Out

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.  Matthew 23:25-28

If someone comes up to you today and asks if you are a hypocrite because (s)he wants to give you a big hug from Evangeline (ref. blog ‘Hypocrites and Why to Love Them’ 5/16/08), the answer is ’I don’t know’, I hope not, but hug me just in case.

Sure, there are some truly evil people masquerading as goody two-shoes. I suppose they don’t even believe that Judgment Day will happen to them. But most hypocrites are not actors; most hypocrites don’t know that they are hypocrites, no matter how obvious it is to others. It could be you; it could be me!

When Jesus Christ was sitting at Salvador Dali’s big Last Supper table pointing to God with the sun setting behind Him and He announced that someone at that table was going to betray Him, each of His best friends said, “Is it me?”

That’s pretty funny. Wouldn’t a guy, even after a few glasses of wine, know if he was about to stab his friend in the back? Actually, those men realized how easy it is to be deluded. Such a long time will go by before we find out for sure if we were. Worse yet, when we find out, it will be too late! Now, if that isn’t scarier than Matrix!.

Humble pie prevents hypocrisy like eating broccoli prevents cancer.

The more I am willing to eat it and the more I see signs that I am aiming for the ground instead of the Mark.