Everything Will Be Clean for Us
I wish to place before you an image of goalposts. And now, with this image embedded in your imagination, let us twist it and imagine these earthly goalposts as divine.
Now regarding divine goalposts, I would wager that certain images come to mind; say: the Ten Commandments, Beatitudes, or Jesus’ words regarding earthly riches in Matthew’s Gospel (Chapter 19), that “…it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
In our own lives, how successful have we been in keeping ourselves within His goalposts? I suspect none of us has a perfect record!
There is a story of a man in his late twenties who’d been experiencing what he believed to be a call to the priesthood. After mulling this over, he discovered an apologetics conference where noted theologians would be speakers. Following the conclusion of one of the sessions, the young man approached one of the presenters, a veteran priest, and began to tell him how he felt called to the priesthood but unworthy because of his “sinful past.” For a moment, this holy priest paused and then proceeded to ask him two questions. First, have you ever murdered anyone or aided and abetted in such a crime? Astonished at the question, the young man quickly said “No, Father.” The priest then told him that Saul (now St. Paul) did just that when he consented to the stoning of the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen. And then came the second question. Have you ever fathered a child out of wedlock? Again, the young man replied with an emphatic “No.” To which the priest reminded him that St. Augustine had done just that.
Regarding our own lives and the times we’ve strayed and failed to walk through the “narrow gate” or “divine goalposts” the Lord has established, perhaps a centuries-old saying attributed to St. Teresa of Avila might apply; namely, that “God writes straight with crooked lines.”
In a very real sense, the priest’s insights helped soften this young man’s heart and assure him that God’s love, God’s mercy, is always with him, always around him.
And that’s exactly what he needed.
In the Gospel of Luke (11:37-41), I wonder if the same was happening to that Pharisee who had invited Jesus over to dinner? For over that simple meal, Jesus broached a topic that, for we humans, is always front and center: the state of our hearts! Note the words of Jesus:
Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside? But as to what is within, give alms and behold, everything will be clean for you.
But here is the sticking point…
In the Pharisees’ culture, giving alms was a cultural sign of a good heart. It was also essential as there were no governmental social service programs. However, we also know that while the Pharisees publicly gave alms, they at the same time were stealing from widows (Luke 10:47) and neglecting their parents (Mark 7:9-13).
You might say they were “all show.” For, on the outside, they were upright; on the inside, however, they were anything but!
What about you and me? How do Jesus’ words touch our hearts? Our passage through the divine goalposts of Jesus requires a willingness on our part to shed the hypocrisy, inflexibility, and judgmental attitude of the Pharisee snuggled within us.
Like the priest who encouraged the young man to go inward, accept God’s mercy, and move on, Jesus calls you and me to do the same. He calls us to leave behind our sins, self-interest, vengefulness, arrogance, lukewarmness, and indifference toward the plight of others—and be transformed, from the inside out.
As Jesus told the Pharisee and reminds you and me, when we do this, “everything will be clean for us.”
