Cleaning the Inside of the Cup // Standing Out From the Crowd, Part 2

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

It’s interesting how concerned we can be about outward appearances. About looking good and dressing for success and impressing people. But our outside, depends so much on what’s happening on the inside.

Imagine for a minute, you go into a coffee shop - you know, when you just feel like a good cup of coffee - and you sit down and you order your coffee and you grab a magazine and eventually it comes out and you think 'Oh great’. it smells great and it looks like a good coffee and just as you're about to take the first sip you watch a waiter pick up an empty cup from the next table and without washing it, take it to the coffee machine, fill it with another cappuccino and serve it to a customer at another table.

Just think about that, what does that say about the coffee they just put down in front of you? I mean, you look around the coffee shop and everything looks fine and the waiters are friendly, at least they appear to be but they don't wash the inside of their cups. So let me ask you, are you going to drink this cup of coffee they just served up to you?

This week we're talking about standing out from the crowd. We all need a sense of significance, a sense of 'well I'm having an impact; I'm making a difference'. But somehow that's become so twisted into today’s world.

Maybe, maybe it's the mass media thing or the entertainment culture, I'm not sure but people somehow walk that significance thing into wanting success and these things are two entirely different things, significance and success. You know we're so focused on outward appearances and what other people think of us and how we look.

I don't know if you've seen it but there’s a TV show that comes out of the UK that’s called What Not To Wear and it's mostly about these women who want to change their look, to dress better, to do their make up better, to change their hairstyle. Nothing wrong with any of that, I mean that’s great but what you notice is that for so many of them their deepest hurts and fears and emotions and insecurities are tied up in how they look on the outside. They somehow think that if they can look better on the outside, if other people will think better of them on the outside then that will heal all the problems they have on the inside.

Outward appearances are the most important thing if what we're after is success rather than significance. People want to win, they want everyone else to think the most of them and look up to them and for that to happen you have to look good, you have to dress for success. It's about what’s happening on the outside. If you look good, if you speak well, if you have lots of money you could be successful and you're going to stand out from the crowd, you're going to be noticed, you going to make it and you know you see this everywhere. You see it in business, you see it in social and sporting clubs, you see it in families, you see it in Churches.

In fact there’s a great record of Jesus tearing into the religious leaders of His day and the issue was the gap between what they presented to be on the outside and who in fact they were on the inside. It's just like that cup in the coffee shop, everything looks fine in the coffee shop but the inside of the cup is dirty and that does something to whether or not you want to drink the coffee.

Let’s have a read of it, it comes from Matthews gospel, chapter 23, it's a great story. You see people often think of Jesus as some religious icon but it's awesome to see what He thinks of religious hypocrisy:

Jesus said to the crowds and to His disciples, ‘The teachers of the law and the Pharisees,’ (they're the religious leaders) ‘They sit in Moses seat so obey them and do everything they tell you but do not do what they do because they don't practice what they preach.’

'They tie up heavy loads and put them on people shoulders and they themselves won't lift a finger to help those people. Everything they do is done for others to see.’ (That’s powerful isn't it?) ‘Everything they do is done for others to see. They make their phylacteries wide and their tassels on their garments long, they love the place of honour at the banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues.’

'They love to be greeted in the market places and to have men call them Rabbi but you, you are not to be called Rabbi for you have only one Master and you are all brothers and don't call anyone here on earth father because you have one Father and he's in heaven. Nor are you to be called teacher for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant because whoever exalts himself will be humbled but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.’

'Woe to you, you teachers of the law and you Pharisees, you hypocrites. You travel over land and sea to win a single convert and when he becomes one you make him twice as much the son of hell as you are.’

'Woe to you teachers of the law, you Pharisees, you hypocrites, you give a tenth of your spices of mint and dill and cumin but you've neglected the more important matters of the Law; justice, mercy, faithfulness. You should have practiced the later without neglecting the former you blind guides you strain out the gnat but you swallow the camel.’

'Woe to you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees, you hypocrites because you clean the outside of the cup but inside you're full of greed and self indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the dish and then the outside will be clean also. You snakes, you brood of vipers, how will you escape being condemned to hell?’

Jesus doesn't mince His words here does He? And you and I both know He's right. We have this thing that’s been dropped into our brain that says standing out from the crowd is all about what happens on the outside. It's all about what people think of us, it's all about how we look.

But Jesus is saying "no" because if what we present to be on the outside hides darkness on the inside. There's a word for that, there’s a name for that, this gap between the inside and the outside, it's called hypocrisy. Jesus is saying, "What’s happening on the outside is nowhere near as important as what’s going on, on the inside, what’s going on in our hearts, what we're thinking about, brooding over, what we're plotting and scheming".

Let me ask you something, if you were going to stand in that coffee shop. Let me ask you something, if you were in that coffee shop and you were served that cup of coffee and you saw how they don't clean the inside of the cup, would you drink the coffee? Of course not. And when people look at us, you know and they see that we present to be something on the outside but actually on the inside we're rotten, on the inside there's greed and self indulgence and plotting and scheming, do they think well of us? Are we really going to stand out? Not on some awards night for being the top salesman in the company, that’s not what I mean. Are we going to stand out in their hearts? Because that’s what Jesus is talking about here!

You want to be the greatest, become the servant of all. You want to be the first, be the slave and as hard as that is, as much as we may not want to hear that, you and I in our hearts know that Jesus is right.

Let me ask you something, if you were going to be stranded on a desert island with someone, would you want that person to be someone who looks great on the outside or someone who you know is good on the inside? So why are we slaves to outward appearances? What’s that all about? Why do we waste our lives trying to be first? Jesus tells us, "if you want to be first be the servant of all."