“Why do you wash the outside of a cup? Do you not know that he who made the inside is also the one who made the outside?” – The Gospel of Thomas
My Friends.
Take a look around you this fine morning. We see a congregation of pressed suits and Sunday best dresses. We take great pride in our appearances. Do we not? We scrub our doorsteps. We wax our Buicks until they shine like mirrors. We ensure our lawns are trimmed to the very inch. There is a certain comfort in a clean exterior. It tells the neighbors, and it tells ourselves, that we have things under control.
But let us lean in a little closer to the Word this morning. Consider, if you will, the simple coffee cup sitting in your cupboard at home.
Imagine a housewife hosting a bridge club. She brings out her finest china, shimmering under the parlor lights. The outside is pristine, decorated with delicate painted roses. But if that cup is filled with the residue of yesterday’s bitterness, is it fit for a guest? Of course not.
Today’s scripture poses a piercing question to us today: “Why do you wash the outside of a cup? Do you not know that he who made the inside is also the one who made the outside?”
We spend our lives frantically scrubbing the “outside.” We polish our reputations. We curate our smiles. We make sure our public testimonies are beyond reproach. We are terrified that someone might see a smudge on the porcelain of our character.
To honor the Divine only with our outward manners while harboring resentment, greed, or pride within is a hollow gesture. It is a biological and spiritual contradiction. You cannot claim to love the Divine while neglecting the very workshop where the Divine works.
Your heart. Your soul.
My friends, the “outside” is a fleeting thing. The finest house-paint will eventually peel. The brightest silver polish is destined to tarnish with the passing years. But the “inside”, that sacred, internal vessel fashioned by the hands of the Divine is the only thing truly built to endure.
This week, as you go about your business. In the shop. In the office. In the kitchen. Ask yourself this, “Am I merely rinsing the surface to impress my neighbor? Or am I inviting the light of the Divine to scour the hidden corners of my soul?”
Let us stop living as two-dimensional cutouts. Let us be whole. For the Divine not only fashioned the stars. The Divine also fashioned your soul. And the Divine desires to find it clean, sweet, and ready for service.
Amen.
