37 When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. 38 But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.
39 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. 40 You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.
Well, well, well. First off, I love that Jesus went in and reclined at the Pharisee's table. As far as I can find, He never rejected an offer to dine with someone - anyone - or denied anyone who requested the chance to spend time with him. We could learn from this. I think that sometimes when we have issues with people who don't hold the same values as we do, we lose our minds a little bit. We forget that every single person on the face of this earth is made in the image of God, and that makes them worthy of our respect, compassion, and kindness. Does that necessarily make them right? Nope. Does it make it okay to treat them poorly? Nope.
Now. When Jesus tells them to get rid of their greed and wickedness, he tells them how: be generous to the poor. What? Those two things don't quite jive at first. But when you think about it, true generosity can only come from the heart. From the inside. The goal here is to get to the point where we see every single person on the face of this earth as a person, as a soul. To realize that each of them has a story and, quite possibly, a reason why they have the problems and issues that they do. And when we do that, we won't be able to help being generous and kind to them. How wise.
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