An Unsanitary Saviour

“And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat.

And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner.

And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.”

Luke 11:37-39

Three of four Gospels record instances of the the Lord Jesus Christ with his twelve disciples sitting down to dinner with dirty hands. A couple other cases are found in Matthew 15 and Mark 7. Whatever the Lord was doing, He made sure to communicate it well.

The reason this passage stand out in the midst of a flu pandemic need not be revisited. The fact that this passage has been largely overlooked by ‘Christianity’ as a whole however, must be addressed.

This passage has disappeared from the pulpit, either due to fear, ignorance, or concealment. Any one of those reasons will do. Probably you have already been offended just by reading the text and what Christ said. (He will say more, too. Keep reading.) My goal is not to offend, but to give Christ’s wisdom an equal voice with worldly insanity.

The Lord Jesus was “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb. 4:15)

Yet He would touch a leper, eat corn raw from the field, mingle with fisherman and NEVER stop to wash His hands? (Have you ever smelled fish guts? Holy mackerel!) Was Christ forgetful? Was He insensitive? How could He deliberately do such a thing?

We must conclude that sanitary does NOT equal sanctified. It isn’t a sin not to wash your hands.

The man in whose house Christ dined was wrong for being offended.

We have all turned Pharisee. This man never said a word out loud, but merely muttered in his heart. For the quietest thought he caught a thunderous rebuke from a Man who was a guest! Chist was incensed at the hypocrisy of this man’s clean hands and filthy heart. He set the record straight in very clear English:

“Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also?”

Luke 11:40

What of the transmission of disease? What of being the carrier of a virus? What of the proper sense of manners and propriety? Did Jesus Christ have no conscience?

If all the above questions be deemed as rhetorical, answer just this one please: Does the Lord know what He’s doing, or doesn’t He? Well? You have to make a call one way or the other.

The Jesus of the Bible is an unknown Saviour.

Few will ever know Him for who He really is. Fewer still will ever seek to identify with Him. Most of us will never recognize the minority who choose to suffer with Him. Christianity as it exists in its Laodicean slump refuses to open the door (Revelation 3:20) because the One knocking isn’t wearing a mask.

So run quick! Wash your hands, Pilate! Remember: phones and computers are the worst germ-carriers of all!