Spiritual Practice

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Br. Keith Nelson

Luke 11:37-41

Jesus said, “Give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you.”

The study bible I use has a footnote: “Interpretation difficult.”

Verse 42 of Luke 11, which we did not hear, gives us further information. It is not that the pharisees are not generous; it seems that their generosity is simply myopic. Jesus goes on to say: “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God.”

One direction I find helpful when I find Jesus’ words perplexing is to ask myself what other things Jesus said that remind me of the passage in question.

Fortunately, there are several similar things Jesus says using imagery of inside and outside:

In similar passages in Matthew and Mark, Jesus insists that unwashed hands do not defile a person. In Matthew 15 we hear: “What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles.”

And just before today’s passage in Luke 11 we hear this: “Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.”  The suggestion seems to be: everything will be bright for you.

How do these passages help us to make sense of the enigmatic saying at Luke 11:40: “Give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you”?

There is a clear pattern in the teachings of Jesus that draws the attention of his listeners to consider their inner life. In several places, Jesus names the center of this inner experience “the heart,” as in Luke chapter 6: “The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good.”

Always an incisive observer of human behavior, Jesus names clearly a very human reality: the habitual patterns of thought and feeling that we feed, that we cultivate, that we invest energy in will eventually become manifest in our words and actions. This is true of anxiety and worry. It is true of anger and resentment. And it is true of trust, faith, hope, and love.

Jesus says to the Pharisees, “inside you are full of greed and wickedness.”

But he does not categorically dismiss the whole of their inner life. In saying, “Give for alms those things that are within,” he indicates his certainty that “justice and the love of God” are also there within them to be offered to a world that needs them.

Rather, Jesus is calling them to reframe their priorities. The fine details of outer observance, especially motivated by a disproportionate concern with what is clean or unclean, mean nothing without that inner transformation that renders us, slowly but surely, more faithful, more hopeful, and more loving.

I’ll end with a somewhat vulnerable confession: A simple intention I am cultivating is to smile more often! One thing I know about myself is that my resting facial expression can give the predominant impression that I am intense and serious. Well, I am those things, I think! But those who know me well also know the joy and lightness of being that are equally a part of who I am. I have a slight allergy to smiling as a social mask, but smiling authentically, spontaneously, feels amazing. It’s a gift to everyone that works in two directions: it “gives alms” to others outwardly even as it causes joy inwardly.

Maybe the perspective that that feeling brings is a bit like what Jesus had in mind when he said, “See, everything will be clean for you.”