How’s The Whitewash Holding Up?

Have you ever walked through a graveyard at night? You remember back in your high school days when someone just dared you to stay in the graveyard all night? Kind of spooky wasn’t it? Every little noise and our imaginations ran wild. Every little movement, we caught with the corners of our eyes. It could get worse, especially when you can’t see the gravestones and trip and fall because of the darkness, and then you’re lying on top of a dead person.

In Jesus’ day they used to whitewash the tombstones so they would be more visible, especially at night, because if a person stepped on a gravestone they became ceremonially unclean (Numbers 19:16). So the outside looked good, but obviously the inside was filled with dead man’s bones and many things that were ceremonially unclean.


In Matthew 23:27-28 Jesus gave the religious leaders of His day the “woe treatment” (I wonder if this treatment would work today. Did it "work" for Jesus?) for being hypocrites. They looked good on the outside (When the religious whitewash was working, they appeared to be righteous.) but on the inside, and in reality, they were full of wickedness and hypocrisy.

But, what happens, if like me, you don’t look good on the outside (As most of you know, I have no receding hairline, because I have no hair. There are plenty bald, ugly guys that inhabit the earth.) or the inside - a  “double dilemma”? You can always use some whitewash (or Rogaine formula) on the outside.


Do you know what whitewash looks like? Could it be a religious checklist we go through each week, without having a relationship with Jesus. Could it be that we tithe, but then we beat our wives? Could it be that we are involved with a small group where marriage enrichment is the topic, but we are having an affair with another man? Whitewash is a cheap imitation.

As a the song entitled, "Stain Glass Masquerade," by Casting Crowns states, in a part of the lyrics, “Am I the only one that is trading in the altar for a stage." Sunday masks are a very popular item worn by all kinds of people in all kinds of churches. Since I am a pretty straightforward guy, sometimes in our travels somebody will ask me on a Sunday morning at church the famous check up question to determine my current spiritual status, “How are you doing?” If I don’t give the typical “fine” answer, people are simply lost for a response.


The truth is, there are times when I am not fine, not fine at all. And masks, don’t you get tired of wearing one? Jesus knows our heart. Why the dress up game? I know you’re a leader, or a leader's wife. You know spiritually mature people are supposed to be sinless, no problems? Right?


If I stopped and considered what I whitewash in my life, there would be quite a laundry list! I can whitewash my overeating, or better yet, eating too many sweets. (I do like those Casey donuts.) I can put the brush to my ability to put down other people and emotionally abuse them. I can get out a roller and really put a good coat of whitewash on when it comes to being judgmental towards others and other ministries. Whitewash kind of sounds like hogwash. (It’s the Iowa kid in me.)


How do we overcome the acedia in this area of our lives?


Honesty, humility, integrity, and being real! Let’s trade in the whitewash for some honest-to-goodness, godly turpentine! God says He can clean us as white as snow. That takes on real meaning where I live! Whitewash on the outside or made white by God on the inside. No comparison.