The Whitewashed-Tomb Syndrome

[Rhoni]

A friend gave me a book that she thought God had directed her to give to me to read...I have not finished the book, maybe others have read it, Having a Mary Spirit:Allowing God to Change Us From The Inside Out, by Joanna Weaver.

In it there is a subtitile called : You, Me, and the Pharisees

Because we have so many concerned with the continuum of ultra-conservative to ultra-liberal, I thought this would give us something to think and talk about.

Most of us will agree that the Pharisees were Godly men, at least from observation of their strict adherence to the Law. Even in their times the Jews were able to recognize the hypocrisy that often times accompanies the Pahrisee's pious attempts at religious perfection. I find it interesting the Talmud's distinction of the seven different types of Pharisees and wonder if we can recognize oursleves in any one of the types or bits and pieces of several of the types it lists:

1. The Shoulder Pharisee - meticulously follows the law but wears his/her good deeds on their should for all the world to see.
2. The Wait-a-little Pharisee - those who offer vaild excuses for not doing the good deeds they know to do. A person who speaks great things but does not act on them.
3. The Bruised or Bleeding Pharisee - the one so intent on avoiding evil or temptaion that they close their eyes and run into things - displaying obvious bruises to prove their piety.
4. The Hump-backed or Tumbling Pharisee - Those so determined to look humble that they are completely bent over, shuffle their feet, and often trip over obstacles.
5. The Ever-Reckoning or Compounding Pharisee - Those forever counting up their good deeds in the belief that each one puts God further in him/her debt.
6. The Timid or Fearing Pharisee - Those always in dread of divine punishment, continually cleansing the outside of the cup and platter with the intent to escape God's wrath, and then lastly...
7. The God-Fearing Pharisee - defined by the Jews themselves as ones who truly love God. This Pharisee found pleasure rather than drudgery in obeying God's Law no matter how difficult it might be.

I find myself in almost all categories at on time or another in my life. Jesus was not so kind as he denounced the Pahrisees and their pious attempts at self-induced holiness. Jesus ripped of the facade of the Pharisees religiosity, and called the Pharisees "whitewashed tombs...full of dead men's bones" [Matthew 23-27].

Whitewashed tombs were common in Jesus' day, especially during the Passover or other religious festivals. Graves were painted white so nobody would trip over them and become unclean and unfit to worship. These tombs looked beautiful on the outside but inside were filled with dead, rotting things and everything unclean. Jesus himself advise us to ignore the outside because what is on the inside is what really counts.

The Whitewashed Tomb Syndrome -is defined as the dangerous belief that we can somehow make ourselves presentable to God through our own human effort. Not only are such efforts pointless, and fruitless...but they are not necessary...

How many times are we caught up in the outer manifestations of what we consider holiness to be only to have the outward appearnace of a tomb and inside everything is dead or dying in us.

Sincerely, Rhoni