February 8 He Loves You

Luke 11:44 “Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it.”
 
“WOE” is the Lord’s call of distress and warning to his people, particularly to the Pharisees, priests and scribes. These are men who should know well God’s law, love, grace and mercy. But they have hidden God beneath a blanket of rules and political control.
    You can see how Jesus is extremely distressed here. These are hard words as he compares the Pharisees to “unmarked graves”. Why does Jesus use such a painful comparison?
     Jesus wants the Pharisees to be spiritually alive and to care for others in God’s love. Sometimes dead souls require strong images to realize, “I need to change.” Jesus’ “unmarked graves” image is a reference to one of God’s laws: Leviticus 21:11 He must not enter a place where there is a dead body. He must not make himself unclean, even for his father or mother. To be unclean is to be sick or at risk of disease. Our Lord established many hygiene rules for his people to protect their health. Consequently, one who became unclean in this way was required to complete a cleansing time. Numbers 19:11 “Whoever touches the dead body of anyone will be unclean for seven days.” God’s law was just to protect the health of the individual and the entire community. And God’s law was gracious to restore the unclean person to be with the community again.
    To prevent people from unknowingly becoming unclean, tombs were annually whitewashed. Even though they looked fresh and pure on the outside, people knew to stay away. To leave a grave or tomb unmarked was to intentionally put people at risk of being unclean.
    Jesus speaks, “Woe.” to the Pharisees because their clothes were attractive, but their souls were unclean. Trusting people walked into their presence, thinking they would learn of God. But they were unwittingly contaminated with the Pharisees’ sin. Such sickness made them spiritually unclean, separated from God, eternally dead.
    Has this happened to you? Perhaps someone you trusted looked good on the outside but the person took you away from Jesus. Maybe you were attracted to enter into a relationship, but now you feel empty, sick or even dead in your soul. Possibly it feels good to be angry or unforgiving, but now you know it contaminates your walk with Jesus. Sadly, you have found it attractive to neglect daily Bible readings and time with your Lord. Such spiritual disease may cause God’s Word to be ineffective, even dead to your mind and soul.
    Do you need to be made clean in Jesus again? Then talk to your holy Lord. Be humble and submissive to Jesus’ teachings. Pray for, seek and learn of God’s great love to draw you into his life. Remember, if Jesus didn’t love his people, he would have left them to their sins. He is distressed because he weeps for the Jews’ unclean hearts. He longs for his people to be alive with him. In the same way, your Lord God is lovingly teaching you. Remember how he personally went into the tomb, the unclean place of separation and death, so you could become clean to live as one with the Lord God forever.
 
Prayer: Open my heart, Lord, I want to know Jesus loves me. Amen.