A heartfelt reflection on Luke 11:37–41, reminding us that true purity begins within, where love and mercy cleanse the heart more deeply than any ritual washing. (14-10-25)
Praise be to Jesus Christ
Once, an old potter was teaching his young apprentice how to make clay pots. The boy shaped a beautiful pot and proudly showed it to the master. The pot looked perfect, smooth, round, and shining. But the master smiled quietly and said, “It looks good, my son, but now let us test it.” He filled it with water and waited. After some time, drops began to seep out through tiny cracks that the boy had never noticed. The master said gently, “The outside fooled your eyes, but the inside told the truth.”
Something like that is happening in today’s Gospel (Luke 11:37–41). Jesus is invited to dine at the house of a Pharisee. The man is shocked because Jesus did not perform the ritual washing before eating. This washing was not because the hands were dirty but because the Pharisees believed that if someone had touched a sinner or an impure person, they had to be ritually purified before eating. For them, holiness meant keeping away from whatever was considered unclean. But Jesus saw it differently. He touched lepers, sat with tax collectors, and ate with sinners. He was not afraid of impurity because he came to heal it.
That is why Jesus said, “You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness” (Luke 11:39). He was telling them, “You are worried about what is on your hands but not about what is in your heart.” Jesus was not rejecting their custom but showing them something greater, that purity begins inside. God does not get offended by dust on our hands but by pride, hypocrisy, and selfishness in our hearts.
The word that touches me most here is “inside.” Jesus always looks at what is inside. The inside tells the truth about us, what we think, what we love, what we fear, what we hide. We can fool others with our outside but God sees the inside clearly.
In the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah said, “These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Isaiah 29:13). That same cry reaches us today. God is not looking for outward piety but for hearts filled with love.
Saint Teresa of Avila once said, “The important thing is not to think much, but to love much, and so to do what best stirs you to love.” She understood what Jesus was saying, that holiness is not a matter of perfect rules but of deep love. Sometimes we try to look holy in public, but love is tested in small, hidden moments, in patience, in forgiveness, in kindness at home.
Even in religious life, it is easy to appear good without being good. We may say all our prayers but still keep envy or resentment in the heart. Jesus calls us to clean the inside first. Then joy returns, peace blossoms, and our outside naturally reflects our inside. That is what he means when he says, “Give alms from what is within, and everything will be clean for you” (Luke 11:41). When we give from the heart, not just money but love, time, understanding, our life becomes truly pure.
Remember the prayer of King David, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). David had everything, power, strength, and honour, yet he knew that only a clean heart could please God. That is what Jesus is asking from each of us today.
In our families too, this message is simple and powerful. A clean home is good, but a clean heart is better. A mother or father who forgives quickly, who speaks kindly, who keeps peace, that is true purity. When love rules a home, it becomes a holy place.
So, the next time we wash our hands, maybe we can whisper, “Lord, wash my heart too.” Jesus is not against washing hands; he only wants us to wash our hearts as well. When the inside is clean, the outside will shine on its own.
Lord, help me to look inside of me that I may be completely purified
Fabulous reflection….. Wonderful 👍👍