Rotten inside

Matthew 23:27-28 NKJV

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. [28] Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Here we are in Holy Week leading up to the Last Supper, Gethsemane, the Betrayal, Sham Trial, the Flagellation, Crucifixion and Glorious Resurrection of Jesus.

Prior to it, Jesus gives His most scathing condemnation of the religious leaders. How they appeared so good and righteous on the outside. Yet inwardly they were corrupt and dead in their sinful pride.

It reminded me of some trees we saw as we walked our dog along the canal path.

There they lay, broken from the main root. Although the bark looked fine on the outside, the inside had rotted and it was hollow.

Obviously, each had become diseased and failed to draw strength and nutrients from the root, resulting in death, brokeness and their fatal fall.

Pray God that none of us become like that - looking good outwardly, but inwardly rotten with corruption and spiritual wickedness!

How long had those trees stood tall and erect, giving the semblance of life, before being broken in a storm?

The stormy winds of Death are coming to us all one day.

Will we be found rotten and separated from the Root of Jesus, with nothing inside?

Let us keep close and draw our strength by being vitally united to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

John 15:4-5 NKJV

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. [5] "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.