Cleansing Generosity

 

Read the following Adam Hamilton's book, Luke. He's talking about Jesus' response to the Pharisees criticizing Jesus for not ritually washing his hands (Luke 11:37-38).  Jesus tells them that they are foolish for worrying about what is outside when it is what is inside that is unclean:

It would be like, he says, washing the outside of a cup but not the inside.  Then he offers this one little line that touches on what we learned in the last chapter, "Give to those in need from the core of who you are and you will be clean all over." (11:41). The act of generosity to the poor actually serves to cleanse our hearts and souls?  Yes, in that act we lift up the lowly, we become instruments of God.  We deny ourselves and take up our cross.

I talk about generosity a lot in the work I do.  I often talk about generosity as part of discipleship, and I talk about how being generous is one of the ways we fulfill our potential of being the image of God, God who is generous.  I talk about generosity as one of the ways we respond to God's generosity towards us.  Amid all of that, I've never thought of generosity as a way we are cleansed. 

It does make sense, though. I do believe generosity is transformational, and what is transformation if it is not changing who we are on the inside.