Unmarked Graves

Years ago, my brother and I went out to our family cemetery, where my mother and another brother were buried.  When we got there, it took some doing to find their graves as the weeds and saplings had grown up and obscured all the markers.  Years later, a new owner of the land encompassing our cemetery, cleared off that spot, removing all the grave markers.  The result was the same, one could not tell where a grave was or was not.

If you went out to that site, you could just as easily be walking on top of a grave as not.  Without the markers in place and clearly visible, all the land looks the same.  Responding to some Pharisees, he knew to by hypocrites, Jesus said, "Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it" (Lk 11:44).

The thing about a hypocrite is that he/she is intentionally not clearly marked to be an unbeliever.  He/she might look and act like a responsible religious leader but on the inside a scheming, conniving sinner, filled with self-pride and disregard for others.  They/we could appear to have a living faith but in reality be filled with a decayed corpse of a faith.

In our small group meeting last night, we talked about the need of truly following James' instructions "confess your sins one to another so that you might be healed..." (5:16a).  Although we didn't use this imagery last night, we were talking about clearing away the weeds and setting up clear markers of the sins each of us struggles with, being able to open up to each other, fully self-revealing so that we can pray for and encourage each other to overcome not be overcome by our sins.

We would all agree that those old Pharisees had problems with openness and honesty.  They were hypocrites.  But I wonder if we don't bear a resemblance, if we aren't, in some ways, like unmarked graves?  I'm not judging, just inquiring.  You don't need to attempt to clear the weeds and set up marker in other's lives either.  What we all need to do is to take some moral and spiritual inventory of ourselves, particularly in a small group setting so that we can confess to and pray for each other, "...for the prayers of a righteous man (one who opens his/her heart before the Lord and others) avails much" (Js 5:16b).  Jus' Say'n.