06/09/2026
DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN OF BECOMING
CLEAN HANDS, PURE HEARTS
Scripture Reading: Matthew 27:24 and Psalm 24:3 to 4
“He took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood,’ he said.”
Matthew 27:24
Growing up, my mum was very particular about cleanliness. Washing your hands was not a suggestion in our house. You came in from outside, you washed them. Before you ate, you washed them. If you had been playing outside, you definitely washed them. I remember being very little and sometimes doing it with complete reluctance because washing my hands was cutting into valuable playtime. I would stand at the basin doing exactly what I had been told, probably with an attitude that made it very clear I was not happy about it. My hands were clean, but my heart was saying something completely different.
Funny how such a small childhood memory can make you think years later. I had done the right thing outwardly, but inwardly I was nowhere near it. My hands had obeyed. My heart had not.
Pilate gives us a much more serious picture of that in Matthew 27. Jesus stood before him, and Pilate knew there was something wrong with what was unfolding. He knew envy was driving the accusations. His wife had warned him concerning Jesus. Pilate himself asked the crowd, “What crime has He committed?” He knew enough to recognise innocence, yet when the pressure increased and the crowd became louder, Pilate called for water. He washed his hands.
In his mind, that gesture created some distance between himself and what was about to happen. He could hand Jesus over and still tell himself that he had nothing to do with it. The problem was that water could only reach his hands. It could not reach his heart.
I think we do our own versions of hand washing sometimes. We find ways to make ourselves feel better about things we know are not quite right. We explain our motives. We justify our reactions. We rename things so they sound less uncomfortable. We convince ourselves that our intentions were good, therefore the outcome should not matter. Sometimes we even tell ourselves, “Well, I did my part,” while knowing there was more God required of us.
Good intentions do not automatically equal a pure heart.
Psalm 24 asks, “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place?” The answer is “The one who has clean hands and a pure heart.” God mentions both because He is concerned with more than behaviour. Clean hands speak about what we do. A pure heart reaches into why we do it. Heaven is not only examining the action. God sees the motive that produced it.
That is sobering because motives can hide behind very respectable behaviour. Pride can hide behind excellence. Fear can disguise itself as wisdom. Control can call itself concern. Bitterness can masquerade as boundaries. The need for recognition can hide inside service. We can even do the right thing for the wrong reason and become so accustomed to our explanation that we stop asking God what He sees.
Pilate wanted innocence without courage. He wanted to recognise what was right without paying the price of standing for it. He wanted his conscience relieved without his position being threatened. Washing his hands gave him a public gesture, but it could not produce private purity.
Jesus also used a basin of water, but in an entirely different way. He knelt and washed the feet of His disciples. One basin became an attempt to escape responsibility. The other quietly demonstrated humility and servanthood. The same water touched two very different heart postures.
Today, as we come to the Communion table and remember the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, perhaps the invitation is to go beyond what everybody else can see. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:28, “Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.” The examination is not directed towards the person beside us. It begins with ourselves.
Perhaps our prayer before we take the bread and the cup should simply be, “Lord, search me.” Search beneath my explanations and good intentions. Reveal where offence, pride, fear or unforgiveness has settled. Show me anything I have justified that You are asking me to surrender.
Pilate had water. We have the blood of Jesus. Water can deal with what sits on the surface, but only Jesus can cleanse what lies within.
This morning my mind goes back to that little girl standing reluctantly at the basin, watching the dirt disappear from her hands while her heart was still protesting. I smile at her now because she had no idea that years later God would use such an ordinary memory to remind her of something far deeper. It is possible to leave the basin with clean hands and still carry something inside that water could never reach.
Perhaps all of us have stood at that basin in one way or another. We have cleaned up the outside, said the right thing, carried on, smiled, served and convinced everybody, sometimes even ourselves, that everything was fine. Jesus has never asked us to bring Him a polished version of ourselves. He asks us to bring Him the truth.
BCF Family, as we come to His table today, perhaps we need to stand at the basin again, only this time not as children rushing to get back to whatever distracted us. Let us stay long enough for God to go deeper. Let Him wash away what has settled where nobody else can see. The hands may tell people what we have done, but the heart tells God who we are becoming.
May we leave His Presence today with more than clean hands. May we leave with hearts made pure by the One whose body was broken, whose blood was shed, and whose grace still reaches places no basin ever could.
The growing continues. Day Two Hundred and Seventeen has begun. Walk it out.
Jesus Blessings Debbie 🐝
