Thoughts on the Washing Station and Making Disciples

On our recent trip to Turkey our team visited several mosques. One was the magnificent Blue Mosque in Istanbul. There Muslims come five times a day to perform the Salaah, the fixed ritual of the Islamic prayer and worship. Outside the Blue Mosque are washing stations. According to one Islamic resource I read here is a description of the washing that takes place here outside the mosque:


This fixed ritual of prayer is so rigid in Islam that there may be no departure from it and the pious Muslim will slavishly follow it day after day. Prayer is also like a gymnastic exercise and a mechanical act, together with total submission to God of course. Before offering the prayer one must be in good shape and pure condition. It is necessary to wash the parts of the body which are generally exposed to dirt or dust or smog.

Declare the intention that the act is for the purpose of worship and purity.
Wash the hands up to the wrists three times.
Rinse out the mouth with water three times preferably with a brush whenever it is possible.
Cleanse the nostrils of the nose by sniffing water in to them three times.
Wash the whole face three times with both hands if possible from the top of the forehead to the bottom of the chin and from ear to ear.
Wash the right arm three times up to the far end of the elbow and then do the same with the left arm.
Wipe the whole head or any part of it with a wet hand once.
Wipe the inner sides of the ears with the forefingers and their outer sides with the thumbs. This should be done with wet fingers.
Wipe around the neck with wet hands.
Wash the two feet up to the ankles three times beginning with the right foot.

Several words and phrases should catch your attention as you read this description; for instance: “fixed ritual”, “rigid”, “slavishly follow”, “like gymnastic exercise and a mechanical act”. I am reminded of what Jesus said to the most religious people of His day, the Pharisees, in Matthew 23:25: “You clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.”

Dallas Willard writes,
Only avid discipleship to Christ through the spirit brings the inward transformation of thought, feeling and character that "cleans the inside of the cup" (Matt. 23:25) and "makes the tree good" (Matt. 12:33). As we study with Jesus we increasingly become on the inside--with "the Father who is in secret" (Matt 6:6)-exactly what we are on the outside, where actions and moods and attitudes visibly play over our body alive in its social context. An amazing simplicity will take over our lives--a simplicity that is really just transparency.

This requires a long and careful learning from Jesus to remove the duplicity that has become second nature to us--as is perhaps inevitable in a world where, to 'manage' our relations to those about us, we must hide what we really think, feel and would like to do if only we could avoid observation. Thus, a part of Jesus' teaching was to "avoid the leaven, or permeating spirit, of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." (Luke 12:1)

The Pharisees were in many respects the very best people of Jesus' day. But they located goodness in behavior and tried to secure themselves by careful management at the behavioral level. However, that simply cannot be done.

By contrast the fruit of the spirit, as described by Jesus and Paul, does not consist in actions, but in attitudes or settled personality traits that make up the substance of the "hidden" self, the "inner man." "Love" captures this fruit in one word, but in such a concentrated form that it needs to be spelled out. Thus, "the fruit (singular) of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control."

I’ll have more to say on this topic. The Church Elders are praying about what we need to do to create disciples at Westwood. How do we become a spiritual greenhouse where spiritual growth flourishes? Pray for us as we do.