Savior of the World, I want to honor you; in everything I think and do, help me to reflect you in ways that draw others to you.
Read MARK 7:1–23
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
That Which Defiles
7 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2 and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.[a])
5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”
6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’[b]
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”
9 And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe[c] your own traditions! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’[d] and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’[e] 11 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— 12 then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”
14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” [16] [f]
17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
Footnotes
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
‘Not the labors of my hands / can fulfill thy law’s demands; / could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow, / all for sin could not atone.’1
Think Further
The origin of sin in a universe created by a good and holy God is an enigma. We can only know, from Scripture’s great poem of creation, that the first human beings, created in the image of God, had the power to choose their own way over God’s way. Theorizing about evil in the world intrigues people like me but we only see dimly, until, one day in God’s eternity, we will know as we are known.2 In the meantime, however, we face the inescapable reality of evil in the world. Everyone reading these words knows what sin is! We know, too, from our lived experience, that sin comes to us in two ways. It comes, all unbidden, from outside us, as it did to Eve and to Jesus, and it comes from inside us, polluting us from within. ‘The devil made me do it’ is usually the lamest – and most dishonest – of excuses! Here, the Pharisees’ fixation with ritual cleanliness impels Jesus into a vehement denunciation of their obsessive insistence on minor artificial rules of behavior. These are rules which humans had invented, while deceitfully twisting the letter of the real Law to their own financial advantage. We are well aware of such practices today – tax avoidance and other financial malpractices based on smart but devious interpretations of the law.
Jesus certainly chose a striking and memorable metaphor. We all understand the difference between an overlooked particle in our saucepan and the uncleanliness of bodily waste. Later, Jesus explains his parable to his disciples. Jesus is not being medical or scientific. He was not against cleanliness, and we would be wrong to push this parable, or any other parable, too far. He was simply using human excreta as a metaphor for evil. Both physical filth and spiritual filth originate within us.
Apply
The Lord can cleanse our hearts and minds of all that is false or unclean, all that is unworthy, so that our lives reflect only him – making us more like him.
Closing prayer
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me (Psalm 51:10).
Last Updated on October 30, 2024 by kingstar
