Scripture: Mark 7:1-23 (CEB)
The Pharisees and some legal experts from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. 2 They saw some of his disciples eating food with unclean hands. (They were eating without first ritually purifying their hands through washing. 3 The Pharisees and all the Jews don’t eat without first washing their hands carefully. This is a way of observing the rules handed down by the elders. 4 Upon returning from the marketplace, they don’t eat without first immersing themselves. They observe many other rules that have been handed down, such as the washing of cups, jugs, pans, and sleeping mats.) 5 So the Pharisees and legal experts asked Jesus, “Why are your disciples not living according to the rules handed down by the elders but instead eat food with ritually unclean hands?”
6 He replied, “Isaiah really knew what he was talking about when he prophesied about you hypocrites. He wrote,
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far away from me.
7 Their worship of me is empty
since they teach instructions that are human words.[a]
8 You ignore God’s commandment while holding on to rules created by humans and handed down to you.” 9 Jesus continued, “Clearly, you are experts at rejecting God’s commandment in order to establish these rules. 10 Moses said, Honor your father and your mother,[b] and The person who speaks against father or mother will certainly be put to death.[c] 11 But you say, ‘If you tell your father or mother, “Everything I’m expected to contribute to you is corban(that is, a gift I’m giving to God),” 12 then you are no longer required to care for your father or mother.’ 13 In this way you do away with God’s word in favor of the rules handed down to you, which you pass on to others. And you do a lot of other things just like that.”
14 Then Jesus called the crowd again and said, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand. 15 Nothing outside of a person can enter and contaminate a person in God’s sight; rather, the things that come out of a person contaminate the person.”[d]
17 After leaving the crowd, he entered a house where his disciples asked him about that riddle. 18 He said to them, “Don’t you understand either? Don’t you know that nothing from the outside that enters a person has the power to contaminate? 19 That’s because it doesn’t enter into the heart but into the stomach, and it goes out into the sewer.” By saying this, Jesus declared that no food could contaminate a person in God’s sight. 20 “It’s what comes out of a person that contaminates someone in God’s sight,” he said. 21 “It’s from the inside, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come: sexual sins, thefts, murders, 22 adultery, greed, evil actions, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, insults, arrogance, and foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from the inside and contaminate a person in God’s sight.”
What does this passage mean to me/us?
Contributed by Patsy Wingfield
Jesus had a crowd around him. This crowd included Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law. They noticed that some of the disciples were eating food with their unwashed hands. The Pharisees and teachers of law asked Jesus why he allowed his disciples to disregard the traditions of the elders while eating their food with unwashed hands. Those traditions included the ceremonial hand washing before eating, the washing of fruits and vegetables from the market and the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.
Jesus equated their questioning with the hypocrites who disregard the commands of God but hold tight to their traditions. Those traditions sometimes nullified the word of God. He called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person (like food) can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” It is from a person’s heart that evil thoughts come. These evil thoughts defile a person.
Prayer
Our Heavenly Father, we ask for your help when our traditions and the commands of God collide. Help us look deep into our hearts and make decisions and actions which do not defile us, but instead, which are from our hearts. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.
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