Mark 7:17-23
What Jesus says in today’s passage is perhaps bigger than we realize today. Mark directly tells us, By saying this, Jesus declared that no food could contaminate a person in God’s sight.
That is a drastic change from certain aspects of the Torah. While we can hold onto the notion that Jesus does not dismiss the Law/Torah, he certainly takes it in significantly different directions.
But beyond the specifics of food practice, and much more importantly, the spirit of what Jesus says here is huge: people are not dirtied by external factors, but by what we allow to come forth from who we are.
Over the last 2000 years, Christians have continued to struggle with the notion that external factors of all sorts are that which bring about evil in one’s life. When thinking of various witchcraft items in years distant past, or tobacco more recently, or any number of external matters, Christians have too often blamed evil on things other than human action.
Of course, certain environments have the capacity to tempt us more strongly than others,1 but let us not blame anything but our selves when we choose to sin.
Mark 7:17-23
After leaving the crowd, he entered a house where his disciples asked him about that riddle. 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? 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. “It’s what comes out of a person that contaminates someone in God’s sight,” he said. “It’s from the inside, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come: sexual sins, thefts, murders, adultery, greed, evil actions, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, insults, arrogance, and foolishness. All these evil things come from the inside and contaminate a person in God’s sight.”
Prayer
God,
I pray for my daughter in the hospital. I’m fairly confident she’s going to be just fine. But I do pray for her, Lord. She’s in a lot of pain. She’s such a strong, confident, independent young woman. Keep her so, Lord. But ease her pain, help the intake of liquids do its job, and give her rest.
While I think I understand what Jesus is saying about not blaming external factors in life for our sinful culpability, I also know that external factors can cause great pain. When we’re in pain, those sinful things come more easily.
So help us to guard our hearts, Lord. May our pain give us compassion beyond anger, empathy beyond revenge, and fruit beyond apathy.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.
This needs to be said more strongly and developed more deeply elsewhere. I just want to acknowledge that.
Concerned and will pray for your daughter as well.