What is in your heart?
In this passage, Jesus turns the spotlight to shine on our heart. He calls us not to be fixated on the externals, ignore essentials and reveal the internals.
(A) Observing externals (Mark 7:1-8)
In Mark 7, Jesus once again encounters the Pharisees and the scribes (Mark 7:1,5). These were the religious elites who were known for their academic knowledge (Pharisees) and the scribes were responsible for writing and recording Scripture. Mark draws our attention to the religious scholars in their time, and they were the primary antagonists of Jesus’ ministry. They are going to have confrontation with Jesus.
Jesus did not come to promote institutional religion but came preaching a reformed religion. And the religious leaders of the day did not want their approach to be discarded or overwritten. Eventually, this led to the cross.
Have we become religious people so baked and hardened in our understanding of what the Scripture say that we might find ourselves on the wrong side of Jesus? Ask God to keep us from being the interpretive authority, avoid imposing our standards or morality and instead ask for the Spirit’s help to understand Scripture as God intended.
The religious leaders saw that some of His disciples ate with hands that are defiled — that is unwashed (Mark 7:1-2). This observation went against what the Pharisees and Jews did. In Mark 7:3-4, we are told that this washing is not about hygiene, but is a kind of ceremonial washing that keeps the filth from others off them. They washed after the marketplace because they had met with the Gentiles and this also extended to household objects and furniture like dining couches. This ritual cleanness is not about keeping themselves holy to approach God, but is about keeping themselves away from undesirable people in order not to be affected by them. God had originally intended for the people’s holiness so that they could commune with a holy God. Instead, the religious leaders had gone to great lengths to cleansed themselves of the unclean people they could have possibly interact with. This was the people of God that was supposed to represent Him to the nations.
Notice how the Pharisees and scribes came from Jerusalem (Mark 7:1). They intended to come and scrutinise Jesus and His disciples. They observed their lifestyle in order to take issue with His teaching. They were preoccupied with the externals.
In Mark 7:6, Jesus quotes a part of Isaiah 29:11-16. There in Isaiah, the people claim that they cannot understand or read God’s word which He has given to them. They talk about their love for Him but their hearts are far from Him. They do not desire to read and love His word. God says that He will work surprising and shocking things that upturn the order. Jesus is God in the flesh who have come to the people to receive His word and He tells them that Isaiah 29 was speaking about them. They have the work of God but they have turned it upside down.
This text should make us nervous. Can we say with a clear conscience that we have never once abused Scripture for our own gain? Can we say that we have read Scripture, had it pierce our soul and then say that it is not for us?
Like the Pharisees, we too, are good at only observing the externals. We are also hypocrites. Do you have a place in your week where you allow your hypocrisy to be confronted?
(B) Ignoring essentials (Mark 79-13)
Jesus said they had a fine way (Mark 7:9a), rejecting the commandant of God (Mark 7:10, 13). In Mark 7:10, we read, “For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’” Jesus quotes Exodus 20:12, 21:17 and also said that Moses wrote Exodus. He also quotes Scripture when addressing them. Jesus did not improve upon Scripture! Let us not think that we are wiser than Jesus. The Bible is a good source to base our life, death and everything in between on.
Notice how he refers to it as a commandment, and then quotes a positive and negative command to illustrate His point. It is a logical approach and builds His theology by going to Scripture and seeks to understand it by reading in context.
He is also speaking about their relationship to their parents. In our day, we are concerned about big ideas. Here, Jesus deals with hypocrisy by talking about our treatment of our parents. Do we care about the commandment of God?
Instead, they were intent on establishing tradition (Mark 7:11-12) As Jesus says in Mark 7:11-12, “But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God) — then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother”.
Jesus states how this is what they said. Now they claimed that they are free from their obligations to their parents if they can claim that they are doing something for God/have set aside for God. We can relate to this all too well. Jesus takes issues with the role of the Pharisees in propping up this system of legalism. They were concerned with tradition rather than seeking to understand the word of God as He intended them to.
This helps us think about truth claims. We often point to different perspectives and points of view. But here, we see how Jesus presents what God’s word says and everything else is not God’s word. There are only two main categories.
Jesus also concludes that “many such things you do” (Mark 7:13b).
This is not the only example. In Mark 7:1-5, the Pharisees were not concerned with not keeping God’s law but were obsessed over keeping tradition. They have ignored the essentials — which is obedience to God’s word.
Are you ignoring the essentials? The Puritans used to say that there is an obligation or a burden from every text that we are to be swift to obey after reading Scripture. Let us approach every text thinking that we are ready to obey before we even read it! This should be our desire.
(C) Revealing internals (Mark 7:14-23)
Jesus teaches that what defiles a person is not what goes into him but what comes out of a person are what defile him. This is because what goes in enters the stomach and not the heart (Mark 7:19). Thus, Jesus declared all foods clean — which is what happens in Acts when the Jewish Christians struggle with the status of the Gentile Christians! It was not about the foods, but about the person.
Jesus is teaching that defilement arises from the heart.
Jesus asked if His disciples were like the Pharisees and scribes! Let us pray that when we read God’s word it does not come without understanding.
According to Jesus, there are three categories by which one becomes unclean:
Between people (relational sins)
Objects (e.g. desires)
Self (seeing self too high/low, not seeing as God sees us, i.e. fool)
This is where we live as a human race. The pages of our newspapers are full of these sins. And where do these things come from? It comes from our heart. The moment we accept this from Jesus and that it is our condition, we are to ask God to deliver us from this body of flesh. Our biggest problem is not outside of us but inside us. The need is in the heart. The point of defilement begins from within. And if this is true, we cannot save ourselves!
And even if we try to keep our heart secluded from the poison out there, we cannot do so, for it is already poisoned. We need to be saved from ourselves. The only person who can save us must be someone from outside of us. He must come to us.
What comfort is it then, to read these words in Ezekiel 36:25-29a: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. …”
God promises to wash away our real uncleanness (Ezek 36:25,29a). No amount of washing by the Pharisees can make them clean. God Himself must be the one to wash away our uncleanness. He does that by removing every trace of our hearts so that there is nothing left of our heart and spirit. His Spirit must work and only then will we be made clean.
If you are a Christian and have experienced this new birth, remember that what makes us clean is a new heart and Spirit from God. It is not our right doctrine or attending Bible study or a healthy church. When we read Scripture then, we see our death in Christ and new life in Christ. This is the result of the new heart we have received.