Mark 7:14-23
Introduction
Good morning! Turn with me to Mark 7:14ff.
I feel like every week I’m saying, “This is so important!” But, it is! When Jesus teaches, stop everything. He’s about to turn the world upside down, or should I say, “Right side up.” And that’s how I feel today. This morning’s topic is so important. What Jesus has to say is so important for us to hear and understand.
In the previous section, Mark 7:1-13, we were looking at the danger of religious traditions. And we saw that religious traditions can be very dangerous because religious traditions often masquerade as true religion, evening duping ourselves, but they’re not the thing itself, and that confusion can be deadly to your soul.
Remember, in the previous set of verses, the presenting issue was ritual handwashing. And the various religious conservatives and experts of the day were concerned the disciples of Jesus were not washing their hands in this ritual way before a meal according to the traditions of the elders, and therefore, they were defiling themselves. So, Jesus first addressed the question of religious traditions and the role they play.
Now, in Mark 7:14-23, Jesus turns from the first issue, tradition, to address the second issue, the issue of defilement.
What defiles a person? That is, what makes someone spiritually polluted? How would you answer that question? What makes someone holy or unholy? Pure or impure? Righteous or unrighteous? Clean or unclean? What makes someone good or bad? What actually defiles a person?
Jesus will answer the question today.
Let’s begin with the opening scene, verses 14-17.
Opening Scene: Mark 7:14-17
“[14] And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: [15] There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” [17] And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable” (Mark 7:14-17, ESV).
They’ve just discussed ritual handwashing and the danger of religious traditions (vv. 1-13), and now Jesus moves, quite literally, to the heart of the matter. He shifts the focus from physical dirtiness to spiritual dirtiness. And the question is what really makes someone defiled (i.e., spiritually polluted or dirty).
So Jesus tells them this parable. Parables are not always stories; sometimes they are more like enigmatic or roundabout sayings. In this case, the parable is the mysterious statement he makes in verse 15: “There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile.”
The disciples are confused by this statement. And to be fair, taken by itself, this statement can be confusing. Things going into a person? What does Jesus mean? Things going out of a person? What are we talking about here?
So, when they get back to the house where they’re staying, the disciples ask him about the meaning of this parabolic statement.
By the way, getting clarification privately, when the disciples and Jesus get back home, is a bit of a pattern in the Gospel of Mark (Lane, 1974; Mark 4:34; 9:28, 33; 10:10). And this pattern is instructive for us: Understanding Jesus often takes more than one go. Your first encounter with Jesus as you enter a church or read the Bible for the first time, may be like a glancing blow. It gets your attention and wakes you up, but it doesn’t quiet connect; it doesn’t yet penetrate your heart. But if you persist, if you, like the disciples, will go “home with him,” so to speak, you will begin to have understanding as you linger long with him. So often it is in the lingering and in the quiet that we come to understand Jesus. And so it is here.
So, with the disciples, let’s go home with Jesus, sit around the kitchen table over dessert and coffee, and see if we can’t come to understand this parable about what truly defiles someone.
Okay, so imagine it. We’re back home with Jesus. It’s been a busy day of teaching and healing. Now, we’re in the kitchen. Jesus is sitting at the kitchen table, while a pot of decaf is brewing. Some of the guys are at the table. Others are standing against the counter. James is serving up some kosher cheesecake. And somebody finally gets the courage to ask, “So, what’s up with that parable about things going in and out of us? I mean, I think I understood it all, but just to be sure, why don’t you start at the beginning.”
And with that, Jesus begins to explain the saying. He clarifies its meaning with two points. Point one…
Food does not automatically defile you.
“[18] And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, [19] since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean)” (Mark 7:18-19, ESV).
The Jews had all kinds of kosher laws about food. If we were to read Leviticus chapter eleven, we would see all kinds of rules about what types of food were considered clean or unclean. So, for example, pigs were considered an unclean animal, so the Jews were not supposed to eat pork. But these rules were only ever about ritual purity. What is ritual purity? Ritual purity means you stay pure with regards to the rituals. In other words, ritual purity means you keep the religious rituals, whether they be about food, infections, or clothing. A good modern example might be all the ritual rules we have around the American flag. Do a web search of American flag regulations, and you will find a long list of rules about its care, display, storage, and disposal. For example, if you keep a flag out at night, it is supposed to be lit. Now, this is just a piece of colored fabric that you picked up from Walmart, but that doesn’t matter. If you want to keep the flag pure and be ritually pure, you need to honor all these rituals. And so, the Jews had all these rituals about eating, clothing, etc., and to be ritually pure, they had to keep these rituals. And, let me be clear here: these rituals were prescribed by God. Now, why had God prescribed these?
God gave them these various rituals to help remind them they were to be a set-apart, pure people (see Leviticus 11:44a – “For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy…”). The same way honoring the flag is connected to honoring the country it represents, so honoring the purity rituals was supposed to help the people of God honor the true purity of holiness that these rituals represented.
BUT, here, Jesus says, ‘Don’t you see that the rituals themselves, all the rules about eating this but not that, aren’t actually purity itself?’ Food is just food. The same way a fabric flag is just fabric. And with food, it just enters your stomach and then is “expelled.” Jesus says food does not enter your heart, and by “heart,” he means like the core of who you are (and not like your physical, beating heart, which can be clogged by fat from food). So, yes, the Israelites were to keep pure with regards to the food rituals but not because the food itself had the ability to make them actually holy or not, spiritually pure or impure. You look at a big ol’ pig in a pigsty, and you’ll think “That’s nasty! (And maybe that’s one of the good kosher laws!)” But eating a big plate of pulled pork doesn’t make you spiritually nasty. Hotdogs are disgusting, really. I took a online quiz one time that was supposed to estimate your lifespan. It asked questions about how long your family members lived, whether you smoked, or had other health issues. But I’ll never forget one of the questions was: “Do you eat hotdogs?” So, hotdogs can kill you, but they don’t kill you spiritually. So, Jesus gives a huge clarification here about all these ritual laws they were observing. It’s not that ritual purity was a bad thing, but it wasn’t the real thing. And in this case, all the rules about the food were not because food in and of itself has the power to make you spiritually unholy.
The clarification that Jesus makes is so significant that, in hindsight, Mark (or Peter), realizes this was the beginning of the end of these food laws. Mark adds parenthetically, “Thus he declared all foods clean” (v. 19b). All foods are good and clean, spiritually. Now, we know for a fact the disciples, at this moment, don’t get the full significance of what Jesus is saying because we will see in the Book of Acts that they are still sorting out the food laws, putting together what Jesus has taught and now done in the cross, resurrection, and sending of the Spirit, to fulfill all these purity laws. They will conclude the food laws are obsolete. But make no mistake: This clarification is the beginning of these laws becoming obsolete.
On taking the bible literally. Now, just as a quick aside, let me point out how this explains the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Many times I have heard people say if you believe the whole Bible and take it literally, then why do you wear clothes with mixed fabrics or not observe all these other ritual laws or eat pork. And the answer is because of passages like this. You see the Bible was written over centuries, not all at once, and it records history and change. So some of the later writings clarify, fulfill, or otherwise change the previous writings. We do think the rules in Leviticus are still relevant but only in a certain sense, namely, that they are instructive in understanding history and what God is like, but in other senses, because of teachings like this from Jesus, we no longer believe they relevant in a legal sense. Throughout the New Testament, you will see various aspects of the Old Testament clarified or deepened or declared fulfilled and therefore obsolete. So, believing the whole bible is inspired by God and taking the bible literally doesn’t mean we think all of the bible is equally in effect.
Shew! That’s a lot! Now, what does all of this have to do with you today?
It may feel like this has no relevance since you probably don’t observe kosher laws, but it is relevant to you when we realize that Jesus is touching on a larger truth. And when we see that larger truth, I think you will see some important implications and applications for today. So what is this larger truth?
Food ^and Physical stuff does not automatically defile you.
Jesus is specifically talking about how food is clean, but we can gently broaden this to include just physical stuff in general. So, it’s not just that food does not automatically defile you, but the physical universe – things, stuff – does not automatically defile you. The Apostle Paul develops this point in 1 Timothy 4. He says people will come along who, “[3] who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. [4] For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving…” (1 Timothy 4:3-4). So, Mark uses the language of “clean,” and here, Paul says, “good.” But the idea is the same: Physical creation, stuff, is good or again, to use the language of Mark or Leviticus, it is “clean.” Now, certainly, after the fall, we might say the various “processes” have been corrupted. We have storms and droughts and so forth. But dirt is just dirt. Rocks are just rocks. If I hit you with a stick, the stick isn’t bad; I am. And Jesus, when he clarifies the cleanness of food, is touching on this larger principle that God’s creation is good and in itself clean.
Again, I want to emphasize that this is a revolutionary clarification. That physical stuff does not spiritually pollute you is still a revolutionary thought and something we need to hear today. We still tend to cringe at physical reality, and we still tend to think that immaterial reality is more pure. Let me show you what I mean.
Paul mentions one here: marriage and sex. Christians can tend to think of marriage and sex as a kind of a gross or taboo thing. But the one flesh, physical union of a man and woman is a God-created physical thing that is good and to be enjoyed. Can it be polluted? Yes, sadly. But the thing itself does not automatically defile you. In fact, in the context of marriage, it’s a good and clean thing.
We can feel weird about the way we look. We can feel like an outsider because of some physical feature. Or perhaps you’re distractingly attractive. But either way, you don’t have to apologize for your body. It’s just a body. It’s a thing, and a thing God created. Some of you may struggle with weight, and it’s got nothing to do with your spiritual life. You’re always eating healthy and exercising, but you have a metabolism that would’ve been great in a different century but not in ours. But your weight, whether thin or medium or overweight, is not necessarily a mark of your spiritual life. The color of your skin, your hair, your height… none of these things have spiritual significance, but we’re tempted, historically and today, to rank or value people by these things. Now, the bible does say our bodies have desires and impulses that are now disordered and inordinate, but that you have a body, that you are five or six feet tall, that you are dark or light skinned, that you are 150 or 250 pounds, that you are male or female, is not bad; it’s good. It’s clean. It does not defile you or make you spiritually superior.
I’ll give you another example straight out of the ESV. If you’re looking at an ESV bible and look at the footnote on verse 19, it reads, “Greek goes out into the latrine.” What that means is the original Greek manuscript records Jesus as saying, “…whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, [19] since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and goes out into the toilet?” (vv. 18b-19). I don’t know this for a fact, but I can’t help but wonder if the translators chickened out on the translation because maybe it just seemed a too physical.
And get this: I even felt icky writing some of this stuff.
But friends, it’s not just about our stuff. This tendency to disdain the physical has gone so far that it has even corrupted people’s understanding of Jesus. In the early church, an incorrect belief called docetism developed. These folks said Jesus didn’t have a real body and did not really die on the cross. All of that was just too gross to imagine. Instead, it only seemed he had a real body, etc. And you think, “Well, that’s crazy,” but we still have this tendency. For example, a lot of the portrayals of Jesus in movies (not all of them of course) have him as kinda non-human. He talks funny. He doesn’t blink. He doesn’t have emotions. But Jesus was an actual human, with a body, and he got tired, and he ate food. And that’s wonderful because it means he knows our infirmities, and he really died on the cross in our place, and one day, because he has a real physical body, he will give you a hug.
Now, there is still this thing called temptation where external and physical circumstance lure you into sin, and we are told avoid all such situations. So, if going to the beach not only surrounds you with bodies but tempts you with bodies, then avoid the beach. If going to a buffet not only presents you with food but tempts you with food, then avoid the buffet. However, buffets, bodies, and bathrooms are not what defile you.
And it’s so important that we understand this point because otherwise we worry about the wrong things. And conversely, we miss out on the good God has for us. And worse yet, we may fail to truly believe and fully understand the good news that Jesus took on physical flesh, took up our infirmities and sins, and really offered his life in exchange for ours that we might be born again to a living hope and receive, one day, resurrection bodies and a hug from Him.
So food AND PHYSICAL STUFF does not automatically defile you. What does defile us? That question leads us to the second main point Jesus makes…
Defilement comes from the sin in your heart.
“[20] And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. [21] For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, [22] coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. [23] All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7:20-23, ESV)
Where does all the evil in the world come from? From us! From within our own hearts!
I recently heard someone say you can understand all the problems of the world like this: If there were suddenly two you, you wouldn’t get along. Why? Because, on our own, our hearts are so disordered and conflicted and darkened by sin that we can’t even get along with ourselves much less anyone else.
There’s a story that the London Times once sent out an inquiry to various famous authors, asking them to address the question: “What’s wrong with the world today?” And the old catholic wit and apologist, G.K. Chesterton, is said to have written back: “Dear Sir, I am. Yours, G.K. Chesterton.” What’s wrong with the world? I am! I am the problem.
Are there temptations? Yes. Are temptations potent and to be avoided? Absolutely! But at the end of the day, you cannot blame… the temptation, the devil, your friend, your sibling, your lack of sleep, your hangry-ness, the school you attended, the media, the culture, your family situation, the hurt you’ve endure, or even the gun to your head. The evil we do, that is, the various ways we sin in word, thought, deed, or inaction comes from our heart. My heart. Your heart.
My pastor growing up used to say, “If you could see my heart, you wouldn’t want me to be your pastor, and if I could see your heart, I wouldn’t want to be your pastor either.” That’s all of us. The heart of darkness is our heart.
What comes out of our heart is what defiles us. It is our heart that condemns us. It is our heart that makes us unclean. It is our heart that makes us unholy. Our hearts. On the day of judgment, when we stand before Jesus, we will not be judged for what others did to us. We will not be judged because of how the world tempted us. We will be judged for what came out of our hearts.
And friends, if each of us had our lives played back on this screen with the camera zoomed in on just us, our every moment, every word, and every thought bubble included, we would all have more than enough sin to stand condemned on our own. It is what has come out of our hearts that defiles us. What has come out of our hearts has defiled us.
Now this is all very heavy, but Jesus is telling us this to get us to our deepest point of need. What do we need in light of this teaching? A few takeaways are abundantly clear. We need forgiveness and we need a new heart.
Takeaways
We need forgiveness
We all need forgiveness. All by ourselves, we have managed to hurt people. All by ourselves, we have contributed to the corruption of society. All by ourselves, we have turned from God. All by ourselves, we have ignored God’s good commands to love him and love our neighbor. No excuses. All of us, each one of us, has turned from God. And what we need is for him to forgive us. Because there’s no going back. We can’t fix it. Maybe we can make some wrongs right, but we can’t make all the wrongs right. We can’t pay back God. We are permanently stained. And we cannot clean ourselves.
There’s a heartbreaking song from an artist named Julien Baker where she describes her depression and agony. And what’s interesting is she ties her struggle to a sense of being dirty. She sings, in exhaustion, in the final two lines of the song, “And I know my body is just dirty clothes. I’m tired of washing my hands, God, I wanna go home.” I don’t know if you’ve ever felt like that. But the agony that comes through the song, that we all feel intuitively, is that we can’t do it; we can’t get clean. We feel desperate to wash ourselves, to be clean, but we can’t do it. No drug can make us forget, no amount of effort can make up for the past, no accolades can offset the balance. We have blood on our hands.
The only way we’ll ever be clean is if the God of the universe, the sovereign over all, forgives us. We need forgiveness.
We need a new heart
We are born with a broken heart. From our earliest days, our hearts are bent towards sin. You could have the best parents in the world, receive the finest education, attend the most faithful church, walk on the safest sidewalks in the friendliest suburbs, but still you will encounter evil because evil comes out of our hearts. We need a new heart.
You may think your child just needs to grow up or slow down or listen more. You may think one more punishment will do the trick or a bit more reasoning. But what they need is a new heart.
You may think your marriage will be better if you can just keep the romance alive, if you can just remember that men are from mars and women are from venus, if you can just get to that conference together. But if you and your spouse do not have a new heart, there will be struggles. You need a new heart.
You may think if church was just more interesting, if the people around me weren’t so annoying, if they just did a better job discipling, then you would be doing better. But the truth is you need a new heart. A person with a new heart is easily edified.
Or maybe you think if you could just get your act together, if you could just get more consistent with your bible reading, if you could just get serious about following Jesus… But what you need is a new heart. We all need a new heart.
We need forgiveness, and we need a new heart.
Look to Jesus who offers both
Friends, do I have some good news for you! The good news of the Gospel is Jesus offers both. Look to Jesus!
Look to Jesus for Forgiveness. The prophet Isaiah said here is what Jesus will do when he gets here:
[5] But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. [6] All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:5–6, ESV)
That’s what the Messiah would do! He would take away our sins, even though we’re all like straying sheep, filled with sin, the Messiah would take away our sins. And that’s what Jesus did. On the cross, he bore your sins away. And anyone who looks to him, anyone who asks him for forgiveness, will receive full pardon, a fresh start. You can be forgiven in Christ. Look to him!
Look to Jesus for a New heart. The prophet Ezekiel said here is what Jesus will do when he gets here:
[25] 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. [26] 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. [27] And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Ezekiel 36:25–27, ESV)
And he has done that in Christ! He gives us a new heart and his Spirit.
Friends, do you want that? Do you want forgiveness? Do you want a new heart? Look to Jesus! If you look into your heart this morning, and realize you’re in trouble, then hear the good news! Christ offers you forgiveness and a new heart. You can be born again!
So, I beg you today look to Jesus and be saved. Look to Jesus and be new. Look to Jesus and be clean. Look to Jesus and find life and peace and joy and hope and freedom.
Look to Jesus.
Bibliography
Edwards, J. R. (2001). The Gospel according to Mark. Eerdmans.
Lane, W. L. (1974). The Gospel according to Mark. Eerdmans.
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