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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, “Listen and
understand. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes
out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”
Then the disciples came to Him and asked, “Do you know
that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”
He replied, “Every plant that My heavenly Father has not
planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If
the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”
“Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them.
“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into
the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a
person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart
come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony,
slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does
not defile them.”
Matthew 15:10-20
Again Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, “Listen to
Me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by
going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”
After He had left the crowd and entered the house, His
disciples asked Him about this parable.
“Are you so dull?” He asked.
“Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the
outside can defile them? 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.)
He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles
them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts
come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside
and defile a person.”
Mark 7:16-23
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be
to God.
Do you have a heart problem?
I’m not talking about issues like irregular beats or
clogged arteries or weak heart muscles who pump low volumes. Those are heart
difficulties of a physical nature.
What I am talking about is the nature of your heart from
a spiritual perspective and you need only look at your life attitudes, life
behaviors, and the relationships you have in life to see whether or not you
have a problem.
As we turn to our continued look at the Gospels of
Matthew and Mark, we find Jesus addressing the spiritual matters of the heart
in very direct fashion. Look again at His words here as captured in Matthew’s
account:
Jesus called the
crowd to Him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into someone’s mouth
does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles
them.”
Then the disciples
came to Him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they
heard this?”
He replied, “Every
plant that My heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave
them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a
pit.”
Peter said,
“Explain the parable to us.”
“Are you still so
dull?” Jesus asked them.
“Don’t you see
that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But
the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these
defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual
immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person;
but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.” Matthew 15:10-20
Flash back to yesterday’s devotion and you will remember Jesus
having a clash with the Pharisees and teachers of the law who were making a big
deal over Jesus’ disciples not washing their hands before they ate, a tradition
that we learned came from the elders of the Jewish religious leaders. You’ll recall
that Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and teachers of the law, calling them
hypocrites because they had placed more significance on their own traditions
then they did the scriptures. In fact, Jesus provided a specific example where
a custom had trumped one of God’s most primary commandments which involved honoring
fathers and mothers.
As we turn to today’s passage, we find Jesus upping the
ante even more as He touches on the matter of physical eating to teach a
spiritual truth. Call it a two for one as He went after the mores surrounding
the consumption of unclean foods to deliver guidance on living in the kind of righteousness
that God desires.
Jesus gets right too it making the bold proclamation that
nothing a person would take in their mouth (talking about food) would defile a
person. Food taken in on its own would not lead to a person’s sinful actions.
Rather, it was what came out from a person, the words and actions triggered by
the heart and mind from the inside out that led to wicked behaviors, which
indicated that a person had a heart problem.
Well, as you can guess, the Pharisees and teachers of the
law weren’t one bit happy about what Jesus said. In fact, we find the disciples
coming to their Master to inform Him that He had offended the Jewish religious
authorities. Once again, they could not handle the wrongs of their spiritual
ways exposed and critiqued. It’s no wonder they never changed for if one is going
to correct an issue within, they have to first acknowledge that the issue
exists in them.
So how did Jesus respond to the news He had upset the
Pharisees and teachers of the law?
You should not be surprised that He told a parable for as
we know, it was a key teaching tool for Him. Here’s what He had to say:
“Every plant that
My heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them;
they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
The plants not planted by God and the blind leaders both
represented the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. He was essentially
telling His disciples that there was no need to concern themselves with the
Jewish religious establishment because God would take care of them. The
scriptures tell us that He is the Master Gardener (John 15:1) and whether He is
pruning or pulling up what one could essentially call weeds (plants He didn’t
plant), He is tending to His kingdom “garden”.
Well, we find that the disciples didn’t quite understand
what Jesus was trying to get at and so He broke from speaking in parables long
enough to break things down in plain language for His “dull” followers. Here’s
what He said:
“Don’t you see
that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But
the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these
defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual
immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person;
but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”
Unclean hands = Inconsequential.
Consumed food deemed unclean = Inconsequential.
Wicked things that are born from the heart and come out
the mouth = Consequential.
In other words, the things eaten by a person are
processed by the body and then exit as waste. But the evil generated in a
sinful heart defiles a person and gives birth to any number of iniquities such
as murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander.
In the end translation, in order to be the people the
Lord wants us to be, we need to get our hearts right and we can only do that
when we accept the Holy Spirit to live and dwell within. It’s the only way to
ensure we will never have a spiritually sick heart.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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