COMING CLEAN

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Say to the Israelites: 'Of all the animals that live on land, these are the ones you may eat: You may eat any animal that has a split hoof completely divided and that chews the cud.’

‘There are some that only chew the cud or only have a split hoof, but you must not eat them. The camel, though it chews the cud, does not have a split hoof; it is ceremonially unclean for you. The coney, though it chews the cud, does not have a split hoof; it is unclean for you. The rabbit, though it chews the cud, does not have a split hoof; it is unclean for you. And the pig, though it has a split hoof completely divided, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.’

‘Of all the creatures living in the water of the seas and the streams, you may eat any that have fins and scales. But all creatures in the seas or streams that do not have fins and scales—whether among all the swarming things or among all the other living creatures in the water—you are to detest. And since you are to detest them, you must not eat their meat and you must detest their carcasses. Anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales is to be detestable to you.’

‘These are the birds you are to detest and not eat because they are detestable: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, the red kite, any kind of black kite, any kind of raven, the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.’

‘All flying insects that walk on all fours are to be detestable to you. There are, however, some winged creatures that walk on all fours that you may eat: those that have jointed legs for hopping on the ground. Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket or grasshopper. But all other winged creatures that have four legs you are to detest.’

‘You will make yourselves unclean by these; whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean till evening. Whoever picks up one of their carcasses must wash his clothes, and he will be unclean till evening.’

‘Every animal that has a split hoof not completely divided or that does not chew the cud is unclean for you; whoever touches the carcass of any of them will be unclean. Of all the animals that walk on all fours, those that walk on their paws are unclean for you; whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean till evening. Anyone who picks up their carcasses must wash his clothes, and he will be unclean till evening. They are unclean for you.’

‘Of the animals that move about on the ground, these are unclean for you: the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard, the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink and the chameleon. Of all those that move along the ground, these are unclean for you. Whoever touches them when they are dead will be unclean till evening. When one of them dies and falls on something, that article, whatever its use, will be unclean, whether it is made of wood, cloth, hide or sackcloth. Put it in water; it will be unclean till evening, and then it will be clean. If one of them falls into a clay pot, everything in it will be unclean, and you must break the pot. Any food that could be eaten but has water on it from such a pot is unclean, and any liquid that could be drunk from it is unclean. Anything that one of their carcasses falls on becomes unclean; an oven or cooking pot must be broken up. They are unclean, and you are to regard them as unclean. A spring, however, or a cistern for collecting water remains clean, but anyone who touches one of these carcasses is unclean. If a carcass falls on any seeds that are to be planted, they remain clean. But if water has been put on the seed and a carcass falls on it, it is unclean for you.’

‘If an animal that you are allowed to eat dies, anyone who touches the carcass will be unclean till evening. Anyone who eats some of the carcass must wash his clothes, and he will be unclean till evening. Anyone who picks up the carcass must wash his clothes, and he will be unclean till evening.’

‘Every creature that moves about on the ground is detestable; it is not to be eaten. You are not to eat any creature that moves about on the ground, whether it moves on its belly or walks on all fours or on many feet; it is detestable. Do not defile yourselves by any of these creatures. Do not make yourselves unclean by means of them or be made unclean by them. I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves about on the ground. I am the Lord who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.’

‘These are the regulations concerning animals, birds, every living thing that moves in the water and every creature that moves about on the ground. You must distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between living creatures that may be eaten and those that may not be eaten.’

Leviticus 11

The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were “unclean”, that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)

So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, "Why don't Your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with 'unclean' hands?"

Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.'"

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 man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")

He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.'"

Mark 7:1-5,14-23

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As Leviticus, Chapter 11 opens, we find the Lord giving additional guidance to Moses and Aaron to share with the Israelites. Specifically, He passes on instructions regarding the food that Israel was allowed to eat with the central theme of the directive centered on whether specific foods were clean or unclean to eat.

We read where the Lord issues rules regarding "animals that live on land", "animals that move about on the ground", "all creatures in the seas or streams", birds, and flying insects with His guidance being pretty black and white. Essentially, it can be broken down to this:

You can eat this because it is clean.

You can’t eat this because it is unclean.

If something unclean touches something clean, then it renders the clean item unclean.

When it was all said and done, we see where the Israelites were left to "distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between living creatures that may be eaten and those that may not be eaten."

Now, on the surface, all these laws seem maddening, right? For in most cases today, we can eat whatever we please and we really don’t give any thought to what the Bible would consider “clean” or “unclean”. Given this, why would the Lord even go into such detail to address food like this?

Well, in that time, the rules God provided were an actual blessing to the people. For with little exception, the foods that were deemed unclean were foods that could have caused bodily harm to the Israelites had they eaten them. Remember that they didn’t know what we know today after thousands upon thousands of years of life experiences being passed from generation to generation. There also weren’t any professional dieticians or nutritionists back in the days of Moses. Ditto for doctors with advanced medical education or technology or medication to diagnose illnesses and treat people when they became ill. And so it was of the utmost importance that people would watch what they ate for even if a parasitic organism such as a worm was ingested, it could lead to death.

So the stringent laws were not only meant to help Israel eat the foods that the Lord favored but they also served to protect the people from disease.

Still, can you vision having to be so careful about everything you ate or even just touched?

Well, it didn’t take long before times changed in the scriptures. For just as Jesus brought new teachings about so many other things that had been established as law in the Old Testament, the matter of clean and unclean food would be no different. For in the passage from the Gospel of Mark, we find our Savior sharing new guidance on the matter after being challenged by the "Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law". Look again at His words here as He addresses the gathered crowd:

"Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.'"

After this, His disciples sought further information on what Jesus had said, to which He responded rather bluntly:

"Are you so dull?" He asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")

He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.'"

Through these declarations, we find Jesus removing the restrictions that had been placed on food consumption. Essentially, He made it clear that all food was "clean" for the matter of cleanliness and uncleanliness had absolutely nothing to do with what went in and out of the body but what went in and out of the heart. It was a spiritual problem, not a physical one.

Jesus goes on to detail some of the negative things that can come from the heart and they included “evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly”. Any of these sins would be evidence that a person was “unclean”.

So all this brings some self reflective questions to bear. For we should all ask ourselves:

What is the state of my heart?

Am I harboring any of the evils that Jesus mentioned, evils such as sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, folly or even just the mere thought of doing something sinful?

Friends, if we’re honest here, we probably all have discovered something that’s amiss within our spiritual selves, something that makes us unclean inside. The good news is that there’s a remedy for it and it’s called repentance where we can come clean and get cleansed by the Lord.

Indeed, the cure for our unclean hearts is as simple as a prayer of repentance, confessing our wrongs while seeking and receiving forgiveness as our God takes our impaired heart and repairs it, turning us away from our sins and toward His righteousness.

When we do this, when we come clean with the Lord so that He might cleanse us from the inside out, we can relate to these words from the Psalmist David when he wrote this:

"Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place?”

“He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. He will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God his Savior." Psalm 24:3-5

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.