Thoughts on Mark 7:14-23

Usually the crowds followed you, but this time you called the meeting. You had something extremely important to communicate. “Listen closely and make sure you get my point.” You had their attention. “What you take into you doesn’t make you dirty, what comes out of you is what makes you dirty.” Boom. Meeting adjourned.

Huh? What?

In the privacy of the house, sitting around the dinner table, your disciples wanted to know what the heck you were talking about. Once again, you speak slowly so they can understand your point. You take a bite of the lamb kabob and explain. “I eat this food, it enters my stomach and then passes out. Nothing you eat enters your heart, and the things that make you dirty come from your heart. Food is not the source of evil thoughts, they reside within you. Such things as fornication, theft, murder, in fact all evil things are already within you, ready to be spoken or acted upon. These are what make you dirty.”

I get the point. I can’t make myself clean, the dirty is within. Keeping the rules, doesn’t erase what’s written on my heart. It is very important for me to understand this. Very Important. Bottom line: I need a new heart.