IT IS NOT WHAT GOES IN, BUT WHAT COMES OUT OF MAN THAT
CONTAMINATES HIM
14And he called
the people to him again and said to them,
“Hear me, all of
you, and understand:
15There 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.”
17And when he
had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the
parable.
18And 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, 19since it
enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?”
(Thus he
declared all foods clean.)
20And he said,
“What comes out
of a person is what defiles him.
21For from
within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft,
murder, adultery, 22coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander,
pride, foolishness.
23All these evil
things come from within, and they defile a person.”
MARK 7:14-23
COMMENTARY
Jesus had just been
confronted by the pharisees who had recriminated him for allowing his disciples
to eat with unwashed hands, being in contradiction to the ‘traditions’ ( מסורת – Masoret) of the Elders.
(Mark 7:1-5)
Judaism, being an ancient faith, had accumulated the
same as any other religion, explanations of ancient leaders and saints, as well
as rabbinic speculations, and had mixed them all up, making what we call the Talmud,
which only around the fourth century of this era, took its final form.
But it existed back then in his incipient form, and
had many ‘laws’ and regulations they had accumulated as recommendations from
their Elders, and they were used to interpret the Torah and the Prophets, to
the point of obscuring the real meaning of Scripture, giving priority to the
traditions of the old rabbis. And the compulsory ritual washing of hands became
one of them.
They recriminated Jesus because they though that he
was slacked by allowing his disciples to eat with ritually unwashed hands,
contaminating themselves, as they thought, according to their Talmudic teachings.
LORD YEHOSHUA, or JESUS (ישועה); pointed out their hypocrisy by giving
them the example of the command every Jewish male had, to provide for his parents
before GOD. as written in the Torah.
(Mark 7:10; Exodus 20:12; 21:17; Leviticus 20:9), but
that the Jews had left behind to give preference to the traditions of men,
instead of God’s express command (Mark 7:9-13).
But not only this. Lord JESUS explained the true
nature of the alimentary laws and the spiritual, not ritual nature of
sinfulness.
He explained to every one listening, and in these verses
also to the twelve disciples in particular, that is never food what
contaminates spiritually to man, since they are all material and suffer a physical
process that ends up in nothing (Mark 7:18), showing them that the prohibition
of ‘pure and impure’ animals was other than spiritual.
It had a didactic nature of teaching primitive men, that
God demanded by nature the best and noble from us, and that we should imitate him
in keeping morally pure.
Jesus also explained that it is the things that come
out of the human heart what contaminates men; so much the one from whom they
come from, as the ones who receive them. And he went to mention a list of sins
that come only from an already corrupted heart, that induces also other humans
to sin equally or to suffer the consequences of them, like evil thoughts,
sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit,
sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness; among other things (Mark
7:21-22).
This day, Jesus confronted the immorality of dead
religiosity and man-made rules and commands; and instead commended a true morality
based on righteousness of heart and obedience to GOD’s true commands as
stipulated in Scripture, instead of traditions of men.
Omar Flores.
Comments
Post a Comment