Daily Devotional • July 31
A Reading from Mark 7:1-23
1 Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders, 4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash, and there are also many other traditions that they observe: the washing of cups and pots and bronze kettles and beds.) 5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?” 6 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’
8 “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
9 Then he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban’ (that is, an offering to God), 12 then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, 13 thus nullifying the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.”
14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”
17 When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 He said to them, “So, are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19 since it enters not the heart but the stomach and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Meditation
The Pharisees and some law teachers from Jerusalem have come to investigate Jesus. They notice something troubling—some of Christ’s disciples aren’t following the rituals that Jewish leaders have added to the Scriptures. In particular, the disciples have visited the marketplace (ceremonially unclean because of the presence of Gentiles) but then failed to wash their hands before eating. The leaders interpret the disciples’ actions as a rejection of God’s law.
Jesus sees through their accusation and exposes the deeper problem. These leaders have exchanged a true love of God and his wisdom for a set of rules written by men. For example, they claim to follow God’s commandments, including the fifth commandment to care for one’s father and mother in old age. However, they have created a loophole. They declare that all of their possessions are “set apart for God,” arguing that they now have no funds with which to support their parents. Then they spend that money on themselves.
Then Jesus goes deeper: the issue is not about clean hands. It is about clean hearts.
The real source of defilement isn’t outside from the Gentiles, as the Pharisees might suggest. Instead, the uncleanliness comes from inside each of us. We can follow rules meant to polish our exterior, but if we have not allowed God’s wisdom to penetrate our hearts and teach us how to truly follow him, the unclean inside of each of us will eventually show itself. We can appear devout and still avoid the justice and mercy God requires.
Jesus is not dismissing the call to holiness but, instead, inviting us to a deeper call. Holiness cannot be performed. It must be formed from the inside out.
Pieter Valk is a licensed professional counselor, the director of EQUIP, and cofounder of the Nashville Family of Brothers, an ecumenically Christian brotherhood for men called to vocational singleness.
♱
Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio
The Diocese of Niger Delta – The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
Pieter Valk is a Guest Writer. He is a speaker, author, consultant, and licensed counselor. His work is detailed on pieterlvalk.com.
