Mark 7:14-23
What Actually Makes a Person Unclean
14Once again Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, “All of you, listen to Me and understand:
15Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him; but the things that come out of a man, these are what defile him.”
17After Jesus had left the crowd and gone into the house, His disciples inquired about the parable.
18“Are you still so dull?” He asked. “Do you not understand? Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him,
19because it does not enter his heart, but it goes into the stomach and then is eliminated.” (Thus all foods are clean.)
20He continued: “What comes out of a man, that is what defiles him.
21For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
22greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness.
23All these evils come from within, and these are what defile a man.”
Berean Standard Bible
He has been arguing with specialists. Now he turns away from them and calls the crowd over, and he tells all of them to listen and understand.
The move matters before the words do. Washing and vows had been a dispute between him and the experts, conducted in their language, and what he says next he wants heard by everybody who had been standing outside that conversation.
Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him; but the things that come out of a man, these are what defile him.
Then he leaves it there and walks off, which is a habit of his by now, having handed a crowd of ordinary people a sentence short enough to carry home and repeat to somebody at the door, with not one word of softening attached to it and no explanation offered to anybody who wanted one.
Later, in the house, the disciples ask him what he meant, and he is not gentle about it. Are you still so dull, he says, and then he explains anyway, which is the useful thing about him.
The explanation is almost crude. Food does not go anywhere near a person's heart. It goes into the stomach, and then it leaves the body, and the argument is over. A man can eat with hands that have been in the market all morning and come away with a dirty stomach and the same heart he woke up with.
Then Mark puts a note of his own in brackets.
Thus all foods are clean.
Most of the people Mark was writing for had not grown up under those food laws and had been anxious about them. He settles the whole category in five words and goes straight back to the story without a paragraph of explanation. Jesus, still in the house with his disciples, turns to what does come out of a person.
For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness.
Thirteen things, and only some of them will put a person in prison. The rest are what a bad Tuesday at a kitchen table actually looks like: envy, slander, arrogance, foolishness. He sets those in one list with murder, does not rank them for us, and does not apologize for the company they are keeping.
The men he had been arguing with were worried about what was on their hands. He is telling a whole crowd that the trouble was never outside working its way in.
How We Know
The food laws behind this argument are written down and specific. Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 list what may and may not be eaten, and both single out the pig: divided hoof, does not chew the cud, unclean for you.
Those are the rules verse 19 is talking about when Mark adds his five-word comment in brackets, thus all foods are clean.
Mark's own aside is the notable part. He steps out of the narrative to tell his readers what the saying amounted to, which supports him writing for people outside Jewish practice who would not have drawn that conclusion themselves.
Questions
1 When we tidy the house because someone is coming, what do we tidy, and what do we leave exactly as it is?
AnswerThe front rooms get cleaned and the cupboard doors stay shut. Everybody does it and it is not wicked. It is a good picture of the habit this passage is about, and it is easier to see in a house than in a person.
2 What is his actual explanation of why food cannot make you unclean?
AnswerThat it never reaches the heart. It goes into the stomach and then out of the body, and that is the entire argument. It is about as plain as an argument can get.
3 Look at his list of thirteen things. What is surprising about who is on it?
AnswerMurder is on it, and so are envy, slander, arrogance and foolishness. Enormous things and ordinary things sit in the same sentence, and Jesus does not sort them into serious and minor for us.
4 The officials were worried about what was on their hands. What does Jesus say the real problem is?
AnswerThat it was never the outside working in, it is the inside working out. Washing your hands is a good idea, and it has never once reached the place the trouble comes from.
What This Means for Us
Most of us manage the outside, because the outside is the part other people can see, so we tidy the behavior and the schedule and the language we use in front of company, and none of that is wrong. Clean hands have never fixed a heart. The ordinary daily damage in a house comes from somewhere hands cannot reach.
Take his list and find the one that belongs to you. It is probably not murder. It is more likely envy, or slander, which mostly feels like talking about people, or arrogance, which mostly feels like being right. Name yours out loud tonight, not the version you would confess in public.
Prayer
Father, we are better at looking clean than being clean, and we know it. Thank you that you went after the part nobody can see. Here is the one we would rather not say out loud. Change us from the inside, where the trouble actually starts. Amen.