THE PROBLEM OF THE HEART
17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” Mark 7:17-23
The question the disciples asked Jesus shows how deeply they were influenced by the thinking of their day. Fortunately, they had the sense to ask Jesus for an explanation that put the issue of dietary practices into its correct perspective. Perhaps this was also a revelation for Roman readers because their pagan religion was expressed in many ungodly practices which defiled them.
Jesus went straight to the “heart” of man’s problem – the problem of the heart. There is nothing we have to do to introduce pollution into us because it is already there, in the heart, awaiting the opportunity to expose itself to the outside world through words, actions and attitudes. All it needs is a little prompting through circumstances or through someone else’s words or actions.
The Pharisees, who were so meticulous about their observance of dietary taboos, were a case in point. Their over-scrupulous consciences about external cleanliness made them oblivious to the real issues that showed up the condition of their hearts: arrogance, pride, contempt for those who were not like them, hatred, murderous thoughts etc. They were too busy polishing the outside of the cup to acknowledge the condition of their hearts. Rather than take note of the issues Jesus was exposing in them, they chose to silence Him and hold on to their guilt.
What should our response be to the situations that cause pollution of our hearts to be exposed? The Bible is full of examples of wrong responses that only exacerbated the problem instead of dealing with it. How often, in the Old Testament, God’s faithful prophets exposed sin, only to pay the ultimate price for their obedience to God.
One man was different – David. Nathan’s exposure of his guilt brought David’s humility to the surface. “I have sinned,” he said. What a different place even the church might be in if God’s people recognised God’s grace in exposing our polluted hearts. The humiliation of exposure produces the peace of forgiveness and freedom from guilt. Instead, we hold on to our guilt, and punish others with our cruel words and deeds rather than eat humble pie by admitting, “I have sinned.”