Mark 7
7
What Makes People Unclean?
1The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who’d come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. 2They saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were unclean, that is, not ceremonially washed. 3The Pharisees and all the Jews never eat until they’ve washed their hands to make them clean. Their elders teach that they have to do that. 4When they come home from the market, they have to take a bath before they can eat anything. And they follow many other teachings too. For example, they wash cups, pitchers, and kettles in a special way.
5So the Pharisees and the teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples follow what the elders teach? Why do they eat their food with unclean hands?”
6Jesus answered, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites! He said,
“ ‘These people honor me by what they say,
but their hearts are far away from me.
7Their worship doesn’t mean anything to me,
because they’re only teaching human rules.’
8You’ve let go of God’s commands, and instead you’re holding on to teachings that people have passed down.”
9Jesus continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside God’s commands so that you can follow your own teachings. 10Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother.’ He also said, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother must be put to death.’ 11But you tell people that if they have money that they could use to help their parents, they can say instead that it’s Corban. (That means ‘a gift set apart for God.’) 12So you no longer allow them to do anything for their parents anymore. 13You make the word of God useless by putting your own teachings in its place. And you do this a lot.”
14Jesus called the crowd to him again and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15-16Nothing that’s outside of a person can make them unclean by going into them. It’s what comes out of a person that makes them unclean.”
17When he left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him what he’d meant by that. 18“Don’t you understand?” Jesus asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make them unclean? 19It doesn’t go into their heart, but into their stomach, and then it passes right back out of the body.” This meant that all foods were clean.
20He went on to say, “What comes out of a person is what makes them unclean. 21It’s from the inside, from a person’s heart, that bad things come: sexual sins, stealing, murder, 22adultery, greed, hate, cheating, impurity, jealousy, lying, pride, and foolishness. 23All these bad things come from inside a person, and that’s what makes them unclean.”
Jesus Honors a Greek Woman’s Faith
24Jesus went from there to a place near Tyre. He didn’t want anyone to know which house he was staying in, but he couldn’t keep it a secret. 25There was a woman whose little daughter had an evil spirit. As soon as the woman heard that Jesus was nearby, she came and bowed down at his feet. 26She was a Greek woman who’d been born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
27“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her. “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
28“Lord,” she answered, “even the dogs eat the children’s crumbs under the table.”
29“That’s a good answer,” Jesus told her. “Go on home, the demon has left your daughter.”
30So she went home and found her child lying quietly in bed, because the demon had gone.
Jesus Heals a Man Who Can’t Hear or Speak
31Then Jesus left the area of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee, and into the area known as the Ten Cities. 32There some people brought a man to Jesus who was deaf and could hardly speak. They begged Jesus to place his hands on the man.
33Jesus took the man to one side, away from the crowd. He put his fingers into the man’s ears, and then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34Jesus looked up to heaven and said to the man with a deep sigh, “Ephphatha!” which means, “Be opened!” 35The man’s ears were opened, his tongue was freed up, and he began to speak clearly.
36Jesus ordered the people not to tell anyone. But the more he did, the more they kept talking about it. 37People were overwhelmed and amazed and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes deaf people able to hear, and he makes those who can’t speak able to talk.”
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Mark 7
7
The Source of Your Pollution
1-4The Pharisees, along with some religion scholars who had come from Jerusalem, gathered around him. They noticed that some of his disciples weren’t being careful with ritual washings before meals. The Pharisees—Jews in general, in fact—would never eat a meal without going through the motions of a ritual hand-washing, with an especially vigorous scrubbing if they had just come from the market (to say nothing of the scourings they’d give jugs and pots and pans).
5The Pharisees and religion scholars asked, “Why do your disciples brush off the rules, showing up at meals without washing their hands?”
6-8Jesus answered, “Isaiah was right about frauds like you, hit the bull’s-eye in fact:
These people make a big show of saying the right thing,
but their heart isn’t in it.
They act like they are worshiping me,
but they don’t mean it.
They just use me as a cover
for teaching whatever suits their fancy,
Ditching God’s command
and taking up the latest fads.”
9-13He went on, “Well, good for you. You get rid of God’s command so you won’t be inconvenienced in following the religious fashions! Moses said, ‘Respect your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.’ But you weasel out of that by saying that it’s perfectly acceptable to say to father or mother, ‘Gift! What I owed you I’ve given as a gift to God,’ thus relieving yourselves of obligation to father or mother. You scratch out God’s Word and scrawl a whim in its place. You do a lot of things like this.”
14-15Jesus called the crowd together again and said, “Listen now, all of you—take this to heart. It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it’s what you vomit—that’s the real pollution.”
17When he was back home after being with the crowd, his disciples said, “We don’t get it. Put it in plain language.”
18-19Jesus said, “Are you being willfully stupid? Don’t you see that what you swallow can’t contaminate you? It doesn’t enter your heart but your stomach, works its way through the intestines, and is finally flushed.” (That took care of dietary quibbling; Jesus was saying that all foods are fit to eat.)
20-23He went on: “It’s what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution.”
* * *
24-26From there Jesus set out for the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house there where he didn’t think he would be found, but he couldn’t escape notice. He was barely inside when a woman who had a disturbed daughter heard where he was. She came and knelt at his feet, begging for help. The woman was Greek, Syro-Phoenician by birth. She asked him to cure her daughter.
27He said, “Stand in line and take your turn. The children get fed first. If there’s any left over, the dogs get it.”
28She said, “Of course, Master. But don’t dogs under the table get scraps dropped by the children?”
29-30Jesus was impressed. “You’re right! On your way! Your daughter is no longer disturbed. The demonic affliction is gone.” She went home and found her daughter relaxed on the bed, the torment gone for good.
31-35Then he left the region of Tyre, went through Sidon back to Galilee Lake and over to the district of the Ten Towns. Some people brought a man who could neither hear nor speak and asked Jesus to lay a healing hand on him. He took the man off by himself, put his fingers in the man’s ears and some spit on the man’s tongue. Then Jesus looked up in prayer, groaned mightily, and commanded, “Ephphatha!—Open up!” And it happened. The man’s hearing was clear and his speech plain—just like that.
36-37Jesus urged them to keep it quiet, but they talked it up all the more, beside themselves with excitement. “He’s done it all and done it well. He gives hearing to the deaf, speech to the speechless.”
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.