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 werenât being careful with ritual washings before meals. The PhariseesâJews in general, in factâwould 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 theyâd give jugs and pots and pans).
5The Pharisees and religion scholars asked, âWhy do your disciples brush off the rules, showing up at meals without washing their hands?â
6-8Jesus answered, âIsaiah was right about frauds like you, hit the bullâs-eye in fact:
These people make a big show of saying the right thing,
but their heart isnât in it.
They act like they are worshiping me,
but they donât mean it.
They just use me as a cover
for teaching whatever suits their fancy,
Ditching Godâs command
and taking up the latest fads.â
9-13He went on, âWell, good for you. You get rid of Godâs command so you wonât be inconvenienced in following the religious fashions! Moses said, âRespect your father and mother,â and, âAnyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.â But you weasel out of that by saying that itâs perfectly acceptable to say to father or mother, âGift! What I owed you Iâve given as a gift to God,â thus relieving yourselves of obligation to father or mother. You scratch out Godâs Word and scrawl a whim in its place. You do a lot of things like this.â
14-15Jesus called the crowd together again and said, âListen now, all of youâtake this to heart. Itâs not what you swallow that pollutes your life; itâs what you vomitâthatâs the real pollution.â
17When he was back home after being with the crowd, his disciples said, âWe donât get it. Put it in plain language.â
18-19Jesus said, âAre you being willfully stupid? Donât you see that what you swallow canât contaminate you? It doesnât enter your heart but your stomach, works its way through the intestines, and is finally flushed.â (That took care of dietary quibbling; Jesus was saying that all foods are fit to eat.)
20-23He went on: âItâs what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishnessâall these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution.â
* * *
24-26From there Jesus set out for the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house there where he didnât think he would be found, but he couldnât 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, âStand in line and take your turn. The children get fed first. If thereâs any left over, the dogs get it.â
28She said, âOf course, Master. But donât dogs under the table get scraps dropped by the children?â
29-30Jesus was impressed. âYouâre right! On your way! Your daughter is no longer disturbed. The demonic affliction is gone.â 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 manâs ears and some spit on the manâs tongue. Then Jesus looked up in prayer, groaned mightily, and commanded, âEphphatha!âOpen up!â And it happened. The manâs hearing was clear and his speech plainâjust like that.
36-37Jesus urged them to keep it quiet, but they talked it up all the more, beside themselves with excitement. âHeâs done it all and done it well. He gives hearing to the deaf, speech to the speechless.â
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Mark 7: MSG
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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.