14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” [16] [a]
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.”
24th September 2024: Horsham
There are lots of food related commandments in Leviticus. These had been interpreted carefully over many generations to develop intricate legalistic teaching on what should, or should not, be eaten. Eat the right stuff, in the right way, and you are ok with God. Eat the wrong stuff in the wrong way, and you’re not. You are what you eat.
This was taken very seriously by devout Jews. There are stories of Jewish people being forced to eat foods which were forbidden in their Law as a form of torture. many suffered terrible abuse, preferring death rather than defiling their bodies by breaking their commitment to purity before God (i).
Against this backdrop Jesus tells a crowd that “Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” I wonder whether you can see that this is the complete opposite of the Jewish understanding of the Law which created a culture of obsession over what was put in to the body.
We are so far removed from first century Jewish culture that we really can’t grasp how radical this teaching is, and that is probably why he spoke in a parable rather than using direct speech. In our relationship with God, says Jesus, the outpouring of our heart, reflected in our thoughts, words and actions, is much more important than what we had for breakfast.
Where, then, does this leave the Jewish law? It is, after all, compliance with the Law which sets Israel apart from the rest of the world. “Actually, [Jesus] was declaring null and void the entire Mosaic system of clean and unclean foods, but at the same time, he did not explain this radical truth to the crowd.’ (ii) Had that crowd fully understood what Jesus meant, it’s likely that he would have found his freedom and ministry immediately curtailed, and whilst that day was drawing near it was not yet God’s timing for that.
Not for the first time, along with most of the crowd, the disciples missed the point. “Are you so dull?” says Jesus. His explanation will have shocked them. You, he says, are defined by your actions and your words which reflect the state of your heart, and that’s mmuch more important than your strict compliance to dietary rules.
In context, Christ’s teaching is revolutionary. He is preparing the disciples for the next lesson about the nature of God’s kingdom. The Kingdom of God is wider than they think. If these rules don’t matter, what’s to stop the Kingdom extending even to the gentiles? Is it even possible that some who assumed that they had access by birthright are mistaken and may have missed the mark?
Of course, our physical bodies are affected by the food that we eat and the way we eat it. Yet in God’s eyes, you are not what you eat. It is your thoughts, words and actions that matter, and that is exactly what the Law was designed to influence. Before God, says Jesus, purity – righteousness -relationship with Him – is measured not by what you eat, but by the state of your heart.
(i) An example is recorded in 1 Maccabees 1
(ii) Wiersbe: Be Diligent (Mark); p89