Mark 7 Devotional

Cleansing From the Inside

“The people were utterly astonished and said, “He has done all things well! He makes even the deaf hear and the mute speak!””Mark 7:37 (BSB)

The Pharisees are troubled that Jesus' disciples eat without the ceremonial washing their traditions require (7:5). Jesus turns the question inside out. Nothing that enters a person from outside makes him unclean. Defilement comes from within, from the heart, and Jesus names what comes out of it: evil thoughts, theft, greed, deceit, envy, arrogance and more (7:21-23). No ritual reaches that deep.

Then Mark shows where hope comes from. A Greek woman, an outsider by the picture of children and dogs Jesus himself uses, asks only for the crumbs, and Jesus frees her daughter (7:26-30). A deaf man is taken aside, touched, and opened with a word (7:33-35). The crowd's verdict is that Jesus does everything well (7:37). If the problem is the heart, the cure has to come from outside us. God promised to give his people a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26). You do not need to scrub harder. You need the one who makes the unclean clean.

To think about: What are you trying to clean up on the outside that only Jesus can change from within?