Chaos May 21
Mark 7:13 “…making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
The Israelites in Sinai following the exodus from Egypt is a parable of the human condition. We also look for certainty in an uncertain world.
The wilderness was meant to be a temporary layover between bondage and freedom, between emptiness and paradise, between hell and heaven. This was the changing room for the Israelites to clothe themselves for the new reality awaiting the exiles beyond the river.
The laws were basic in their literal meaning, and all-encompassing in their figurative meaning. They were meant as a stepping stone to the Oneness of all of Creation and God.
Jesus reduced the Ten Commandments to two, love of God and love of other people. The common denominator is the one law of love.
“Tradition,” the words and actions from someone long ago, were at one point simply apostasy. Someone rejected God by substituting their words for God’s intention. This violated the first law of love and, by encouraging others to do the same, also violated the second law of love.
The brain can make sense out of almost any distortion of truth, if the person sees the lie as preferable to the truth. The heart is in control, and it knows the truth. It is the heart’s decision that gives the brain authority to rule, or stands firm and says, “No!”
We must constantly choose between God and not-God. Jesus sides with God and His prophets. They call for a heart of flesh rather than a heart of stone.
Truth and its order are true at every point in time, but our ability and our willingness to submit to truth are highly variable.
Lawful…or Not May 22
Mark 7:14 When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear Me, everyone, and understand: 15 There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man. 16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”
The doctrinal experts have self-righteously complained of the violation of the law of cleanliness by Jesus’ disciples, for they had eaten without practicing a ceremonial cleansing, the washing of their hands before eating.
Jesus’ response in the preceding verses shows how His critics disregard the intent of the Law given at Sinai by establishing a contrary tradition. He uses Isaiah’s words as support (Mark 7:5).
Jesus now proceeds to redefine the source of uncleanliness.
The law, as derived from the traditions of men, substitutes cleanness of the body for cleanness of the heart. The external washings necessary to consider a person clean changes nothing of the moral or spiritual character, does not make the person holy, set apart to God.
Whether a person eats a forbidden food or with dirty hands might be unhealthy for the physical body, but such a person still can be pure in heart and not defiled or made unclean.
Paul made this clear: All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any (1 Cor. 6:12).
Spiritual uncleanness is an issue of the heart and comes from within the person. The willful preference for the doctrine of men rather than the ways of life as defined by the Creator of life is the result of an unclean heart.
The Parable Explained May 23
Mark 7:17 When He had entered a house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him concerning the parable. 18 So He said to them, “Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, 19 because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?”
The disciples are thoroughly steeped in the doctrine of their time period in Israel. The teachings of the Pharisees are the religious law of the land, just as the edicts and laws of Herod and Pilate are the secular law of their respective jurisdictions.
Note that there is no Old Testament law regarding the washing of hands before eating. Aaron and the priests were to wash their hands and feet in the laver before entering the tabernacle in Ex. 30:17-21. The Pharisees had developed the tradition of handwashing before eating on their own, raising a reasonable health practice to a mandatory law from God.
Jesus knows the commandments of men well, and He also knows the Commandments of God. By knowing both, He can properly break the manmade law in order to properly keep the divine law.
The disciples are often uncomfortable with the direction of Jesus’ statements. In this example, Jesus is destroying the law substituted by the Pharisees for God’s law. This is a dangerous course in a religion controlled by man.
Jesus again uses an explanation of a parable to teach the disciples – and us – how to differentiate between the spiritual laws that are to govern our existence versus the attempts by mankind to establish manmade laws that destroy divine Law, leaving us in an uncertain state of chaos.
What Defiles? May 24
Mark 7:20 And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”
Continuing His explanation of the parable, Jesus explains defilement as flowing from the inside to the outside.
Defilement is a state of character unrelated to what is physically on the body or passes through the body. It is a state of being profane, a willful disobedience to the word of God, making it of no effect.
The religious leaders’ primary concern is with ceremonial impurity, the outer trappings of religiosity.
Jesus’ primary concern is spiritual purity, the cleanness of the heart.
The mind originates thoughts, and that is good, unless we believe them without verifying their physical and spiritual realities. Great minds have developed racism, eugenics, torture, etc. as appropriate approaches to life in this world.
An external washing, or an animal sacrifice to offset a sin, is to no effect if the heart remains hardened toward God and His creation. Violation of the lives and things He has created gives the lie to these external acts.
The intent of the heart is the key. If adultery, murder, blasphemy, etc. are still occurring in word or in mind, the effect is the same as if the physical deed has been committed (Matt. 5-7).
Is it true? Is it kind? And is it necessary? These are 3 questions to ask oneself before speaking or taking action.
We must take every thought captive to a heart centered on God (2 Cor. 10:5).
Unbounded Love May 25
Mark 7:24 From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden. 25 For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
Tyre and Sidon had been given to the tribe of Asher, and then had become part of Samaria. Now known as Syria-Phoenicia, this is a land of Greek speaking Gentiles. For Jesus, this place is a haven from the Pharisees, but not from the crowds. Jesus enters the house of a supporter to avoid them.
A woman of the area has been following Jesus and continues in her supplication to free her daughter of an unclean spirit. She falls prostrate at His feet, reducing herself to the lowest of His supplicants, asking Him to cast the demon from her child.
This woman is a mother. She already has undergone one conversion, from priority of self to priority of her child. Characteristically of a mother, she has been born again through giving birth. She now reduces herself to “the least of these” in order to raise her daughter to “the best of these.”
The mother’s total desire is that her daughter may also go through a rebirth into a new identity. No cost is too great. This is love without reservation.
Priority May 26
Mark 7:27 But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”
Mark includes a clause at the beginning of Jesus’ response that helps us to understand that He is not denying the woman because she is a Gentile, nor is His abruptness a symptom of human weariness. Jesus says, “Let the children be filled first….”
There is an order to things. In Matthew 15:24, Jesus says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” In Mark, Jesus says only that He was sent first to the children of Israel. The implication of saying “first” is that there is also a “second.” He is not closing the door on the request.
Jesus is stating that He is not bound by the constraints of a chosen people to the exclusion of humanity. That the children of Israel are the first to receive restoration, harmony, and peace with God and one another, is not to deny the same benefit to others.
Jesus' inference that the woman and her people are “little dogs” comes across as harsh in our translation. Indeed, heathen and Jew referred to each other as dogs.
We want to make Jesus’ words softer, more generous, and perhaps this is correct. He uses the diminutive form of the word, often used as a term of endearment as well as to indicate a smaller size. We might understand this more accurately (and agreeably) as “the household puppies.”
Or we might hear Jesus making a figurative statement of truth: “The bread (Gospel truth) is not to be thrown (verified by miracles) to the dogs (heathen unbelievers).”
True understanding comes from the holistic story.
Crumbs May 27
Mark 7:28 And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.”
29 Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”
30 And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.
As with the man with the withered hand whom Jesus healed on the Sabbath, this woman inspires compassion.
The Gentile woman perceives the same picture that Jesus has created. Jesus is in the business of creating. Each of us must be in the business of perceiving, as the Gentile woman is doing.
She places herself and her daughter beneath the table. This is an important image for us. A new perspective is required of mankind before we are richly robed and ready to feast.
The woman is not offended at the order of things. That the table is set for others is of no consequence if she and her daughter will be receiving gifts from the same bounty. There is more on the table than all of mankind can consume.
Are we offended at the present order of things?
Our world looks like disorder. This woman’s world looks like disorder. The Romans rule over Gentile and Jew with equal harshness. The favored race receives no favor as far as she can see.
Until Jesus comes. God’s people experience peace even amidst chaos. The bread is laid upon the table, and the puppies of the family wait patiently below.
Well, yes, there is an occasional whimper, a paw placed on the leg, a reminder to those above from those beneath the table. Hungry. Waiting. Expectant. For Good News.
Next day
Mark 7:13 “…making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
The Israelites in Sinai following the exodus from Egypt is a parable of the human condition. We also look for certainty in an uncertain world.
The wilderness was meant to be a temporary layover between bondage and freedom, between emptiness and paradise, between hell and heaven. This was the changing room for the Israelites to clothe themselves for the new reality awaiting the exiles beyond the river.
The laws were basic in their literal meaning, and all-encompassing in their figurative meaning. They were meant as a stepping stone to the Oneness of all of Creation and God.
Jesus reduced the Ten Commandments to two, love of God and love of other people. The common denominator is the one law of love.
“Tradition,” the words and actions from someone long ago, were at one point simply apostasy. Someone rejected God by substituting their words for God’s intention. This violated the first law of love and, by encouraging others to do the same, also violated the second law of love.
The brain can make sense out of almost any distortion of truth, if the person sees the lie as preferable to the truth. The heart is in control, and it knows the truth. It is the heart’s decision that gives the brain authority to rule, or stands firm and says, “No!”
We must constantly choose between God and not-God. Jesus sides with God and His prophets. They call for a heart of flesh rather than a heart of stone.
Truth and its order are true at every point in time, but our ability and our willingness to submit to truth are highly variable.
Lawful…or Not May 22
Mark 7:14 When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear Me, everyone, and understand: 15 There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man. 16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”
The doctrinal experts have self-righteously complained of the violation of the law of cleanliness by Jesus’ disciples, for they had eaten without practicing a ceremonial cleansing, the washing of their hands before eating.
Jesus’ response in the preceding verses shows how His critics disregard the intent of the Law given at Sinai by establishing a contrary tradition. He uses Isaiah’s words as support (Mark 7:5).
Jesus now proceeds to redefine the source of uncleanliness.
The law, as derived from the traditions of men, substitutes cleanness of the body for cleanness of the heart. The external washings necessary to consider a person clean changes nothing of the moral or spiritual character, does not make the person holy, set apart to God.
Whether a person eats a forbidden food or with dirty hands might be unhealthy for the physical body, but such a person still can be pure in heart and not defiled or made unclean.
Paul made this clear: All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any (1 Cor. 6:12).
Spiritual uncleanness is an issue of the heart and comes from within the person. The willful preference for the doctrine of men rather than the ways of life as defined by the Creator of life is the result of an unclean heart.
The Parable Explained May 23
Mark 7:17 When He had entered a house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him concerning the parable. 18 So He said to them, “Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, 19 because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?”
The disciples are thoroughly steeped in the doctrine of their time period in Israel. The teachings of the Pharisees are the religious law of the land, just as the edicts and laws of Herod and Pilate are the secular law of their respective jurisdictions.
Note that there is no Old Testament law regarding the washing of hands before eating. Aaron and the priests were to wash their hands and feet in the laver before entering the tabernacle in Ex. 30:17-21. The Pharisees had developed the tradition of handwashing before eating on their own, raising a reasonable health practice to a mandatory law from God.
Jesus knows the commandments of men well, and He also knows the Commandments of God. By knowing both, He can properly break the manmade law in order to properly keep the divine law.
The disciples are often uncomfortable with the direction of Jesus’ statements. In this example, Jesus is destroying the law substituted by the Pharisees for God’s law. This is a dangerous course in a religion controlled by man.
Jesus again uses an explanation of a parable to teach the disciples – and us – how to differentiate between the spiritual laws that are to govern our existence versus the attempts by mankind to establish manmade laws that destroy divine Law, leaving us in an uncertain state of chaos.
What Defiles? May 24
Mark 7:20 And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”
Continuing His explanation of the parable, Jesus explains defilement as flowing from the inside to the outside.
Defilement is a state of character unrelated to what is physically on the body or passes through the body. It is a state of being profane, a willful disobedience to the word of God, making it of no effect.
The religious leaders’ primary concern is with ceremonial impurity, the outer trappings of religiosity.
Jesus’ primary concern is spiritual purity, the cleanness of the heart.
The mind originates thoughts, and that is good, unless we believe them without verifying their physical and spiritual realities. Great minds have developed racism, eugenics, torture, etc. as appropriate approaches to life in this world.
An external washing, or an animal sacrifice to offset a sin, is to no effect if the heart remains hardened toward God and His creation. Violation of the lives and things He has created gives the lie to these external acts.
The intent of the heart is the key. If adultery, murder, blasphemy, etc. are still occurring in word or in mind, the effect is the same as if the physical deed has been committed (Matt. 5-7).
Is it true? Is it kind? And is it necessary? These are 3 questions to ask oneself before speaking or taking action.
We must take every thought captive to a heart centered on God (2 Cor. 10:5).
Unbounded Love May 25
Mark 7:24 From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden. 25 For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
Tyre and Sidon had been given to the tribe of Asher, and then had become part of Samaria. Now known as Syria-Phoenicia, this is a land of Greek speaking Gentiles. For Jesus, this place is a haven from the Pharisees, but not from the crowds. Jesus enters the house of a supporter to avoid them.
A woman of the area has been following Jesus and continues in her supplication to free her daughter of an unclean spirit. She falls prostrate at His feet, reducing herself to the lowest of His supplicants, asking Him to cast the demon from her child.
This woman is a mother. She already has undergone one conversion, from priority of self to priority of her child. Characteristically of a mother, she has been born again through giving birth. She now reduces herself to “the least of these” in order to raise her daughter to “the best of these.”
The mother’s total desire is that her daughter may also go through a rebirth into a new identity. No cost is too great. This is love without reservation.
Priority May 26
Mark 7:27 But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”
Mark includes a clause at the beginning of Jesus’ response that helps us to understand that He is not denying the woman because she is a Gentile, nor is His abruptness a symptom of human weariness. Jesus says, “Let the children be filled first….”
There is an order to things. In Matthew 15:24, Jesus says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” In Mark, Jesus says only that He was sent first to the children of Israel. The implication of saying “first” is that there is also a “second.” He is not closing the door on the request.
Jesus is stating that He is not bound by the constraints of a chosen people to the exclusion of humanity. That the children of Israel are the first to receive restoration, harmony, and peace with God and one another, is not to deny the same benefit to others.
Jesus' inference that the woman and her people are “little dogs” comes across as harsh in our translation. Indeed, heathen and Jew referred to each other as dogs.
We want to make Jesus’ words softer, more generous, and perhaps this is correct. He uses the diminutive form of the word, often used as a term of endearment as well as to indicate a smaller size. We might understand this more accurately (and agreeably) as “the household puppies.”
Or we might hear Jesus making a figurative statement of truth: “The bread (Gospel truth) is not to be thrown (verified by miracles) to the dogs (heathen unbelievers).”
True understanding comes from the holistic story.
Crumbs May 27
Mark 7:28 And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.”
29 Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”
30 And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.
As with the man with the withered hand whom Jesus healed on the Sabbath, this woman inspires compassion.
The Gentile woman perceives the same picture that Jesus has created. Jesus is in the business of creating. Each of us must be in the business of perceiving, as the Gentile woman is doing.
She places herself and her daughter beneath the table. This is an important image for us. A new perspective is required of mankind before we are richly robed and ready to feast.
The woman is not offended at the order of things. That the table is set for others is of no consequence if she and her daughter will be receiving gifts from the same bounty. There is more on the table than all of mankind can consume.
Are we offended at the present order of things?
Our world looks like disorder. This woman’s world looks like disorder. The Romans rule over Gentile and Jew with equal harshness. The favored race receives no favor as far as she can see.
Until Jesus comes. God’s people experience peace even amidst chaos. The bread is laid upon the table, and the puppies of the family wait patiently below.
Well, yes, there is an occasional whimper, a paw placed on the leg, a reminder to those above from those beneath the table. Hungry. Waiting. Expectant. For Good News.
Next day
