What Comes Out

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’

“You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

Then he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban’ (that is, an offering to God)—then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.”

Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”

When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, “Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” Mark 7:1-23 

" Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!" We said this as children, to the bullies and the taunters, but even then we knew it wasn't true. What we knew, when we were crying alone, was that words stung and bruised us for a lifetime. The best behaved and smartest children, could often be most cruel in private. And those in power, wealthy and secure, can do the most damage to the vulnerable, even now.

Jesus was challenged by religious leaders for not behaving according to the traditions. He responded with the truth. Those around him who seemed to flaunt the rules, actually had hearts of love, while the perfect ones, were cruel, vicious and most foul. Jesus calls us today to examine our hearts, not to worry so much about the exterior disciplines, but instead, the true source of love and hate. 

Today, I ask God to help me put my heart and mind on compassion and love. May my whole being reflect kindness and tendernesss. May we take the time to our interior space, cleaning out the rubble and destruction for the sake of love.