Moving on:

“Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.”  

What is Jesus getting at here?

Jesus is saying here “Hey, you are already unclean! Your sin nature is why you did that thing. You aren’t a sinner because you sinned; you sinned because you are a sinner! It’s already there… in your heart.” In scripture we find that the heart refers to the center of ones being. The reason your resolutions to make yourself be a better person will never work is because the problem isn’t outside of you, it is at the core of your being.

That’s some bad news. And the implications are unsettling at the very least.

But (!)… 

What we’ve seen so far in Mark is that: 

• Jesus came to cleanse,

“And she went home and found the child laying in bed and the demon gone.”

• Jesus came to heal,

“And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.” 

• Jesus came to preach the word of God, The Gospel. 

And if we read way ahead in the New Testament we this find in Romans 5:

                  “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” 

That is GREAT news! We are ungodly. Life isn’t fulfilling. Nothing ever works. No one ever fills the void. That wears me down and makes me weak. But get this…He has a plan for those of us in our weakness. If you believe that, if you surrender to that, he will clean your unclean heart. When you are rescued and saved by grace alone through faith alone, God gets the glory and that is where fullness of life is found.

Prayer:

Father, I thank you for your Son and his perfect example of boldness and obedience with the gospel. I thank you for cleaning my unclean heart. Holy spirit, preach the truth of my need for daily mercies to me so that I might approach You in surrender and worship You with my life gladly. Help me say, “I am satisfied in you”. I love you and I need you. Amen.