The laws and precepts of God point His people to love, hospitality and peacemaking. We live in an era of divisiveness, where each election seems like an existential crisis and these things seem far off. In reality, though, our hope and faith are not in any political party, but rather in the Great Party, the wedding feast of the Lamb at the culmination of all things.
Even so, it is easy for us to find our identity in reaction to others. That’s how polarization happens, as we align ourselves with one team or another and then all our positions, beliefs and actions become about supporting Us and opposing Them.
Jesus here, though, is saying that the outside is unimportant, that what people consume is not their identity but rather what they produce. We are tempted to see the source of our sin as something external but in fact it comes from within our own hearts. Likewise, we try to solve our sin from the outside in, when in reality the only solution is within us, namely an inward surrender to the grace Christ offers.
Jesus makes it clear here that sin is real, and He lists a clear set of diverse sins that come from the heart. But they are all inward out, but outward in, which frees us up and even directs us to join in fellowship with those who are different from us externally.
That is what we are trying to do at Renew, in a diverse mosaic of peoples and backgrounds and opinions, to create an inward-out renewal of each other and our communities through this big glob of worship and fellowship that we do here.
Back to the passage, Mark talks a lot about Jesus going back and forth across Israel and the Sea of Galilee. In the west it’s mostly Jewish, while in the east there are more gentiles. In this passage he’s more westward and the Pharisees are going after Jesus for not following the ceremonial traditions like the ritualistic washing before meals. Righteousness and unrighteousness, pure and impure, have become more about cultural markers than they are about the universal Law of God. Just before this part, he chastises the Pharisees specifically for how they specifically use their traditions in order to enrich themselves even at the expense of their own parents. Then here he moves on to making it clear that it is that kind of thing that matters far more than the rituals or ceremonial rules. This gets extended in Acts when Peter has a vision that makes it clear that all foods are ultimately clean, and notably, by extension, so too are all peoples and cultures.
We can extend this further. The beauty and even sexuality of a woman isn’t what causes sin, but the lust and objectification from within men. Money and economic systems don’t cause greed, but it comes from within. Politicians and media do not cause hatred and division, rather it comes from within.
This then means we must continue to live lives that demonstrate the truths Jesus speak here. The outsides are not material, and we are to live in community and fellowship across cultures, ethnicities, parties and opinions. We are to remember that it is the inward parts that matter, and whatever happens externally, the Church of Christ endures within our hearts and within the hearts of all who earnestly seek Him.
— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, January 28, 2024