Introduction
Are there “good” foods and “bad” foods? Can we heap condemnation upon ourselves by virtue of the foods and substances we ingest?
This is an important question; because we live in a society that on the one hand tells us that we shouldn’t judge others, and on the other hand heaps up messages of judgment - often related to this very subject. Is it organic? Sustainably produced? Can you pronounce the ingredients? Is it low carb, low fat, low flavor?
Food is more than fuel, both culturally and biblically. It’s more than the caloric sum of protein, carbs, and fat. Food is symbolic: it symbolizes joy and friendship. Acceptance to the table is a big deal. Boundaries are often drawn around food. If I welcome you to my table that’s an extension of hospitality and friendship, at the very least. At a deeper level there is a sense of identifying with those people with whom we break-bread together. This is part of why it was scandalous to the Pharisees and chief priests that Jesus would share a table with tax collectors and sinners. Food matters.
Setting
The setting of our text today is a continuation of what Ryan Aguilar two weeks ago, Mark 7:1-13. To refresh you on that passage, the Jews had elaborate traditions around hand-washing: just like your grandmother, they believed that cleanliness was next to godliness. There are, of course, a large number of ceremonial washings prescribed in the Old Testament. But this tradition had gone far beyond that, to the point that if they had visited the marketplace (where they may have encountered less-serious Jews, or, God-forbid, gentiles) they had to baptize their hands in order to remove the possible stain of association.
A number of scribes from Jerusalem joined with the local Pharisees (we don’t know where exactly Jesus is at this point), and noticed that Jesus’ disciples didn’t observe the tradition; and they wanted to know what gives. What kind of religious people are you and your disciples, anyway, Jesus? Why, I just saw Peter light up a cigarette in the parking lot!
Jesus proceeds to put these religious hypocrites in their place: in verses 6-7 he quotes the prophet Isaiah, and then ties the bow in verse eight with his own summary:
“ ‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
He then gives the specific example of “corban”, whereby some Jews would “devote their goods to the Lord” - usually to take effect after their death, but it provided a nice lifelong excuse to not have to help their family members out when it was needed - in doing so the held fast to their traditions while ignoring the specific commands of God: in this case, the duty to honor your father and mother.
The overall point Jesus made in these verses is that religious observance in itself is of no value. A heart that loves keeping the law for the sake of stroking one’s own ego is the opposite of what God wants. I put a question and answer from the New City Catechism in the bulletin each week, and the one from the week before last was question #33: “Should those who have faith in Christ seek their salvation through their own works, or anywhere else?”
The kids learn an abbreviated answer: “No, everything necessary to salvation is found in Christ.” The full answer fleshes that out a little more: “No, they should not, as everything necessary to salvation is found in Christ. To seek salvation through good works is a denial that Christ is the only Redeemer and Savior.”
Traditions can be good. Rules have a place. God gave many laws; and they were (and are) good. But the moment you start making religious rules and traditions the center of the story is the moment you begin rejecting God. You can’t rule your way to God. Your problem is too deep for that. Which brings us to our text this morning.
Text
14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” 17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Textual Note
Before we go any further, I should note that some of you might think I skipped a verse. If you have a King James or New King James version, there is verse sixteen: “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”, which the New American Standard Bible also leaves in, but in brackets. The brackets - along with the complete omission of verse 16 in the NIV and the ESV comes from the fact that while many of the Greek manuscripts we have for Mark include verse 16, some of the oldest do not. This has led many scholars to conclude that they were a later addition, added by Christian scribes to underline the importance of what Jesus was saying.
Jesus’ Point
And you can see why they’d think it needed underlining: what Jesus is saying is absolutely mind-blowing: not only to a first century Jew, but to any human being who thinks that their problems fundamentally come from the outside. And, of course, that’s all of us.
In verse 14 he calls everyone together, he wants them to hear this: “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” Nothing can defile you from the outside. I’m going to spend most of our time thinking about things we consciously ingest, but I do want to pause for a moment here and say what good news this is on some other levels.
Jesus says nothing from outside has the power to defile you. How many people walk around with guilt and shame connected to things which have happened to them or circumstances of their life that are outside of their control? Has someone abused you - made you feel worthless or dirty? Jesus says, that does not defile you. Are you embarrassed by material impoverishment, or a family that seems to be crazy? Jesus says, that does not defile you. Things on the outside don’t defile you. You need to hear that as good news.
Now, along with that cold water of good news for a thirsty soul comes a stark confrontation, which is good news, but we need ears to hear it: the reason those things from the outside don’t defile you is because true defilement comes from your own sinful heart. The problems between you and God can’t be solved by getting on the right diet, because stuffing your face with kale won’t wash the idolatry and gossip and slander and lust and hatred from your soul.
We desperately want there to be a specific set of rules for us to follow - aren’t there some sort of diet restrictions which will make us more righteous? If I eat this certain way, won’t God look past some of my other junk?
Or maybe you’re tempted the other way: licentiousness is the name of your game, and you hear Mark’s little note of commentary there in verse 19, “thus he declared all foods clean”, and you’re tempted to wonder: how far can I push this? I want to spend a little time looking at four specific questions when it comes to this:
Four Questions
1) What about food laws?
We have to acknowledge at the outset that the Old Testament does have quite a number of food laws, many of which do break down into the categories of clean/unclean. Our family ate pork loin for dinner last night. Pork, because pigs don’t chew the cud, was declared by God to be unclean. And such is the case for many things that we gentiles eat. So is God changing his mind, with Jesus coming in 1400 years after Moses and changing the rules?
I don’t think so. Remember what I said at the outset about the boundary drawing that takes place around food. We still understand this at a somewhat intuitive level, but it was very clear in the ancient world. So a big part of what God was doing with the dietary laws was drawing a boundary: the people of Israel were to be set apart, holy, and one of the ways this was to express itself is by how and what they ate. It also cut them off, if they were being faithful, from much pagan worship, which also often was connected to food.
So one of the things we see happen with Christ’s coming into the world is the breaking down of the Jew/Gentile divide - but for this to take place there has to be common fellowship: around the table. I think we’ll spend more time on this next week, but this is one of the things we see in 10:9-16. Let’s read that text together:
9 The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. 10 Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance 11 and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. 13 And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”
14 But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.”
15 And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” 16 This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again. (NKJV)
So Peter gets so hungry that he goes into a delirious trance and God speaks to him in a vision: here is a smorgasbord of foods…the only problem is that they’re on the “unclean” list. A voice tells him to eat, and Peter is scandalized “icky.” God’s response? Don’t call common what God has called clean. Now here is the kicker: this is all setting Peter up to go to the house of Cornelius, a gentile man who wants to know about the Lord. If Peter is going to spend time with him, eat with him, and proclaim the gospel in his house, then he must be able to eat this food he used to consider anathema.
Why was this okay? Because the fundamental reason for the food laws - a visible setting apart - now functions differently in the Christian era. We are set apart when we believe in Christ: he sets us apart by the power of the Holy Spirit. 1 Peter 1:2 speaks to believers as those who have been “set apart” by God the Holy Spirit. And this holiness of being in Christ by the Spirit does express itself around food: the food of communion. We eat the bread representing Christ’s body, broken for us. We drink the wine, symbolizing his blood shed in our place. God’s people are no longer defined by what they don’t eat, fearing it would make them unclean. Rather, we are marked off by the meal we do eat because we have already been made clean by Jesus.
2) What about modern food laws?
Which brings us to the question of “modern” food laws. It is not an exaggeration to say the language around food is often quite religious sounding. And it is adhered to with a religious ferocity. Every new diet has its own religious zealots, who are sure that those who don’t eat their way are on the path to perdition, or at least a miserable life. I remember when I was a kid it seemed like half the women I knew were avoiding fatty foods like the plague. Or at least pretending to. On the other hand, we’ve all spent the last 15 or 20 years hearing non-stop how white bread, white rice, and white potatoes were going to kill us all.
Should Christians join the moral food crusades, and judge others by their GMOs or their macros? Jesus addressed this directly with the disciples in v17-19: ‘
And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?”
Essentially: if it’s going to go into the toilet, maybe it’s not the sort of thing we should be judging others over. And also not the sort of thing to feel guilt over.
That’s not to say we shouldn’t live wisely. Maybe it’s not the best idea to consume a 12 pack of pop everyday. Maybe I do need to count my calories and lose some weight in order to have more energy to serve my family and the church more effectively. Maybe you have a food allergy and need to restrict your diet in order to feel better.
But again, these are issues of wisdom. Not law. As Paul says in Romans 14:17-19,
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
3) What about alcohol?
So, we shouldn’t judge one another over food, nor think that we accomplish righteousness through our dinner plate. But, that may beg the question of your glass or can: Is alcohol okay? I want to address this briefly, and clearly.
First of all, this would not have even been a question for Jesus. He commanded his followers to drink wine in remembrance of him. I’ll be honest here, I’m not about to make any drastic changes to our communion practice, but I’m starting to wonder if grape juice is a Biblically acceptable substitute. It seems to me that Jesus used wine, and didn’t make exceptions for scrupulous consciousness. I’m still mulling on that.
But all of that to say, Jesus drank wine, his first miracle was to make wine, and he commanded his disciples to remember his shed blood that way.So there is clearly at least some room for alcohol consumption within the life of a Jesus-follower.
Wine is pictured in the Scripture as a gift from God, and is associated with times of feasting and rejoicing. Ecclesiastes 9:7 says, “7 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.” Ecclesiastes also tells us there is a time and a place:
16 Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child,
and your princes feast in the morning!
17 Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility,
and your princes feast at the proper time,
for strength, and not for drunkenness! (Ecc 10:16-17)
And that note of warning against drunkenness ties into a pattern across Scripture. God hates drunkenness. God’s judgment is often pictured in the prophets as making the nations reel like a drunkard. And the New Testament clearly prohibits drunkenness for the Christian. Ephesians 5:18 says, “18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.” Notice the contrast: you can be filled with wine and become debauched, or you can be filled with the Spirit.
The principle here should be clear: God gave wine (and I think within reason we can even make allowance for bourbon and Blue Moon), like bread and meat and all good things, for our enjoyment. But if it is abused, there is real danger. Again, this calls for wisdom, not a neat set of rules. Abstaining from alcohol may be the right choice for you. We should be able to love and enjoy and encourage Christians with whom we have a different practice on this matter. The fundamental point is this: what goes into us cannot make us unclean, but in the case of alcohol, taking in too much can let an awful lot of our internal uncleanness out. Don’t give control of your mind to a substance control of your mind should be submitted to God alone, shaping you by His Word and Spirit.
4) What about weed? (or other drugs?)
And that brings us to a particularly modern concern: what about marajuana (or other hallucinogenic drugs)? Jesus declared all foods clean, right? And didn’t Genesis say every green herb is here for our enjoyment and use?
Here is the problem with that line of thinking: the main use of marajuana is to distort the mind in a way that fits the Biblical description of, and prohibitions of, drunkenness. Which is to say, I do not believe there is ever a case in which you should, as a Christian, be taking these sorts of drugs. Again, giving control of our minds over to a substance is antithetical to giving control of our life to Jesus by his Spirit. So the question becomes: would you rather get high, or would you rather see God?
The Filth That Matters
Which, in the end, brings us back to Jesus’ main point. The question really doesn’t have a lot to do with what you’re putting into your body, at least not nearly so much as it is about what comes out of your heart. You’ll never go to hell for something you put into your body. You will go to hell if you choose that substance - be it food or drink or drug - over Jesus.
The truth about the problem being on the inside sounds like bad news. We know how to be good legalists and keep rules: we don’t know how to fix our hearts. Jesus says in verses 21-23 that, “from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” But the good news of the Gospel is that God gives a new heart to everyone who trusts in Jesus for the remission of their sins. He will wash you clean, and renew you day by day to more accurately reflect him. To be holy in the truest sense of the word.
Knowing and loving Jesus more than anything else will allow you to eat and drink in wise moderation and joyous celebration, to the glory of God. Our hearts will be made fit to one day enjoy the wedding supper of the Lamb; decadent bread, fine wine, and all. Because we will no longer be tempted to idolize these things, but rather will enjoy them as tangible gifts of God’s goodness toward us.
But life between here and there requires deep heart work. It requires repenting of your sin and your idolatry. It requires a steadfast refusal to look for comfort in food or drink, rather seeking comfort from God in his word, where he gives true bread and drink as we encounter Jesus: the Lamb of God, the Bread of Life, the Fountain of Living Water. Come to him for forgiveness and heart-level cleansing.
Mark 7:14-23; The Filth that Matters