Inside Out

Mark 7:1-23

Can you imagine being part of a delegation sent from Jerusalem to weigh Jesus’ ministry in the balance? Or is this really what is happening?

Previously, we read in Mark 3:6 the Pharisees and Herodians went out and plotted how they might destroy Him over the issue of healing on the Sabbath.

Now a fresh delegation is being sent down from Jerusalem to the location of Jesus’ ministry to find more reason for fault. The judgment has already been made.

What is in their heart is to kill Him. What is in their mind is to find a reason why – which can then be conveyed to the people who follow Jesus. The idea is to end His influence, and to play a political/religious game which will affect that result.

What is NOT in their heart is to make an honest evaluation of His ministry based upon what they actually experience of it for themselves.

And this is always the way it is with religion and Christ. Religion must kill Christ over the issue of what is in the heart. Christ knows what is in the heart of man, and religion knows Christ knows.

Let’s kill Christ by dealing with what’s on the outside. That kills Christ every time. Concern over what can be seen by the eye diminishes and destroys any thought over what is unseen. Since Christ primarily deals with the unseen, this emphasis on the outward puts Him away, and deals His ministry a death blow. It prevents the consideration of the heart by focusing on the outward.

Jesus teaches us against pretense. These men are hypocrites to God, while saying they are of God.

It is not what goes into man that defiles a man. (Speaking of the defiling religion is always on the lookout for.) Man is only defiled by what comes out of man – because what comes out of a man reveals the condition of his heart.

-Pastor Bill