Commentary - Mark 7:14-23

Bird's-eye view

In this potent section of Mark's gospel, Jesus pivots from a confrontation with the Pharisees over their man-made traditions to a foundational lesson for the common people about the very nature of sin. He is not interested in tweaking the rabbinic rulebook; He is interested in diagnosing the terminal condition of the human heart. The central point is a bombshell in that context: true defilement is not external but internal. It is not what a man eats that corrupts him, but what erupts from his heart. After delivering this radical principle in a short parable to the crowd, Jesus takes His disciples aside to rebuke their spiritual density and explain it plainly. He concludes with a devastating inventory of the sins that pour out of the unregenerate heart, making it clear that humanity's problem is not a failure to follow external codes, but a profound and deep-seated corruption of the soul.

This passage is a theological earthquake. With a few words, Jesus sweeps aside centuries of ceremonial regulations that had become ends in themselves and redirects all attention to the fountainhead of all sin. Mark's editorial comment in verse 19, "Thus He declared all foods clean," underscores the monumental shift that is occurring. The old covenant categories of clean and unclean are being fulfilled and set aside in Christ. The problem is not, and never was, the created thing, but rather the corrupted creature.

Outline

Context In Mark

This passage does not occur in a vacuum. It is the climax of a series of conflicts between Jesus and the religious authorities over the issue of tradition versus God's law. In the immediately preceding verses (Mark 7:1-13), Jesus blasted the Pharisees for "invalidating the word of God" with their traditions, specifically the tradition of Corban. Having exposed their hypocrisy, He now turns to the crowd to dismantle the very foundation of their externalized, ritualistic religion. This teaching is a crucial turning point. It moves the conflict from specific rules to the fundamental definition of righteousness and sin. It also continues Mark's theme of the disciples' slowness to understand the true nature of Jesus' kingdom, a kingdom that is not of this world and does not operate by the world's standards of purity.

Key Issues

Beginning: The Doctrine of the Heart

To understand what Jesus is doing here, we must first have a biblical understanding of the heart. In our sentimental age, the heart is considered the seat of our fluffy emotions, our "true self" that we must follow. This is sentimental hogwash. In Scripture, the heart (kardia) is the mission control center of the entire person. It is the seat of the will, the intellect, the desires, and the conscience. It is the wellspring from which the entire life flows. As Proverbs 4:23 says, "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life." Jesus is not contrasting the head and the heart; He is contrasting the entire inner man with the external world. The Pharisees were experts at polishing the outside of the cup while the inside was full of filth (Matt. 23:25). Jesus grabs a theological jackhammer and shatters the cup, showing everyone what was really inside.

The Heart as the Source of Sin

14-16 Jesus calls the crowd, who had just witnessed His takedown of the Pharisees, and tells them to listen up and get this. This is for everyone, not just the theologians. The principle He lays down is revolutionary: nothing that goes into a man from the outside can defile him. Think of it. For a Jew, whose life was governed by dietary laws and rules about ritual cleanliness, this was like saying water isn't wet. The entire system of ritual purity was about avoiding external contaminants. Jesus flips the whole thing on its head. The real problem, He says, is what comes out of a man. That is what truly defiles.

17-19 As is so often the case, the disciples are completely flummoxed. They get Jesus alone and ask Him to explain the parable, revealing that they are still thinking in the Pharisees' categories. Jesus' response is a sharp rebuke: "Are you lacking understanding in this way as well?" He expected better from them. He explains it in the simplest terms. Food goes into the stomach, gets processed, and is eliminated. It's a biological process that doesn't touch the heart, the moral center of the person. It cannot make you spiritually unclean. Then comes Mark's thunderous parenthetical statement: "(Thus He declared all foods clean.)" The ceremonial law, which pointed to a deeper reality, is now being fulfilled. The shadows are fleeing because the Son has come. Bacon is back on the menu.

20-23 Jesus then drives the point home. "That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man." He's not talking about indigestion. He is talking about the geyser of filth that erupts from the unregenerate human heart. He provides a partial but sickening inventory. It begins with "evil thoughts," the seedbed for all that follows. Then a torrent of sins: sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. This is not a list of what "really bad people" do. This is the factory default setting for every human heart apart from the grace of God. This is total depravity, not in the sense that men are as evil as they could possibly be, but that sin has corrupted every part of our being. Every one of these sins, from the proud thought to the murderous act, "proceed from within and defile the man." Your problem is not your environment, your upbringing, or the bacon sandwich you had for breakfast. Your problem is you. And this diagnosis is what makes the gospel such glorious news.

True Defilement

The Pharisees had constructed an elaborate system of fences and regulations, all designed to keep external "uncleanness" out. They were spiritual germaphobes, constantly washing and purifying, but it was all for show. They were meticulously cleaning the outside of a tomb that was full of death. Jesus teaches that this entire approach is wrongheaded. True defilement, true spiritual filth, is not something you can catch from touching a Gentile or eating shrimp. True defilement is something you generate yourself, from the sinful nature that resides in your heart.

This is why all attempts at self-reform are ultimately doomed to fail. You cannot fix a polluted spring by painting the pump handle. You can't solve the problem of a wicked heart by making a list of new rules for yourself. The heart itself must be changed. A new heart must be granted. This is what God promised in the new covenant: "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26). Jesus' diagnosis of the heart's sickness is severe because He is the only one who holds the cure.

Application

The application of this passage is profoundly personal and cuts to the very quick. First, we must stop the blame game. Our culture is built on victimhood and blame-shifting. We blame our sins on our parents, our society, our circumstances, our genetics, anything but our own hearts. Jesus will have none of it. The evil that you do proceeds from within you. You must own it. Repentance begins when you stop making excuses for the filth that comes out of your heart and instead confess it as your own.

Second, we must abandon all hope in external religion. Whether it is the ancient legalism of the Pharisees or the modern legalism of political correctness, the strategy is the same: control external behavior and you can make people righteous. This is a lie. Righteousness is a matter of the heart. If your Christianity consists of a checklist of behaviors to perform or avoid, you have missed the point entirely. You are just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. You need a new heart, which only Christ can give.

Finally, we must marvel at the grace of God in the gospel. Jesus gives this devastating diagnosis of our condition not to crush us, but to drive us to Him. He exposed the terminal cancer of our hearts so that we would run to Him, the Great Physician. He who was perfectly pure in heart took all of our heart-filth upon Himself on the cross, and offers us in return His perfect righteousness and a new, clean heart. The only solution to the problem described in Mark 7 is the grace offered in Romans 8: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."