27. Mark 7:14-23: The Heart of the Matter
Purity is always an issue for peoples everywhere. Purity guards identity and identity is a peoples’ profoundest possession. They fight, suffer, and die for their identity. Insults cut deepest when they trash identity. Identity harbors integrity and integrity flows from identity. Why should Jesus bring this up now? He has just lodged the most serious critique possible of the people and its leaders: they have been faithless to God who redeemed their people from slavery in Egypt and chose them to be the prototype of his design for all humanity. Defaulting on this calling they have forfeited their identity. Having called them out for their faithlessness, Jesus now tells them what the problem is. He goes to the heart of the matter: the human heart (v.21). The Bible conceives of the heart as the control center of a person. Think the control center of NASA space flight. Everything pertaining to the flight is centered and controlled from there. Similarly the human heart. Not just our...