Debasement

Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.”

When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, “Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) “But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him. From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.” (Mark 7:14-23)

Jesus declared all foods were clean.   That was quite a departure for a Jewish man, for a rabbi to claim.   He shifted the focus to what was within and what defiles us through what we say reflecting how we really feel.  This is one of Jesus’ most important and insightful parables.  There is no mistaking its meaning or how it applies to all of us.

His point is that we all self-defile.   We do it to ourselves such as through evil thoughts and deceit.  I’d add cruelty, cheating, and revenge to the list.   A key description is debasement.

Deacon David Pierce