Mark seven contains the travels of Jesus from Gennesaret, North to Tyre and Sidon, then South and East to Decapolis and back North to the sea of Galilee. Along the way, Jesus performed many miraculous healings. It was in Gennesaret that the Pharisees and elders from Jerusalem approached Jesus about the issue of unwashed hands.
Knowing how many people Jesus traveled with, and then on top of that, how many people followed him, we can appreciate that reaching Jesus was no small task. Yet we find that those who had come from Jerusalem did just that. This raises questions. How difficult was it to get an audience with Jesus? Had they traveled that distance for the sole purpose of speaking to Jesus, or had they been in tow all along? Did Pharisees normally travel among the disciples?
Also, if they traveled from Jerusalem just to see Jesus, why did they deem that necessary and had their conversation with Jesus degraded into nitpicking over small points of the law or had that been their initial interest? Another consideration is this: did they speak as they walked or were they in a more comfortable setting – say around a synagogue before or after one of his Sabbath talks? Did all of this, finally, declare the standing that Jesus had among the Pharisees and religious elders?
At any rate, it was during his conversation with them that Jesus delivered the parable. This is the parable as found in Mark 7:15, “There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.”
It would appear that Jesus was somewhat central to the people that he called together. It was in response to the conversation he had with his peers from Jerusalem that Jesus “called all the people unto him.” They were a bit distant from the exchange, yet close enough to be called over physically to his location. It was not their attention that he called for as much as their ear-shot nearness. I get the impression of Jesus sitting with the Pharisees and elders perhaps in a market square or open area between houses or a plaza near a synagogue.
I get the impression of the crowd surrounding Jesus and the Pharisees, and Jesus making an exaggerated point – perhaps shaming the Pharisees in the process. I once failed in math during elementary school, and the teacher had all the other students stand around my desk to make a point. I was to be surrounded until I got it.
It was later, after the exchange, that Jesus explained the parable to his disciples. He did this in Mark 7:17-23. It is because of this that we today may see so clearly what Jesus meant by it. The contention is between physical gestures and spiritual realities. The point of the parable is that physical gestures cannot achieve spiritual goals. We can, in fact, be quite spiritual even if we eat with dirty hands. If we are not defiled by such, then defilement is spiritual rather than physical. Jesus offered an extended list of things that do defile a man.
One may note from that list that all of them share something in common. They are spiritual attributes. Please follow my reasoning on this. Jesus said that the things that defile a man are the things that are produced in the heart. Now of course, by saying this, I intend to be understood as saying 'things that are produced in the mind.' If you read every verse in the Bible that deals with the heart, as I have, you come away with the understanding that the writers of the Bible wrote 'heart' while they meant 'mind.'
This is most easily seen in such a verse that puts it this way: “thoughts of the heart,” First Chronicles 29:18.
In my writing, I have a catch phrase that I return to often. It goes like this: “Spiritual is mental is spiritual.” Any attribute that is of the mind lies within the realm of the spirit. In other words, the mind of a man and the spirit of a man are one and the same. Our thoughts, our imaginations, our emotions all stem from the mind.
It is only from such a spiritual realization that one may understand how futile the physical gestures really are. The Catholics get down on their knees and the Muslims bow down on their faces, but both are no more than physical gestures and accomplish no spiritual goal. They bear no truth and have no effect. Some people pray with their faces toward the sky and their hands folded, clasped, or placed together: all physical. Some people finger beads, set up statues of saints, wear beards, wear caps, refrain from musical instruments during worship. All such things are physical rather than spiritual.
The list of things that defile a man are mental attributes and they do so because they are spiritual and touch upon God. Moreover, these attributes are easily translated into physical activities that men feel more at home in. The physical action of a Muslim killing an infidel is based solely in the defiling spiritual attribute of blood lust. Such defiling activities can in no manner appease God, who is spiritual. Neither can they bring the perpetrator of such actions closer to God. We must see the list of defiling attributes as thoughts that lead to depravities. To be spiritual, on the other hand, would involve thoughts that lead us in the opposite direction.
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