Jesus starts on the inside . . .

The best novels are those whose characters seem like real people. I just finished a novel in which the people seemed so real that I cared what happened to them. To create them, writers need to know the hearts of real people. We are sinners all, some trying to look good on the outside but most blaming their issues and problems on the inside as the fault of others and of unfortunate events in their lives.

Mark’s Gospel describes Jesus’ third tour of Galilee. This is not fiction. These are real people. Some are sick and Jesus healed them. Some have demons and Jesus cast them out. Some are Pharisees and their biggest concern is not for the sick or possessed but that everyone washes their hands properly. They are not into hygiene but stuck on their traditions:

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches. (Mark 7:1–4)

Jesus knows people, not just our external behavior but what motivates us, what come from our hearts. Of these religious leaders He said:

“Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” (Mark 7:6–8)

He pointed to their example of getting around one of the Ten Commandments. Instead of honoring their parents as God says, they taught people to claim that whatever their parents should have gained from them, they had given to God, therefore they were exempt from doing anything for their father or mother. This tradition made void the word of God. It was only one of many. (Mark 7:12–13)

On the outside they seemed religious. On the inside, as He later told them, they were “full of dead men’s bones.” This passage and the entire New Testament repeatedly states that the problem of humanity begins with the inner person, the heart. Our spirit is dead to God. We are sinners all and without the revealing power of God, we just don’t get it:

And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7:18–23)

The NT begins with the life of Jesus Christ, telling how He came to set His people free. They assumed freedom from Roman rule, but His goal was freedom from the rule of sin. Their problem, and ours, was not political oppression or any other externals so much as the power of the above list of junk. It kept them, and us, from obeying God because the best we can do is put on an external show of piousness that fails because our hearts are not right. No one can produce clean water from a polluted well.

Mark reveals in Jesus what God wants — utter dependence on Him and total obedience from a pure heart. We would like that too, enough to try and imitate it. But godliness cannot be imitated. Without Jesus living in our hearts and purifying us from the inside out, the only thing we can produce is sin.

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Lord Jesus, today You impress upon me again the marvel of salvation. What I could never do, You have done for me. While salvation is instant and I am declared righteous in Your sight, my sanctification is also a process as You move in my heart to transform me into the person You have declared that already I am. I shake my head at the wonder of it all. You know me and You know exactly what I need. Hallelujah, what a Savior!