Mark 7:1-23
Clean and Unclean
1The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and 2saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were "unclean," that is, unwashed.3(The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)
5So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with 'unclean' hands?"
6He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
" 'These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.' 8You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."
9And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 10For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' 11But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban' (that is, a gift devoted to God), 12then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. 13Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that."
14Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.' "
17After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18"Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? 19For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")
20He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' 21For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.' "
Matthew 26:41
The Body is Weak
41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
Man is flawed...We sin...We are tempted at times in our lives, and when we give in (to temptation) we sin...The spirit is willing but our flesh is weak...
Sin does not come from unwashed hands...Sin does not come from the food or the meats we eat...Sin does not come from the unclean or non-kosher foods we eat...
Jesus is a different thinker...His parables and His teachings are different and were told to make us think...He, often, does not go into great detail in and about His teachings...He, often, had to explain to His immediate disciples, the Twelve, what He was saying, and what He meant by what He said just said...Some, if not many, of His teachings upset religious tradition, and the "old way" of thinking... Jesus was changing the elders and the teachers of the law (in what they believed and had been taught in the past)...He differed on their thinking on unwashed hands, unclean, and clean foods...Jesus was changing many of the rituals and traditions of the elders...He was challenging the way they looked and studied Scripture and the Laws of Moses...Jesus says it is not food or the unwashed hands, which makes us sin...When we are tempted, sometimes we sin...We have to guard against temptations...We have to watch and pray out much more on temptations than on what we eat, and how often we wash our hands...What we say, what we do, what we think is what defiles us and has us sin...
When we sin from a temptation our Spirits are willing and trying to be good (man is inclined and wants to do good), but the body is weak...C. S. Lewis explains it in different worlds, about the weak body, and the Spirit wanting and is willing to be good...Lewis said "First that, human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it...Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way."...
Jesus teaches us that all sin and defilement comes from within -our body is weak...