Mark’s gospel, 7:1-8,14-15, 21-23, depicts Jesus as challenging the traditional ways in which religious people, the Pharisees, determine what is pure or impure.
Aren’t we like the Pharisees?
We don’t like change or challenges to evolve. We police our boundaries. We are self righteous. We decide who’s in and who’s out. Sometimes based on political affiliation.
Pastor David Nelson said Jesus rebuked the Pharisees saying that their hearts were far from Him.
Do we honor God with our lips but worship in vain?
We need to open wide our heart with compassion and accept Jesus’s invitation to consider what is really sacred in our lives.
We need to learn to practice a religion of the whole heart.