Mark 7

vs 1

Are they a posse, or just come to visit?

vs 2

Not just that they hadn't washed their hands - that they hadn't followed a religious rule made up by the pharisees.

vs 3

See, tradition.

vs 4

Nice of Mark to explain it for us. Just a little note that helps us recognise that this gospel isn't written just for Jews, or else why include something like this?

vs 5

A fair enough question, if you're in charge of religious decision-making for your people. Or at least you think you are.

vs 6

Ouch! Hot damn, that's harsh. Jesus calls a spade a spade. I mean, we wouldn't know if they really cared about God and just had it wrong. But Jesus knows.

vs 7

Isn't it awesome that while the Bible might not have a verse for everything, it's got a verse for an awful lot of specifics, and it seems to have killer cool prophecies for Jesus to fulfil or see fulfilled.

vs 8

See, it wouldn't be so bad if they had not let go of God's traditions. I think so, anyway.

vs 9

See, they have to set aside God's laws to follow the traditions of people. That's just stupid. Surely God's laws would trump a man's laws.

vs 10

Which I personally think is rather harsh, but hey, that's just me. That doesn't mean they shouldn't follow it. Should we put people to death? No. But we should obviously treat dishonouring parents as important.

vs 11

The concept is a little strange, but takes us into the mind of these people. They would claim that it is more important to give to God's temple than to support your family. Very basically.

vs 12

As I said above, the idea was that you should devote stuff to God, and in doing so if your parents starved or something, well, that's just that. God is more important. And you know what, I can see where they're coming from, too. I mean, I would find it easy to think this way.

vs 13

But God wants the former without the latter being undone. And Jesus points out that this isn't the only example.

vs 14

What a powerful statement. Remember, there are laws in the OT that actually do talk about religious uncleanness. What Jesus is saying is quite radical. But it's true. Touching a dead body doesn't make you sinful because it's a dead body. It makes you sinful because God made a law, and you broke it.

vs 15[16]

This puzzled me for ages! The Biblegateway version is missing any notes, or even the number 15! Very strange, just a typo methinks.

vs 17

Not what I'd call a parable, but that's what Mark calls it.

vs 18

Ouch, Jesus is on an insult streak today. Even his disciples are copping it. Although, it seems a fairly clear lesson to me. But then, I don't have hundreds of years of culture telling me it's wrong.

vs 19

Mark makes it clear what Jesus is saying, that all food is clean. It's not clear from the words he records, though. Mark is putting the interpretation on it for us.

vs 20

That is, your actions. Like eating something you shouldn't.

vs 21

It's quite a list. But it is interesting to think about - that these things come from within us. But so often, don't we try and hold things outside us responsible? Pornography, movies, poor education, whatever. Sure, they don't help. But the sin comes from us.

vs 22

The list goes on.

vs 23

And of course evil defiles us. That is, it makes us unable to come to God. But Jesus thankfully does away with that, so we can.

vs 24

I think sometimes Jesus just wanted some privacy for prayer and general health and wellbeing. He wasn't trying to be a ninja, it's just that the thousand people who see you now don't realise you just spent three hours preaching to the thousand people you saw you a few hours ago.

vs 25

This is not an uncommon occurrence for Jesus.

vs 26

But this is a little new. Greeks weren't often going to come and throw themselves at the feet of a Jewish messiah. For one, why would they believe anything would happen? For two, why would a Jewish messiah help a Greek person? But desperate times call for desperate measures.

vs 27

A lovely thought, isn't it, that Jesus is referring to this Greek woman as a dog. But you know what? Jesus spoke to her! We must assume in Greek. I would doubt she was speaking Aramaic. So there, Jesus spoke Greek.

vs 28

This is a ballsy answer. A lot of people would have said, "Dog? You son of a bitch." But her daughter is possessed, that's all she cares about, and so she is prepared to accept Jesus' words at face value, and tell him that even if it is true that she is unworthy of all that Jesus might be, can't she at least have the scraps of what's left over? Because for her, even that is enough to heal her daughter.

vs 29

Jesus got the right answer - it accepted the primacy of the Jews in God's plan, but it also allowed for gentiles to be involved. Plus, it accepted that even if Jesus was to give a tiny amount to her, she felt that would be enough, because he is so powerful. So he heals her daughter. That's killer sweet.

vs 30

And that's the end of that story. Happy ending!

vs 31

This is the same sort of area where that ex-Legion guy was meant to go preach.

vs 32

That the people who brought this deaf man were begging is probably a sign they cared about the outcome.

vs 33

Considering that he just healed a woman's daughter without even seeing her, the whole spitting thing seems a little strange here. Is it to show something? The earlier context doesn't really seem to reveal anything. Perhaps something comes after it.

vs 34

Kind of an interesting thing to say - I mean, Jesus does talk about people whose ears are closed. Perhaps that's the thing he's going for?

vs 35

Huzzah for him! I can't imagine what it's like not being able to speak properly. I have enough problems sometimes as it is. I was saying 'like' so much in the car on the way home, I felt like such a moron. I think I was tired. But to be unable to express yourself for a long time... blergh.

vs 36

Is that why he does it, reverse psychology? It just doesn't sound like that's the reason.

vs 37

That's really just a restatement of his actions. Perhaps this is what the problem is? That when people go and tell Jesus' story, they repeat the miracles, but not his words? So Jesus tells some people to preach, but others he tells to keep silent. Perhaps the ones he lets preach are the ones who will tell the whole story.