After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’? For 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.”)
Mark 7:17-18
Jesus’ ministry took place out in the open, in synagogues and also in homes.
At this point in Mark’s gospel, we are now in home number six. Look at what happened in the previous homes.
First, there was the home of Simon and Andrew, into which Jesus came and healed Peter’s mother-in-law (1:29–30). Next He preached in a home where four men tore a hole in the roof and dropped down their paralyzed friend, whom Jesus forgave of sin and healed (2:1–12).
The third occasion found Jesus in Levi’s (Matthew’s) home, where He ate with sinners and tax collectors (2:15–17). After the appointment of the Twelve, Jesus entered another home, but He and His disciples were unable even to eat because too many people heard He was there (3:20). The teachers of the Law accused Him of being in league with the Devil, and His own family thought He had lost His mind.
At Jairus’ home, Jesus raised a twelve-year-old daughter from the dead (5:37–43). Now in this passage (7:17–19), He was in a home explaining to His disciples that food doesn’t defile but what comes out of the heart does.
Notice that in three of the six homes, miracles of healing and resurrection took place. In the other three homes, Jesus ate with sinners, sought refuge with His disciples, and then taught them.
There’s a lesson in this for us. What are our homes for? They are designed by the Lord to be places of healing, refuge, evangelism, and training. That’s how He used the home.
There’s more. Remember the statement, “Jesus declared all foods clean”? Then why was it that years later, in Acts 10, Peter was still keeping the kosher law (Acts 10:14)? He had not applied Jesus’ teaching to his own life, and his failure to do so made it impossible for him to consider going to a Gentile’s home and eating there.
He needed the experience of a large sheet being let down from heaven full of all manner of non-kosher and kosher food, along with a command to “get up, Peter, kill and eat,” before he actually experienced the truth of what Jesus had taught him years earlier.
Isn’t that the same with us on occasion? How many truths lie dormant because we don’t practice or experience them?
Take, for example, the stewardship of finances. We know the Scriptures teach that the first portion—the tithe—belongs to the Lord. But, like Peter’s nonresponsiveness to the Lord’s teaching that “all foods are kosher,” we may not put into practice the Bible’s teaching on giving. That’s just one example. There are so many more: how we are to relate to our spouse, our children, our parents, our neighbor; our responsibility to fulfill the Great Commission; praying in words we know as well as praying in the Spirit. Jesus actually called His disciples “dull” because they didn’t apply His teaching. Let’s make sure He never has reason to call us “dull”!
A Prayer: Lord Jesus, may my home become more than a place of personal refuge where I’m insulated and isolated from others. Come into my home and transform it into a center for healing, evangelism, and instruction.
Excerpted from Dr. Wood’s book, Fearless: How Jesus Changes Everything, available from Vital Resources.
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