Good morning Class. I will be honest I'm struggling this morning. It is 8:14 am and I still can't get passed the question of the day. I want to ask something fun, something uplifting. But my heart is sad, and it feels cheap, or even ignoring reality to do so. This week has been difficult. The events in our nations capital have been devastating, and yet that seems insignificant to the hate that has been on Facebook and Instagram. I know we should just ignore it, some of you might be thinking, but when loved ones are being attacked somehow just ignoring it doesn't seem right either. And then todays lesson... um wow. So todays question will not be clever or profound.
Question of the day: How are you?
Today we start chapter 7. We are almost half way through the book of Mark. Todays lesson seems fitting to me. Very relevant. Yet I hesitate to say that, because I have found that this week many of us have very strong differing views about what has been going on around us.
I pray that we will let the Holy Spirit guide us today as we study!
If you are not joining us for the Sabbath School class on zoom, then you will be missing out, because today... I have no band width to write my thoughts on this passage. I know that what I write, what I believe to be truth and what I believe speaks directly to all of us, and is frankly so incredibly timely, will undoubtedly cause some of you to want to argue the complete opposite. I don't have the desire to try to carefully navigate all and write it all out. So please join us on zoom, and if you can't, well, I pray you will read this passage, and prayerfully ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart to what he has for you! Not thinking about anyone else, any events, any politics, or anything other than your heart!
The only other guidance I will write is this...
This passage has NOTHING to do with food! :)
Now let's study together!
READ: Mark 7:1-23
That Which Defiles
7 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2 and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, 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. 4 When 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.[a])
5 So 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 defiled hands?”
6 He 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.
7 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’[b]
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”
9 And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe[c] your own traditions! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’[d] and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’[e] 11 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— 12 then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”
14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” [16] [f]
17 After 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 person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
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