Mark's Gospel: Chapter 7
Isaiah's prophecy about you hypocrites is true.
Key words
- Defile: to spoil the goodness or beauty of something
Cans, paper bags, and other trash defiled the landscape.
- Hypocrite: someone who says they have particular moral beliefs but behaves in way that shows these are not sincere
He's a hypocrite - he's always lecturing other people on the environment but he drives around in a huge car.
- In vain: unsuccessfully
All the police's efforts to find him were in vain.
- Exempt: with special permission not to do or pay something
Pregnant women are exempt from dental charges under the current health system.
- Nullify: to cause something to have no value or effect
The company wants to nullify the contract.
Read the article to find the answers
- Where do evil thoughts come from?
- What do evil thoughts do to a man?
- What did Jesus tell the people not to do after He healed the deaf man?
- What did they do?
Jesus explains what makes people unclean
The religious scholars from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and noticed that some of His disciples were eating bread without washing their hands. This practice went against their traditions. They asked Jesus why His disciples didn't follow the traditional practice of washing their hands before eating.
He replied:
"Isaiah's prophecy about you hypocrites is true, as it is written: This people honour me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Their worship is in vain, they teach the commandments of men."
"You reject the commandment of God in order to keep your own tradition. Moses said, honour your parents, and whoever curses his parents, let them die. But you say that some people are exempt from helping their parents. Your traditions nullify the word of God."
Gathering everyone around Him, He said:
"Listen to me, all of you, and understand this: Nothing from outside can defile a man when it enters him. It's what comes from within that truly defiles a man. If any man has ears to hear, let him hear."
When He returned home after speaking to the crowds, His disciples asked Him about the parable. He replied:
"Do you not understand? Don't you see that what enters a man from the outside cannot defile him? It goes into his stomach and then out of his body. Evil thoughts, adultery, sexual immorality, murder, theft, greed, wickedness, deceit, lust, envy, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, all these come from the heart, and defile the man."
Jesus heals the daughter of a non-Jew
Jesus left that place and went to the outskirts of another city. He entered a house, hoping to go unnoticed, but He couldn't hide. A Greek woman found Him and fell at His feet. She pleaded with Him to free her daughter from an unclean spirit.
Jesus replied:
"Let the children be fed first; it's not right to take the children's food and give it to the pets."
The woman said that even the pets under the table eat the children's crumbs.
Jesus said to her:
"Because of your words, go home, the devil has left your daughter."
When she returned to her house, she found her daughter free from the devil, lying peacefully on the bed.
Jesus heals a deaf man
After leaving this region, Jesus went to another place. The people brought a man who was deaf and had difficulty speaking and begged Jesus to help him.
Jesus took the man out of the crowd, put His fingers in the man's ears and touched his tongue with His own saliva.
Then, Jesus looked up to heaven, sighed deeply, and said to the man:
"Be opened."
Immediately, the man's ears were opened, and he could speak clearly.
Jesus told them not to tell anyone, but the more He urged them to keep quiet, the more enthusiastically they told the story. They were utterly amazed.
Discussion questions
- Do you have any questions about any of the vocabulary or grammar in this article?
- Do you know the Bible passage quoted at the top of this article?
- What do you think Jesus meant when He said: "First, let the children be fed, it's not right to take the children's food and give it to the dogs"?
- Have you ever been utterly amazed?