What Enters the Heart (Mark 7:17-23)

Do you not realize that everything
that goes into a person from outside cannot defile,
since it enters not the heart but the stomach
Mark 7: 18-19


The Gospel for today is a continuation of the Gospel for yesterday which was about the question of ritual cleansing before meals. The standard interpretation for today's Gospel is that Jesus is opening up religion to all persons by getting rid of all exclusions arising from diet. In Mark 7: 19 there is a parenthetical remark that Jesus in effect declared all food clean.


What draws me to the passage for today is something that Jesus did not say in the quotation found above. In that quotation he is saying that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile since it enters the stomach, not the heart.


Then I got to thinking, what if something from outside enters a person's heart. Not literally of course, but figuratively. Like that song which haunted Saul. Like the sight of Bathsheba bathing. Then that which came from outside could defile the person. Or more accurately, people could allow things from outside to defile  them. And that defilement leads to the litany of sins that Jesus enumerates.


But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him.
From within the man, from his heart,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.
Mark 7:20-23


And that litany sounds like everything Saul and David did (except maybe for blasphemy).