Tests of Faith (Mark 7:24-30)

Today's Gospel continues the theme of yesterday's Gospel about opening up the faith to the Gentiles. In yesterday's Gospel, Jesus declared all food clean. In today's Gospel, Jesus goes to Tyre, a non-Jewish place and a Greek asks Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

Knowing that Jesus had just come from a debate with Pharisees who by definition are against the infiltration of foreign influences, especially Hellinistic influences, on Judaism, the healing of a Greek's daughter provides a clear message regarding Jesus' mission. He didn't come only for the Jews (which was probably a message the disciples tried to grapple with after Jesus' ascension).

Of course, Jesus could have made things easier for the woman by just granting the request right away. Instead, he feigned resistance and said something to the effect that she wasn't a Jew and so why should he bother with her request. Her reply was that even if she wasn't a Jew, she'd still accept any scraps from the blessings given to Jews. at which Jesus healed her daughter (must note that this is another one of those healings without physical contact. And it's a Gentile again!) The woman was able to demonstrate her faith that God was not just a God for the Jews.

Since I started this exercise of writing everyday about the mass readings, this is the second episode I encountered where Jesus doesn't heal a person right away but introduces a test of faith. The first one involves a blind man. When the person passes the test, Jesus grants the request.

I guess the lesson to be learned is that we must not be deterred from asking God for things that we know is good for us. Maybe sometimes he is just testing out faith.

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).