How does Jesus deal with prejudice? Mark 7:14-24
“Then Jesus called the crowd together again, saying, “Hear my words, all of you, and take them to heart. What truly contaminates a person is not what he puts into his body, but what comes out. That’s what makes a person defiled.” When Jesus went back home and away from the crowd, his disciples acknowledged that they didn’t understand the meaning of the parable and asked him to explain it. He answered them, “Are you as dull as the rest? Don’t you understand that you are not defiled by what you eat? For the food you swallow doesn’t enter your heart, but goes into your stomach, only to pass out into the sewer.” (This means all foods are clean.) He added, “Words and deeds pollute a person, not food. Evil originates from inside a person. Coming out of a human heart are evil schemes, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, treachery, debauchery, jealousy, slander, arrogance, and recklessness. All these corrupt things emerge from within and constantly pollute a person.””
In this passage - Jesus talks about unclean and clean foods - but the significance of this is easy to miss. And I want to show you how Jesus is, in fact, talking about prejudice.
Milestone One: Peter and Jesus
One of the disciples Jesus is speaking to is Peter. This is important - because it is believed that Mark, the chap that wrote this account, was a disciple of Peter - so the teachings reflect Peter’s point of view of walking with Christ. Jesus' statement about food was contrary to what they knew and what they had been taught - so it was confusing. They had been taught that it did matter what you ate. That it did matter if you put something in you that was unclean.
We know that Peter still didn’t get this teaching after the resurrection of Jesus because Peter has a really bonkers vision in the book of Acts (chapter 10).
Jesus needs to teach him this lesson again.
He needs Peter to understand it.
And it’s because Peter has a prejudice.
Milestone Two: Peter and Cornelius
In Acts 10 there is a really interesting story with two characters, one was Cornelius. He was a Roman centurion, he wasn’t Jewish. But - he did fear God. - and one day he has a vision from an Angel. That sounds amazing, right? The angel tells him to go and find Peter.
At the same time, Cornelius is talking to an Angel, Peter is also praying - and he falls into trance and sees a vision of heaven opening and huge sheet tied at four corners descends down. On the sheet are a whole bunch of animals - all of which were forbidden to eat under Jewish law because they were unclean.
In this trance, God tells him to kill and eat the animals, but Peter refuses because they are unclean. But bear in mind, Peter had already had Jesus' teaching about food at this point. He didn't get it the first time around!
This makes me feel better because there are a lot of times when I just don’t get it the first time round! Anyone else? Sometimes, God has to keep at it before I learn my lesson!
So back to the vision. God tells him straight - what God has cleansed you must not call unclean.
It’s pretty trippy, right? And Peter comes out of the trance, wondering what this all means - when, who appears at the door but the servants of Cornelius looking for Peter.
Now Peter gets it.
To Peter - the Centurion was unclean. Peter, in fact, tells Cornelius that it is unlawful for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to another nation.
Peter was prejudice to a people group and he justified it because it was part of Jewish law. And this ties in with what Martin talked about last week. Even as Christians, we can look at people who don’t keep God’s law in a different way.
Peter goes to Cornelius’ house - something he never should have done. God is tearing down racial divides here, and as a result, Cornelius’ whole family become Christ-followers.
And Peter ends this with this statement - “In truth, I perceive that God shows no partiality—He is Lord of all—“
Milestone Three: Peter and Paul
But Peter still hasn't completely got it yet - even after this second encounter. Prejudice is hard to get rid of…and Paul ends up rebuking him for it.
Peter was OK hanging with the non-Jewish believers - he got that part. But when Peter’s Jewish friends arrived, he would separate himself and only be the with the Orthodox Jews - and he did this because of how it would look.
In other words, he only dealt with part of His prejudice. And this caused problems for the church at the time, as other believers were following along, acting like Peter.
And Paul called Peter a hypocrite.
“…I realized they were acting inconsistently with the revelation of grace...”
Acting inconsistently with the revelation of grace
What a powerful statement. Prejudice is acting inconsistently with the revelation of Grace. This is important because this was the biggest division in the church at the time. And finally, Peter gets it - so when the Gospel of Mark is written, Peter wants to emphasis this and point it out. And this puts an end to the biggest division at the time.
That’s what the Gospel does. It tears down prejudice and division. The gospel tears down racial divides, religious, political, educational, class, money and status.
Jesus is Lord of all of us…and that’s consistent with the revelation of Grace. We are all one. We are all equal.What does this mean?
We can’t look down on anyone. I am not more important than you. I am not less important than you. We are all equal before God regardless of my education, skin colour or political beliefs - this is still radical teaching, even 2000 years later.The world doesn’t tolerate people with different opinions, different ideas and ways of living - despite the rhetoric that they do. And now, more than ever, this revelation of Grace is needed. There is a divide happening in the US - between the West Coast Urban Elite and Trump supporters. The anger and bitterness are insane. In the UK - those that voted Brexit and those that didn’t. Even in Liverpool - those that support LFC and those that support Everton.
We try and force people into conforming and if they don’t we make them out to be the bad guy telling the world that they are intolerant and as such, we shouldn’t have anything to do with them. The irony is extraordinary.
And the church is not immune from this. If Peter can suffer from it - we can all suffer from it.
And that leads us nicely to Peter and Mark’s next statement:
“...Evil originates from inside a person. Coming out of a human heart are evil schemes...”
It's a heart thing
They call Prejudice Evil - and it is - but they also tell us it’s a heart thing
“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.””
God Looks at your heart. So prejudice, racism, division - it all comes from the heart. This is the source. Which means to change it - we need to change our Hearts.
What is your heart?
What is your heart? It’s that place where desires and emotions begin, and it is what drives you towards action - it drives your behaviour. So we knew Peter was still prejudice because of his behaviour. You can’t act differently to your heart.
“For with the heart one believes…”
You can try and act right and do the right things and say the right things - but if your heart isn’t in it - cracks will quickly show without first changing your heart.
“Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.”
The forces, the spring, the source of life for you comes from your heart - and we have to guard our hearts above everything else - and the reason is simple, if we get the slightest hint of prejudice or bitterness in our hearts, it can take root and grow and develop and that’s not great.
But we know that Jesus is after our hearts…
So how do we keep our hearts? How do we do that with all vigilance?
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
This is where the revelation of God’s Grace helps, because from that we can believe - which is a heart thing. And faith and a change of heart come from a deep understanding of God’s word.
I think one of the biggest challenges that face us as Christians is spending time in God’s word. It’s the first thing that we stop doing - but it is the one thing that helps us discern what is going on in our hearts.
If you look down the list that Jesus then gives us examples of evil behaviour coming from a man’s heart - you can see how this works.
He talks about Murder for example as an evil that comes from a man’s heart. And so we think we’ve not murdered anyone - so we are OK. But Jesus elsewhere Jesus likens anger to murder.
And that’s how it works - anger in your heart drives your behaviour. The anger grows and the behaviour gets worse and worse until it spills over to murder. We don’t all end up there, but how often to we harbour and keep anger in our hearts unaware of the danger that it is doing to us.
And this is where the word of God challenges us and provokes us to examine our hearts. And when we are brutally honest before it we can keep our heart with all vigilance.
So how’s the state of your heart today? Is the Holy Spirit promoting something in you that needs to be dealt with? Is there any prejudice? How do you think about people that vote differently to you, look different to you? How do you feel about people that earn more money than you? How do you feel about people that earn less money than you? Is there bitterness? Anger? Unforgiveness there?
How do you act and behave around different people?