¹⁰ Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. ¹¹ What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”

¹² Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”

¹³ He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. ¹⁴ Leave them; they are blind guides.^[d] If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

¹⁵ Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”

¹⁶ “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. ¹⁷ “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? ¹⁸ But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. ¹⁹ For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. ²⁰ These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”

Heart of Darkness

Jesus, it’s dark in here.  As I go deeper inside myself and examine the choices I have made, they so often come from a heart of darkness.  I feel powerless sometimes because I doubt my motives.  I struggle with grief because of the choices I have made in the past, or the people that I have lost.  Fear, anxiety, and nervousness surprise me.  Ken Gates said on Sunday that he believes that deep down anxiety is the natural state of humanity.  I found it hard to think that others would struggle with anxiety or fear as I do.  However, Jesus, you address this double-minded anxiety quite strongly in the Sermon on the Mount.

Then there is the unhealthy desire for things I think that I deserve or need.  I demand things in my heart from my world and those around me.  I desire material things that are temporary and prone to break.  Everything that I desire apart from you will fail me.  I desire to self-medicate with things that can not satisfy.  Al television series end.  All computer games create a fantasy that lasts for a while.  However, the only satisfying eternal truth is in you.

I seldom get angry because I bury my fear.  Perhaps deeper in me is a caged rage.  I hope not.  I am not aware of it.  However, when I think I am free of pride, I find another area where I need to change my perceptions.

However, Jesus, you lead us from darkness to light.  You clean us deeply from the inside.  Each time I find sin deep inside me, you remove the fears and create stability.  You enable the guilty stains to be washed away and so I can forget about myself for a while and get blissfully lost in you.

Questions

1. What defiles a person?
2. What do our words reveal – especially in unguarded moments?
3. What is the natural condition of a person’s heart and how does Jesus change that?
4. What do modern psychologists preach most often about a person’s heart?  Do they have justification for their beliefs?
5. How do you have your heart cleansed in an ever-deepening way?