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Mark 7:14–23 (ESV)
14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” 17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Moneyball is a movie based on the true story of Oakland A’s baseball team general manager Billy Beane. In the early 2000’s, Beane was handicapped with the lowest salary constraint in baseball, making it incredibly difficult to field a winning team. To find a competitive advantage, Beane turns to Peter Brand, a recent Yale graduate who uses statistical analysis to evaluate and recruit players based on one key aspect: the player’s ability to get on base.
There is this great scene in the movie where the A’s scouting team is discussing potential players to recruit for next year’s team. The scouts are evaluating players based on a player’s appearance; their looks, how they dress, the way they swing the bat, and one scout even makes comments regarding a player’s girlfriend, rationalizing that if they have a good-looking girlfriend, then they are a confident and competent ballplayer.
With the help of Peter Brand, Billy Beane begins to focus on what matters, one single fact that completely changes everything: recruiting players who can get on base.
I was thinking about that as Jesus calls the crowd to them and tells this brief parable meant to correct the religious leaders' wayward focus on outward purity rather than address the real issue of the condition of a person’s heart.
Jesus points out that it’s not the outward appearance or adherence that matters. What matters is the heart. It’s not outward compliance to a set of rules and regulations that matters. What matters, what is pleasing to the Lord, is a heart rightly related to the Lord. It’s the condition of a person’s heart that determines what makes them clean or unclean, and it’s the condition of a person’s heart that greatly matters to the Lord.
That’s echoed in the Old Testament as the Lord sends Samuel out to anoint a new king over Israel. Samuel is instructed to go to Jesse’s house, and at Jesse’s house, Samuel will find a new king among Jesse’s sons. As Samuel encounters Jesse’s sons, he takes notice of Eliab and thinks, because of his appearance, that this surely is the new king. But the Lord corrects Samuel, saying, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as a man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16.7).
What matters is a person’s heart, and no amount of outward observance of rules and regulations can change or transform a person’s heart. But Jesus can, and a new reality is present in Him.
As Jim Edwards notes in his commentary on this passage, “Jesus can produce the inner transformation that the law requires but cannot effect.”
So what about you? Are you satisfied with the condition of your heart, or do you hunger and thirst for a transformation that you know you cannot affect or sustain on your own?
My advice to you is to know Jesus and entrust your heart to Him. He won’t let you down. He’s never failed, and He can accomplish the renovation of your heart that you’re longing for.
God bless you and know that you are constantly in my prayers!
Scott
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