7:18,19
Jesus is quite amazed at their lack of understanding. He then gets them to consider a very simple question. Can something that we consume defile us? Ie can it actually change our being? Now, things like drugs or excessive alcohol do have an effect on us, and can change our personality, but the food laws of the Pharisees were not like this, they were just food. Human religion will focus on the outside, for it knows that it cannot change who we really are, cannot do anything about that. So instead it will focus on what it can control, which is why human religion will always come up with rituals and rules, and make these the focus. Jesus then makes the earthy and obvious observation that food goes into the stomach, and then comes out the other end. It does not enter the heart. True religion is concerned with who we actually are, concerned with our true nature. The “bad news” of this is that all human religion is powerless to do anything about our true nature, so it focuses on other things while we steadily become evermore corrupt on the inside. The “good news” is that the gospel deals with our true nature and has the power to change us, to make us a new creation. But in order to avail ourselves of the benefits of the good news we need to admit our true state.
Mark adds that in saying this Jesus declared all foods clean. This would be particularly important got the Gentile audience in order to help them not to get hung up on Jewish food laws.
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