“Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled? … What comes out of a person is what defiles him.”    Mark 7:18-20 ESV¹

Read Matthew 15:1-28 & Mark 7:1-30

The Scriptures instruct us, “Since … we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the Throne of Grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16). This is good news. No matter with what we are struggling, we can call upon Jesus for help, because He confidently and sinlessly came through similar struggles. Jesus faced temptation (see Matthew 4:1, Mark 1:13 & Luke 4:1). He got angry (see John 2:14-17). He was frustrated (see Mark 8:11-13). He wept (see John 11:35). I believe the following account shows He also combatted discouragement.

Much had happened in the life of Jesus in a few short days. He had been informed about the murder of John the Baptist. Before Jesus had a chance to mourn, He was joined by His exuberant disciples. When He convinced them to pull away with Him from the busyness for rest and mourning, they were met by a crowd of over five thousand needy people. Instead of running the opposite direction, Jesus had compassion on these people and taught, healed, and miraculously fed them all. Then He dismissed the crowd and sent His disciples away in a boat, while He and climbed a mountain to be alone with His Father. But only after He had a short time in prayer, He realized His disciples were stuck in a violent storm out on the sea. He came out to them walking on the water. He settled their fears and calmed the storm. When they reached land, they were confronted by more needy people.

Jesus had to have been running nearly on empty, but because of the power and encouragement from His Father which He gained through prayer, He was able to keep giving. He might have been able to carry on with His benevolence if He could have kept getting away to pray, but that much-desired time became increasingly harder to obtain. Satan had been looking for an opportune time to bring down Jesus (see Luke 4:13). With Jesus physically and emotionally weary, unable to find adequate time to connect with the Father, Satan saw his opportunity. He used willing participants—those whose goal it was to discredit Jesus—in his attempt to make Jesus fall.

This time the mud slingers could find nothing they considered wrong with what Jesus was doing, so they attacked His disciples’ behavior. Satan had been unable to get to Jesus directly; perhaps he thought he could harm Him through those closest to Him. Sometimes it is easier to withstand personal attacks than it is to see loved ones being berated. When we are attacked, we need only be concerned about ourselves. Somehow the pain of seeing those we love suffer messes with our heads and causes us to feel a measure of helplessness or guilt. Besides, in a way these haters were also attacking Jesus, they were questioning Jesus’ leadership. According to them, He wasn’t keeping His followers in line.

“Now when the Pharisees gathered to Him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of His disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches)” (Mark 7:1-4). “Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus … and said, ‘Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat’” (Matthew 15:2).

Though Jesus was weary, He was still sharp. Jesus knew these religious leaders and teachers weren’t really seeking an answer. They were only looking for grounds to discount Him, so He returned to them a question that challenged their leadership. “He answered them, ‘And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?  For God commanded, “Honor your father and your mother,” and, “Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.”  But you say, “If anyone tells his father or his mother, ‘What you would have gained from me is given to God,’ he need not honor his father.” So, for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God’” (Matthew 15:3-6).  

These Pharisees and scribes may have started out serious in their pursuit of pleasing God and helping others to do the same, but over time they became so insistent on the rules of man that they had forgotten about the Laws of God. The fifth of the Ten Commandments, and “the first with a promise” (Ephesians 6:2), is “honor your father and mother” (Exodus 20:12 & Deuteronomy 5:16), yet somehow the desires and the hearts of these religious leaders became distorted. They thought they were honoring the LORD by coming up with a plan to provide monetarily God’s work, but their plan ended up hurting people. God will always provide for His work in ways that don’t negate His commandments or leave people in jeopardy. God’s heart on this matter is revealed in 1 Timothy 5:8, “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

Jesus continued, “’You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

 ‘This people honors Me with their lips,
but their heart is far from Me;
in vain do they worship Me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men’” (Matthew 15:7-9).

So, to offer clarification and truth on the matter at hand, Jesus “called the people to Him and said to them, ‘Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.’ Then the disciples came and said to Him, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?’” (Matthew 15:10-12). I guess, the disciples, in their own way, were also tempted to humanly provide for God’s work. The religious leaders thought God’s work needed money. The disciples must have thought God’s work required Jesus’ message being palatable to the religious establishment.

Even though Jesus’ mind was filled with emotion, it wasn’t clouded with worry over His Father establishing His will. He knew all of which God was capable. Jesus understood that God was sovereignly in control of all things. So, “He answered, ‘Every plant that My Heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up.  Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit’” (Matthew 15:13-14). The religious leaders were good at honoring the LORD with their lips, but there is a big difference between honoring God with words and honoring God with one’s heart.

God knows hearts. “For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9 NIV²). God will turn toward those who have hearts for Him, but He will turn away from those who hypocritically honor Him only in word. Jesus never worries about offending those who need offending. We all need correction from time to time. How one reacts to correction, shows the state of one’s heart. The one who is offended when corrected is full of pride. The humble take correction with repentance. Jesus said, “‘Blessed is the one who is not offended by Me’” (Matthew 11:6).

Now, most of Jesus’ disciples were Jews who had lived under centuries-old food regulations—requirements that were originally set up by the LORD to set His people apart and protect them. These laws were intended to free them, draw them closer to God, and open their eyes to their need for a Savior. The trouble was some who were good at following rules added more rules which led to the bondage of the people.

The idea that one should give little attention to clean eating and proper cleanliness was so foreign to the disciples that they ask for clarification. “Peter said to Him, ‘Explain the parable to us.’  And He said, ‘Are you also still without understanding’” (Matthew 15:15-16)? “‘Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach’” (Mark 7:18-19), “‘and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.’” (Matthew 15:17b-20).

Jesus did not say the washing of hands before eating was not important. Instead, He taught that there was something far more important—the state of one’s heart. The heart is the key. Words and actions are only a mirror to what is going on in one’s heart. The heart is the dwelling place of evil or good.

The LORD had searched the earth to find a people to call His own. He fought for them, gave them direction, and blessed them. Through them, He intended to bless the whole world. Jesus is that blessing, but those who claimed to know Him best, missed this. Instead of embracing Jesus and His message, they rejected Him and forced others to do the same. Jesus chose disciples and invested in them, empowered them, taught them, and loved them. Yet, they too were so slow in truly believing Him.

I believe all of the emotion, busyness, and giving of this time period, coupled with what looked like ineffectiveness in His ministry, began to bring out discouragement in Jesus. Jesus needed to encounter someone with a believing heart. His Father provided the needed encouragement in an unlikely place.

“And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon” (Matthew 15:21) “And He entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet He could not be hidden. But immediately” (Mark 7:24b-25a) “a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon’” (Matthew 15:22). “Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged Him to cast the demon out of her daughter” (Mark 7:26).

Jesus took a little respite. He temporarily pulled away from His ministry to God’s chosen people. For a while, He distanced Himself from all of the needy and all of the unbelieving. He went far north of Israel to the territory known both by the name Phoenicia and the name Syria. He intended to spend some time in a home near the towns of Tyre and Sidon where He could rest, recover, and refocus. But “He could not be hidden” (Mark 7:24). There He was approached by a woman who was a native of the Phoenician seaboard. This woman was most likely Greek in both speech and religion. And, as Matthew pointed out, she was a Canaanite, the descendant of the people, who because of their false religion and evil practices, God commanded be utterly annihilated generations earlier. Obviously, Israel hadn’t fully obeyed the LORD, so the evil these people brought into the area still existed. This woman and her daughter suffered from that evil.

According to the Jews, this woman didn’t deserve any favors from the true God. Even Jesus, in His then heavy discouragement and desire to rest and refocus, was tempted to push off her. Discouragement has a way of blinding us to the encouragement right in front of us. But the All-Knowing, All-Powerful Father had other plans.

Jesus “did not answer [the woman] a word. And His disciples came and begged Him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she is crying out after us.’ He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ But she came and knelt before Him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’  And He answered, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs’” (Matthew 15:23-26). Though Jesus was sent to be the Savior of the entire world, He was called to do it through the Jews. Even though many of the Jews, because of their hypocrisy and unbelief, weren’t responding to Jesus, and it was wearing on Jesus, He wasn’t about to throw in the towel (or throw away the bread).

This woman was no less persistent. “She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table’” (Matthew 15:27). Finally, Jesus encountered a heart full of faith, the kind He had desperately needed to see. I imagine His eyes opened wide, His heart immediately felt light again, His shoulders straightened, He was able to take a deep breath, and a smile spread across His face. “Then Jesus answered her, ‘O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire’” (Matthew 15:23-28a). “And He said to her, ‘For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter’” (Mark 7:29). “And her daughter was healed instantly” (Matthew 15:28b). “And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone” (Mark 7:30).

Jesus had been rejected by those claiming to know God but had been sought out by a descendent of a godless people. He had been drained by those trying to discredit Him but was filled again by one calling Him “Lord.” He had been unreceived by His own people, but a foreigner recognized Him as the Messiah, the Son of David. He had been angered by those unwilling to care for their parents and calmed by one willing to go to great lengths for her daughter. He had been exasperated by fakers and had been refreshed by an honest person. He had been insulted by those who thought they were clean but praised by one living with uncleanness. He had been bad-mouthed by the self-righteous and honored by the desperate. He had been disrespected by those who enslaved others but had been esteemed by one desiring freedom for another. He had been annoyed by the unreasonable and gratified by one who was wise. He had been pushed away by prideful words but drawn closer by faith-filled words. Therefore; He had left the Jewish religious leaders frustrated but satisfied the desires of the Canaanite mother of a demon possessed girl.

Jesus came to Tyre and Sidon discouraged. He went away encouraged and energized to continue His call. The Father knew exactly what Jesus needed. Jesus needed reminding that good hearts can be found anywhere.

How serendipitously refreshing it must have been to experience such a faith-filled heart in such a dark place. But then again, good hearts have often been found in bad places. Remember the Egyptian-raised murder Moses who became a friend of God and the leader of God’s people. Remember the prostitute Rahab who became an ancestor to Jesus. Remember the immoral Samaritan woman at the well who led her whole town to Jesus. Remember the demon-possessed Mary Magdalene who lovingly anointed Jesus’ feet. Remember the persecutor of Christians Saul, whose name was changed to Paul, and became the first missionary to the Gentiles. And remember you and me who used to be enemies of God but now are joint heirs with Christ.

I don’t know where you find yourself today. I don’t know what emotions consume you. I don’t know what thoughts worry you. I don’t know what temptations taunt you. But the Father knows. And Jesus has experienced something similar. God is looking for people with good hearts whom He can bless. Ask God to open your eyes to what He has for you today. Let God encourage you with truth. May you be of good cheer and good heart.

¹ Scripture quotations marked with ESV are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All Scriptures are taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted. To aid in understanding, I have capitalized references to God.

² Scripture quotations marked with NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.