Mark 7: Clean Hands - or Clean Heart?

As we reach Mark 7, Jesus has earned enough notoriety that He is now being investigated by a team of Pharisees and scribes dispatched from Jerusalem.  As they scrutinize His ministry, they make some petty criticisms: "Your disciples are disgusting; they don't wash their hands before they eat!"

Perhaps this is the origin of the phrase, "Cleanliness is next to godliness."  If so, it is a sentiment not only absent in the Bible, but also one rejected by Jesus.  This complaint of the Pharisees causes Jesus to go off on some criticisms of His own.  These high and mighty religious rulers, who want to judge everyone else, are themselves lacking in virtue.  

After listing an area where the Pharisees disregard the laws of God for the teachings of men (refusing to support one's parents if that honor was promised to God instead), Jesus launches into an analysis of what true "cleanliness" really means.  It isn't clean hands that are important, Jesus says, but a clean heart.

His point is that food and digestion issues are meaningless when it comes to spiritual purity.  Instead of watching what goes into us, we should be watching for what comes out of us.  The next time you think about keeping yourself pure and spotless, consider that, according to Jesus' definition, it is much more important that you have a clean outpouring from your heart than disinfected fingers and sanitized silverware.