Corona Chronicles - Crown of Thorns

Welcome to Corona Chronicles. We are in chapter 7 today, and we're gonna pick it up in verse 14. Again, Jesus called the crowd to him and said, listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.

After you'd left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. I'll use so dull, he asked. Don't you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn't go into their heart, but into their stomach, and then out of their body. It's saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.

He went on. What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within a person's heart that evil thoughts come, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lootness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person. Mhmm.

Yeah. This is a big 1, isn't it? Yeah. It is. You know, Jesus, he's just finished railing against the the the hypocrisy of the pharisees because of their, you know, their their their worship event.

Right? They're all about the outward. They're all about, you know, what what it what you look like. Yeah? And Jesus has just finished calling them Hippoquists.

And then he calls the crowd to him and takes this opportunity to teach them what it's all really about. And it's not it's you know, and these people I mean, it must have been quite a shocking statement this, because they've grown up, going to the temple, they've grown up not being able to eat certain things. Because it makes them unclean. And here comes Jesus and says, it was never about the outward. It was always about the heart.

And you know, it's amazing, isn't it? It isn't. To, you know, to to to the disciples and to this religious community. This would have been really radical teaching. Yeah.

Because for as long as they had been alive, their traditions and their ancestors would have tried to follow these laws, dietary laws in order to keep them keep them clean. Mhmm. And that today, lots of religion, is still a huge thing. Yeah. So a friend of mine used to live with some Muslims.

Yeah. And they they they were very, very careful about what they ate and what they should eat. And I remember once he told me that they they ordered the pizza from a pizza shop, and they'd asked for it vegetarian. But then accidentally put a little bit of that cube's hand. Right.

Right. Yeah. And Musoms don't eat don't eat pork. Yeah. And when when the chap realized, He.

He'd only had a tiny little bit, but he went to the toilet and made himself sick. Wow. It's a throw up at this because he was so worried that that little bit of pork with defining. Yeah. And so that that is the kind of, you know, attitude that lots of them would have had towards food.

To up to us, it might see a bit of a small thing. Yeah. But actually, it it was huge. And yet, Jesus is saying, as you pointed out, that what those laws were always about and what it's really about is is is the heart. It's the heart.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and, you know, like, he says, verse 15, nothing out side of person can defile them by going into them, rather it's what comes out of a person. So he wants to say, look, you know, don't don't be so upset about you know, if you really wanna know where your sin comes from, it's not it doesn't come from your fingers.

It comes from your heart. You know, so it's out of the heart that all the, you know, this big list of sins come at the end. Yeah. And he's saying to the crowd themselves. You know, are you so dull?

Do you not do you not understand this? You know, do you really think that the living God is is utterly consumed by whether you've handled it with this food or that food. And, you know, are are those laws not representative of a bigger thing? Yeah. Which is the condition of your heart before God.

Yeah. Because in the old testament, you know, this is 1 of the things the prophets really attack. As well was this idea that you could just superficially keep the law, that you could go through with the religious festivals, but have actually be departing from the lord in your heart. That's also gonna You know, God's not gonna be fooled by just a really nice strict diet. It's always been about the heart, the heart is where the sin problem is.

The heart is what defiles you, and the heart is what needs to be cleansed. You know, irrespective of what you're eating. Really? Yeah. I mean and and then and then I mean, if you think about it, that that's where the gospel goes, isn't it?

That's where that's that's why Jesus goes finally to the cross is to deal with our heart problem and our sin problem. He goes and he dies on the cross, and he becomes a sacrifice for us so that so that we can, you know, have all these I mean, all these things are in our hearts. You know, all these and we we know that because we know we know what comes out of our mouth. Yeah. Yeah.

And they don't get there, by what we eat. They they it's it's in us already. Yeah. Absolutely. And this is like, you know, you you load up any news page And these are this is what goes on in the world, isn't it?

And and it goes on the reason it goes on in the world is because it goes on in our hearts. And this this is just what we're like. And this is radical thing Jesus is the same, because basically, by default, most of us are like the pharisees in that we believe that we are essentially in essence -- Yeah. -- good pedia. And that the way to please god is not radical heart surgery.

It's to just comply with outward laws. Yeah. And actually, being maybe even coming to church is is a way that we sort of try and manage that. You know? So so we we know, you know, we we get a little bit we get a little bit of God.

Yeah. You know? To sort of top up just in case. But actually, we don't, you know, we we don't necessarily deal with them that the big problem. You know, with with, you know, I'm not a sinner.

You know? I've got God. But actually, if if you really have if you really know Jesus, if you really do have God, you will know that like Paul you are the chief of sins, you know. So so so don't be don't be deceived, you know. I think that is right.

And I think that that is the difference between the got for. And all other world religion, all other world religion really says that you are essentially an okay person. But there are a load of hoops you need to jump through. The gospels is you are essentially a wicked person. You know, although made an image of god, you are a wicked person and you need to be redeemed by Christ.

Your heart is the thing that needs to be cleansed. Mhmm. Yeah. And that is tough for us to take -- Yeah. -- because, you know, things like diet and religious activity is very attractive because it allows it to mon allows us to, like, monitor and regulate our own progress.

Yeah. But if this is a hard work, well, then we can't measure our religion in that way. It's gonna be about where are our hearts before the laws. Yeah. And and we and we need we need we need him to cleanse us.

Yeah. And so I think, you know, that's the that's the challenge. For us, you know, by default, we are religious people. We think that we can impress god and that we're good people. But we need to realize what Jesus says here that our hearts are wicked.

These these little wasps are coming out of the nest all the time. And Jesus is the only 1 who can make us clean.