Mark | Reading Plan + Study QuestionsSample

MARK 7

JESUS REBUKES THE PHARISEES + HEALS THOSE IN NEED

The Pharisees accuse Jesus of breaking a commandment concerning ritual cleanliness before meals. Jesus rebukes the religious leaders, frustrated with their focus on tradition and man-made laws. Jesus recites Isaiah 29:13, which says that people will draw near to God and honor Him with their words, but their hearts will be far from Him. Their worship of God is based on merely human rules they have been taught and not from genuine relationship or communion with God.

Continuing His response to the Pharisees, Jesus explains that it is not what goes into a person that defiles, but what comes out of the person. The Pharisees diligently follow the laws for clean and unclean food, found in Leviticus 12, but Jesus is more concerned with the purity of the heart. Jesus lists the multitude of sins that originate in the heart, including immorality and evil thoughts.

Jesus continues traveling, healing those He encounters along the way. Jesus heals the daughter of a Canaanite woman, a known enemy of the Israelites. The woman humbles herself before Jesus and compares herself to a dog receiving scraps of food. He responds to her incredible faith and the oppressed daughter is immediately healed.

While Jesus is in Galilee, He heals a deaf man and restores his ability to hear. Jesus uses His spit, something typically considered unclean or disrespectful, to touch the man and heal him. He could have healed this man with words but instead uses a visual representation for the deaf man to experience His power.

STUDY QUESTIONS

Read Mark 7:8. How have you seen tradition or culture valued more highly than God’s commands?

In Mark 7:31-37, how does Jesus heal the deaf man? Why didn’t he simply speak?