Mark 7:19Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

However, this does not imply that all types of food are neutral for individuals. As long as divine commandments exist and are not revoked, consuming food that contradicts those laws will indeed defile an individual, stemming from a heart that disregards the law and seeks to gratify the flesh. The latter part of the parable communicates that the origin of moral impurity resides within the human heart, signifying that those desiring to remain pure before God must cleanse their hearts. The Lord did not address the laws governing clean and unclean foods, which were to be rendered obsolete with the dissolution of the Old Testament covenant, coinciding with the establishment of the New Covenant between God and humanity and the new spiritual law within the hearts of the new Israel. Nonetheless, He revealed to His disciples that these external laws are, even at present, significantly inferior to the internal principles.

The saying in verse 11 confused the Pharisees, who were accustomed to the notion of ceremonial washing before eating for the sake of spiritual cleanliness. They interpreted Christ's teachings as undermining the law regarding purification. Additionally, they might have felt insulted that Jesus addressed the people directly, challenging their authority with His message.

In response to the reports of the Pharisees' provocation, Jesus pointed out either the teachings of the Pharisees—which were human traditions rather than divine instruction, thus deserving of rejection—or the Pharisees themselves. They, as spiritual leaders, were not truly serving God’s purpose and were not the plants of the divine vineyard, failing to align with God’s command or will and thus losing His care. As a result, they were destined for destruction (ἐκριζόω cf. 13:29-30). Therefore, He instructed His followers to disregard them. This implied that one should not adhere to their teachings, lest they fall into the same pitfalls, and also to leave their concerns to themselves.

Eventually, Peter, speaking for the group, requested clarification on the Lord’s statement about what defiles through eating, which left them puzzled. Jesus clarified that when He referred to what enters the mouth, He was talking about food, and what comes from the mouth represented all corrupt thoughts, desires, and intentions that arise from the heart. Such thoughts expose the impurity of the human spirit, while food passes through the body without affecting the soul.

There is no need to add to this elucidation of Jesus Christ’s teachings; everything is evident. Nonetheless, many interpret these words to mean that Christ dismissed fasting. This perspective is misleading. Fasting, whether through complete abstinence from food or by consuming only what is minimally necessary for survival, has long been acknowledged as a significant practice for overcoming bodily desires. Individuals striving for a life of reason rather than one led by their baser instincts have continually sought to rein in their desires and align them with their spiritual awareness. They understand that excessive food intake, particularly certain types such as meat and wine, can intensify desires and dull one’s conscience. Therefore, these individuals often turned to either total abstinence from food for periods of time, refrained from meat and wine, or maintained a very moderate diet. Christ Himself encouraged His followers to resist the flesh, and as an example, He fasted for forty days in the wilderness. Thus, it cannot be concluded from His statement, "Not that which goes into the mouth defiles a man," that He dismissed the importance and value of fasting. His focus was solely on what truly makes a person unworthy of the Kingdom of Heaven—not the food itself, but the spirit of self-restraint that arises from eating, along with evil thoughts and sinful actions. It is not the food taken unceremoniously, as highlighted by the Pharisees, that renders a person defiled; He clarified that eating with unwashed hands does not defile an individual, and with this assertion, removed any ambiguity regarding the true nature of this discourse.

Consequently, abandoning the scribes to their ineffective malice, Christ addressed the crowd around Him with a powerful declaration: ‘Hear and understand!’ He then instructed both the people and His disciples that within the kingdom of heaven, the purity of one’s heart holds greater significance than the ritualistic purity of one’s hands, ‘for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies.’ Indeed, all of these transgressions ‘defile a man; and eating with unwashed hands does not defile a man,’ a stipulation rooted only in the ordinary practice of ritualism without any inherent moral authority, contrary to the interpretations of the Pharisees, these “blind leaders of the blind.”