“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 the body.”-Mark 7:18b
We know that Jesus wants us to agree with him when he speaks about what can defile a person. But to do so seems to go against everything we have learned about modern hygiene. Jesus’ casual dismissal of our purity laws makes this a difficult saying. We are very careful about what goes into our bodies because we are convinced that certain hidden agents will not depart our bodies without achieving some nefarious purpose. So, beyond ignoring this passage or rejecting modern hygiene, how do we apply it to our lives?
From our earliest days, we have been told we should wash our hands before we eat. Recent history has only reinforced this lesson. Purell hand sanitizer was introduced to the market in 1988 and became a household name during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. To this day, restaurants and families have added hand sanitizer to the list of basic items necessary for life. Not only that, but it is now good manners to sneeze (if you have to sneeze at all) in your sneezing cubital fossa.1 It isn’t a good time for Jesus to come along with such a casual dismissal of external defiling agents. Some explanation, an apologetics of Jesus and germs, seems necessary.2
I was in the steam room the other day, contemplating Jesus’ statement and modern purity laws. It dawned on me that I was one of four bald men sweating together in a hot, wet room in a bid to rid ourselves of excess fat. Steam rooms were a part of Roman life in Jesus’ day. They are still very common today. But is this health regimen truly hygienic for us modern folk? Then it dawned on me that people in Jesus’ day were wholly unaware of our modern approach to health. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek first observed bacteria in 1683, more than 1,500 years after Roman steamrooms and our quote from Scripture. However, Jesus’ people did have purity laws of their own, and Jesus’ words were offensive to them as well.
For example (warning: the following Scriptures could be disturbing to some readers):
The priest is to examine the sore on the skin, and if the hair in the sore has turned white and the sore appears to be more than skin deep, it is a defiling skin disease. -Leviticus 13:13a
“Anyone the man with a discharge touches without rinsing his hands with water must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening.” -Leviticus 15: 11
A clash between the hygiene laws of Jesus’ day and the practice of his disciples started the story in Mark 7:
The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.) So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?” -Mark 7:1-5
My predicament remained as I walked out of the steam room. Jesus’ words seemed like a computer virus to both ancient and contemporary hygene. A computer virus is a computer program usually disguised as an innocuous program or file that produces copies of itself and inserts them into other programs to corrupt the system or destroy data. Jesus’ words are threatening to us Pharisees, ancient and modern. Yet, surprising to us and our modern hygiene, Jesus is perturbed by their question:
He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites…” -Mark 7:6
Then I considered another definition of a virus. It turns out that some viruses are good. Bacteriophages, for example, are viruses that target and kill harmful bacteria. More to our point, certain viruses support the microbiome, facilitating the breakdown of organic matter and enhancing digestion and immune function. Could Jesus’ virus fight off “harmful bacteria” and support good health?
This makes sense of the remainder of our passage in Mark 7. Jesus continues:
“Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”
-Mark 7:6-7.
So what viral problem is Jesus attacking in this story? What commands are being subverted? He doesn’t have an issue with washed hands, cups, or pitchers. His concern is the way purity laws like the washing of hands prioritize physical well-being over purity of heart. Jesus calls his followers to prioritize clean hearts.
After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. “Are you 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 the body.” (In 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, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person. -Mark 7:14b-23
Hygiene, both ancient and modern, is a legitimate concern. But Jesus is concerned about far weightier things; the health of our hearts.
So, assuming you wash your hands before eating, how is your spiritual hygiene?
The triangular depression is located on the anterior side (the inside) of the elbow joint, between the forearm and the upper arm.
Apologetics: a systematic argument in defense of a belief.