Tag: Mark 7

Jesus, the Bringer of Bread: a poem reflection on Mark 6-8 and John 6

Matt EricksonLeave a comment

“Jesus, the bringer of bread,” they called Him.
In place after place, He fed the hungry:
the meals for five-thousand and four-thousand,
plus all the feasts in homes along the way.
When a Gentile woman asked Him to heal
her demon-oppressed daughter, it was bread
to which she made reference in her appeal:
“Even dogs, with fallen breadcrumbs, are fed.”
“Jesus, the bringer of bread.” What a name
for this One with no home in which to rest,
who looked more like the ones He came to save
than those supposed to be divinely blessed.
Still, in Him they found soul-deep nourishment
for He was the bread of life God had sent.

The Inside-Out of the Spiritual Life

Matt Erickson1 Comment

“He [Jesus] 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 7:20-23)

Responding to the Pharisees’ obsession over human tradition, Jesus calls His disciples and other hearers to an engagement with the true issue of cleanness and defilement in human life. Jesus tells us it is not what goes into a person that defiles them but what comes out of a person that defiles them. Why? Because what comes out reveals what is brewing inside of us.

Our evil actions and words are a result of what is within. What is seen or heard on the outside offers a view into what is inside. The deep places of our souls—the interior life or the inner being—is where we cultivate either true holiness or desecration.

This should give us great pause for reflection. What do our words reveal about who we are? What do our actions reveal about who we are? What do others around us see through our words and actions that may offer insight about who we are that is clearer than how we see ourselves?

Jeremiah the prophet once said, “The heart is deceitful about all things. Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). May God clean and refine us from the inside out.

Lord, please search through my heart and purify me of all I have allowed to linger inside of me that contributes to my sin and defilement. Have mercy, O Lord, have mercy. Heal me, O Lord, please heal me. In all things give me an undivided heart that I might revere You and Your name.