The Defiled Are Cleansed in Christ

Rev. Kyle Mietzner, pastor at Zion Lutheran Church in Anchorage, AK, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study Mark 7:14-23.

Jesus takes the religious leaders’ challenge about unwashed hands as an opportunity to teach about true defilement and true cleanliness. Defilement does not come from without but from within a person. When His disciples fail to grasp the truth, Jesus chastises their lack of understanding and explains to them further. Food only goes into the body and then out of the body. Those things that come out of a person’s heart, however, are what bring defilement. Jesus’ description of defilement vividly pictures just how disgusting sin and evil truly are. There is no room for blaming another; each individual is responsible for his own sin. How can such defilement be cleansed? Jesus is the Holy One whose Word and touch brings forgiveness, holiness, and cleansing from sin.

“The Gospel in Action” is a mini-series on Sharper Iron that goes through the Gospel according to St. Mark. The Evangelist hits the ground running with the very first verse of his Gospel account, and he never lets up the pace. As one deed of Jesus comes right after another, always paired with His authoritative Word, St. Mark proclaims the good news that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, revealed conclusively by His death on the cross.