Mark 7:5, 14-15 NLT

[5] So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, 

"Why don't your disciples follow our age-old tradition? 

They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony."

...

[14] Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. 

'All of you listen," he said, "and try to understand.

It's not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart."

Mark 7:5, 14-15 NLT

The Pharisees had travelled to meet with Jeuss and  noticed that the disciples weren't following their traditional rules of handwashing.

Jesus gave them a telling off for how hypocritical they are about their own rules.

And then calls in the people to listen:

It's a heart thing.

I'm interested in your heart.

The rules, the traditions may all be good, helpful, worth keeping, but they aren't the thing. 

The heart is the thing Jesus was interested in. 

And in the emphasis on keeping the rules, the Pharisees had missed or lost the heart behind them, lost their heart, their love for people. 

Jesus invitation to listen invites us to reflect on where we might have elevated the rules, culture, custom, above love, where our heart has been lost in something less important...

#gospelofMark 

#somethingtochewon #itsaheartthing