Mark 7

Some people teach rules that don’t come from God

1-4 There were some Jewish law teachers, and some of the Pharisee mob, that were strong for the Jewish law, they went from Jerusalem to see Jesus and his followers. A long time before that, those mobs made up a lot of rules that are not in God’s book. One of those rules that they made up was this. Before they could eat anything, they had to wash their hands in a special way, and after people came home from the shops, they had to wash that same way. There were other rules too, that those leaders made up, a long time ago. They had rules about the way to wash cups, and billycans, and cooking pots, and the chairs they sat on to eat their food. Those rules didn’t come from God.

After they got there from Jerusalem, they saw that some of Jesus’s followers didn’t wash their hands that special way before they ate food. 5 So they said to Jesus, “Your followers are going wrong. They are not following the rules that our old leaders gave us a long time ago. They didn’t wash their hands the right way before they started to eat their food. You have to make them follow the rules properly.”

6 Jesus said to them, “You mob tell everyone you are good, but really, you are not good. You know the man that was called Isaiah. He lived a long time ago, and he told God’s messages. He wrote true words about you, and they are in God’s book. He wrote,

‘These people show respect to me with their mouths,

but really, they think another way.

7 They have ceremonies for me,

but, really, they rubbish me.

You see, they teach rules that men made up themselves,

and they tell everybody that those rules come from God.’[~1~]

8 You mob are just like that. You turn your back on God’s law, but you are strong on the rules that men made up.”

9 And Jesus kept on talking to them. He said, “You mob are tricky in the way you turn your back on God’s law, and follow your own rules. 10 You see, God told Moses to tell everyone to look after their old people. Moses wrote this law,

‘You have to respect your father and mother.’

And he also wrote,

‘You have to punish anyone that rubbishes their father or mother. You have to kill that person.’[~2~]

11 But you mob reckon that somebody can tell their father or mother, ‘I want to help you old people, but I’m sorry. I know that you need that thing, but I promised to give it to God, so I can’t give it to you.’ 12 You reckon that if a person says that to their father or mother, they don’t have to help their father or mother. 13 When you tell people that, you take God’s word away from them, so they will just follow the rules that you made up. You do all sorts of wrong things like that all the time.”

14 Then Jesus called out to all the people to come and listen to him. He said, “Listen to me, everyone, and try to understand what I’m saying. 15-16 It’s not the things you eat that make you no good. Don’t worry about what goes into you, but worry about what comes out of you. It’s the things that come out of you that make you no good.”

17 After that, Jesus stopped talking to all the people, and he went into his house to take a break. His followers went in with him, and they asked him what he meant by the words he just told the people. 18-19 Jesus said, “What’s wrong with you? You still don’t understand what I’m saying. Listen. If you eat something, it goes into your belly, then, some time later, it goes out of your body into the toilet. It doesn’t go into your brain. So God will not say, ‘You ate the wrong food and made yourself no good.’ No, he will not say that.” (Jesus said that about food, and he made it clear for us that every sort of food is all right.)

20-23 Then Jesus kept on teaching his followers. He said, “People think inside their heads about bad things, and then they go wrong. They do those bad things, and that makes them no good. These are the things they might do.

– They might think about all sorts of bad things.

– They might sleep with somebody that is not their own husband or wife, and do what married people do together.

– They might steal things.

– They might murder somebody.

– They might sleep with somebody else’s husband or wife, as if they are married to them.

– They might be greedy, and try to get lots of money and things.

– They might do really bad things.

– They might trick people.

– They might do the first bad thing that they think about.

– They might want to get something that other people have.

– They might rubbish people.

– They might think that they themselves are great.

– They might only think about what they want for themselves, and do really stupid things.

All those bad things come from people thinking the wrong way inside their heads, and those things make people no good.”

A woman that was not Jewish trusted Jesus

24 After that, Jesus left Galilee country and went north to a town called Tyre. The people that lived in Tyre were not Jewish people. Jesus and his followers stayed at somebody’s house there. He didn’t want other people to know that he was in that house. But a lot of people heard that he was there.

25-26 There was a woman in that town that was not a Jewish woman. She was from a place called Fonisha, in Syria country. Her daughter had a bad spirit inside her, so that woman went to Jesus to get help. She got down on her knees in front of Jesus, to show him respect, and she asked him to force the bad spirit out of her daughter.

27 Jesus said to her, “You know, a man gives food to his own kids first. He will not take their food and throw it to the dogs. Well, that is a picture of me. I belong to the Jewish nation. I have to look after my own people first, not you people that are not Jewish.”

28 The woman said, “Yes, teacher, you are right about that, but while the kids in that picture story are eating, they drop a few little bits of food, and the dogs under the table can eat those little bits of food. So you can still do a little thing to help me, even though I’m not Jewish.”

29 Jesus said, “That’s a good answer. It shows me that you trust me. You can go home now. I just made that bad spirit go out from your daughter.”

30 Then the woman went home and found her daughter lying down quietly on a bed. The bad spirit was not in her any more.

Jesus made a deaf man better

31 Then Jesus left Tyre and walked back through another town called Sidon. Then he went around the north of Lake Galilee to the country everyone called Ten Towns.

32 Some people brought a man to Jesus. That man was deaf, and he couldn’t talk properly. His friends asked Jesus strongly to put his hand on their friend and make him better.

33 Jesus took the man away from all the other people there and put his fingers in the man’s ears. He spat and touched the man’s tongue. 34 Then Jesus looked up into the sky and prayed for the man. He talked in their language. He said, “Efatha.” That means, Open up. 35 And straight away, that man could hear properly, and his tongue was better so he could talk properly.

36 Jesus went back and told the people strongly, “Don’t tell anyone about the great thing I just did.”

But they didn’t listen to Jesus. Jesus kept on telling them not to talk about it, but they just kept on telling other people, “Jesus made that man better.”

37 Everyone was really surprised, and they said to each other, “Jesus does everything properly. He does really good things for people. He makes deaf people better, so they can hear again. And people that can’t talk, he makes them better too, so they can talk.”

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