Hello everyone.
Heyo! Welcome back to Scattering Flowers with Elise and Miles, a podcast where you read the daily Gospels and the Saint of the Day.
Let’s get started.
Today is Tuesday, October 13th, and we’re still taking time to read through the Bible.
Here we go, Mark chapter 7.
When the Pharisees, along with some scribes who had come to Jerusalem, gathered around Jesus, they noted that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.
For the Pharisees, and in fact all Jews, do not eat without thoroughly washing their hands, thereby observing the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace, they do not eat without first washing.
In addition, there are many other traditions that they observe, such as washing of cups and jugs and bronze kettles and tables.
Therefore, the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders, but eat with unclean hands?
He answered, How rightly Isaiah prophesied about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You disregard the commandment of God in order to preserve the tradition of men.
Then he said to them, How cleverly you have set aside the commandment of God to preserve your own tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and ‘Whoever curses father or mother shall be put to death.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or mother anything I might have used for your support is korban,’ that is, dedicated to God, then he is forbidden by you from that very moment to do anything for his father or mother.
You nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition that you have handed down.
And you do many other things just like that.
Then he called the people to him and said to them, Listen to me, all of you, and understand.
There is nothing that goes to a person from outside that can defile him; the things that come out of a person are what defile him.
If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.
When he had gone into the house, away from the crowds, his disciples questioned him about the parable.
He said to them, Then are you also without understanding?
Do you not realize that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not into the heart but into the stomach, and has discharged into the sewer?
Thus he pronounced all foods clean.
Then he went on, It is what comes out of a person that defiles, for from within, from the human heart, comes evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.
All these evils come from within, and they defile a person.
He moved on from the place to the region of Tyre, where he went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there, but he was not able to avoid being recognized.
Almost immediately, a woman whose daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit heard about him and hastened to fall down at his feet.
The woman was a Gentile of Syrophoenician origin, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.
Jesus said to her, Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it out to the dogs.
She replied, Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the scraps from the children.
Then Jesus said to her, For saying this, you may go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.
And when she returned home, she found that the child was lying in bed and the demon had gone.
Returning from the region of Tyre, Jesus traveled by way to Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the region of the Decapolis.
Thereupon people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him.
He took him aside away from the crowd and put his fingers into the man’s ears, and spitting, touched his tongue.
And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, Ephphatha, which means, Be opened.
At once, this man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he spoke properly.
Then he ordered him not to tell anyone, but the more he ordered them not to do so, the more widely they proclaimed it.
Their astonishment was beyond measure.
He had done all things well, they said.
He even makes the deaf people be able to hear and the mute be able to speak.
I noticed that Jesus had been doing a lot of healings.
Have you?
I notice it in every chapter.
Let’s pray.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Dear Jesus, thank you for healing all the people.
Help me to believe in your word.
And thank you for teaching everyone.
Help me to always love you.
Amen.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Thank you so much for listening.
We’ll be back tomorrow.
Scatter more flowers.
See ya.