Mark 7: God Doesn't Want Your Performance, but Your Heart

Introduction

"God doesn't want your perfect performance. He wants a surrendered heart." Mark Foley, of Grange Baptist Church in Australia, says this sentence twice at the center of his message on Mark 7, as the church works its way through the Gospel of Mark.

He had thought of bringing a sheep's or a cow's heart to illustrate his point. He gave up the idea, to spare the congregation the blood and the mess. But the image remains: God looks at substance rather than appearance, at the state of the heart rather than the image we project.

The passage features an argument about hand washing. Behind this detail, Jesus asks the question that touches each of us: what truly makes us unclean before God, and who can make us clean?

Message Outline

1. Rules Are Never Enough

The preacher remembers the "French cricket" of his childhood: no stumps, your legs serve as the wicket. The game always ended in an argument about the rules, since every family had its own.
Some people love rules, others feel hemmed in by them. A sport without clear rules leads to chaos. But imagine a relationship built only on rules: tea served at 7 o'clock every morning, flowers once a week, the bins put out before 9 p.m. on Thursdays, three minutes to speak for one and two for the other in case of an argument.
Rules can help, but the more of them there are, the less room there is for spontaneous expressions of love. Rules are never enough.
For the Pharisees, and for many religious people today, obeying the rules has taken precedence over what matters most. Appearance becomes more important than reality: a clean, successful life, "perfectly curated online," while inside there is anger, bitterness, deceit and distance from God.

2. The Conflict: Tradition Against Truth

The Pharisees notice that some disciples eat their meals "with defiled, that is, unwashed, hands" (Mark 7:2).
Mark Foley makes clear that this is not about hygiene: that understanding of germs would not appear until the 1850s. It was a multi-step religious ritual, performed to show how holy one was. People removed their rings, poured water from a two-handled cup two or three times over the right hand, then the left, and recited a blessing in Hebrew.
The question comes: "Why don't your disciples walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with unwashed hands?" (Mark 7:5). Jesus sees what is really going on and seizes the opportunity.
Elsewhere, the preacher recalls, Jesus calls the scribes and Pharisees blind, hypocrites and even whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23). Here, he quotes Isaiah: "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me" (Mark 7:6). They wanted to appear holy more than to be holy, to please people more than God.
"It's just as easy for us today." We can worship enthusiastically on Sunday and not think about God for the rest of the week. We can drop our offering in with ceremony and live selfishly. We can sing "Break my heart for what breaks yours" and criticize people we don't like, look down on those who see the world differently, or turn a blind eye to the needs of the immigrant and the refugee.
The pastor includes himself: "I too abandon God's commandment for the tradition of men. I give more weight to what people think of me than to what God thinks of me."

3. The Central Truth: The Source of the Problem

Jesus turns to the crowd and delivers a truth that overturns their worldview: "There is nothing from outside of the man, that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man" (Mark 7:15). To be defiled, the preacher explains, is to become unacceptable to God.
The problem is not what you do or don't do, what you wear or what you eat. It isn't tattoos, piercings, hairstyles, dancing, alcohol, pork, cigarettes, or even missing church or having sex outside marriage. Some of these things are probably not right and likely reflect the state of your heart. But they are symptoms, not the source.
"For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts," and the whole list of Mark 7:21-22. The prophet Jeremiah said it long ago: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt" (Jeremiah 17:9).
To make himself understood, Mark Foley uses the image of Covid. Some people were seriously ill, to the point of dying. He also mentions a moment when he very nearly called an ambulance because of difficulty breathing. Others had almost no symptoms. But all of them had the virus, all were contagious, all had to be isolated. What mattered was not the symptoms, but what was in the blood.
It is the same with sin. Some people, because of a difficult family, hardships or a lack of opportunities, struggle to "do the right thing" and to fit in among others. Others, more fortunate, have learned to behave well: they don't swear, they dress modestly, they are generous with their time and money. These are good things, "but inside, we are still sick." Both are sinners.
A dirty sponge can only give back dirty water, because that is what it is full of. Our words, our choices and our priorities only reveal the state of our heart.

4. The Gospel's Answer: A Heart Transplant

If the problem is the heart, a to-do list will not save us. Trying to be better is like putting a fresh coat of paint on a crumbling house. You don't change a heart with laws, rules or expectations.
"We don't need a rulebook, we need a Savior. We don't need to try harder, we need a heart transplant." The Bible is not a manual of good behavior, but the story of what God has done to save us.
The prophet Ezekiel announced it: "I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you" (Ezekiel 36:26-27).
Jesus did not come to live, die and rise again to give us better manners or to make us more presentable. He came to deal with the rot at the very depths of each of us, to forgive our darkest sins and to give us a brand new heart.
Being a Christian is not cleaning ourselves up from the outside in to earn God's approval. It is letting Jesus work from the inside out. "You are deeply loved by him. Let him change you now."

5. Three Responses for Today

Stop thinking about appearances. What matters is what God thinks of you, not what others think. Be honest with God about what is deep inside you. He is neither shocked by your struggles nor surprised by your failures. He wants your honesty so that he can bring you healing.
Change your focus. Stop trying to be good enough: you never will be, so you don't need to try. Look at what God wants to do in you and through you. Tell him about your struggles, be quick to repent, to ask forgiveness and to receive restoration.
Surrender your heart. When you struggle, when you fail, bring it to God and ask him to take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. "Only God can change your heart." Dedicate it to him today and every day.

6. A Prayer of Surrender

The pastor ends by inviting the congregation to pray with him, aloud or silently, a prayer of surrender that he first reads slowly.
"Loving God, you know how hard I try, but it is never enough. Today I understand that it is not my actions that need to change, but my heart. I can't do it. I need you to do it for me."
The prayer moves in three steps: asking forgiveness for trying to fix one's life without God and for seeking the approval of others; acknowledging that God loves us and sent Jesus so that we might become who he intended; asking him to come in and take charge: "I surrender my life and my heart to you. I am yours."
It ends in trust: God changes us from the inside and gives his Spirit, who makes us able to live in a way that honors him.

Key Takeaways

God doesn't want your perfect performance, he wants a surrendered heart.
Rules can help, but they are never enough to change a heart.
What makes us unclean does not come from outside: our behaviors are symptoms, the heart is the source.
Whether well brought up or battered by life, we are all sick with the same illness and we all need a Savior.
Jesus does not come to improve our image: he forgives and gives a new heart, working from the inside out.

Personal Application

In what area of your life does the image you project matter more than what is really happening in your heart?
What preoccupies you most this week: what others think of you, or what God thinks of you?
Which behaviors in your life are symptoms? What reality of the heart do they reveal?
Do you tend to compare yourself with other believers who "hold up" less well than you? What changes when we are all sick with the same illness?
What hidden struggle can you honestly bring to God today, asking him to take away your heart of stone?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Jesus criticize the Pharisees for their hand washing in Mark 7?

Mark Foley points out that this washing had nothing to do with hygiene: it was a multi-step religious ritual, meant to show how holy one was. Jesus denounces a religion that takes care of appearances while the heart remains far from God, as Isaiah had already said: "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me."

What defiles a person according to Mark 7?

It is not what goes into a person, but what comes out of the heart: evil thoughts, pride, deceit, envy and the rest of the list in Mark 7:21-22. For the preacher, our behaviors are symptoms. The source of the problem is the state of the heart.

How can the heart change if rules cannot do it?

Mark Foley states that we don't need a rulebook but a Savior, not to try harder but a heart transplant. This is the promise of Ezekiel 36: God takes away the heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh. Jesus came to forgive and to give a new heart, working from the inside out.