24. And, having finished this exchange, Jesus left this place, and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And there He entered into a certain house, and didn't want anyone to know He was there. But, of course, it wasn't possible for Him to keep any sort of low profile by this time...He simply could not be hidden from public notice.
25. So, practically as soon as He arrived, and the local buzz started about Him being in town, a woman whose little daughter was under the control of a rebel spirit got word about Him, and came and literally flung herself down at His feet.
26. What was particularly interesting about this woman coming to Him in this way is that she was a Greek...a Gentile...a Syro-phoenician by nationality. But their ethnic differences seemed to be a non-issue with her. With absolute absence of pride or awkwardness, she begged Him in a very demonstrative way to expel the spirit, and to end its authority over her daughter's life.
27. But, seemingly unfazed by her demeanor, He said to her, "You're ahead of schedule…it’s not time yet for Me to be revealed to the rest of the world, and to be accessible to people like you. Right now I am solely focused on My call to minister to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. You know that the Israelites consider your people to be dogs…so because I have my hands full in dealing with them as a nation at the moment, to help you would be like taking the children's bread, and throwing it to the dogs…at least that’s true as far as they’re concerned. It's not right that the “dogs” should take bread away from the children.
28. But she answered Him, “I don’t care about what the Israelites think. I just want my daughter well. So I would humbly disagree with You…I would say...but Lord, even the “dogs” eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table!"
29. And He said to her, "You know what? Because of what you just said, and how you said it, you can go in peace...the spirit has released control of your daughter, and has left her, permanently!"
30. And so she went home, and, sure enough, she found her daughter resting peacefully on the couch, and the rebel spirit was nowhere to be found.
31. Right after this, Jesus, coming back from the region of Tyre, passed through Sidon on to Lake Galilee, through the region of Decapolis, or "The Ten Cities".
32. And there they brought to Him a man who was deaf, and had great difficulty in speaking, and the people who were with him begged Jesus to just place His hand upon him.
33. But Jesus took the man aside from the crowd to minister to him privately, and in a very unconventional manner, even for Him. He authoritatively thrust His fingers into the man's ears, and then He spat into His hand, dipped His finger into His own saliva, and touched the man's tongue with it.
34. Then, looking up to the sky, He groaned from somewhere deep within Himself as He said in His native tongue, "Ephphatha!", which means, "Be opened!"
35. And immediately the startled man's ears were opened, and he began to speak perfectly...with no impediment at all.
36. Then Jesus brought him back to the crowd, and sternly ordered the people who had brought him to tell no one about what had just happened. But, as it turned out, the more He commanded the people to be quiet about the miracles, the more zealously they seemed to proclaim it.
37. They were too overwhelmed and amazed by it all to remain silent. "He has done everything with excellence!" they said. "He even causes the deaf hear and the mute to speak!"
1. Now the Pharisees, along with some other religious leaders and scholars who had come from Jerusalem, gathered around Him.
2. And, seeing everything in their world from a legalistic perspective, they were keenly aware that some of His disciples seemed to have no apparent regard for the observance of ceremony, specifically that of ritual washings before meals.
3. The Pharisees, in keeping with strict, Jewish legal tradition, do not eat unless they first wash their hands diligently...up to the elbow...with clenched fist. This practice is observed merely for ceremonial reasons, but to them, the careful and faithful adherence to doing it just right is of the utmost importance, and is to be taken very seriously.
4. Furthermore, when they come from the marketplace, they will not eat until they completely purify themselves according to the Law. And there are also many other traditions having to do with washing and eating...man-made rules handed down to them over the centuries...which they honor faithfully, and without question, such as the scouring of every cup and wooden pitcher and widemouthed jug, along with every utensil of copper.
5. So the Pharisees and Scribes, unable to imagine a world without all these rules to keep, kept asking Jesus, "Why do Your disciples flout the rules...the hallowed traditions handed down to us by the forefathers? How can they eat their food with hands unwashed and ceremonially not purified?"
6. But He said to them, "The prophet Isaiah hit the nail on the head about frauds like you...pretenders and hypocrites...and so it is written: 'These people make such a big deal out of doing and saying the right thing, supposedly to honor Me with their lips...but, in reality, nothing they do is motivated from the heart, and so their hearts are actually very far away and distant from Me.
7. Their so-called worship of Me is pointless and fruitless, because their top priority is teaching the commandments and precepts of men, demanding that they be obeyed as if they were the doctrines of God.'
8. In fact, you disregard and dispense with the actual commandments of God...the things that really matter to Him...and hold on for dear life to the empty traditions of men, keeping them carefully and faithfully, as if they really make any difference in the big picture."
9. And He went on to say to them, "You've really developed a sophisticated system of manipulation...you keep the people under your authority constantly uneasy about their approval rating with God, and in so doing have guaranteed that you'll always have a place of importance in this society. Your desire for significance, or just simple job security, has caused you to reject, thwart, and nullify the commandment of God...and so you place inappropriate importance on keeping your tradition and your own human regulations!
10. For example, Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother', and, 'He who curses, reviles, or mistreats his father or mother is worthy of death!'
11. But you have devised a legal loophole, saying, 'A man is exempt from having to provide for his parents in their old age if he tells his father or his mother that the money he would have used for their care and upkeep is "Corban", meaning that it is a gift already designated for and given as an offering to God'. And then this money that is freed up is, in essence, coming to you.
12. In doing this you no longer are permitting a man to do anything for his father or mother, but are letting him off the hook from his rightful responsibilities.
13. This little trick nullifies and makes void the purpose of the commandment, and the enforcing of it enables the traditions of men to make the very Word of God completely impotent and ineffective. And this is just one of many things like this that you are doing all the time."
14. Then He called the people who were in close proximity to Himself again and said to them, "I want you to listen to Me...every one of you...and I want you to understand what I say.
15. All this ceremonial cleansing that the religious leaders think is so vital is harmless in and of itself...but you should all know that there is not one thing from the outside world, which by going into a man or a woman, can pollute and defile him or her. It's the things which come out of a person...the fruit of the internal world...which have the potential to defile him/her and make him/her unhallowed and unclean!
16. If any of you can hear Me, then listen to what I'm saying...really listen with perception and comprehension!"
17. After this He left the crowd and went into the house where He was staying, and once inside, His disciples began asking Him about the illustration He had used.
18. And He said to them, "Please tell Me that you're not so unintelligent and dull of hearing that you don't understand this simple premise! Just think about it...whatever goes into a person from the outside cannot possibly make him or her filthy or unclean,
19. Since it doesn't go to his heart. It's the heart that determines the real standard of cleanliness in a person, so the heart is all that ultimately matters. Don't you realize that whatever is physically ingested automatically goes toward a person's digestive tract, and then is inevitably eliminated, passing into the place designed to receive waste?" And with this straightforward reference to human biology, He made and declared all foods to be ceremonially clean...in judging everything edible as being kosher, He abolished the ceremonial distinctions of the limited Levitical Law.
20. And He reiterated His point, saying, "It's what comes out of a person that determines what makes him or her unclean, or renders him/her unhallowed.
21. Instead of worrying about filtering or washing what comes in from the outside, you should be concerned with sanitizing what comes out of your internal world. For from within that place...that is, out of the heart...can come base and destructive thoughts, sexual dysfunction, stealing, murder, adultery,
22. Jealousy, endangerment to others, deceit, indecent conduct, obsession with what others have, slander, malicious misrepresentation, abusiveness, pride, recklessness, thoughtlessness, and so on.
23. All these evil purposes and desires can originate from deep within an individual, and these are the things that can make a person truly unclean."
"Nothing happens unless first a dream." -
Carl Sandburg
"When we are dreaming alone it is only a dream. When we are dreaming with others, it is the beginning of reality." -
Dom Helder Camara
"Some men see things as they are and say, "Why?" I dream of things that never were and say, "Why not?" -
George Bernard Shaw
"Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil".
-
James Allen 
"We lift ourselves by our thought. We climb upon our vision of ourselves. If you want to enlarge your life, you must first enlarge your thought of it and of yourself. Hold the ideal of yourself as you long to be, always everywhere -- your ideal of what you long attain -- the ideal of health, efficiency, success".
- Orison Swett Marden 
"Vision: the art of seeing things invisible". -
Jonathan Swift Where there is no vision, the people perish.
(Proverbs 29:18 - KJV)
