GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 7:18
Intelligence
Following Jesus’ discussion with the guardians of tradition from Jerusalem and his lesson to the crowd, Jesus retired to a house. Once inside, his disciples asked him to explain the lesson he had given to the crowd. “And he said to them, ‘Thus also are you without understanding? Or do you not understand that everything that enters into a man from the outside is not able to defile him?’” (Mark 7:18) According to Matthew, it was Peter who asked Jesus to explain his lesson. (Matt. 15:15) Either Peter did not tell Mark that it was he who questioned Jesus, or Mark kindly avoided placing Peter in the situation of experiencing Jesus’ reply. At any rate, Jesus was surprised that his disciples had failed to grasp the meaning of his lesson. After all, they had witnessed the healing of the sick woman, the restoration of Jairus’ daughter, the feeding of the huge crowd on a mountain near eastern Bethsaida, his walking on the water, and his calming of the storm. According to Matthew and Mark, the word Jesus used here means “without intelligence” and is usually translated “without understanding.” The first meaning is stronger. It might be compared to the English aphorism, “Aren’t you smart enough to put two and two together?” The impression is that Jesus was surprised that they had not put together all they had seen to enable them to understand that a new horizon was before them.
It is probably wise to give some sympathy to the disciples; after all, their teachers and parents had taught them the cultural tradition about clean and unclean food from infancy, just as they had taught the Pharisees and scribes. The disciples had to fit what they saw with what they had been taught—their presuppositions—so it was a difficult journey they were on. Every believer is on the same journey and is constantly faced with the task of taking what they see and reconciling it with what Jesus taught, and that is not always an easy task.
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