Mark 6:17-23 You are What You Eat?

Many people that I know still keep the tradition of not eating what was written in the Torah to be "unclean". In the gospels, Jesus makes it clear that nothing that enters the body can make a person "unclean" but rather what comes out of a person from within, thoughts and actions, that defines a person's "uncleanliness". That's because nothing a person eats will go through the heart; it goes through the stomach and out of the body. The first time I heard this, my mind was so blasted. I felt so enlightened after reading this scripture. How sad that so much time is spent arguing what's "clean" and "unclean" when it's so clear what the Gospels say. That being said, that was not the main message i received from the verses.

During one of my Sunday classes, one of the youths said to me that they're the type of person who doesn't react immediately when someone says or does something mean to them. Rather, they scheme and think of the worst way to get someone back. I guess it's passive aggressive for a lack of a better term. When he told me this i started to think about when I was his age. My temper was quick, my strength was unknown to me, and my insides were filled with anger all the time. Growing up, I'm sure i was a nightmare to my family. I made my sister cry every single day at least twice. I said plenty of very hurtful and dishonorable things to my parents that probably made my grandfather turn over in his grave a couple times. I'm really an ugly person - very ugly and "unclean" person. However, Mark 6:17-23, and other verses, keeps calling me to reassess the person that I am. Just in this last year alone God has reminded me multiple times to watch out for things I say, how I say it, and the things I do. It's not what goes in my mouth that makes me "unclean", it's what comes out.

Some of these people I know who still keep this tradition are a combination of beliefs - Jewish, some Muslim, and even some Christians of some denomination. Of course if you don't believe Jesus is the Son of God, you wouldn't take into consideration what Jesus had said. But even if it wasn't said by Jesus, doesn't it logically makes sense? I have nothing against someone who doesn't eat "unclean" foods, I even try my best to accommodate them when cooking. I guess pertaining to chemical balance, "you are what you eat" but a person could eat all the most expensive, non-pesticide infested, naturally fertilized, non-synthetic, unmodified deliciousness on earth but that will never make a person "clean".