Scripture Reference: Mark 7:1-23

The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were "unclean," that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)

So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with 'unclean' hands?"

He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men. You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."

Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.'

After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")

He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.'

Mark 7:1-23

 
In this passage Jesus, who is gathering a major following, has one of his first run-ins with the Pharisees over the issue of the Jewish purity laws. There’s a lot of history behind the rules about what was “clean” and “unclean” but the Jewish leaders had become real literal about it. Jesus basically tells them that they’re distorting God’s original meaning to their own purpose and not God’s.               
 
The passage is a description of the true nature of human character. Some of the Pharisees, so hung up on purity and what a person ate, were corrupt inside and what came out of them was often evil. Saying so was making Jesus some enemies but to add to that, Mark says that in saying this, “Jesus declared all foods clean.” This is a major re-interpretation of Levitical law and would be a blasphemy to the self-righteous Pharisees and lawyers.
 
Some of the Old Testament passages that seem to condemn homosexuality are based on rigid, myopic readings of the purity laws designed for the Israelites passing into Canaan. Many Christians read those laws and use them against some of us, to press their agendas, just as the rigid Jewish leaders did in condemning the people in Israel. And in everything those self-serving pontificators, then and now, miss the point: the law and the rules were made by God for men, not to condemn but to direct and protect. And the self-righteous ones are, ironically, using the very text that warns against people just like they are to condemn the people around them. Talk about getting it backward. As for us, let’s get it right!