IN THE AFTERMATH of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people who managed to avoid contracting the virus wryly joked about the “COVID-20” — the twenty pounds they gained by being cooped up and relatively inactive. And unfortunately for me, it wasn’t a joke; I did, in fact, gain twenty pounds. I’m happy to say that I managed to take that excess weight off again, but the gain left a lasting effect: both my cholesterol and triglyceride levels shot up to dangerous heights.

Since then, I’ve been very restrictive about what I eat. I scrupulously read the nutrition labels on packaged food. I don’t eat anything with white flour in it, and allow myself only a little bit of sugar here and there; a chocolate chip cookie, for example, is definitely out, as is dessert in general. I eat very little red meat and no cheese, and egg whites have replaced whole eggs. I eat whole grains, beans — and lots and lots of vegetables. And for the most part, with a little creativity, I’ve learned to enjoy this way of eating, though I occasionally pine for that crispy piece of bacon or gooey cinnamon roll I see someone else eating at a church potluck.

I do all this to take care of the body God gave me. Even before the pandemic, when my parents were alive, I helped keep tabs on their many medications, and vowed to never let myself get to the point of having to take multiple prescription meds if I could help it. So when my doctor told me that my cholesterol was way too high and offered to write me a prescription, I politely refused and began changing my habits instead.

I’ve never tried to make anyone else do what I’m doing. Nor have I ever thought that God would somehow love me less if I ate a serving of sausage instead of an egg-white omelet, a grilled cheese sandwich instead of broccoli (and oh, how I miss a good grilled cheese sandwich!). I’m doing this to be a good steward of my health, pushing back against a culture that everywhere pushes unhealthy habits.

. . .

IF YOU FIND it hard to imagine eating this way, then try to imagine what it was like to keep to all the dietary restrictions contained in the law of Moses. There are still devout Jews today who keep a kosher kitchen, and it requires rigorous discipline. It’s not just about what foods you can or can’t eat. The rules dictate what can be eaten with what, how it should be cooked, and even what utensils and plates can be used.

And not surprisingly, alongside the Sabbath, dietary rules were another area in which Jesus found himself in conflict with the Jewish leaders of his day. In Mark 7, we read of an episode in which they saw some of Jesus’ disciples eating without first ceremonially washing their hands (here, too, we might think of what health officials advised us to do during the pandemic). They criticized Jesus for allowing them to do this.

In response, Jesus called them hypocrites. He quoted the prophet Isaiah:

These people honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
    their teachings are merely human rules. (Mark 7:6, NIV; Isa 29:13)

And he didn’t stop there. He accused them of letting go of God’s commands in favor of their merely human religious traditions (Mark 7:8-9), and gave an example of how they self-righteously cited God’s law to justify selfish behavior.

The scribes and Pharisees, I imagine, were taken aback by this. Weren’t they the ones upholding God’s law? Isn’t that why they confronted Jesus in the first place? But Jesus was trying to uncover their hidden motives and show them how their vaunted obedience to the details of the law wasn’t born out of true devotion.

Jesus then turned to the crowd and said:

Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them. (vs. 15)

Whether the crowds understood this or not, Mark doesn’t say. But apparently, Jesus’ own disciples didn’t get it, and he had to explain, perhaps with a bit of frustration:

“Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (vss. 18-19)

And at this point, Mark adds his own editorial comment: “In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.” That’s a remarkable statement, one that would make a Pharisee gasp and splutter. But it’s only one side of the teaching; the other has to do with matters of the heart. Jesus continued:

What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person. (vss. 20-23)

All of this echoes what the prophets had said long before: what God wants from his people isn’t mere external obedience to rules and regulations. What he wants is true devotion that’s evident in a person’s character and conduct. The passage Jesus quoted from Isaiah reflects this; we might add Micah 6:6-8 and other texts as well.

And all of this helps sketch the background to what Paul wants to teach the Colossians at the end of chapter 2 of his letter. Again, there may have been a strongly Jewish element to the false teaching with which the Colossians were being confronted, and if so, it included rules about forbidden foods. But Paul declares that such rules aren’t relevant for God’s people anymore.

Why? As we’ll see, it’s because of the cross of Christ.