Karma In Mark 7 - Christian Karma -Exxxplossssionnnnn

Religion is a way of THINKING, and critics of RELIGION (from root, "to bind" or tie up) had it right. They went a bit overboard & declared, "Religion is the opiate of the masses." In US history -& in my native South Africa's - the practice of Christianity offered a sharp, two-edged, sword for both sides. It helped SLAVES in the US & Caribbean craft a semblance of autonomous lives, while getting Bible therapy against hate & vengeance. Jesus, in the Gospels, offers a new way of thinking. That is what all those clashes and hot debates Jesus experienced with the Pharisees (Jewish conservatives), Scribes (lawyers, writers) and Sadducees (liberals), were all about. Let's go to Mark, chapter 7. CAVEAT: Do not read the Bible as you read a poem, story, novel. More on this at the end. In Mark 7, verses 5-23, Jesus rocks our world & our politics. But you may not have read it yourself, only heard it dreamily in some sermon. (If U did read Mark 7, and found the real LAW OF KARMA, congratulations first, and my personal apology, second. Jesus' disciples were eating without washing their hands in the "traditional way ... as our elders did." Okay, there was no COVID19 pandemic, so indulge Jesus as He lambastes the "Pharisees and teachers of the law,' that asked the question (verse 5). Jesus nukes them: "Isaiah [top prophet] 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.'" That is some verse, Mark 7, verse 6. Jesus went on to explain CHRISTIAN KARMA in verses 14-15: "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' ....[and in verse 19] For it [food] doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." O but my Rabbi-Messiah says it like it is, and I will refrain. Read it yourself if you dare - our hearts are the source of most of the evil in the world! That's KARMA (even in Hinduism): not what goes around comes around, but what's inside, comes outside ... bearing its consequences. Combining both! We shape the world by what we invest - in every way - into it by thought, word, deed, & prayer (meditation). WE read the Bible in a hurry: what is the end of this chapter? I learned to walk with Jesus as He talks, teaches, explodes our myths & hypocrisy. It is a meditative read ... sometimes mulling over a line or word for the entire day!