The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2 and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 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.[a])
5 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 defiled hands?”
6 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.
7 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’[b]
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”
9 And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe[c] your own traditions! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’[d] and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’[e] 11 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— 12 then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”
14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” [16] [f]
17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
Question 1
What do you think makes a person dirty?
Question 2
Can a person look nice on the outside but still be dirty inside?
Have you ever had the experience of picking up a shiny apple, only to chew it and find that the middle has gone bad? It didn’t matter what the outside looked like if the inside was rotten. We’ve encountered the Pharisees many times already, and now we’re getting to the root of their problem.
All that mattered to these people was the way they looked on the outside. They followed the law closely and even added to what the law said about being clean, because they wanted everyone to see how good they were. But they had lost sight of the fact that the reason God had given the law in the first place was to show that they were not Ice on the inside. To illustrate this, Jesus gives them an example. It seems that these men, instead of helping their poor parents, are trying to look good by donating the money to the temple. But in giving the impression that they were pleasing God, they were breaking the law that says your father and mother need to be honoured.
What Jesus is saying is that the external things like the food rules and cleanliness are not the problem. Isn’t that obvious? The things we eat pass through our bodies, without affecting the heart. The heart is the problem that causes us to do things that don’t please God and makes us dirty in his sight. If their hearts were right, then they would be able to follow the other rules for the right reasons.
Question 3
What had the Pharisees misunderstood?
Question 4
If it’s a person’s heart that makes them dirty, what do you think needs to happen?
Pray
that God will change your heart, so that you do things that please him.
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