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Men Following Men

Some Pharisees and  Scribes came down from Jerusalem and gathered around Jesus.  And when they saw some of His disciples eating bread with unholy (that is, unwashed) hands, they found fault.

Because the Pharisees, and all the Jews held to the elders’ tradition of not eating until they washed their hands up to the elbows.  Or, arriving from the marketplace, they would not eat until they had immersed their whole body in water.  There were also many other traditions the people had been taught to observe, such as the ritual cleansing of cups and pitchers, and of kettles, and couches.

So the Pharisees and Scribes asked Him, “Why don’t Your disciples walk according to the traditions of the elders?  Why do they eat their bread with unwashed hands?”

But He answered them, saying, “Isaiah prophesied the truth about you, hypocrites!  For it is written, ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me.  And their worship of Me is a sham, for they teach human rules as Torah.’  You abandon the commands of God, while holding to human traditions: the ceremonial cleansing of pitchers and cups, and the other things you do.”

And He told them, “You are good at setting aside God’s command in order to keep your own traditions.  For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘He who curses father or mother shall be put to death.’  But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever I own that might have helped you is Korban (that is, “a gift to the Temple”),”’ you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother, ignoring God’s Word  in favor of your own tradition that you teach instead. And you do many things like this.”

Then, calling the whole crowd over to Him, He said, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand!  There is nothing from outside a person that can enter him and make him unholy.  But the things which go out from him, those are what makes a person unholy.  If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

But when He had entered a house, away from the crowd, His disciples questioned Him about what He had said.  And He said to them, “Are you as foolish as they are?  Don’t you understand?  Nothing that enters a person from the outside can make him unholy, because it doesn’t enter his heart, but the stomach, and then leaves as waste.”  (By this He was declaring all foods to be clean.)

Then He said, “That which flows outward from a person, that’s what makes him unholy.  Because from the inside, from the human heart, wicked ideas flow outward: adulteries, and every improper sexual behavior, murders, thefts, greedy desires, taking advantage of others, lying and misleading people, uncontrolled lust, hateful attitudes, bad mouthing and cursing, pride and arrogance, and reckless living.  All these unholy things flow outward from the inner self, making a person unholy.”

 A Pagan Woman

Then He got ready and left that place, going into the land of Tyre and Sidon.  And He entered a house, not wanting anyone to know He was there.  But He could not remain secluded, for a woman had heard about Him, whose daughter had an unclean spirit.  She came and bowed down at His feet.  Now the woman was not Jewish, but Syro-Phoenician by birth.  And she pleaded with Him to drive the demon from her daughter.

But Jesus said to her, “Allow all the children to be fed first.  It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and to throw it to the dogs.”

She answered Him, saying, “Yes, Lord.  And yet the pups under the table eat what the children drop.”

Then He said to her, “Because of this response, go.  The demon has gone out of your daughter.”  And going to her house, the woman looked and saw that the demon had departed, and her daughter was resting on the bed.

Jesus then left the area of Tyre and Sidon.  He traveled through the region of the Ten Cities, and returned to the Sea of Galilee.

There the people brought a man to Him who was deaf and who could barely speak.  And they called out for Jesus to put His hand on him.

Taking him away from the crowd, Jesus put His own fingers into the man’s ears.  Then spitting, He touched the man’s tongue.  Looking up into heaven, He made a sound, without speaking.

Then He said to the man, “Eph-phatha! (which means, Be opened!)”  And the man’s ears were instantly opened, so that he could hear.  And his tongue was released, so that he spoke correctly.  And Jesus warned the people that they should tell no one.  But the more He insisted that people not tell, the more eagerly and widely they announced these things.

And everyone was awed beyond all measure, saying, “He’s done all things well!  He even makes the deaf to hear, and the mute to speak!”