Matthew 15:1-20

The Voice

Scribes and Pharisees: ² The law of Moses has always held that one must ritually wash his hands before eating. Why don’t Your disciples observe this tradition?

Jesus: Why do you violate God’s command because of your tradition? ⁴ God said, “Honor your father and mother.^[a] Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.”^{[b] 5-6} But you say that one need no longer honor his parents so long as he says to them, “What you might have gained from me, I now give to the glory of God.” Haven’t you let your tradition trump the word of God? ⁷ You hypocrites! Isaiah must have had you in mind when he prophesied,

¹⁰ (to the multitude) Hear and understand this: ¹¹ What you put into your mouth cannot make you clean or unclean; it is what comes out of your mouth that can make you unclean.

Disciples: Do You realize the Pharisees were shocked by what You said?

Jesus: ¹³ Every plant planted by someone other than My heavenly Father will be plucked up by the roots. ¹⁴ So let them be. They are blind guides. What happens when one blind person leads another? Both of them fall into a ditch.

Peter: ¹⁵ Explain that riddle to us.

Jesus: ¹⁶ Do you still not see? ¹⁷ Don’t you understand that whatever you take in through your mouth makes its way to your stomach and eventually out of the bowels of your body? ¹⁸ But the things that come out of your mouth—your curses, your fears, your denunciations—these come from your heart, and it is the stirrings of your heart that can make you unclean. ¹⁹ For your heart harbors evil thoughts—fantasies of murder, adultery, and whoring; fantasies of stealing, lying, and slandering. ²⁰ These make you unclean—not eating with a hand you’ve not ritually purified with a splash of water and a prayer.