Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem travel to Galilee to challenge and attempt to ensnare Jesus on His home turf. They lead with pointing out his followers don’t adhere to tradition: washing before eating. So yeah you should probably do as your mom told you and wash before eating to prevent germs, but they want to say that Jesus is in rebellion over this because “tradition” has decided this is the correct way of following the religion, not just merely standard hygiene advice. Jews would try to honor their elders by modeling their lives similarly and as you go down the generations, eventually you have people trying to live hundreds of lives that came before, all with a million little rules and details. So washing is good but now you’ve bolted it onto the law because your elders did it. They made it into a spiritual matter. This isn’t to say they didn’t wash before eating necessarily, but that they didn’t do it in the Pharisee-approved way and for religious reasons, at minimum. Jesus hits them back, asking why they blow off actual commands from God in favor of their tradition they’ve elevated so highly. He brings up the 5th commandment, regarding honoring your parents. Where God’s intent would include things such as looking after your parents in old age, tradition has generated loop holes to devote resources to God to prevent them from going to the parents (and you can just cancel that vow once they die). Tradition is negating the actual word of God.

–Detour– “But aren’t you Catholic now? Don’t they emphasize tradition?” Yes, excellent question. Jesus isn’t condemning “tradition” but how tradition relates to God’s law and intent. Using tradition to neglect your parents in defiance of God’s commands is sinful. Catholics have “Sacred Tradition” derived from 2 Thess 2:15 (“hold to traditions taught by us by spoken word or letter) meant to preserve teachings from Apostles and therefore considered part of God’s revelation. Additionally there’s more of a standard tradition, which are just human customs and subject to change over time and are merely tools of the faith, like priestly celibacy and fasting days. Pharisee trads elevate human law to combat God’s word, Catholic trads preserve apostolic teaching to adhere to God’s word. Intent.

Jesus busts out the H word to rebuke them. Their hypocritical behavior of not only accusing Jesus despite doing far worse to disrespect God but also being just like Isiah predicted by honoring God with their lips but not their hearts. Everything the Pharisees did was performative. Just a show they put on for worldly status. Worse, they teach this pointless and hollow worship as proper doctrine.

Jesus says it’s not what goes in but what comes out of the mouth that defiles a man. To the audience that had been obeying commands to not eat pork (keep kosher) this would’ve been wild. But He’s getting to the idea that accidentally touching a piece of unclean meat is being treated with greater importance than having a heart full of desire to use loopholes to “trick” God and disobey Him. Anyone familiar with the Jewish religion today can probably tell this issue is still very much present among them, so I guess the Pharisees remain their model. Unfortunately, Pharisees are not plants GOd has planted, so they’re going to be yanked up and burned. Imagine your entire life revolves around maintaining the appearance of holiness but on the last day, Jesus is like “I never knew you” so off in the fire you go. He tells His followers not to bother with them as they are spiritually blind and since they’re in roles of leadership, are just going to lead other spiritual novices to error.

Since Jesus is taking a wrecking ball to pretty much every religious convention of the time and His followers must’ve been pretty devout and eager Jews, this isn’t sitting right with them. They trust Him but this is all very confusing so an explanation is needed. Peter, ever the bold one, speaks up for the group, asking for the parable to be explained and is willing to receive the rebuke that comes with it. “Are you still without understanding?” Well, unless you’re using the NIV translation where it reads “Are you still so dull?” That’s a lmao from me. The only way you could believe in sweet hippie Jesus is if you’ve never read the Bible.

The materially unclean item passes through the stomach and out of the body. It doesn’t reach the soul or make them sinful. The point of the dietary restrictions, which Jesus held to perfectly, was to make the Jews a people apart from the world. The foods themselves weren’t the danger, the other tribes and assimilation with them (and loss of their faith) was. The point of the entire exercise was to keep their heart in submission to God and their tradition has eliminated that while still performing the action. KNOWINGLY eating unclean foods did become CEREMONIALLY unclean due to the rebellion against God, not because of some spiritual property of pork. Sin and wickedness exist inside the human body and is revealed through the words they say because those words are born in the heart.

Now He once again leaves the Pharisees. Well, we say once again, but He didn’t quite make it out the first time. The crowds of people desperate for His help kept Him there, but now it was time to roll to a new district. Tyre and Sidon were distinctly pagan so the odds of being known and pestered by legalistic weasels trying to sabotage His work was lessened. Lol just kidding, a woman immediately recognizes Him and comes sprinting at Him and she knows exactly who He is and addresses Him with a rather high title considering she’s a gentile and racial alien. It’s not unlikely she heard about Israel and Judaism but to instantly recognize Him as the Lord and Son of David? I suspect God’s hand in directing her but that’s not spelled out, so call that an amused theory and nothing more. She wants a demon sent out from her child (demons are real. Cope, modernists) but Jesus practically ignores her. The disciples are eager to lose her so she stops drawing attention to them. This is one of the districts Jesus had previously condemned for lack of faith. Jesus tells her “I was sent to help Israel” and it’s really only after He dies and resurrects that the mission shifts focus to the gentiles. She continues to persist and begins kneeling and worshipping to get Him to help. He says He can’t take the children’s (Israel’s) bread (mission and messiah) and give it to the dogs (Jewish slur for gentiles). However, the Greek used in the Bible is a more affectionate word for dog along the lines of a pet, so it’s not like He used the seething hatred version, but still holds the dynamic established in the metaphor. Important distinction. She acknowledges that He is master and dogs are content with crumbs. A switch flips since the test has been passed with flying colors and Jesus joyfully blesses her. She demonstrated great humility, wisdom, and trust in Jesus. After all, if the children rejected their food or were careless with it to let it fall to the floor, then it’s the Master’s call to give it to whom He pleases. Instantly her daughter is healed and the demon has been expelled.

Jesus sets himself up atop a hill and, like clockwork, a massive crowd materializes. He gets to work healing and preaching and says He says that He has compassion for the crowd since they’ve been there for some time and shouldn’t be sent off hungry such that they collapse on the way home. They’ve been that eager to be in His presence that they’ve accidentally starved themselves, basically. “But how is Jesus going to feed all these people” you may be asking if you have a really bad memory. Or if you’re His disciples who just saw exactly how He’s going to do it a few days prior. Well, from what I’m reading, it’s possible they just didn’t want to be the ones to say “Hey Jesus do that thing with the infinite food like last time” so it was more a prompt than a sincere question.