What Makes a Person Unclean

They saw some of his disciples eating their bread with unclean hands, that is, hands that hadn’t been washed, and they found fault with it.

The Pharisees and all the Jews didn’t eat unless they washed their hands and forearms. That was the tradition of the elders, and they held to it. They didn’t eat when they came from the marketplace unless they bathed first. And there were many other things handed down to them to keep: the washing of cups, pitchers, bronze pots, and couches.

The Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples keep the tradition of the elders? They eat their bread with unwashed hands!”

“You leave God’s commandment aside and hold tight to a tradition made by people: the washing of pitchers and cups. And you do many other things like that.”

He said to them, “You’re very good at rejecting God’s commandment so that you can keep your tradition! Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘If anyone speaks evil of his father or mother, he is to be put to death.’

“But you say that if a man tells his father or his mother, ‘Whatever help you might have gotten from me is Corban,’” which means given to God, “then you won’t let him do a thing for his father or his mother any longer. So you make the word of God count for nothing by the tradition you hand down. And you do many things like this.”

Matthew tells Jesus’ answer in another order. There he begins with a question: “Why do you also disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition?” Where Mark has “Moses said,” Matthew has “God commanded,” and Isaiah’s words come last.

In Matthew, the disciples then came and asked him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard you say this?”

He answered, “Any plant my heavenly Father didn’t plant will be torn up by its roots. Leave them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. If the blind guide the blind, both of them will fall into a pit.”

He went into a house, away from the crowd, and there his disciples asked him about the parable. Matthew says it was Peter who asked: “Explain the parable to us.”

“Don’t you understand either?” Jesus said. “Don’t you see that anything going into a person from outside can’t make him unclean, because it doesn’t go into his heart, but into his stomach, and then out of the body as waste, making all foods clean?”

“What comes out of a person, that is what makes him unclean,” he said. “Evil thoughts come from inside, out of people’s hearts, and so do adultery, sexual sins, murder, theft, coveting, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from inside, and they make a person unclean.”

In Matthew, Jesus told them, “What comes out of the mouth comes out of the heart, and that is what makes a person unclean. Evil thoughts come out of the heart, and so do murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, lying as a witness, and blasphemies. These are the things that make a person unclean. But eating with unwashed hands doesn’t make a person unclean.”

There was a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit. She had heard about Jesus, and she came and fell down at his feet. Mark says she was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by race; Matthew calls her a Canaanite woman, who came out from that region. She begged him to drive the demon out of the girl.

In Matthew she cried out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, you son of David! A demon has a terrible hold on my daughter!”

But Jesus didn’t answer her, not a word. His disciples came and begged him, “Send her away! She won’t stop crying out after us.”

He answered, “I wasn’t sent to anyone but the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

But she came and worshiped him. “Lord, help me,” she said.

Jesus said to her, “Let the children eat their fill first, because it isn’t proper to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

In Matthew he answered, “It isn’t proper to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

“Yes, Lord,” she answered. “But even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

In Matthew she said, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

Jesus said to her, “Because of what you said, go your way. The demon has gone out of your daughter.”

She went back to her house and found the child laid on the bed, with the demon gone.

In Matthew, Jesus answered her, “Woman, your faith is great! May it be done for you just as you want.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

They brought him a deaf man who had trouble speaking, and they begged Jesus to put his hand on the man.

Jesus took him aside privately, apart from the crowd. He put his fingers into the deaf man’s ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. He looked up to heaven and sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!”

Right away his ears were opened, his tongue was set loose, and he spoke clearly.

He commanded them to tell no one. Yet the more he commanded them, the more widely they made it known.

They were utterly amazed. “He’s done everything well!” they said. “He makes even the deaf hear and the mute speak!”

In Matthew, Jesus left that region and came near the Sea of Galilee, and he went up on the mountain and sat there.

Great crowds came to him. They had with them people who were lame, blind, mute or maimed, and many others, and they put them down at his feet. He healed them, so that the crowd was filled with wonder when they saw the mute speaking, the injured healed, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.

His disciples answered, “Out here where no one lives, where could anyone get bread to fill all these people?”

He asked, “How many loaves do you have?”

“Seven,” they said.

He had the crowd sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves. He gave thanks for them, broke them, and handed them to his disciples to serve; and they served the crowd.

They also had a few small fish. He blessed them, and said to serve these as well.

In Matthew, the disciples answered, “Seven, and a few small fish,” and Jesus took the seven loaves and the fish. He gave thanks, broke them, and handed them to the disciples, who handed them on to the crowds.

They all ate and were filled, and they picked up seven baskets full of the broken pieces that were left over. Mark says that those who had eaten were about four thousand; Matthew says they were four thousand men, in addition to women and children.

Then he sent them away. At once he stepped into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha. Matthew says he came to the area of Magdala.

He sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation look for a sign? I tell you for certain, no sign will be given to this generation.”

In Matthew he answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, since the sky is red.’ In the morning you say, ‘There will be bad weather today, since the sky is red and threatening.’ You hypocrites! You know how to judge the look of the sky, but not the signs of the times! An evil and unfaithful generation goes looking for a sign, and it will be given no sign but the sign of the prophet Jonah.”

He left them, got into the boat once more, and went away to the other side.

Jesus warned them, “Take care! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.”

In Matthew he said, “Take care, and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

They talked it over among themselves. “It’s because we have no bread,” they said.

Jesus was aware of it, and he said to them, “Why are you saying it’s because you have no bread? Don’t you see yet, or understand? Are your hearts still hard? You have eyes; don’t you see? You have ears; don’t you hear? Don’t you remember?

“When I broke the five loaves among the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you gather?”

“Twelve,” they told him.

“And when the seven loaves fed the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you gather?”

“Seven,” they told him.

He asked them, “Don’t you understand yet?”

In Matthew, Jesus called them “you of little faith,” and he said, “How can you not see that I wasn’t talking to you about bread? But beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

Then, Matthew says, they understood: it wasn’t the yeast of bread he had told them to beware of, but the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.