10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11 What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.’ ” 12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” 13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

Clean or unclean is a matter of what comes out of a person, not what goes into him. The Pharisees and teachers of the law had it all wrong. Their hypocrisy had blinded them to the absurdity of their insistence on ceremonial washing before eating.

In the OT law, the concept of “clean” or “unclean” had to do with a person’s fitness for entering into Israel’s formal rituals. In order to worship God properly at the temple, a person had to be free of any “unclean” activity or state of being. For example, touching a dead animal or eating pork rendered a person unclean and required a prescribed course of “cleansing” in order to again become acceptable to God for worship. The Pharisees intensified the law, applying it way beyond God’s intention. The case in our passage provides an example of this. They assumed the following sequence: a person out in public was assumed to have come into physical contact with unclean people or things, thereby rendering their hands unclean. Upon returning home and eating, their unclean hands would have made their food unclean. That unclean food then entering their bodies would finally result in their becoming unclean and therefore unfit for Israel’s worship. The Pharisees saw this whole process as contributing to the cause of God’s judgment on the nation, thereby hindering the restoration of Israel to its promised exaltation among the nations.

Jesus, however, undercut this teaching with a simple assertion, that uncleanness is not a matter of what comes into the mouth but what comes out of the mouth. That which hinders a person’s worship is not outward things, but the condition of his heart. He further exacerbated this slam against the Pharisees and scribes by publicly advising the people not to follow their teachings. This was a direct and complete denunciation of those whose entire focus was on outward behavior—they were “blind guides” leading the Jews astray.

For Christians, we can hear the echo of this warning in James’ admonition, “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly” (James 3:1).

Lord, help me to focus on issues of the heart and not simply outward behavior. And help me likewise to not lead others astray through legalistic teaching.