Jesus explains the law
1 Now the Pharisees and some of the scribes came from Jerusalem and gathered around Jesus, 2 and they saw some of his disciples eating bread without first having ritually cleansed their hands. 3 (They and all the Judeans never eat without first ritually washing their hands, according to the traditions of their ancestors. 4 If they have just returned from the marketplace, they perform a ritual bath before eating. They also observe many other rituals such as washing cups, pitchers, saucepans, and even beds.) 5 So the Pharisees and scribes asked Jesus, “Why is it that your disciples don’t observe the tradition of the elders? They eat bread with unclean hands.”
6 “Isaiah prophesied accurately about you, you pretenders!” Jesus replied. “As it is written, ‘These people give me lip service but their hearts are far away. 7 In vain they pay their respects, for their teachings are their own and not mine.’ 8 You discard the command of God and cling to human tradition! 9 Here’s an example of how you do that: 10 Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother; whoever speaks abusively against their father or mother must be put to death.’ 11 But you say, ‘You can tell your father or mother that you don’t have to support them if the money is a gift offering which you get to keep’, 12 so you give them an excuse to not help their own father or mother! 13 You thereby invalidate the Word of God for the tradition you invent. And you do a lot of things like that.”
14 Once again he called the crowd to come to him, and he said, “Listen to me and understand: 15 It isn’t what’s outside of a person and goes into them that contaminates them, but what comes out of them.” 16 17 When he left the crowd and went into the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he replied, “Are you stupid too? Don’t you understand that whatever comes from outside of a person and goes into them cannot contaminate them? 19 It doesn’t go into their heart but into their bowels and then is eliminated.” (In saying this, he was declaring all food ‘clean’.) 20 “What comes out of a person is what contaminates them. 21 For it is out of people’s hearts that come depraved thinking, harlotry, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, evil, treachery, vice, ‘the evil eye’, slander, arrogance, and empty-headedness. 23 All of these evil things come out from the inside and contaminate a person.”
A woman wins an argument with Jesus
24 Leaving there, Jesus went into the region of Tyre. He entered a house and didn’t want anyone to know, but he couldn’t avoid it. 25 Right away a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him and fell down at his feet. 26 She was a foreigner from Syro-Phoenicia, and she asked if he could throw out the demon from her daughter.
27 But he said to her, “First let the children eat their fill; it isn’t right to take the children’s bread and toss it to puppies.”
28 “But sir,” she replied, “Even the puppies under the table eat the scraps the children drop!”
29 “Good answer!” Jesus said to her. “Because of it, you may go; the demon has come out of your daughter.” 30 She went to her home and found the little one placed on a bed, free of the demon.
Jesus heals a deaf and mute man
31 Leaving the region of Tyre, once again he went through Sidon and the Ten Cities to the Sea of Galilee. 32 They brought him someone who was deaf and speech-impaired, pleading with him to place his hand on them. 33 He took the person away from the crowd, put his fingers into the person’s ears, and then spit and touched the person’s tongue. 34 Then he looked up to the sky and sighed deeply, saying, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened up!”). 35 Immediately they were opened up, and the person could hear and their tongue was loosened, and they began to talk normally.
36 Jesus commanded them not to say a thing, but the more he did so, the more they spread the news. 37 They were beyond awestruck and said, “He does everything well! The deaf hear and the mute talk!”