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When the Pharisees and teachers come to ask Jesus questions, they don't ask because they want to know, they ask because they want to find fault. We all know people who ask questions like this! Read through Matthew 15:1-20 and let the ideas expressed by the people in these verses soak into your mind and understanding. Notice what the Pharisees and teachers thought, what the disciples thought, and what Jesus thought.
Yahshua makes it really plain for the disciples although he clearly regrets that they haven't understood fully without additional explanation. Uncleanness is not a matter of ritual washing, it's a matter of bad words coming from a bad heart. It's not about dirt going in, it's about dirt coming out.
To what extent does this apply to us too? Are we sometimes more concerned about how we look or how people think of us than we should be? Do we sometimes say or do things that reveal what we hold and think in our hearts and minds? Are we scrupulous about the outside but not about the inside?
Jesus once said, "I am the way, the truth and the life". When we are on the journey with him, hearing and speaking his truth, living his life and letting him live within us, how will that affect what goes into us and what comes out? The disciples quite literally walked with him, talked with him and lived with him daily. So can we - can't we?
The more potent question (as it was for the crowds following him) is, "Will we?" Are we truly disciples? Or are we merely in the crowd, coming for help and healing and then returning home to live the old routines again?
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