Matthew 15:120, NIV
Map stones: not an easy to understand and accept about washing hands before they eat..I think more coming from the angle of following rules of man than following the commands of God; not so much from hygiene angle; blind guides; Jesus knows what they are thinking and what is on their hearts.
Matthew 15:1-20
[1]Then some Pharisees and teachers of the Law came from Jerusalem to Jesus and asked him,
[2]“Why is it that your disciples disobey the teaching handed down by our ancestors? They don’t wash their hands in the proper way before they eat!”
[3]Jesus answered, “And why do you disobey God’s command and follow your own teaching?
[4]For God said, ‘Respect your father and your mother,’ and ‘Whoever curses his father or his mother is to be put to death.’
[5]But you teach that if a person has something he could use to help his father or mother, but says, ‘This belongs to God,’
[6]he does not need to honour his father. In this way you disregard God’s command, in order to follow your own teaching.
[7]You hypocrites! How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you!
[8]‘These people, says God, honour me with their words, but their heart is really far away from me.
[9]It is no use for them to worship me, because they teach human rules as though they were my laws!’ ”
[10]Then Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand!
[11]It is not what goes into a person’s mouth that makes him ritually unclean; rather, what comes out of it makes him unclean.”
[12]Then the disciples came to him and said, “Do you know that the Pharisees had their feelings hurt by what you said?”
[13]“Every plant which my Father in heaven did not plant will be pulled up,” answered Jesus.
[14]“Don’t worry about them! They are blind leaders of the blind; and when one blind man leads another, both fall into a ditch.”
[15]Peter spoke up, “Explain this saying to us.”
[16]Jesus said to them, “You are still no more intelligent than the others.
[17]Don’t you understand? Anything that goes into a person’s mouth goes into his stomach and then on out of his body.
[18]But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these are the things that make a person ritually unclean.
[19]For from his heart come the evil ideas which lead him to kill, commit adultery, and do other immoral things; to rob, lie, and slander others.
[20]These are the things that make a person unclean. But to eat without washing your hands as they say you should — this doesn’t make a person unclean.”