1Then Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came to Jesus and asked,
2“Why do your disciples ignore the tradition of our elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
3He answered them, “Why do you ignore God’s commandment because of your tradition?
4For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death.’
5But you say that if someone tells their father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might have received from me is now a gift dedicated to God,’
6then they don’t have to honor their father or mother. So you have canceled God’s commandment for the sake of your tradition.
7You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
8‘These people honor me with their mouths, but their hearts are far from me.
9Their worship is pointless, for they teach rules made by humans as if they were God's own teachings.’”
10He called the crowd closer and said to them, “Listen and understand this:
11What goes into your mouth doesn’t make you unclean; rather, what comes out of your mouth makes you unclean.”
12Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended by what you just said?”
13But he answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be pulled up by the roots.
14Leave them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. If a blind person guides another blind person, both will fall into a ditch.”
15Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.”
16So Jesus said, “Are you still so slow to understand?
17Don’t you realize that whatever goes into the mouth goes into the stomach and then leaves the body?
18But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these are what make a person unclean.
19For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander.
20These are the things that make a person unclean; but eating with unwashed hands doesn't make a person unclean.
21Jesus left that place and went to the area of Tyre and Sidon.
22Suddenly, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and shouted, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is terribly troubled by a demon!"
23But Jesus didn't say a word to her. His followers came and urged him, "Send her away, because she keeps yelling after us."
24But Jesus answered, "I was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel."
25But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me!"
26He answered, "It's not right to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs."
27But she said, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."
28Then Jesus replied to her, "Woman, you have great faith! What you wish for will be done." And her daughter was healed at that very moment.
29Jesus left that place and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountain and sat down there.
30Large crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, blind, mute, crippled, and many others. They laid them at his feet, and he healed them.
31As a result, the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing - and they praised the God of Israel.
32Jesus called his followers to him and said, "I feel sorry for these people, because they have been with me for three days now and have nothing to eat. I don't want to send them away hungry, or they might collapse on the way."
33His followers said to him, "Where can we get enough bread in this deserted place to feed such a large crowd?"
34Jesus asked them, "How many loaves of bread do you have?" They replied, "Seven, and a few small fish."
35He told the crowd to sit down on the ground.
36Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his followers, and they, in turn, gave them to the crowds.
37Everyone ate and was satisfied. They picked up seven large baskets full of the leftover pieces.
38There were four thousand men who ate, besides women and children.
39After that, he sent the crowds away, got into the boat, and went to the region of Magdala.