NOTES for Mat 7:15-20

Before us is an ordinary scene: the Teacher and His disciples; He tells them something, and they listen… This time the parable is an answer to a direct question put to Jesus: why do Your disciples eat with unwashed hands? (see Mk 7:5). This is not merely a reproach that Jesus’ disciples are untidy, ignorant of hygiene, and careless about their health. It is a question concerning tradition: “For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches” (Mk 7:3–4). And suddenly these Pharisees see something that deeply offends them: someone does not observe this tradition, which for them is tantamount to an insult.

We may ask ourselves: were Jesus’ disciples not Jews? They were, and they probably knew this rule well. But the point is that they are already disciples of the Teacher, not merely Jews… And the freedom of the Spirit, the freedom of love, is already beginning to act in their hearts. This love is called to fulfil the true law given by God, separating from it everything superfluous. “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel… says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest” (Jer 31:33).