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 becomes an answer to a question put directly to Jesus: why do Your disciples eat with unwashed hands? (see Mark 7:5). And this question is not simply a reproach for untidiness or ignorance of hygiene rules; it is a question concerning tradition: "For the Pharisees and all the Jews, holding to the tradition of the elders, do not eat unless they wash their hands carefully; and 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: the washing of cups, pitchers, kettles, and couches" (Mark 7:3-4). And suddenly the Pharisees notice something that deeply offends them: someone is not keeping this tradition, which for them is equivalent to an insult.

Here a natural question arises: were Jesus' disciples not Jews? Of course they were, and they surely knew this rule perfectly well. But the point is that now they are disciples of the Teacher, and not simply Jews. The freedom of the Spirit, the freedom of love, is already beginning to act in their hearts, calling them to fulfill the true law given by God and 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 within them and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall no longer teach one another, brother teaching brother, and say, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest" (Jer 31:33).