In this session, we once again see how the religious leaders of Jesus’ day set out to attack Him. This time, they asked Jesus why His disciples didn’t wash their hands before they ate. As crazy as it seems, the religious leaders followed many extrabiblical religious rules and expected that everyone else follow them, too. They allowed their traditions to get in the way of following God.

Jesus answered by stating that we honor God by having a pure heart, not by following acts of religious tradition. He went on to challenge the leaders by stating that their hearts were far from God because they had substituted tradition for purity. We can be tempted to get caught up in the same mindset. We can find ourself expecting certain behavior from people and miss the intentions of their heart.