Wednesday, September 2

⁴⁵Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dispersed the crowd. ⁴⁶After saying goodbye to them, he went to the mountain to pray. ⁴⁷When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea and he was alone on the land. ⁴⁸He saw them straining at the oars because the wind was against them. As the night was ending, he came to them walking on the sea, for he wanted to pass by them. ⁴⁹When they saw him walking on the water they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, ⁵⁰for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them: “Have courage! It is I. Do not be afraid.” ⁵¹Then he went up with them into the boat, and the wind ceased. They were completely astonished, ⁵²because they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

⁵³After they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and anchored there. ⁵⁴As they got out of the boat, people immediately recognized Jesus. ⁵⁵They ran through that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever he was rumored to be. ⁵⁶And wherever he would go—into villages, towns, or countryside—they would place the sick in the marketplaces, and would ask him if they could just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

¹Now the Pharisees and some of the experts in the law who came from Jerusalem gathered around him. ²And they saw that some of Jesus’ disciples ate their bread with unclean hands, that is, unwashed. ³(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they perform a ritual washing, holding fast to the tradition of the elders. ⁴And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. They hold fast to many other traditions: the washing of cups, pots, kettles, and dining couches.) ⁵The Pharisees and the experts in the law asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with unwashed hands?”

⁶He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written:“‘This people honors me with their lips,but their hearts are far from me.

⁷They worship me in vain,teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.’

⁸Having no regard for the command of God, you hold fast to human tradition.” ⁹He also said to them, “You neatly reject the commandment of God in order to set up your tradition. ¹⁰For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death.’ ¹¹But you say that if anyone tells his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you would have received from me is corban’ (that is, a gift for God), ¹²then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother. ¹³Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like this.”

¹⁴Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand. ¹⁵There is nothing outside of a person that can defile him by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles him.”

¹⁷Now when Jesus had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. ¹⁸He said to them, “Are you so foolish? Don’t you understand that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him? ¹⁹For it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and then goes out into the sewer.” (This means all foods are clean.) ²⁰He said, “What comes out of a person defiles him. ²¹For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²²adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and folly. ²³All these evils come from within and defile a person.”