And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:
Jesus called the whole crowd to Himself with the charge to listen to Him, every one, and to understand, in the midst of His confrontation with the Pharisees and certain scribes over ceremonial washings. The ground of complaint was His disregard of the traditional precepts that encumbered the law of God. Those precepts were professedly intended to guard the law, yet they were regarded as more sacred than the law itself. When they collided with the commandments given from Sinai, the traditions were preferred over the commandments.
The observance most strenuously enforced was ceremonial purification before eating, and neglect of it was counted a heinous sin. Its rules were numberless, keeping people occupied with trifling distinctions that God had not required. That occupation with minutiae turned attention away from the great principles of His law. Christ and His disciples did not observe these washings, and hostile spies made that neglect the basis of accusation. The charge was brought in the presence of the multitude, not by direct attack upon Christ but by charging His disciples with transgressing the tradition of the elders by eating with unwashed hands.
Jesus called the whole crowd to Himself with the charge to listen to Him, every one, and to understand, in the midst of His confrontation with the Pharisees and certain scribes over ceremonial washings. The ground of complaint was His disregard of the traditional precepts that encumbered the law of God. Those precepts were professedly intended to guard the law, yet they were regarded as more sacred than the law itself. When they collided with the commandments given from Sinai, the traditions were preferred over the commandments.
The observance most strenuously enforced was ceremonial purification before eating, and neglect of it was counted a heinous sin. Its rules were numberless, keeping people occupied with trifling distinctions that God had not required. That occupation with minutiae turned attention away from the great principles of His law. Christ and His disciples did not observe these washings, and hostile spies made that neglect the basis of accusation. The charge was brought in the presence of the multitude, not by direct attack upon Christ but by charging His disciples with transgressing the tradition of the elders by eating with unwashed hands.