The saying belongs to the confrontation in which Pharisees and scribes charged Christ because His disciples ate bread without the ceremonial handwashings demanded by the tradition of the elders. Christ and His disciples did not observe those washings, and the hostile spies made that neglect their accusation, striking at Him by attacking His disciples rather than accusing Him directly before the multitude. The complaint rested on traditional precepts that encumbered the law of God under the profession of guarding it, yet were treated as more sacred than the law itself and were preferred whenever they collided with the commandments given from Sinai. Ceremonial purification before eating was the most strenuously enforced of these observances, with neglect counted a heinous sin punishable in this world and the next, while numberless rules made life one long struggle against ceremonial defilement and turned attention away from the great principles of God's law. In that setting the saying is a call to give careful attention to what Jesus is teaching.
The saying belongs to the confrontation in which Pharisees and scribes charged Christ because His disciples ate bread without the ceremonial handwashings demanded by the tradition of the elders. Christ and His disciples did not observe those washings, and the hostile spies made that neglect their accusation, striking at Him by attacking His disciples rather than accusing Him directly before the multitude. The complaint rested on traditional precepts that encumbered the law of God under the profession of guarding it, yet were treated as more sacred than the law itself and were preferred whenever they collided with the commandments given from Sinai. Ceremonial purification before eating was the most strenuously enforced of these observances, with neglect counted a heinous sin punishable in this world and the next, while numberless rules made life one long struggle against ceremonial defilement and turned attention away from the great principles of God's law. In that setting the saying is a call to give careful attention to what Jesus is teaching.