one
of you, and understand: There is nothing from without a man, that
entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him,
those are they that defile the man. If any man have ears to hear, let
him hear." This was directly in conflict with rabbinical precept and
practise; the Pharisees were offended, for they had said that to eat
with hands that had not been ritualistically cleansed was to defile the
food touched, and in turn to become yet more defiled from the food thus
rendered unclean.

The apostles were not sure that they understood the Master's lesson;
though couched in plain, non-figurative language, it was to some of them
very like a parable, and Peter asked an exposition. The Lord explained
that the food one eats is but temporarily part of his body; having
served its purpose of nourishing the tissues and supplying energy to the
organism, it is eliminated; therefore the food that enters the body
through the mouth is of small and transient importance compared with the
utterances that issue from the mouth, for these, if evil, are truly
defiling. As Jesus set forth: "Those things which proceed out of the
mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the
heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts,
false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man; but
to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man."[744]

Some of the disciples asked Jesus whether He knew that the Pharisees had
taken offense at His saying; His answer was a further denunciation of
Pharisaism: "Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted,
shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind.
And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." There
could be no compromize between His doctrine of the kingdom and the
corrupt Judaism of the time. The rulers were plotting against His life;
if their emissaries chose to take offense at His words, let them be
offended and stand the consequences; but blessed would they be if they
were not offended because of Him.[745] He had no conciliatory measures
to offer those whose inability to understand His meaning was the result
of wilful obstinacy, or darkness of mind produced by persistence in sin.

WITHIN THE BORDERS OF TYRE AND SIDON.[746]

Unable to find in Galilee rest, seclusion, or adequate opportunity of
instructing the Twelve as He desired to do, Jesus departed with them
northwa