Religion & Spirituality
Jesus is confronted by a group of people that don't like his hygiene habits. In the context of the story, these rituals are meant to reflect purity and nearness to God. By not doing them as prescribed, the group is assuming Jesus is further from God than others. Its a story and a teaching from Jesus that compels us to consider all the ways we put up barriers between ourselves and others for the sake of purity and goodness. We find differences in each other and use those as reasons to assume they are not quite as good as we. Its a troubling thought and a troubling text and doesn't really have anything to do with keeping our hands clean.