This speech is pitched in so high a spiritual key that it was not all who had ears to hear it: it notably effected the purpose of separating the chaff from the wheat. What the people expected of the Messiah, and what they looked for in the future life may be gathered from the gospels or from Jewish books;(237) our Lord’s words gave no promise of His fulfilling these hopes of theirs, and so we read— “Upon this many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”(238) Another cause of offence arose at this time. The Pharisees and certain of the Scribes who had come from Jerusalem had seen that some of his disciples ate their bread with defiled, “that is unwashed hands.” These persons had not come from Jerusalem at this time—Passover time—without serious intentions, and these we may be sure were not friendly to our Lord. They fasten on this point of washing before meals, a process not enjoined by Moses but resting on a “tradition of the elders.” The stress however laid on it by the Rabbis was excessively great,(239) and the provisions with regard to it were so minute and troublesome that only those classes who possessed leisure could possibly observe them. Here we come upon a self-righteous exclusiveness; but what was worse than all was the low idea of God involved in the notion that He gave or withdrew his favour according as men were or were not punctilious about trivial acts. Our Lord turns the attack against His assailants, “Full well,” said He, “do you reject the commandment of God that ye may keep your traditions.” He shews how by a Rabbinical fiction they evaded the natural duty of maintaining their parents in their age. “And he called to him the multitude again, and said unto them, Hear me all of you, and understand: there is nothing from without the man, that going into him can defile him: but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man.”(240) It is to be noted that here our Lord turns _to the multitude_. He calls—not only disciples and not only scribes, but every one—to listen to this vindication of the ways of God. These are our Lord’s last words to the people of Capernaum, and the discourse in the synagogue is nearly His last utterance in a place of worship. He would not leave them without a denunciation of that stress upon outward observances, which prevented spiritual religion from growing in their souls. His words are wide, I believe intentionally so, and sweep away those ordinances about meats clean and unclean, which, as sanitary measures, had done good, no doubt, in their time, but which now led one man to think that because he did not eat what another did, he stood religiously on a higher level than his brother. For spiritual religion to become possible, men must be freed from the idea that God’s favour depended on what they eat or drank.