It is possible to be very religious, to read the Bible and to memorize the Bible, and to miss the whole point. It’s possible to set your focus on the externals of worship and religion, and be a complete stranger to the reality of it — to the heart of it. When someone is religious but they don’t know God — when they are religiously disciplined but without spiritual life — they embody what it means to have a form of godliness but to deny the power of godliness. They are a religious shell. They are like a body that has no soul.

Jesus has just answered His antagonists with truth. The Pharisees and scribes claim to be upholders of holiness when in fact they stand in opposition to true holiness. They substitute tradition for truth — human commands for divine commands. They have met the true God face to face and found Him unacceptable. What this means is that their claims to know the true God,
and to be spiritual guides for the true God, are lies.

They are self-deceived. They are hypocrites. They are blind guides of the blind.

Jesus has made this clear.

But what about the specific issue that they raised with Jesus? They claimed that Christ’s disciples were defiled — ritually defiled — because they did not practice the washings that the tradition of the elders required.

What would Jesus say about that specific issue?