Good morning. We are skipping some of the things that were also in Matthew. The
kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and
gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows – how, he himself does not know. The soil
produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. But
when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.
Skipping a lot: after the feeding of the 5000 when the disciples were in the boat and Jesus was
walking upon the water, Mark does not mention about Peter walking upon the water. The
Pharisees noticed that some of His disciples were eating bread with impure hands, that is,
unwashed. (He’s not talking about washing your hands with soap and water like we do. It was
a ceremonial dipping into water.) The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they
carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders. There were other
traditions such as the washing of dishes. Again, this was not with soap and water. In fact the
word translated washing is the same Greek word from which we get baptizing. The Pharisees
wanted to know why His disciples did not walk according to the tradition of the elders, eating
bread with impure hands. Jesus quoted scripture: this people honors Me with their lips, but
their heart is far away from Me. But in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the
precepts of men. And of course we get that today – religious people come up with things that
Christians should do or should not do. Too many times these things are just some legalistic
way that these people think Christians should live their lives. Father thank You that You look at
what is in a person‘s heart. Help us to follow after You diligently.

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