¹⁰ Jesus called the crowd together and said, “Pay attention and try to understand what I mean. ¹¹ The food you put into your mouth doesn’t make you unclean and unfit to worship God. The bad words that come out of your mouth are what make you unclean.”

¹² Then his disciples came over to him and asked, “Do you know you insulted the Pharisees by what you said?”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Every plant that my Father in heaven did not plant will be pulled up by the roots. ¹⁴  Stay away from those Pharisees! They are like blind people leading other blind people, and all of them will fall into a ditch.”

¹⁵ Peter replied, “What did you mean when you talked about the things that make people unclean?”

¹⁶ Jesus then said:

Don’t any of you know by now what I am talking about? ¹⁷ Don’t you know that the food you put into your mouth goes into your stomach and then out of your body? ¹⁸  But the words that come out of your mouth come from your heart. And they are what make you unfit to worship God. ¹⁹ Out of your heart come evil thoughts, murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, vulgar deeds, stealing, telling lies, and insulting others. ²⁰ These are what make you unclean. Eating without washing your hands will not make you unfit to worship God.

A Woman’s Faith

²¹ Jesus left and went to the territory near the towns of Tyre and Sidon. ²² Suddenly a Canaanite woman from there came out shouting, “Lord and Son of David, have pity on me! My daughter is full of demons.” ²³ Jesus did not say a word. But the woman kept following along and shouting, so his disciples came up and asked him to send her away.

²⁴ Jesus said, “I was sent only to the people of Israel! They are like a flock of lost sheep.”

²⁵ The woman came closer. Then she knelt down and begged, “Please help me, Lord!”

²⁶ Jesus replied, “It isn’t right to take food away from children and feed it to dogs.”

²⁷ “Lord, this is true,” the woman said, “but even puppies get the crumbs that fall from their owner’s table.”

²⁸ Jesus answered, “Dear woman, you really do have a lot of faith, and you will be given what you want.” At that moment her daughter was healed.