1There were some Jewish law men called Pharisees. From a long time ago these Jewish leaders made up a lot of rules for their people. These rules were not in God’s book. One of these made up rules was this. Before they could eat anything they had to wash their hands in a special way, and after people came home from shopping they had to wash the same way. There were other rules too that those leaders made up long ago, like the way they had to wash cups, billycans, cooking pots and the chairs they sat on to eat their food. These rules didn’t come from God. Some of these Pharisees, and some other law teachers, came from Jerusalem to see Jesus and his followers. They saw that some of Jesus’s followers didn’t wash their hands that special way before they ate food,
5and those law men growled at Jesus and said, “How come your followers don’t follow the rules that our old leaders gave us long ago? Your followers are eating but they didn’t wash their hands the right way. Why don’t they do that hand wash ceremony before they eat?”
6Jesus said back to them, “You mob tell everyone you are good, but really, you are not good. You know that man called Isaiah that lived a long time ago and wrote down God’s words, he wrote a true story about you. He wrote, ‘Those people will show respect to me with their mouth but really, they think another way.
7They have ceremonies for me but, really, they rubbish me. They teach rules that men made up themselves and they tell everybody that these are God’s laws.’
8You mob are just like that. You turn your back on God’s law but you are strong on the rules that men made up.”
9And Jesus kept talking to them, he said, “You mob are tricky in the way you turn your back on God’s law and follow your own rules.
10You see, God told Moses to tell people to look after their old people. Moses wrote this law, ‘You have to respect your father and mother.’ And it says, ‘If anyone rubbishes their father or mother, you have to kill that person.’
11But you mob reckon that a man can tell his father or mother, ‘I want to help you old people, but sorry, I promised to give that thing to God, so I can’t give you that thing that you need.’
12You mob reckon that if he says that to his father and mother, he doesn’t have to help them and he can keep that thing for himself.
13In that way you take God’s word away from people so that they will just follow the rules that you made up. You do all sorts of things like that all the time.”
14Then Jesus called out to all the people to come and listen to him. He said, “Listen to me, everyone, and try to understand what I’m saying.
15Don’t worry about what goes into your mouth but worry about what comes out of it. If God hears bad things come out of your mouth he will say that you are no good inside.”
17After that Jesus stopped talking to all the people and went into his house to take a break. His followers went in with him, and they asked him what he meant by the words he just told the people.
18Jesus said, “What is wrong with you? Don’t you understand me? Listen. If you eat something, it goes into your stomach and some time later it goes out of your body into the toilet. It doesn’t go into your brains. So God will not say, ‘You ate the wrong food and made yourself no good.’ No, he will not say that.” (Jesus said this about food and made it clear for us that all kinds of food are all right.)
20Jesus kept on teaching his followers, he said, “People think inside their heads about bad things, and they go wrong. They get up and do these bad things, and that makes them no good. These are the things they might do, – They might think about all sorts of bad things. – They might play around with anybody, and do what married people do together. – They might be greedy, wanting lots of money and things. – They might want to get something that other people have. – They might steal things. – They might murder somebody. – They might sleep with somebody else’s husband or wife, like they are married to them. – They might trick people. – They might rubbish other people. – They might think that they themselves are great. – They might only think about whatever they want for themselves. – They might do the first bad thing that comes into their mind. – They might do really stupid things. All these bad things come from people thinking the wrong way inside their heads, and these things make people no good.”
24After that Jesus got up and left Galilee country and went north to a town called Tyre. This town was near the salt water sea. The people that lived in Tyre were not Jewish people. Jesus went into a house, so he could sit down by himself for a while, but his plan didn’t work. People heard that he was in that house and they came to visit him.
25There was a Greek woman there. She came from a place called Phoenicia in Syria. Her daughter had a bad spirit inside her. So that woman went to Jesus to get help. She got down on her knees in front of Jesus, to show him respect, and she asked him to force the bad spirit out of her daughter.
27Jesus said to her, “I belong to the Jewish tribe. I have to look after my own people first, not you people that are not Jewish. A man feeds his own kids first. He will not take their food and throw it to the dogs.”
28The woman said, “Yes teacher, you are right about that, but while those kids are eating they drop a few little bits of food, and the dogs under the table can eat those little bits of food. I’m not Jewish but you can still do a little bit for me.”
29Jesus said, “That is a good answer. It shows me that you trust me. You can go home now. I made that bad spirit go out from your daughter just now.”
30Then the woman went home and found her daughter lying down quietly on a bed. The bad spirit was gone.
31Then Jesus left Tyre and walked back through another town called Sidon, and then he went around the north of Lake Galilee to the country everyone called Ten Towns.
32Some people brought a man to Jesus. This man was deaf and he couldn’t talk properly. The man’s friends asked Jesus strongly to put his hand on their friend and make him better.
33Jesus took the man away from the other people and put his fingers in the man’s ears. He spat and touched the man’s tongue.
34Then Jesus looked up into the sky and prayed for the man. He talked in their language, he said, “Ephpatha,” which means Open up.
35And straight away that man could hear properly, and his tongue was better so he could talk properly.
36Jesus went back and told the people strongly, “Don’t tell anyone about the great thing I just did.” But they didn’t listen to Jesus. More and more he asked them to stay quiet but more and more they told other people, “Jesus made that man better.”
37Everyone was really surprised and they said to each other, “Jesus does everything properly. He does really good things for people. He makes deaf people better, so they can hear again, and people that can’t talk, he makes them better too, so they can talk.”
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