Now Jesus turns to the crowd. This pattern of criticising the Pharisees and then giving a wider lesson to the crowds occurs several times in Matthew's Gospel.
The key truth Jesus wants to get across is that external observance or ritual does not change a person. We do not become good or bad by what we eat. Observing or not observing some ritual does not make us acceptable nor unacceptable to God. It is not the problem. The problem lies with what is within us.
The disciples must have noticed that the Pharisees were offended when they heard Jesus teach this. Jesus instruction to the disciples is not to overly concern themselves with the Pharisees. God would take care of uprooting bad plants at the right time. This is a lesson to us. There can be a sort of comfort in finding fault with others, with focusing on other groups or individuals who are "doing things wrong". This is a false comfort. They may well be wrong, but we should not waste our time concerning ourselves too much with this. There is positive work to be done in the kingdom and we need to get on and do it.
The disciples still did not really understand what Jesus was saying and Peter voiced this concern. So Jesus has to explain things even more explicitly. What we eat and drink goes in to our stomachs. The way we live and speak reveals what is in our heart. It is our hearts that need to be dealt with.
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