Jesus had caused a stir among the religious elite. Why was this? Because of the miracles He was doing, because crowds were flocking to Him, and because they recognised an authority in His teaching. So the religious leaders were forever sending fact-finding teams to find out just what was happening. However, their motivation was not to find out what they could learn, but to work out how best to stop Jesus.
They were looking for an excuse to condemn Jesus, and would do this through His disciples if necessary. They noted that the disciples did not follow the Pharisees' strict code of washing to maintain "ritual cleanliness". This practice was actually not found in the Law, but was a rule of man.
So in answering them Jesus turns their question into a challenge by quoting from Isaiah 29:3. Their hearts were far from God, and they tried to cover this up by lots of man-made laws. The Pharisees had "let go of God" and were holding to merely human rules. This is a very human trait, and all of us need to be on our guard against it.
Jesus then intensified the attack. The Law of God clearly taught that we should care for our parents, yet the Pharisees had invented a rule that by declaring something as "devoted to God". This sounded good, but in reality was a of avoiding providing for your parents.
Again we see the insidious effect of legalism. We particularly need to be on our guard against this in regard to tithing. We can easily become legalistic in this area, and then our hearts become hardened.
Next Jesus turns to the crowds and teaches them. The truth is that it is the condition of the human heart that counts. Various foods etc have no effect on our spiritual well-being, on the condition of our soul. The source of evil is our heart, so it is our heart that needs to get sorted out.
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