Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands before they eat?
The scribes and Pharisees were thought to be great men of religion, but were really enemies to the gospel of Christ. They made a great pretense of how religious they were and followed the Law of Moses, but in reality they created many rules and regulation that they expected the Israelites to follow. In some ways they were tyrants.
One of these so called religious ruling the scribes and Pharisees put upon the Jews concerned the washing of hands before eating meat. To not follow this rule, was as great a sin as adultery.
When they brought this up to Jesus Christ, he reminded them that they honored Jesus with their lips, but hearts were far from him. That whey worshiped Him in vain, and that their teaching was nothing more than rules taught by man.
Do we today in our worship live by the standards of God, or the tradition of man?