The religious leaders of Jesus' day (the Pharisees and Scribes) had made the mistake of assuming they were more spiritual than the Apostles because they washed their hands before they ate. In this story, we see one of the core issues regarding the Pharisees: the problem of elevating man-made law over God's commands. Where are we susceptible to pride? Are any of our hands actually clean?

In one of the most well known miracles of the Bible, Jesus sends His apostles out alone on a boat only to approach them while walking on the water. What was Jesus intention? What is the deeper understanding to what’s going when He “intended to pass them by?” Why don’t His apostles understand what He’s doing?

For thousands of years, the Israelites sacrificed animals to atone for their wrongdoing before God, but what did these sacrifices actually do, and more importantly, what didn't they do? Hebrews 9 and 10 tell us that those sacrifices were not sufficient to forgive our sins and that only Jesus Christ's sacrifice of Himself on the cross could remove the penalty of our sin.