<p>7:17 <em>When he had entered a house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the parable</em>- Matthew says it was Peter who asked, but Mark as Peter's gospel omits this. The crowds that followed the Lord didn&rsquo;t understand His parables; in fact, He spoke in parables so that they wouldn&rsquo;t understand, as He intended His teaching only to be grasped by the disciples (Mk. 7:17,18; see on 8:29). Therefore, in that very context, it is significant to read of the Lord&rsquo;s frustration and disappointment when the disciples likewise didn&rsquo;t understand the parables. And the record goes on to show that in fact it was a regular occurrence, that they like the crowds didn&rsquo;t understand the parables, and the Lord had to explain to them later. So the disciples, contrary to the Lord&rsquo;s high hopes of them, were no better than the crowds. They too &lsquo;didn&rsquo;t get it&rsquo;; and Mark&rsquo;s i.e. Peter&rsquo;s record of the Gospel therefore brings out the point that they too, the ones now preaching to the crowds, only got the understanding they did of the Lord by an undeserved grace. This is the kind of humility we need in our teaching of others, especially when it involves correcting their lack of understanding on a point.</p><p>The Lord replies by expanding upon what He has said earlier about a man being defiled by what comes out of him, rather than by what he eats or touches. And yet the Lord&rsquo;s teaching&nbsp;was hardly parabolic. Perhaps it was too much for the disciples to believe that the Lord had declared void the entire conception of becoming unclean by what you eat; and they assumed He must be talking in parables. Peter in Acts 10 was still convinced that defiled food should not ever be eaten. But it could also be that the &ldquo;parable&rdquo; Peter wanted explained was what the Lord had just spoken about the blind leading the blind and falling into a ditch; Lk. 6:39 specifically calls this saying a &ldquo;parable&rdquo;. In this case, the Lord didn&rsquo;t oblige, at least not specifically. He went on to expand on His previous teaching that we are defiled by our own thoughts and words, rather than by what we eat. Perhaps the Lord meant that once that point was truly grasped, then it would be apparent that the Pharisees with their concept of ritual defilement by food were blind leaders- and should not be given the status of leaders.</p>