What could be more important than understanding this! The Pharisees
of Jesus' day exposed unyielding self-deception in their ritual
washing, vain worship and hypocrisy. God desires personal relationships
and genuine worship, not ritual.
When a woman begs Jesus to cast out an unclean spirit from her
daughter, he rewards her persistence and faith. On the other hand,
he reprimands the disciples' hard-hearted response, which depicts
the universal problem of the human heart.