The Pharisees thought that Israel needed to be more holy in order for Yahweh to save them from the oppression they faced. This meant they needed to follow the rules more closely, purging all impurity from Israel, especially by excluding the people who fell short of their laws; the exact people that were so frequently drawn to Jesus. People like those reflected in the parables of chapter 15 about the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.

Through this parable Jesus tells them that the real solution isn’t policing the rules more rigorously, the solution is getting rid of the extra rules they have added on top!