It is so unfortunate that so many people on both sides have boiled this brilliant teaching down to a debate about foods being clean, and what counts as food, or even as being about food at all. It isn’t about food! This teaching begins a new phase in the ministry of the Messiah, as He is about to venture out into Gentile lands and must confront the over the top purity standards that would make it impossible for the Gospel to go forth out of Zion to the ends of the world.