rules

"So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, 'Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?' " (Mark 7.5)
It seems that the human tendency is always to push religion to a simplistic list of rules when what God offers us is not rules but relationship. In Ancient Israel, many (including some of the kings) thought that as long as they offered the prescribed sacrifices and observed the prescribed religious holidays, then they were in compliance with God. The problem is that God didn't just want their outward formal observances, God wanted their heart.
So, when Jesus came, he challenged the "traditions of the elders," those man-made rules and regulations that so many had substituted for a real living relationship with God. In this verse, the Pharisees (religious leaders in Jesus' day) were upset because Jesus' disciples did not follow the ritualistic hand washing that they taught everyone to observe. (Sanitation was not the issue here.)
The issue was that the Pharisees claimed that if you didn't meticulously follow the 613 laws of Judaism, plus countless more rules and regulations invented by human tradition, then you were a terrible sinner and could expect judgment from God. They had taken God's laws (which were meant to protect us from harm) and woven them together with their own human traditions. In some cases, they even regarded the human traditions they taught to be more important than God's laws. (see Mark 7.9-13)
Periodically, throughout our history, we've needed people to come along and call us away from counterfeit religion where rules and regulations are taught as the way to righteousness back to what religion is supposed to be about: A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE ONE WHO CREATED US. That's what Martin Luther and John Wesley's ministries were all about.
Remember today that your life with God is more about relationship than rules. Be leery of rules and regulations that are not found in the Word of God, the Bible. Yes, God has given us laws to protect us from things that would harm us in this world. Those laws are there for our good. (see Exodus 20.1-17). The laws are boundary markers, just like a fence around a steep cliff. What's in between those boundaries, though, is the opportunity to know Jesus, the Lord of lords and King of kings, personally. That's what Jesus desires for you this day, not just adherence to a set of cold, impersonal rules.