Matthew 15 Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Matthew 15:1-11

A. Find Out:

1. Of what did the Pharisees complain? v.1,2

Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”

2. What did Jesus say they were doing? v.3

Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?

3. What had God said? v.4

For God said, `Honor your father and mother’ and `Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’

4. How had they annulled that? v.5,6

But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, `Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ he is not to `honor his father’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

5. How did Jesus say Isaiah described them? v.7-9

You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ” These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’”

6. How did Jesus define what was clean or unclean? v.10,11

Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him `unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him `unclean.’

B. Think:

1. How were the Pharisees seen to be more concerned with externals?
2. How did Jesus show they missed the heart of the Law?
3. How did Jesus define what really made a person unclean?

C. Comment:

The Pharisees focused on outward behavior and Jesus focused on the inner heart. The Pharisees, note first, were concerned about OUTWARD RITUAL. Unwittingly they gave themselves away when they spoke about the “tradition of the elders”. Tradition is a practice that has grown up from long usage, but it is not a law. This was tradition from the men who ruled Judaism, not from God, and they were offended that Jesus was not complying with their expectations. Their rules were concerned to keep a man “clean” by making sure that dirt did not go into him.

Note second, that instead of arguing the point with them Jesus pointed out, instead, that essentially their whole system of rule keeping was flawed. By making more and more minute rules they had in fact lost the very heart of the law of God. He demonstrated this by the way they were not honoring their parents but apparently honoring God instead! Jesus denounces them as those who say they honor God but who, in fact, are far from God. Cleanliness is not about what goes into a person but what comes out of them. A person is unclean on the inside, in the heart, and that is shown by what comes out on the lips.

D. Application:

1. We focus on external; Jesus focuses on the heart.
2. We are worried about the details of doing, but Jesus challenges our entire outlook and relationship with God.

Passage: Matthew 15:12-20

A. Find Out:

1. What do the disciples tell Jesus? v.12

Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”

2. What principle does Jesus state? v.13

He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.

3. How does he describe the Pharisees? v.14

Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

4. What did Peter ask and how did Jesus describe him? v.15,16

Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”   “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them.

5. What did Jesus say about food going into the body? v.17,20b

“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body?…. eating with unwashed hands does not make him `unclean.’ “

6. What did he say about things coming out of the mouth? v.18-20a

But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man `unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man `unclean’

B. Think:

1. What do Jesus’ various descriptions of people tell us about him?
2. What had been the problem of the Pharisees?
3. How do the disciples and Peter show themselves?

C. Comment:

Today’s reading is simply an extension and explanation of yesterday’s, so let’s first just take note of the teaching that is here: man so often focuses on outward things and worries about how outward things may pollute or make him unclean, e.g., by having contact with certain people or going to certain places. No, says Jesus clearly, it is what is in the heart that matters. All wrong behavior stems from a wrong heart. Heart condition is all important. Now that is the teaching but the circumstances surrounding the teaching, confirms it.

First of all, there are the Pharisees whose hearts were polluted and yet gave such a show of “doing the right thing”. Don’t bother about them, says Jesus to his disciples, the time will come when God sorts them out and they will bring their own downfall anyway. Then there are the disciples themselves showing a remarkable obtuseness in their inability to understand what is happening and being said. Perhaps we need to realize that they had not yet received the Holy Spirit and therefore they show us “good followers” without the revelation that only the Spirit can bring. Finally note how Jesus speaks. Here is a man known for his compassion and yet look and see how he describes the Pharisees and Peter. He is a speaker of truth!

D. Application:

1. We understand because the Holy Spirit reveals it.
2. Jesus speaks truth to reveal and to correct. Are we open to receive it?

Passage: Matthew 15:21-28

A. Find Out:

1. To where did Jesus go and who came to him? v.21,22a

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him,

2. What was she asking and what was Jesus’ response? v.22b,23

crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.” Jesus did not answer a word.

3. What was his response to his disciples? v.24

So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

4. What was his response to the woman? v.25,26

The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”

5. What was her response to Jesus? v.27

“Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

6. So what did Jesus say and do? v.28

Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

B. Think:

1. What appeared to be Jesus’ reasoning for not helping the woman?
2. What do you think might have been a further reason?
3. What does this then teach us?

C. Comment:

Jesus has gone to the far north. For what reason? We aren’t told. Perhaps specifically to encounter this woman? Anyway, hearing of Jesus being there she comes and pleads for Jesus to help her. Somewhat uncharacteristically, we might think, Jesus seems to completely disregard her pleas. His spoken reasoning is interesting: I have a mission to go to the Jewish people and not beyond them, therefore I will not be pushed beyond my calling, even by need!

A need does not present a calling; there are too many needs, we cannot cover them all, just those that God tells us to go to. Although that may sometimes appear hard, it is nevertheless the truth. Jesus worked according to the leading of his Father (see John 5:19), and that only.

But when we see what happened, we may conclude that perhaps Jesus was wanting this woman to push harder. Her answer to him indicates wisdom and is certainly an act of perseverance. In Mt 7:7 Jesus had said ask (and the verb in the original means “keep on asking”), seek and keep on seeking, and knock and keep on knocking. This woman is the classic example of this.

D. Application:

1. Jesus is never lacking compassion, so if he appears to be holding back answering prayer, it is for a good reason.
2. We are to learn to persevere in prayer and when we have a strong need, we are to make strong persevering prayer for it.

Passage: Matthew 15:29-39

A. Find Out:

1. Where did Jesus next go and what happened? v.29,30

Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them.

2. How did the people react? v.31

The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.

3. What did Jesus feel and what did he say to his disciples? v.32

Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”

4. What was the response of his disciples? v.33

His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?”

5. Yet what was available? v.34

“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.”

6. So what happened? v.35-39

He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was four thousand, besides women and children. After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.

B. Think:

1. How would you summarize v.29-31?
2. What is it that prompts the next miracle? What do the disciples reveal about themselves?

C. Comment:

Jesus has just been in a quiet location in the north, perhaps gaining fresh strength to minister to the need that he knows he will soon encounter again. As soon as he returns to Galilee the crowds come again wanting healing. Great crowds come bringing every sort of healing need and Jesus healed them all. You would expect him to be exhausted at the end of all that ministry, yet at the end of the day his only concern is for the further need of the people, the need to be fed.

The process of this miracle is almost identical to the feeding of the 5000 recorded in chapter 14. Again, when he questions the disciples, they do not respond in faith. You might think that, after the previous feeding, and after watching the amazing healings, they might have faith to believe that Jesus can meet this need as well. A better answer to Jesus’ question might have been, “Well what have you in mind Lord?”, but they simply focus on the size of the problem. Jesus knows what he wants to do, because he is Lord. The sensible thing in such circumstances is to ask him what he wants of us!

D. Application:

1. Jesus is our example of a man who gives and gives and having given is still just concerned for the needs of others. Do we receive the challenge to walk in his footsteps?
2. The disciples focused on the size of the problem not on the Lord himself and his intentions. Can we learn the lesson here?