Matthew 15: Challenge, Deliverance & Feeding Miracle No.2

• v.1-11   The Opposition challenge Jesus about ritual cleansing
• v.12-20 Jesus explains to the disciples
• v.21-28 A Canaanite Woman comes to Jesus
• v.29-39 Jesus Feeds the Four Thousand

v.1-11 The Opposition challenge Jesus about ritual cleansing

v.1,2 Jesus is challenged why his disciples don’t wash their hands

v.1 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked,

v.2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”

[Note: The opposition question Jesus, objecting to his disciples not washing their hands.]

v.3-6 Jesus in turn challenges them

v.3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?

v.4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’

v.5,6 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

[Note: Jesus challenges then about lawbreaking because the Law protected parents [Exo 20:12; Deut 5:16, Exo 21:17; Lev. 20:9] yet they twisted it to avoid caring.]

v.7-11 Publicly Jesus denounces them

v.7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

v.8 “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

v.9 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’

v.10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand.

v.11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”

[Note: Jesus rebukes them, quoting Isa 29:13 – they speak the words but are heartless and their worship is false, preferring man-made rules. He then calls the crowd to learn it’s not what goes in but what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person.]

v.12-20 Jesus explains to the disciples

v.12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”

v.13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.

v.14 Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

v.15 Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”

v.16,17 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them.  “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body?

v.18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.

v.19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

v.20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”

[Note: The disciples ask about the Pharisees. Don’t worry, says Jesus, those not of my father will be dealt with; they are spiritually blind and will fall. Peter asks for explanation and so Jesus questions them but teaches it’s what comes out of the mouth that is important. The wrong heart produces lots of outwards wrongs; words defile, not unwashed hands.]

v.21-28 A Canaanite Woman comes to Jesus

v.21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

v.22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”

v.23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

v.24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

v.25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

v.26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

v.27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

v.28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

[Note: Jesus moves north for a while and a woman comes and pleads for her daughter. Jesus holds back, and the disciples want her to go. He says he was only sent to Israel [not foreigners] but she pleads further and he [tantalizingly] says what he has is only for the Jews. She persists and her faith moves him, and her daughter is healed.]

v.29-39 Jesus Feeds the Four Thousand

v.29-31 Further teaching and healing

v.29 Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down.

v.30 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.

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.

[Note: Jesus goes back south to the Sea of Galilee again but settles on a mountainside [presumably to teach] and great crowds bring all their sick and he healed them all. The people are amazed.]

v.32,33 He challenges the disciples to feed the crowd

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.”

v.33 His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?”

[Note: This time Jesus confronts the need and uses it as a time to challenge the faith of the disciples. (Have they learnt from the previous feeding?)]

v.34-39 When the disciples fail to rise in faith, Jesus fed the crowd again

v.34 “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked.  “Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.”

v.35 He told the crowd to sit down on the ground.

v.36 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.

v.37 They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

v.38 The number of those who ate was four thousand men, besides women and children.

v.39 After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.

[Note: He asks what they have, sits the crowd down, and then fed the crowd with the little they have. Again there is plenty for all plus leftovers. This time there were about 4000 plus women and children. Afterwards he crosses the Lake again.]

For those who may wish to make a study of this chapter, to perhaps think some more about what you have been reading, use the link below: