Matthew Chapter 15
Attack by the Jerusalem Pharisees
About Traditions
1 Then Pharisees and scribes camep from Jerusalem, 2 “Why don’t your disciples keep the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat.”
3 He answered them,
“Why do you transgress God’s commandment with your tradition? 4 A case in point: God said, ‘Honor your parents’ [Ex 20:12; Deut 5:16], and ‘Execute whoever cusses at his father or mother’ [Ex 21:17]. 5 But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “I’ve given God what you could have used,” 6 certainly wouldn’t be honoring his father. You’ve negated God’s word with your tradition. 7 You foolish people, Isaiah described you well,
8 ‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me.
9 They worship me without meaning it,
and teach their rules as doctrines.’” [Is 29:12 LXX].
10 He called the crowd, “Listen and get this. 11 It’s not what goes in your mouth that defiles you, but what comes out of it.”
12 Then the disciples came to him, “Do you realize you offended the Pharisees with what you said?”
13 “Every plant my heavenly Father hasn’t planted will be pulled up. 14 Let them alone; they’re blind guides of the blind. If the blind guides the blind, they both fall into the ditch.”
15 Peter said, “What does your illustration mean?”
16 “Youpl still don’t understand either? 17 You do know, don’t you, that everything that goes in your mouth goes into your stomach and is eliminated in the toilet. 18 But what comes out of your mouth comes from your heart. That’s what defiles you. 19 Evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, stealing, lying, insults come from your heart. 20 They are what defile you. Not washing your hands when you eat doesn’t defile you.”
Mt 15:1-20
Healing the Syrophoenician Woman’s Daughter
21 Jesus left for the territory around Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman there began to shout, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter’s cruelly demon-possessed!” 23 But Jesus didn’t answer her.
His disciples came and asked him, “Send her away; she keeps shouting behind us.”
24 He answered her, “I was just sent to the lost sheep in Israel.”
25 But she came and bowed down, “Help me, Lord.”
26 “It’s not right to take the kids’ food and toss it to the house dogs.”
27 “Yes, but even house dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their owners’ table.”
28 “Dear woman, you have strong faith. Have what you asked for.” Her daughter was healed from then on.
Mt 15:21-28
Ministry in Decapolis;
Feeding the 4,000
29 Jesus crossed Lake Galilee and went up on a hill and sat down. 30 Big crowds came with lame, blind, disabled, mute, and other conditions, and put them by him to heal them. 31 They were amazed at seeing the mute speak, the crippled cured, the lame walk, the blind see; and they praised Israel’s God.
32 Jesus called his disciples to him, “I feel for the crowd. They’ve stayed with me three days without anything to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry for fear they’ll give out on the way.”
33 His disciples saidp, “Where can we get enough bread out in the country to satisfy such a crowd?”
34 “How many loaves do you have?”
“Seven—and a few small fish.”
35 He had the crowd sit down on the ground. 36 He took the seven loaves and the fish, blessed them, and broke them up for the disciples to pass out to the crowd. 37 They all ate their fill, and the disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover pieces. 38 4,000 men ate—besides women and children. 39 After he dismissed them, he got in a boat and went to the area around Magadan.
Mt 15:29-39