Traditions and Ministry to Gentiles

Attack by the Jerusalem Pharisees About Traditions

(Mt 15:1-20; Mk 7:1-23; Jn 7:1)

^7:1After this, Jesus traveled around Galilee. He didn’t want to travel in Judaea because the Jews were trying to kill him.

7:1Some Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem ²had seen some of his disciples eat with defiled—unwashed—hands. (3The Pharisees and all the Jews always wash their hands vigorously before they eat—keeping the tradition of the elders. ⁴When they come in from the marketplace, they don’t eat unless they take a bath. They keep many other customs—immersing cups, pitchers, bronze kettles [, and stretchers]ms.). ⁵They gathered around Jesus and asked, “Why don’t your disciples follow the tradition of the elders, instead of eating with defiled hands?”

³He answered them,

“And why do you transgress the commandment of God with your tradition? ⁴A case in point: God said, ‘HONOR FATHER AND MOTHER’ [Ex 20:12; Deut 5:16], and ‘PUT TO DEATH WHOEVER CUSSES AT his FATHER OR MOTHER’ [Ex 21:17]. ⁵But you say, ‘Whoever says to father or mother, “Whatever of mine would have helped you I’ve given to God [Corban].” ⁶He surely won’t be honoring his father. ¹²You let him do nothing for his parents. 8-9You neatly set aside divine commandment to establish human tradition. ¹³You negate God’s word with your tradition. You do a lot of things like that.

⁷“Hypocrites, Isaiah described you well,

⁸‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS,

BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR FROM ME.

⁹THEY WORSHIP ME WITHOUT MEANING ANYTHING, AND

TEACH AS DOCTRINES THE RULES OF MEN’ ]Is 29:13 LXX].

¹⁰He called the crowd, “Listen, all of you; get this. ¹¹It’s not what goes in your mouth that defiles you. It’s what comes out of it.”

¹²The disciples came to him, “Do you realize you offended the Pharisees with what you said?”

¹³“Every plant my heavenly Father didn’t plant will be pulled up. ¹⁴Let them alone; they’re blind guides of blind people. If a blind man guides a blind man, they both fall in the ditch.”

¹⁵Peter said, “What’s the illustration mean?”

¹⁶“Youpl still don’t understand either? ¹⁷You do know, don’t you, that everything that goes in your mouth goes in your stomach and ends up in the toilet? [cleansing all foods] Nothing that goes in you can defile you, because it doesn’t go in your heart. ¹⁸But, what comes out of your mouth comes from your heart: that’s what defiles you. ¹⁹It’s from your heart that evil thoughts come, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, lying, slander, blasphemy, ²²coveting, wickedness, deception, indecency, jealousy, pride, senselessness. ²⁰They’re what defile you. Not washing your hands when you eat, doesn’t defile you.”

Healing the Syrophoenician Woman’s Daughter

(Mt 15:21-28; Mk 7:24-30)

²⁴From there Jesus left for the territory around Tyre and Sidon and went in a house, because he didn’t want anybody to know, but he couldn’t hide. ²⁵Right away, a Canaanite woman from the area, whose daughter had an unclean spirit, heard about him and ²²began to shout, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David. My daughter’s cruelly demon-possessed.” ²³But Jesus didn’t answer her. ²⁶She was a Greek, a Syrophoenician.

His disciples came and asked him, “Send her away; she keeps shouting behind us.”

²⁴He answered, “I was just sent to the lost sheep in Israel.”

²⁵But she came and bowed down to him, “Lord, help me.”

²⁶“It’s not right to take the children’s food and toss it to the dogs in the house.”

²⁷“Yes, Lord, but even house dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their owners’ table.”

²⁸“You have a lot of faith. It’s as you wish.”

³⁰When she went in her house, she found the little girl lying on her bed and the demon gone. Her daughter was healed from then on.

Ministry in Decapolis;

Feeding the Four Thousand

(Mt 15:29-39; Mk 7:31-8:9)

³¹Jesus left the area around Tyre, and traveled through Sidon to Lake Galilee. ²⁹He crossed over the lake, and went up on a hill in the Decapolis and sat down. ³⁰Big crowds came with lame, blind, disabled, mute, and other needs; and put them by him, and he healed them. ³¹They were amazed to see the mute speak, the disabled healthy, the lame walk, the blind see; and they glorified Israel’s God.

³²They brought him a deaf man with a speech impediment, and asked him to lay his hand on him. ³³He took him away from the crowd by himself, and put his fingers in his ears and spit and touched his tongue. ³⁴He looked up at the sky, and made a groaning sound and said, “Ephphatha [Open up].” ³⁵His ears opened, and the bond of his tongue loosened, and he started speaking clearly. ³⁶Jesus told the people not to tell anybody; but the more he told people to keep something quiet, the more they spread it around. ³⁷They were completely astonished, “He’s done everything well. He even makes deaf people hear and mutes speak.”

^8:1At that time again the large crowd didn’t have anything to eat. ³²Jesus called his disciples to him, “I feel for the crowd. They’ve stayed with me three days already without anything to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry for fear they’ll give out on the way. Some of them have come a long way.”

³³His disciples said, “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.”

³⁵He had the crowd sit down on the ground. ³⁶He took the seven loaves and the fish, blessed them, broke them up, and gave them to the disciples to pass out to the crowd. ³⁷They all ate till they were full. The disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover pieces. About ³⁸four thousand men ate—besides women and children. ³⁹After he dismissed them, he directly got in a boat and went to the area around Magadan and Dalmanutha.

Visit to Magadan;

Demand for a Sign from the Sky

(Mt 16:1-4; Mk 8:10-13)

16:1The Pharisees and the Sadducees came ¹¹and began to argue with him and demand a sign from the sky, testing him.

¹²He groaned under his breath, “Why do people today keep looking for a sign? ²When evening comes, you say, ‘It’ll be fair weather; the sky’s red.’ ³In the morning, ‘It’ll be bad weather today; the sky’s red and dark.’ You can read the sky, but you can’t read the signs of the times. ⁴An evil and adulterous generation keeps looking for a sign, but it’s not going to get one—except for the sign of Jonah.”

¹³He got in the boat again and went back to the other side.

Fourth Withdrawal East of the Lake; Warning to the Disciples

(Mt 16:5-12; Mk 8:14-26)

⁵The disciples went to the other side and had forgotten to take bread. ¹⁴They had just one loaf left in the boat. ¹⁵He gave them strict orders, ⁶“Watch out for the ‘leaven’ of the Pharisees and Sadducees and Herodians.”

⁷They started talking among themselves, “He said that because we didn’t bring any bread.”

⁸Jesus knew it, “Men with little faith, why are you talking about not having any bread? ¹⁷Don’t you get it yet? Do you have hearts that don’t understand? ¹⁸Do you have eyes but don’t see, and ears but don’t hear? Don’t you remember ¹⁹how many baskets of leftovers you picked up when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand?”

“Twelve.”

²⁰How many large baskets of leftovers did you pick up when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand?”

“Seven.”

²¹“You still don’t catch on?”

¹²Then they understood he hadn’t warned them about the leaven in bread, but about the “teaching” of the Pharisees and Sadducees.