Matthew 15

Jesus teaches about Inner Purity
I love Jesus when He is like this! I can see Him pacing back and forth while speaking here in chapter 15! I imagine His face is flushed and His fists are clenched and He looks like a lion pacing back and forth in a cage, eager to be set free! Maybe that’s why they call Him the “Lion of Judah”!

The Pharisees come to Jesus with a petty squabble and Jesus puts them severely in their place! You see, after the Babylonian exile the religious masterminds started coming up with all these rules and interpretations on the Law and they called it their “tradition of the elders”. It detailed meticulous rules and regulations on how people where to live their daily lives (as if God’s Law wasn’t enough). They ask Jesus why He and His friends don’t wash their hands before they dip it into the hummus bowl.

I can see Jesus wrinkling His forehead up in disbelief when the religious leaders asked Him this....then He jumps all over them in Kung-Fu-Jesus mode!! He asks them point blank why they break God’s Law for the sake of their own man-made rules and regulations. He gives examples and then re-states that same question in verse 6; “You nullify the Word of God for the sake of your own tradition”. Then He goes to quote what I am beginning to think was His favorite book in the Bible, Isaiah. Isaiah 29:13 says “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.” The NLT translation says, “Their worship is a farce”. I know the Pharisees didn’t have the NLT but how could they miss this!!

Jesus goes on to call the crowd to come and listen to what He has to say concerning purity: outward activities don’t correspond to inner righteousness-inner purity comes from the condition of the heart. Then the disciples ask Jesus if He realized that He offended the Pharisees....gotta love the Thick-headed Twelve!! Jesus even asks them, “Are you so dull?” in the same story in Mark chapter 7. He tells them to leave the “blind guides” alone. He warns that if you follow a blind man you may be pulled into the same ditch they fall into. This is a clear warning that Jesus gives us to make sure we know who we are following. Make sure your church or pastor is preaching the one true Word of God. No additions or subtractions to the Bible will be accepted; only the pure, unadulterated Word that God has given us.

Jesus closes out this section by telling us just how evil our hearts have a tendency to be. He fills us in that our hearts can bring forth evil thoughts, sexual immorality, and slander amongst other impure things. So washing our hands before dinner isn’t going to make us clean-surrendering our hearts to God so that He can change them will.

The Faith of an Outsider
This “Gentile” or “Canaanite” woman in this section was looked upon with disdain in Jesus’ time. She was a pagan and an outsider. Because of the racism of the time, it took a lot of courage for her to approach Jesus with her request for Him to heal her daughter. Now Jesus knew her heart and He also knew the heart of those around Him so He used this situation to teach them all a valuable lesson. He starts off by ignoring the woman even though she uses a distinct term recognizing Him as the Messiah (Son of David). The Thick-Headed Twelve urged Jesus to get rid of the woman because of her persistent begging.

Jesus told the woman that He came to help God’s people-the Israelites. I can see the 12 dimwits (I use this term endearingly) smiling at each other and nodding their heads in agreement. This woman however was driven to Jesus out of desperation for her family. She would not be deterred even though she was being ridiculed and despised by those around her. It even seemed like Jesus was pushing her away but in reality His point here was that the Gospel was to be given first but not exclusively to the Jews. The woman understood this and was willing to settle for “crumbs” that were leftover as long as He healed her daughter.

Jesus rewarded her for her great faith and healed her daughter. He also taught us all a great lesson. May we all have the same persistent belief in Jesus that this woman had. Even in the face of adversity she refused to be deterred in her faith. And we should remember that at one time we were all beggars. We have been given the gift of salvation but it is not ours to keep hidden. It is ours to share with all who would ask of it. We are not members of an exclusive club. God wants all to be saved and this section proves that. We should not look upon unbelievers with disdain like the disciples did.

Jesus the Caterer
Again we see Jesus feeding great crowds that had gathered around Him. As before Jesus shows His compassion for those in need. He took a meager offering (this time of 7 loaves and a few small fish) and turned it into enough to feed thousands. We can also take the lesson from this miracle that Jesus used His disciples to distribute the resources and a lot was left over at the end. Jesus also tailored His resources to meet different situations and a different number of people than the first feeding of the masses. He will do the same with us. He can and will meet any situation that requires His grace. He will use us to distribute His love upon others and in the end everyone will be far more blessed than we were before.

Have a great day.

God bless.