OUR HEART DETERMINES OUR CLEANLINESS (Matthew 15:1-20)
The Scribes and the Pharisees cared more about fulfilling the traditions of man than the commandments of God
The religious leaders wanted Jesus to admonish His disciples for not following the traditions of the elders, specifically in regards to the hand-washing ceremony before partaking in a meal. And how did Jesus respond?
Matthew 15:3
Why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?
What did Jesus mean by that? There are at least two levels of understanding here.
1. Specifically, hand-washing ceremony was a tradition of man, NOT God
2. Generally, the religious leaders cared more about fulfilling traditions of man than the commandments of God
Historical documentation shows that the religious leaders took the commandments of God and developed hundreds of laws to further define what God "really meant." For example, God gave the commandment to rest on the 7th day (the Sabbath), to do no work. The idea of this rest is to remember that God created the world in 6th days and rested on the 7th, to bathe in God's provision, and to return our heart to the Lord (Exodus 31:16-17).
As always with God, it's always about our heart condition. However, not grasping this concept, the religious leaders created hundreds of laws that define "work," and to this day, when we visit Jerusalem, we will find these laws at work. For example, there are Sabbath elevators that automatically stop on every floor, because pushing a button on Sabbath is considered work, and the Sabbath elevator circumvents breaking this law. But whose law is this? God's or man's?
Similarly, the hand-washing ceremonies the religious leaders held so close to their heart weren't commanded by God but developed and defined by man. Worse, the heart condition of those who were so intent on obeying these man-made traditions has lost sight on the point of it all: To return our heart to God. The religious leaders held themselves above the rest because of their ability to carry out these man-made traditions to perfection. They used it to prove how they were better than the rest, how they were so much more holy than the rest. They certainly weren't keeping these traditions to get closer to God, to return their heart to God! This isn't just my opinion, as Jesus immediately rebuked the religious leaders for holding the traditions of man more dearly than the commandments of God (Matthew 15:3-9).
Mark 7:8-9
For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the traditions of men -- the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do. ... All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.
Jesus points out the hypocritical heart condition of the religious leaders
Jesus gave examples of how the religious leaders took the Law of Moses out of context and manipulate it so that the Law would benefit their own personal gain.
Matthew 15:4-6 (cf. Mark 7:10-13)
For God commanded, saying, "Honor your father and your mother"; and, "He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death. But you say, "whoever says to his father or mother, 'Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift/Corban to God' -- then he need not honor his father or mother."
Here, Jesus uses the Law, "Honor your father and your mother," as an example. Clearly, the Law tells us to treat our parents with respect and to take care of them. However, the Pharisees created their own law that states, any money they make is a gift to God – and so, they can’t give any it to their parents, because, gosh darn, that money belongs to God. (They had no qualms with using it to purchase beautiful priestly robes and silverware, etc., all in God's name, of course.)
"Corban" was a man-made practice set up by the religious leaders. The original intent was good (just like the original intent of hand-washing ceremonies), for it encouraged people to set aside money dedicated to God as a gift that could be given until a later date. However, here, Jesus rebuked the religious leaders for taking advantage of this tradition for their own personal gain.
The religious leaders used the law of Corban to avoid giving any financial support to their parents. They used methods such as these to siphon off money that was meant to go toward God to their own pockets instead. One of the most basic commandments of God is for us to honor our parents (Exodus 20:12). Yet, what did the religious leaders do? They manipulated the good intentions of the law of Corban to claim that since all that they have belonged to God, they had nothing left go give to their own parents.
Matthew 15:6
Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.
In sum, the religious leaders believed all the laws that they have created make them holy, but in reality, Jesus condemned them for caring more about the traditions of man than following the true commandment of the Lord. Jesus openly rebuked the religious leaders for their dishonest, hypocrite behavior. They claim to be the most holy representatives of their people, and yet, time after time, they chose to disobey God's commandment for selfish gains.
As a side note, it is good to tithe, to give back to the Lord, but not at the risk of missing the fundamentals of God's love -- and taking care of our parents is one of those fundamentals. God is not poor. God does not need our money. When we tithe, we give to help the church to continue to spread the Gospel, to do God’s work -- which includes taking care of our parents, the poor, the needy!
Jesus clarifies the true definition of cleanliness
Quoting Isaiah 29:13, Jesus said of the religious leaders, "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" (Matthew 15:8-9).
While the religious leaders evaluated holiness based on outward actions, Jesus turned our attention back onto our inner heart condition.
Matthew 15:10-11
Hear and understand: Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.
Matthew 15:19
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
Bringing it back full circle, Jesus concludes:
Matthew 15:20
These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.
Be clean from the inside
While it is easy to point out the follies of the religious leaders, it is more important that we avoid making the same mistakes. The key lesson here is that we can get caught up with rituals and traditions and forget the essential element of worship: returning our heart to God.
We can say things and do things that do not reflect the true conditions of our heart. We might even be tempted to pretend we are doing a good thing and ignore the admonishment of the Holy Spirit. We can pat ourselves on the back thinking we're "good with God" because we regularly attend church or give tithe. However, if we are just doing it to look holy, to put on an act of holiness so that we can feel better about ourselves, if we are just doing it so that we can feel better about our continual indulgences in sin, what is that saying about our heart condition? Without humility, without truly bowing down our heart before God, there is no true worship.
Always check our heart condition. We know ourselves the best. We know the reasons we do certain things the best. There is no hiding our true thoughts from God. If we do something that looks holy but inside our heart, we’re only doing it for our own selfish benefit, we need to repent. God knows our heart. There is no point in hiding it. We may be able to hide it from our fellow human beings, but God always sees through it. Anything we do in the name of God, we have to do it with our heart.
Follow the path of righteousness and live
The power held by the religious leaders back then was to be feared. If a Jew wished to remain in the community, they thought twice and hard about crossing the religious leaders. Hence, upon hearing Jesus rebuking the religious leaders, the disciples timidly reported that the religious leaders were offended by Jesus' comments.
Matthew 15:12
Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?
Being human, we tend to fear the things we can experience. The disciples feared the Pharisees because they have witnessed and experienced the pain and humiliation inflicted by the power of the religious leaders.
The disciples forgot -- No, even we forget today! -- that if we fear men because of the power they hold over our heads, how could we not fear God? He is the Creator of everything that we know. He breathed our world into existence. No matter how powerful, what is man in the eyes of God?
Hence, Jesus comforted the disciples:
Matthew 15:13-14
Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.
Who are we to be? We get to decide. Are we blinded, or do we see? We get to decide. Seek to delight man or God? We get to decide.
JESUS HEALS A GENTILE WOMAN (Matthew 15:21-28)
We learn a few tidbits from this story.
1. Even Gentiles recognized Jesus as the Messiah
The Canaanite woman claimed Jesus as her Lord, Son of David. To the people of the time, especially the Israelites, the title, "Son of David," was (and still is today) reserved for the Messiah the Jews had (and still are today) waiting for. Despite that as a nation, the Israelites continuously strayed away from God and thus failed to pass the knowledge of God to the rest of the world, the Gentiles had witnessed enough of God's deliverance of the Israelites to come to learn of God and His prophecies. Ironically, the faith in God shown by this Gentile woman was greater than God's chosen people -- She didn't need to be the apple of God's eye (Zechariah 2:8) to understand and embrace the love of God.
2. Jesus came first for the Jews
In His first coming, Jesus did not come as the Messiah for the Gentiles (Matthew 15:24). He came to be the Messiah for the Jews, as prophesied by many prophets.
3. Great faith heals
Of the multitudes that follow Jesus, many were there for the miracles and the hype -- Much like our society today: Be it at a traffic accident or a great revival, large groups of people gather, but those who are there to provide any kind of help or true devotion are few in numbers. Jesus did not come just to perform miracles; He came to fulfill His role as the Messiah, as illustrated by His initial response to this Gentile woman's request (Matthew 15:26). However, the Gentile woman's response revealed her deep understanding of Jesus as God, revealed her deep faith in God. She understood that Jesus came first to fulfill His role as the Messiah. At the same time, she also understood that Jesus is God and can heal her daughter. Her deep faith thus saved her and her daughter (Matthew 15:28).
We need to realize that God is concerned with our salvation. He is not a magical genie we summon when we need a miracle to save our butts from some catastrophe, natural or man-made. When we pray, what is our attitude toward God? How is our relationship with God? Do we have an understanding of God as mature as the one illustrated by this Gentile woman? When we pray with Faith, God answers. When we pray without faith, when we treat God as our magical genie, why are we surprised that God does not hear us?
JESUS HEALS AND FEEDS MULTITUDES (Matthew 15:29-39)
As mentioned above, of the multitudes that followed Jesus, few followed because they were serious about devoting their lives to Jesus. Instead, the majority followed because they needed something from Jesus. Despite this, Jesus still had compassion for the people.
Matthew 15:32
I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.
The feeding of the multitude was another miracle in itself. With a few loaves of bread and fish, Jesus fed thousands of people -- and still had leftovers (Matthew 15:34-39; cf. Matthew 14:13-21).
Just as Jesus satisfied their physical hunger, Jesus satisfies our spiritual hunger today. He is our Bread of Life, our Manna.
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