Matthew 15
15
1 #
Mk 7.1-23. Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2“Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” 3He answered them, “And why do you transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4#Ex 20.12; Deut 5.16; Ex 21.17; Lev 20.9. For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die.’ 5But you say, ‘If any one tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is given to God,#15.5 Or an offering he need not honor his father.’ 6So, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word#15.6 Other ancient authorities read law of God. 7You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
8 #
Is 29.13. ‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
9in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ ”
10And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: 11#Acts 10.14-15; 1 Tim 4.3. not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” 12Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” 13#Is 60.21; Jn 15.2. He answered, “Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. 14#Lk 6.39; Mt 23.16,24; Rom 2.19. Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” 15But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” 16And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and so passes on?#15.17 Or is evacuated 18But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a man. 19#Gal 5.19-21; 1 Cor 6.9-10; Rom 14.14. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. 20These are what defile a man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”
21 #
Mk 7.24-30. And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and cried, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely possessed by a demon.” 23But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying after us.” 24#Mt 10.6,23. He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25#Mt 8.2; 18.26; 20.20; Jn 9.38. But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26And he answered, “It is not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” 27She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.” 28#Mt 9.22,28; Mk 10.52; Lk 7.50; 17.19. Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
29 #
Mk 7.31-37. And Jesus went on from there and passed along the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain, and sat down there. 30And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the dumb, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, 31so that the throng wondered, when they saw the dumb speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.
32 #
Mk 8.1-10; Mt 14.13-21. #Mt 9.36. Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days, and have nothing to eat; and I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” 33And the disciples said to him, “Where are we to get bread enough in the desert to feed so great a crowd?” 34And Jesus said to them, “How many loaves have you?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.” 35And commanding the crowd to sit down on the ground, 36he took the seven loaves and the fish, and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 37And they all ate and were satisfied; and they took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces left over. 38Those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. 39And sending away the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.
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Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America
Matthew 15
15
What Pollutes Your Life
1-2After that, Pharisees and religion scholars came to Jesus all the way from Jerusalem, criticizing, “Why do your disciples play fast and loose with the rules?”
3-9But Jesus put it right back on them. “Why do you use your rules to play fast and loose with God’s commands? God clearly says, ‘Respect your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.’ But you weasel around that by saying, ‘Whoever wants to, can say to father and mother, What I owed to you I’ve given to God.’ That can hardly be called respecting a parent. You cancel God’s command by your rules. Frauds! Isaiah’s prophecy of you hit the bull’s-eye:
These people make a big show of saying the right thing,
but their heart isn’t in it.
They act like they’re worshiping me,
but they don’t mean it.
They just use me as a cover
for teaching whatever suits their fancy.”
10-11He then called the crowd together and said, “Listen, and take this to heart. It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life, but what you vomit up.”
12Later his disciples came and told him, “Did you know how upset the Pharisees were when they heard what you said?”
13-14Jesus shrugged it off. “Every tree that wasn’t planted by my Father in heaven will be pulled up by its roots. Forget them. They are blind men leading blind men. When a blind man leads a blind man, they both end up in the ditch.”
15Peter said, “I don’t get it. Put it in plain language.”
16-20Jesus replied, “You, too? Are you being willfully stupid? Don’t you know that anything that is swallowed works its way through the intestines and is finally defecated? But what comes out of the mouth gets its start in the heart. It’s from the heart that we vomit up evil arguments, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, and cussing. That’s what pollutes. Eating or not eating certain foods, washing or not washing your hands—that’s neither here nor there.”
Healing the People
21-22From there Jesus took a trip to Tyre and Sidon. They had hardly arrived when a Canaanite woman came down from the hills and pleaded, “Mercy, Master, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly afflicted by an evil spirit.”
23Jesus ignored her. The disciples came and complained, “Now she’s bothering us. Would you please take care of her? She’s driving us crazy.”
24Jesus refused, telling them, “I’ve got my hands full dealing with the lost sheep of Israel.”
25Then the woman came back to Jesus, dropped to her knees, and begged. “Master, help me.”
26He said, “It’s not right to take bread out of children’s mouths and throw it to dogs.”
27She was quick: “You’re right, Master, but beggar dogs do get scraps from the master’s table.”
28Jesus gave in. “Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!” Right then her daughter became well.
29-31After Jesus returned, he walked along Lake Galilee and then climbed a mountain and took his place, ready to receive visitors. They came, tons of them, bringing along the paraplegic, the blind, the maimed, the mute—all sorts of people in need—and more or less threw them down at Jesus’ feet to see what he would do with them. He healed them. When the people saw the mutes speaking, the maimed healthy, the paraplegics walking around, the blind looking around, they were astonished and let everyone know that God was blazingly alive among them.
* * *
32But Jesus wasn’t finished with them. He called his disciples and said, “I hurt for these people. For three days now they’ve been with me, and now they have nothing to eat. I can’t send them away without a meal—they’d probably collapse on the road.”
33His disciples said, “But where in this deserted place are you going to dig up enough food for a meal?”
34-39Jesus asked, “How much bread do you have?”
“Seven loaves,” they said, “plus a few fish.” At that, Jesus directed the people to sit down. He took the seven loaves and the fish. After giving thanks, he divided it up and gave it to the people. Everyone ate. They had all they wanted. It took seven large baskets to collect the leftovers. Over four thousand people ate their fill at that meal. After Jesus sent them away, he climbed in the boat and crossed over to the Magadan hills.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.