Matthew 15
15
1Then the scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem come up to Jesus, saying, 2Why do thy disciples transgress what has been delivered by the ancients? for they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. 3But he answering said to them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God on account of your traditional teaching? 4For God commanded saying, Honour father and mother; and, He that speaks ill of father or mother, let him die the death. 5But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or mother, It is a gift, whatsoever it be by which received from me thou wouldest be profited: 6and he shall in no wise honour his father or his mother; and ye have made void the commandment of God on account of your traditional teaching. 7Hypocrites! well has Esaias prophesied about you, saying, 8This people honour me with the lips, but their heart is far away from me; 9but in vain do they worship me, teaching as teachings commandments of men.
10And having called to him the crowd, he said to them, Hear and understand: 11Not what enters into the mouth defiles the man; but what goes forth out of the mouth, this defiles the man. 12Then his disciples, coming up, said to him, Dost thou know that the Pharisees, having heard this word, have been offended? 13But he answering said, Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up. 14Leave them alone; they are blind leaders of blind: but if blind lead blind, both will fall into a ditch. 15And Peter answering said to him, Expound to us this parable. 16But he said, Are ye also still without intelligence? 17Do ye not yet apprehend, that everything that enters into the mouth finds its way into the belly, and is cast forth into the draught? 18but the things which go forth out of the mouth come out of the heart, and those defile man. 19For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnessings, blasphemies; 20these are the things which defile man; but the eating with unwashen hands does not defile man.
21And Jesus, going forth from thence, went away into the parts of Tyre and Sidon; 22and lo, a Canaanitish woman, coming out from those borders, cried to him saying, Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is miserably possessed by a demon. 23But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came to him and asked him, saying, Dismiss her, for she cries after us. 24But he answering said, I have not been sent save to the lost sheep of Israel's house. 25But she came and did him homage, saying, Lord, help me. 26But he answering said, It is not well to take the bread of the children and cast it to the dogs. 27But she said, Yea, Lord; for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the table of their masters. 28Then Jesus answering said to her, O woman, thy faith is great. Be it to thee as thou desirest. And her daughter was healed from that hour.
29And Jesus, going away from thence, came towards the sea of Galilee, and he went up into the mountain and sat down there; 30and great crowds came to him, having with them lame, blind, dumb, crippled, and many others, and they cast them at his feet, and he healed them: 31so that the crowds wondered, seeing dumb speaking, crippled sound, lame walking, and blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel. 32But Jesus, having called his disciples to him, said, I have compassion on the crowd, because they have stayed with me already three days and they have not anything they can eat, and I would not send them away fasting lest they should faint on the way. 33And his disciples say to him, Whence should we have so many loaves in the wilderness as to satisfy so great a crowd? 34And Jesus says to them, How many loaves have ye? But they said, Seven, and a few small fishes. 35And he commanded the crowds to lie down on the ground; 36and having taken the seven loaves and the fishes, having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples, and the disciples to the crowd. 37And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was over and above of the fragments seven baskets full; 38but they that ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. 39And, having dismissed the crowds, he went on board ship and came to the borders of Magadan.
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First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.
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.