GOSPEL OF MATTHEW - CHAPTER 15
The three sections of chapter 15 show Jesus’ attitude to people who were not Jews. He wanted them to be happy with the good news in his message:
--- 1. Verses 1-20 Jesus taught about clean food, and food that is not clean. This removed the idea that people who are not Jews are different.
--- 2. Verses 21-28 Jesus healed the daughter of a woman who was not a Jew.
--- 3. Verses 29-39 Jesus fed the crowd of hungry people who were probably not Jews.
God’s Law and Jewish Tradition 15:1-9
v1 Then some Pharisees and some men who taught the Law came to Jesus from Jerusalem. v2 ‘Why do your disciples not obey the traditions that our grandfathers gave to us?’ they asked. ‘Your disciples do not wash their hands before they eat!’v3 Jesus replied to them. ‘Why do you not obey God’s command?’ he asked. ‘Why do you only obey what you yourselves teach? v4 God has told us, “Give honor to your father and mother.” God also said, “Anyone who speaks evil against his father or mother must die.” v5 But you allow people to avoid these commands. “I was going to help you with a gift. But now I have given that gift to God”, people may say to their parents. v6 So then they need not help their parents, you say. They no longer give honour to their parents. In that way, you make God’s command mean nothing. You make your tradition more important. v7 You act as if you are good! Isaiah was right when he wrote God’s words about you long ago.
v8 “These people say that they give honor to me.
But they never really think about me.
v9 They do not worship me sincerely.
Instead, they teach rules that men have made”, the Lord said.’
Commentary
Verses 1-2
Usually, people wash their hands to remove dirt. That helps to prevent disease. But the Pharisees’ question did not refer to this ordinary action. They had a tradition that they taught people. And this tradition said that people should wash in a special way. This was the only way to remove everything that was not clean. The Pharisees considered that certain foods were not clean. And anyone who touched a foreigner would no longer be clean. Every day they might touch something or someone that would make them no longer clean.
Verses 3-6
Jesus spoke to the Pharisees and to the men who taught the Law. They considered that their traditions were more important than God’s commands. Jesus reminded them of one command as an example. God said that people should give honor to their parents. When parents need something, their children have a responsibility to help them. But the Pharisees had another tradition. People could put things aside that their parents needed. Then they could say that they had given those things to God. Sometimes they only pretended to give these things to God. But this avoided the need to help their parents. The Pharisees made serious promises in front of God that they must keep. But they were making a tradition more important than their responsibility to their parents.
Verses 7-9
Jesus used words from Isaiah (Isaiah 29:13). He said that they did not worship God sincerely. They were not saying what they were really thinking. They said that they served God, but they did not obey him.
Clean Foods and Things That Are Not Clean 15:10-20
v10 Then Jesus called all the people together and spoke to them. ‘Listen and understand’, he said. v11 ‘A person will eat things. But these things will not make him wrong. A person will say things. These are the things that will make him wrong.’ v12 Then the disciples came to Jesus. ‘The Pharisees were angry when they heard this’, they told him. ‘Did you know that?’ v13 ‘There are plants that my Father in heaven has not planted’, Jesus replied. ‘God will pull up the roots of those plants. v14 Leave them! The Pharisees are blind guides. And when a blind man leads another blind man, they both fall into a deep hole.’
v15 So Peter spoke to Jesus. ‘Explain this to us’, he said. v16 ‘You are not any wiser than the other people!’ Jesus replied. v17 ‘Even you do not understand! Everything that enters the mouth goes into the stomach. Then it goes out from the body. v18 But the words that come out of the mouth come from deep inside the person. These are the things that make someone wrong. v19 Evil thoughts come from deep inside a person. These thoughts lead people to do wrong acts like murder. Or they may steal someone else’s wife or perform wrong sex acts. They may steal or tell lies. They may lie and gossip falsely about other people. v20 These are the things that make a person wrong. But someone may eat, even if they do not wash their hands first. This does not make a person wrong.’
Commentary
Verses 10-11
Jesus continued to teach a crowd of people. A person might obey all the rules about food, but that does not make their thoughts good. What a person says shows what he is like deep inside himself. People could obey all the Jewish rules about food, but still they might not please God in other ways. The people who have a good spirit will see God (Matthew 5:8).
Verse 12
The Pharisees wanted to keep the Jewish religion pure. Perhaps the disciples respected them because they were the leaders of the Jews. But the disciples knew that Jesus had made the Pharisees angry.
Verse 13
This verse is like the story that Jesus told about the wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13:24-30). It may mean that God had ‘planted’ his commands. But later the Pharisees had ‘planted’ their traditions as well. God will destroy the plants that are not really his. John the Baptist had spoken about God’s judgment. He said that it would be like an axe. It would cut down a tree that did not produce fruit (Matthew 3:10). God’s special servant Jeremiah also said that God ‘planted’ in the world and that he ‘pulled up the roots of plants’ (Jeremiah 45:4).
Verse 14
Jesus told the disciples to stay away from the Pharisees. They should have showed the people the way to God. Instead, they led people away from God.
Verse 15
Matthew identifies Peter as the disciple who asked Jesus to explain. Mark just says that the disciples asked. Matthew has a special interest in Peter.
Verses 16-20
Jesus seemed surprised that the disciples did not understand. To eat food is normal and natural. The food cannot change people. But evil thoughts come from deep inside a person’s spirit. And they cause a person to behave in a wicked way. They change a person so that the person is no longer clean. Matthew mentions four of God’s commands in the right order (Exodus 20:13-16). A person may not wash their hands before a meal in the way that the Pharisees ordered. But that would not change a person if they are clean deep inside (in their spirit).
Some of the laws about food in Leviticus 11 helped people to stay healthy. They helped them to choose foods wisely. But Jesus had shown that traditions about food may be wrong. What people eat does not affect their character. Jesus taught that all food is good to eat. This ended the Pharisees’ food traditions. We read this in Mark 7:19.
A Woman Believes Jesus 15:21-28
v21 Then Jesus left that place. He went away to the region round the towns called Tyre and Sidon. v22 A Canaanite woman from that region came to Jesus. She cried out to him. ‘Lord, you are David’s Son. Please pity me! Evil spirits control my daughter and she is suffering greatly.’ v23 Jesus did not answer her. So his disciples came and spoke to him urgently. ‘Send her away. She is following us and shouting at us all the time.’
v24 ‘I have come only to Israel’s people because they are like sheep. But those sheep have lost their way’, Jesus replied. v25 Then the woman came closer and she fell down in front of him. ‘Lord, help me!’ she said. v26 ‘It is not right if someone takes away the children’s food. Then they just throw that food to their dogs’, Jesus replied to her. v27 ‘That is true, Lord’, she said. ‘But even the little dogs eat the small pieces that fall from the master’s table.’ v28 ‘Woman, you really believe me!’ Jesus answered. ‘I will give you what you have asked for.’ And her daughter became well from that time.
Commentary
Verse 21
Jesus went away partly because the Jewish religious leaders were opposing him. People who were not Jews lived in Tyre and Sidon. Also, the crowds in Judea were preventing Him from teaching His disciples. He did not have time to prepare them and Himself for the future.
Verse 22
The woman was a Canaanite. They had been the Jews’ enemies ever since Joshua’s time long ago. Somehow, she had heard about Jesus and she called him ‘David’s Son.’ David had been king over the nation when the Jews had defeated the Canaanites.
Verse 23
Jesus did not answer her at once. He was probably testing her. He wanted to know how strongly she believed him. God does not always answer people’s prayers immediately. But the disciples thought that the woman was a nuisance. They wanted Jesus to send this foreigner away.
Verse 24
Jesus’ main work was with the Jews. The Old Testament’s writers had prepared them for when the Messiah would come. His disciples could then take Jesus’ message beyond the Jews into the rest of the world. Jesus had already spoken about Israel’s people as sheep that had lost their way (Matthew 10:6).
Verses 25-26
Jesus had not sent the woman away. So she repeated her request to him very humbly. Jews called foreigners ‘dogs’ as an insult. They were referring to the wild, dirty dogs that lived on the streets. But Jesus used a different word when he spoke to the woman. It meant the ‘little dogs’ that people kept as pets. As he said this, Jesus may have smiled. He was not insulting her. He was just reminding her that she was a foreigner to him.
Verses 27-28
Jesus usually only helped Israel’s people. But the woman knew that Jesus had more power than that. He had enough extra power to help her too. Jesus knew that she believed him. In a similar way, he had recognized that the army officer believed. And that officer was not a Jew either (Matthew 8:10-11). He had healed the officer’s slave without going there to see him. Jesus did not go to see the woman’s sick daughter either. But he still healed her.
Jesus Heals Many Sick People 15:29-31
v29 Then Jesus left there. He went along by the sea called Galilee. Then he climbed a hill and sat down. v30 Great crowds came to him and they brought sick people with them. They brought people who could not walk, blind people, and many other people. They brought people who had legs and arms that hurt. They laid them all down in front of Jesus, and he healed them. v31 This astonished everyone. They saw that the dumb people were speaking. He healed the people with bad arms and legs. The people with weak legs could walk and the blind people could see. So everyone thanked Israel’s great God.
Commentary
Verse 29
In Mark 7:31-37, we read that Jesus travelled a long way north. Then he returned through Decapolis, which was the region of the Ten Towns. Most of the people who lived in that region were not Jews.
Verses 30-31
Because Jesus healed all kinds of illness, people thanked ‘Israel’s great God’. So it seems that Jesus healed other people who were not Jews. Jesus’ main work was for ‘Israel’s sheep that had lost their way’. But he did care about the other people as well.
Jesus Feeds 4000 People 15:32-39
v32 Then Jesus called his disciples to him. ‘I feel great sympathy for these people’, he said. ‘They have been with me for three days now and they have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away when they are hungry. If I do send them away, they will become too weak on the way home.’ v33 The disciples answered Jesus. ‘Where could we get enough bread to feed such a crowd?’ they asked him. ‘There is nothing in this place and it is far from anywhere.’
v34 ‘How many loaves do you have?’ Jesus asked.‘Seven’, they replied, ‘and a few small fish.’
v35 So Jesus told the crowd to sit down on the ground. v36 Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and he thanked God. He broke them and he gave the food to the disciples. And then the disciples gave it to the people. v37 All of them ate and they had enough to eat. After that, the disciples picked up seven baskets full of extra pieces. v38 About 4000 men ate the food that day. And there were women and children who ate as well. v39 After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into a boat. And he went to the area near Magadan.
Commentary
Some people think that Matthew told the same story twice. They think that this is the same event as the story he told in Matthew 14:13-21. But in Matthew 16:9-10 Jesus refers to both miracles. The main facts are similar. But there are several differences in the details:
--- 1. That time there were 5000 men in the crowd. This time there were 4000.
--- 2. The crowd had been with Jesus for ‘three days’ this time.
--- 3. There are seven loaves this time, and there were only five before.
--- 4. These fish are ‘small’ and before there were just two fish.
--- 5. This account does not mention grass. The people sat down on the ‘ground’. This suggests a time of year later than April. So probably, the grass had dried up.
--- 6. The word for ‘baskets’ is different. In Matthew 14:20 the word means a small narrow basket. A Jew might carry his food in such a basket when he traveled. The word in this account was a large basket that could be big enough to carry a man.
---7. The disciples picked up enough pieces to fill 12 small baskets in the first account. In this account, they picked enough to fill 7 big baskets.
Jesus fed 5000 people in the first event. That showed that God is very kind to the Jews. He fed 4000 people this time. And this showed that he cared about people who are not Jews too.
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