Read and Believe in Jesus.

“Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth: THIS defiles a person.” Matthew 15:10

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REVIEW – After feeding 5,000+ people, praying most of the night, and walking on water to help His disciples in trouble on the Lake, Jesus encourages Peter to have great faith, then scolds him for exhibiting “little” faith when he tries to walk on water as well. The disciples are again “wowed” at Jesus’ majesty. Then it’s back to ministry work in Gennesaret, when crowds bring their sick to Jesus for healing, hoping only to touch the hem of His garment.

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Matthew 15:1-2.

Soon the religious leaders from Jerusalem are snapping at Jesus’ heels again with their accusations of law-breaking.

“Why do YOUR disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat?”

First, this is not Mommy telling little Johnny to wash the mud or Play-Doh from his hands before he comes to the dinner table. This is not about physical dirt and grime. This is not about a Law in the Torah.

This is about “the traditions of the elders,” revered rabbis who thought they could make themselves more holy through a ritual of washing their hands. (Using an eggshell of water to pour over their hands from wrists to fingertips, then doing the same from the fingertips to wrists with hands held high) A ritual. Not even a physically cleansing act. It was simply a “show of piety” to impress man (certainly not God).

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Matthew 15:3-9. You can almost feel Jesus’ exasperation with these critical-minded men. He turns to them and asks directly,

“Why do YOU break the COMMANDMENT OF GOD for the sake of your traditions?”

“For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die,’ but YOU say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, ‘What you would have gained from me is given to God,’ he need not honor his father!”

“SO… for the sake of your traditions you have made void the WORD OF GOD!”

Whoa! THAT’s telling them, Jesus. But what was Jesus talking about?

This was to dishonor one’s parents in a cleverly devised way. The fifth commandment is clear: “Honor your father and mother.” But to get around giving your money to help your parents and keep it for yourself, you might “dedicate” your money to God, who was, of course, greater than your parents. However, “dedicating” the money and actually giving it to God are two different things, and these “godly men” could then keep using that money for themselves. “Sorry, Mom and Dad!”

This was despicable to Jesus, and a blatant disregard of the Ten Commandments. He told these hypocrites that Isaiah, their prophet, had written about them,

“This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” (Isaiah 29:13)

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Matthew 15:10-14.

Then Jesus turns to the crowd that had been gathering around this altercation with the Pharisees and scribes.

“Hear and understand,” He said, raising His voice. “It is not what goes INTO the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes OUT OF the mouth; this defiles a person.”

The disciples, perhaps afraid of what these Jerusalem officials might do, came close to Jesus and said, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”

Jesus: “Every plant that My heavenly Father has NOT planted will be rooted up. Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

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Matthew 15:15-20.

Peter, speaking for the disciples, said to Jesus, “Explain the parable to us.”

Jesus turned and “looked” at Peter for a moment before saying,

“Are YOU also still without understanding? Do you not SEE that whatever goes INTO the mouth (food) passes into the stomach and is expelled?

But what comes OUT of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. (All the things covered in the Law).

THESE are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

(“Ohhhhh….” Peter might have said.)

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Next, we will see Jesus leave Israel for a time and go up the coast into Syro-Phoenicia, to the area of Tyre and Sidon.