Roots 6/13

Matthew 15:10-20

Jesus turns the confrontation with the Pharisees into a teaching opportunity for His disciples. He emphasizes the priority of the heart over external matters, such as handwashing and ritual purity.

Additional Scriptures:

Mark 7:1 NIV

The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus

So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”

6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:

“ ‘These people honor me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me.

7 They worship me in vain;

their teachings are merely human rules.’ 

8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”

9 And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!

PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES

The Pharisees and Sadducees are two important Jewish groups (16:1–12). The Pharisees believe in a pure Jewish race and religion, and resent the Roman government. The Sadducees work with the Roman government, so that they have some share of political power. Both groups see Jesus as a threat, and join forces against him.

Jesus remarks that the Jewish leaders can forecast the weather from the signs in the sky, but they refuse to recognize the signs of the Messiah. He warns his disciples to avoid the ‘yeast’ effect of such people—and he’s not talking about making bread! He’s referring to a pervading attitude of unbelief in God.

CLEAN AND UNCLEAN

The Pharisees have a careful routine of handwashing before they eat food. For them, clean hands make a pure heart. But Jesus doesn’t worry about such details—and nor do his disciples. It is empty legalism (15:1–20).

Jesus points out that some of the Pharisees’ traditions actually break God’s law. For example, they disobey the fifth commandment (support your elderly parents) by putting their money out of reach, in a special fund for God!

Jesus teaches that there is a difference between physical and spiritual dirt. Nothing we eat can make us spiritually unclean. Food simply passes through our body and doesn’t affect our soul. It is the sin already inside us—in our heart or will—that makes us unclean. Every one of God’s laws is broken at the command of the human heart. No amount of handwashing (or any other ritual) can prevent it.

The Pharisees have a careful routine of handwashing before they eat food. For them, clean hands make a pure heart. But Jesus doesn’t worry about such details—and nor do his disciples. It is empty legalism (15:1–20).

Jesus points out that some of the Pharisees’ traditions actually break God’s law. For example, they disobey the fifth commandment (support your elderly parents) by putting their money out of reach, in a special fund for God!

Jesus teaches that there is a difference between physical and spiritual dirt. Nothing we eat can make us spiritually unclean. Food simply passes through our body and doesn’t affect our soul. It is the sin already inside us—in our heart or will—that makes us unclean. Every one of God’s laws is broken at the command of the human heart. No amount of handwashing (or any other ritual) can prevent it.

In 15:1–20 Jesus had not left Israel geographically, but He certainly had departed ideologically. Here He challenged all of the Jewish “kosher laws.” As with the Sabbath, one cannot prove that He went beyond breaking the oral laws to infringing on the written law of Moses, but verse 11 certainly sets the stage for this conclusion. Food, as something that goes into people from the outside, could no longer ritually defile them.