Matthew Chapter 15 (AMP)
Tradition and Commandment - The Heart of Man - Healing Crowds - Four Thousand Fed
Then some Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came to Jesus and said,
“Why do Your disciples violate the tradition (religious laws) handed down by the [Jewish] elders? For Your disciples do not [ceremonially] wash their hands before they eat.”
He replied to them, “Why also do you violate the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition [handed down by the elders]?
For God said [through Moses], ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of or insults or treats improperly father or mother is to be put to death.’
But you say, ‘If anyone says to his father or mother, “Whatever [money or resource that] I have that would help you is [already dedicated and] given to God,”
he is not to honor his father or his mother [by helping them with their need].’ So by this you have invalidated the word of God [depriving it of force and authority and making it of no effect] for the sake of your tradition [handed down by the elders].
You hypocrites (play-actors, pretenders), rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said,
‘This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far away from Me.‘But in vain do they worship Me,
For they teach as doctrines the precepts of men.’”After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said, “Listen and understand this:
It is not what goes into the mouth of a man that defiles and dishonors him, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles and dishonors him.”
Then the disciples came and said to Jesus, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard you say this?”
He answered, “Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant will be torn up by the roots.
Leave them alone; they are blind guides [leading blind followers]. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”
Peter asked Him, “Explain this parable [about what defiles a person] to us.”
And He said, “Are you still so dull [and unable to put things together]?
Do you not understand that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated?
But whatever [word] comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this is what defiles and dishonors the man.
For out of the heart come evil thoughts and plans, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slanders (verbal abuse, irreverent speech, blaspheming).
These are the things which defile and dishonor the man; but eating with [ceremonially] unwashed hands does not defile the man.”
After leaving there, Jesus withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.
And a Canaanite woman from that district came out and began to cry out [urgently], saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David (Messiah); my daughter is cruelly possessed by a demon.”
But He did not say a word in answer to her. And His disciples came and asked Him [repeatedly], “Send her away, because she keeps shouting out after us.”
He answered, “I was commissioned by God and sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
But she came and began to kneel down before Him, saying, “Lord, help me!”
And He replied, “It is not good (appropriate, fair) to take the children’s bread and throw it to the pet dogs.”
She said, “Yes, Lord; but even the pet dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their [young] masters’ table.”
Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, your faith [your personal trust and confidence in My power] is great; it will be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that moment.
Jesus went on from there and passed along by [the eastern shore of] the Sea of Galilee. Then He went up on the hillside and was sitting there.
And great crowds came to Him, bringing with them the lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others, and they put them down at His feet; and He healed them.
So the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they praised and glorified the God of Israel.
Then Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, “I feel compassion for the crowd, because they have been with Me now three days and have nothing [left] to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, because they might faint [from exhaustion] on the way [home].”
The disciples said to Him, “Where are we to get enough bread in this isolated place to feed so large a crowd?”
And Jesus asked them, “How many loaves [of bread] do you have?” They replied, “Seven, and a few small fish.”
He directed the crowd to sit down on the ground,
and He took the seven loaves and the fish; and when He had given thanks, He broke them and started giving them to the disciples, and the disciples [gave them] to the people.
And they all ate and were satisfied, and they gathered up seven full baskets of the broken pieces that were left over.
[Among] those who ate were 4,000 men, not counting women and children.
Then Jesus sent the crowds away, got into the boat and went to the district of Magadan.
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Content source: Amplified version of the Holy Bible
This chapter shows us that the disciples of the Lord were lagging behind in their spiritual growth. They were slow to believe, to understand and were really being an obstacle to the Lord Jesus. At that time, since he had had his break with the religious leaders, he was having a real problem with His disciples and seemed to be making time for them to catch up and reach the level He required.
For them, the tradition taught and passed from generation to generation was even more important to fulfill than the commandments of God, a very serious error that we make when thinking or trying to choose the right based on our beliefs and not for the truth of the Word of God. In Deuteronomy 5 and Exodus 20, the word is clear in declaring that honoring father and mother is a duty of love to them and cursing them or speaking ill of them would make them guilty of death. Every plant refers to people or Religious systems that have not been planted, taught, cared for and put into practice by the Father will be uprooted at the root, not only in us but also during the final judgment. Every root of bitterness, fear, lie, pain, needs to be uprooted by the work of the Holy Spirit, through inner healing. True contamination is that which sickens, kills and separates the spirit of God. Again Jesus calls his disciples and It provides a new opportunity to believe (to feed people). Jesus feels compassion, a word that the original translates a feeling that comes from the bowels, this feeling is not a human sensation is a feeling aroused by the Holy Spirit in the being of man that allows him to feel the need of those around him.
When we know the truth, it will set us free.knowing and practising the word gives us divine powers over all creatures on the earth
Jesus main purpose of coming into this world is to free the captive, feed the poor, heal the sick and propagate the kingdom of God.
In this chapter we learn from Jesus that, no matter the name or fame, if religion is not in the heart of nothing it serves to preserve the external rituals.
Jesus is not just giving you information in this message . He is giving you an invitation. Trust him. Treasure him. He died and he rose again to make you free indeed.
Many worry about external things, or what is eaten and not eaten, God only wants the human heart and that what is inside us is pure and holy, that we are pious, not liars, slanderers, this does contaminate , first we must clean ourselves internally so that blessings come from our mouths.
We need to be spiritually filled and grow so that we can also perform miracles as Jesus did. The disciples weren't spirit filled enough to understand the word of Jesus here;
Had it been they understand Jesus and His,word,they wouldn't have asked again for the meaning. We also need to know the truth and it will surely set us free
God is indeed a miracle working God. Look how He fed the crowd with what human eyes saw to be little. This is to tell us that nothing is impossible for God to do.
Just have faith in Him and He'll make every impossibility possible.
certainly of the abundance of the heart speaks the mouth, what is in our heart, that is what we are, Jesus knew very well this condition of man, for that reason I speak with the truth to the Pharisees, stripping the hypocritical reality that had in each one of his performances.