Matthew 15:1–20

The arguments between Jesus and the religious leaders

Jesus gave two contrasts. There was OT faith and the Jewish leaders’ faith. And there were the words of the Law and the real meaning or intention of the Law.

Something would help to explain this section. In the OT, God gave great religious principles. He gave great moral principles too. He wanted to show the people what the principles meant. So he gave the people some pictures. He gave the Jews some ceremonies and practices. But, by the time of Jesus, things had changed. Ceremonies and practices had become the most important things. To the Jews, that was what real religion meant. The people concentrated on these things. They forgot the reason why God had given them.

The religious leaders added many rules too. These rules became more important than the OT laws. Now the people must obey the new rules. They were called traditions. Often, this meant that the people did not obey God’s laws. Now, real religion was just acts. In one way, the leaders were making religion easy. People could achieve all that was necessary by themselves. But in another way, the leaders were making religion hard. They asked the people to do so many things. It was just impossible to do them all. (Compare Matthew 11:28–30.)

Jesus only used the OT. So, what he taught was very different from the religious leaders. That meant arguments. This information should help us to understand the verses here.

To be clean outside (the body) and inside (the soul)

The religious experts arrived. They wanted to argue with Jesus. They had come from Jerusalem. They reminded Jesus about one of their rules. They said that his disciples were ignoring it. It was the rule about how and when they should wash their hands.

To the Jews, it was vital to be clean in a religious way. But this seemed to be impossible. They would always be dirty. So they developed a complicated system. They hoped that this would solve the problem. They must wash their hands in a special way. They did this first when they got up in the morning.

There was another time for this complicated system. At first, it was just for the priests. People would bring gifts to God at the Temple. The priests could eat part of the gifts. But, first, they must wash their hands in a special way. Later, this system applied to all Jews who said that they were really religious.

Many Jews would keep water ready in their homes. They would use it before a meal. There was a minimum amount of water that they could use. It was enough water to fill ten empty eggs! Someone poured this water on both hands. The person must point the fingers up. The water must run down the hand. Then the water must drop off. This was because the water itself was now ‘dirty’. It had touched the ‘dirty’ hands. It must not run down the fingers again. Or the fingers and the hands would both be ‘dirty’ again.

Then they repeated the process. This time the person must point the fingers down. There was one final thing to do. They must rub each hand with the fist of the other hand. (Note: This meant that the person bent the fingers into the hand. The person held them there very hard.) The person might be a strict Jew. If so, he would do all this between each part of the meal as well.

The leaders asked Jesus a question. Jesus did not answer it immediately. Instead, he showed them that their religion was wrong. It was against God’s word! All people should give honour to their parents. They should respect them. God expected this. (Read Exodus 21:17 and Leviticus 20:9.) The law was quite clear (Matthew 15:4).

But the leaders thought that this law meant too much responsibility. So, they invented their own law. It was in the cause of religion too! God had a greater claim on them than their parents had. So, the leaders said, ‘Give the money to God.’ (The word for this kind of gift was ‘Corban’. Read Mark 7:11.) Then, they could not use it for their parents. But the giver was God’s manager. So, the giver could use it himself. God had given him the responsibility of his parents. But a man could avoid it in this way. He could even use God’s authority to do that. Jesus was saying that this practice was wrong in Matthew 15:4–6.

Jesus spoke clearly to these leaders. They were just pretending to be good. He repeated Isaiah 29:13. God had said these words to religious leaders. It was in the time of Isaiah. This was 800 years before the time of Jesus. But the leaders had still not learned the lesson.

Jesus said something even more important in Matthew 15:10-11. A person may be ‘dirty’ or wrong. But lack of a ceremony did not cause it. What made a person really ‘dirty’ or wrong came from inside them. (Read Matthew 15:16–20.)

The reaction of the Jewish leaders was not a surprise. But it was a great pity. (Read Matthew 15:12.) They did not understand the OT principles of real religion. Perhaps they were unable to understand them. Maybe they could not understand because they did not want to understand. So they had invented their own religion. But it could only lead to hell.

Questions

• Some Christians teach about things that you must not do. They teach more about these things than about the things that you can do. What could this passage teach these Christians?
• Some people are ‘almost Christians’. Other people may think that they are Christians, but they are not. But they insist on certain ceremonies. We might think that these ceremonies are not necessary. Should we oppose them? Or could they be a way to real faith?