Jesus denounces religious externalism

Leaders from Jerusalem come asking Jesus questions

1) Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2) "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!"

They are speaking of elaborate ceremonial washings, not a hygienic cleansing; the Jews of this day strictly observed a rigid, extensive ritual for washing before meals.

These washings were commanded by tradition, not by Scripture; the religious leaders say as much when they refer to the tradition of the elders.

Traditions of Judaism vs. Commandments of God

The Pharisee headquarters was in Jerusalem, so why mention that these were from Jerusalem? We will be seeing a confrontation between the traditions of Judaism and the commandments of God. In some respects Judaism was the embodiment of the commandments of God, and it was the respect and reverence that Judaism had for the Torah that preserved them for God’s purpose. Yet, Judaism was also ensnared with traditions of men.

Jesus' answer: man's tradition against God's will

3) Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?

Why was Jesus so stern in His reply? Because these leaders were far too concerned with trivialities such as these, and by declaring these people unclean, they were denying them access to God.

This must have offended God greatly, as it does when anyone discourages another from coming to Him.

Jesus escalates the whole discussion up a bit.

“Wash not their hands”: Bible does have laws for the priests, yet here we are talking about your everyday orthodox Jew, of which there is nothing about washing your hands in this sense in the Old Testament.

In Judaism, there are oral traditions, which they put above the written tradition. The oral traditions which were embodied in writings called the Talmud and, in another sense, the Mishna, superseded the Torah. They held the Torah higher, but would only look at it through the interpretation of the Talmud or the Mishna. For example: Exodus 34:26, and the kosher laws.

An example of how their traditions dishonored God: the practice of not helping your parents with "devoted" goods

4) For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' 5) But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,' 6) he is not to 'honor his father ' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

In this practice, a Jew could say that his possessions or savings were a gift to God, especially dedicated to Him - and therefore unavailable to help his parents.

Through this, a Jew could completely disobey the command to honor his father or mother, and do it while being ultra-religious.

There was a set of traditions. One being that you could set aside some of your goods for either of two purposes: as a dedication to the Temple, or in reserve for the performance of a vow. If your goods were in that category, you could claim them as Corban—it is a gift, or vow. Which meant specifically that those goods were set aside for the Temple for the Lord, or for the keeping of some vow. From this idea came a practice, say grandpa and grandma were hungry, you were to provide for them. But if you had a big steak you could declare it Corban as being exempt from having to take care of your parents with it. If it was Corban it was excluded from your requirement to take care of your parents. So they used this tradition of reserving it as a gift to God as an excuse to get around the commandment to care for their father and their mother.

So Jesus is saying that these traditions are not only wrong, but they have been contrived as to make the commandment of God of no effect!

 Jesus condemns their hollow tradition as hypocrisy

7) You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
    8) " 'These people honor me with their lips,
       but their hearts are far from me.
    9) They worship me in vain;
       their teachings are but rules taught by men.' "
 

The great condemnation of these men is well quoted from Isaiah: teaching as doctrines the commandments of men; we must constantly avoid the temptation to elevate man's teaching to the place of God's revelation.

It is sobering to consider how close we can appear to be drawing close to God, all the while having our heart far from Him.

God is interested in the internal (which is the real and the eternal) more than the external; is your relationship with God just external?

Resemblance to Church of Sardis, Revelation 3: denominationalism. Every one of the great heresies started with a germ of truth that got exaggerated, overemphasized, over embellished and eventually became a heresy. Scriptural protection from this sort of trap is to absorb the whole counsel of God.

Jesus speaks to the multitudes about religious externalism

10) Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. 11) What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.' "
 

The fundamental principle is simply this: washing with "unclean hands" or any other such thing that we "put into us" is not defiling; rather, the things which come out of us defile us - and reveal that we have unclean (defiled) hearts.

This is not to say that there are not defiling things that we can put into us (such as pornography); but in this specific context, Jesus was speaking about ceremonial cleanliness in regard to foods, and was anticipating when all foods would be declare kosher (Acts 10:15).

Jesus then warns His disciples that only what is of God and of truth will last and be secure

12) Then the disciples came to him and asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?"
13) He replied, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14) Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit."

This applies directly to the religious leaders; their commandments of men will not last, because they are not rooted either in God or truth.

For a plant to be bad, all it has to be is a plant that God did not plant! Meaning things in your life. Anything that is in your life that God didn’t plant is temporal and will be rooted out.

It is the condition of your heart that truly defiles you

15) Peter said, "Explain the parable to us."
16) "Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them. 17) "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18) But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' 19) For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20) These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.' "
 

Jesus amplifies the point first made in verse 11; we are defiled from the inside out rather than from the outside in, and this is particularly true of ceremonial things like foods.

Unfortunately, the emphasis of the religious leader's in Jesus' day (and often our own) is purely on these external things, not the internal things that make for true righteousness.

Jesus' words provide a well needed balance in this day of "Christian" exercise and healthy eating; these things may be great in themselves, but are no door to a closer standing with God. 

Theft is also denying someone else the rightful use of his or her own property. None of us can lay claim to not having any one of these occur in our heart. The Law of Moses dealt with the overt act with was enforceable by the society. Jesus Christ in Matthew 5,6 and 7 on the Sermon of the Mount, translates those intents to the heart. If you even think these things...

Heart: Jeremiah 17:9-10. Nothing is more deceitful than the heart. Incurably wicked. God never cures an old heart; He gives us a new one.

Jesus is met with a request from a Gentile woman 

 21) Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22) A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession."
 

Tyre and Sidon were Gentile cities, located some 50 miles away; Jesus is going all this way to meet this one Gentile woman's need.  What love this shows, and to a Gentile woman!

This woman is coming to intercede for her daughter, and she provides a picture of an intercessor: she makes her daughter's needs her own.

Yet, she also shows an awareness of who Jesus is (O Lord, Son of David!), something that was lacking among many of Jesus' Jewish contemporaries.

Jesus heals the Gentile woman's daughter

23) Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us."
24) He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."
25) The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said.
26) He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."
27) "Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."
28) Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
 

Jesus defines the focus of His mission to her: to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, not to Gentiles like her. 

The woman again is a picture of an intercessor in her persistence.

When Jesus refers to her as one of the little dogs, He uses little as a term of endearment, and is softening the traditional Jewish slur towards Gentiles (to call them dogs in the most derogatory sense).

The woman has a response of great faith; admitting her low estate (not debating the reference to little dogs), she asks Jesus to deal with her on her own low level - and receives from Jesus. We need to see the power of coming to God as we are, and letting Him make true His promises to those weak and unclean.

The feeding of the 4,000

Jesus ministers healing to the multitude

 29) Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. 30) Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. 31) The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.
 

Here we find no reference to the faith of those being healed; perhaps Jesus was ministering more out of His (and His Father's) good pleasure (perhaps in contrast to the encounter with the Gentile woman in Tyre and Sidon).

The end result is the same: they glorified the God of Israel.

The feeding of the 4,000

32) Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way."
33) His disciples answered, "Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?"
34) "How many loaves do you have?" Jesus asked.
"Seven," they replied, "and a few small fish."
35) He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. 36) Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. 37) They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 38) The number of those who ate was four thousand, besides women and children. 39) After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.

This miracle follows the same basic pattern as the feeding the 5,000, except that is reveals that the disciples were generally as slow to believe as we are.

Jesus did what He only could do (the creative miracle), but left to the disciples what they could do (the distribution of the meal).

At the end of the meal, they gather more, not less; the seven large baskets show that God provided out of His abundance.

Note that there are seven loaves, and the fishes aren’t numbered. The Holy Spirit is drawing our attention to the number seven.

The first feeding had emphasized, five the number of grace, and the two fishes—the number of witness. They were specifically aimed at

Israel, they had left over 12 baskets full. Twelve is the number of government of Israel, the 12 tribes.

In this case, they had been with them for 3 days; the number 3 suggests the resurrection or new beginning. This might be a hint of the Church, the seven baskets full!

Chapter 16

(Subscribe to Prophecy Updates)