Matthew 15:1-31
Breaking Human Traditions
15:1 Then Pharisees and experts in the law came from Jerusalem to Jesus and said,
15:2 “Why do your disciples disobey the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat.”
15:3 He answered them, “And why do you disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition?
15:4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death.’
15:5 But you say, ‘If someone tells his father or mother, “Whatever help you would have received from me is given to God,”
15:6 he does not need to honor his father.’ You have nullified the word of God on account of your tradition.
15:7 Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said,
15:8 ‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me,
15:9 and they worship me in vain,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
True Defilement
15:10 Then he called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand.
15:11 What defiles a person is not what goes into the mouth; it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person.”
15:12 Then the disciples came to him and said, “Do you know that when the Pharisees heard this saying they were offended?”
15:13 And he replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted.
15:14 Leave them! They are blind guides. If someone who is blind leads another who is blind, both will fall into a pit.”
15:15 But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.”
15:16 Jesus said, “Even after all this, are you still so foolish?
15:17 Don’t you understand that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach and then passes out into the sewer?
15:18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a person.
15:19 For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
15:20 These are the things that defile a person; it is not eating with unwashed hands that defiles a person.”
A Canaanite Woman’s Faith
15:21 After going out from there, Jesus went to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
15:22 A Canaanite woman from that area came and cried out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is horribly demon-possessed!”
15:23 But he did not answer her a word. Then his disciples came and begged him, “Send her away, because she keeps on crying out after us.”
15:24 So he answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
15:25 But she came and bowed down before him and said, “Lord, help me!”
15:26 “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs,” he said.
15:27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
15:28 Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, your faith is great! Let what you want be done for you.” And her daughter was healed from that hour.
Healing Many Others
15:29 When he left there, Jesus went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up a mountain, where he sat down.
15:30 Then large crowds came to him bringing with them the lame, blind, crippled, mute, and many others. They laid them at his feet, and he healed them.
15:31 As a result, the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they praised the God of Israel.