Matthew recorded another round of opposition, withdrawal and disciple training, and public ministry (ch. 15). His repetition of this pattern highlights the chief features of this stage of Jesus' ministry. This second round also reveals growth in each area of ministry. There is greater opposition, greater faith, and greater help for the multitudes than Matthew recorded previously.
This controversy with the Pharisees and scribes is sharper and more theological than Jesus' earlier confrontations with these critics. Jesus also explained His view of the law more clearly than before.
15:1 These Pharisees and scribes came from Jerusalem to question Jesus. They appear to have had more official authority than the local religious leaders who opposed Jesus earlier. Jesus' great popularity makes such a delegation understandable to the reader.
15:2 The critics again raised a question about the behavior of Jesus' disciples, not His own behavior (cf. 9:14). They did not do so because Jesus' behaved differently than His disciples. They followed His example and teaching. They did so because they could attack Him less directly than if they had questioned His personal conduct. In view of Jesus' popularity they may have chosen this approach because it was safer, not because it was more respectful.
The critics objected to the disciples' disregard for the traditions of the elders. These were the rabbinic interpretations of Old Testament law that had accumulated over the centuries, the Halakah. In Jesus' day most of these traditions were not yet in written form, but later the rabbis compiled them into the Mishnah (135-200 A.D.). For the Pharisees they carried almost as much authority, if not more authority, than the law itself.600
The disciples' hand-washing was only a specific example of the larger charge. One entire tractate in the Mishnah dealt with proper hand-washing procedures for ceremonial purposes.601There were even requirements for proper hand-washing before meals since the ritual cleanliness of food was such an important matter to the Jews.
15:3-6 Jesus responded with a counterattack. He made a basic distinction between God's commandments and the Jews' traditions. He charged His critics with breaking the former to keep the latter.
In verse 4 Jesus quoted Exodus 20:12 and 21:17. "Curses"(NIV) is too strong. "Speaks evil of"(NASB) is better since the Greek verb kakologeomeans "to insult."
The Pharisees and scribes, however, had evaded the spirit of the command, namely that children should take responsibility for their needy parents. The "you"is emphatic in the Greek text. Halakic (rabbinic) tradition said that if someone vowed to give something to God he should not break his vow. Jesus said the law taught a more fundamental duty. To withhold from one's parents what one could give to help them because of what the rabbis taught was greedy hypocrisy. The error was not so much using the money for oneself as failing to give it to the needy parent.
Jesus had taught His disciples to put commitment to Him before family responsibilities (8:21-22; 10:38). He was the Messiah, and as such He had a right to demand such a strong commitment. The traditions of the Jews did not carry that much authority. Moreover the situation Jesus had addressed previously involved family members opposing His disciples, not His disciples opposing their family members (cf. 10:37-39).
15:7-9 Chronologically this is the first time Jesus called the Pharisees and teachers of the law hypocrites. Their hypocrisy consisted of making a show of commitment to God while at the same time giving human tradition precedence over God's Word.
Isaiah addressed the words Jesus quoted to Jerusalem Jews who sometimes allowed external acts of worship to vitiate principle. Rather than continuing God's will the Jews' traditions perpetuated the spirit of the hypocrites in Isaiah's day. The context of the Isaiah quotation is a criticism of the Jews for displacing heartfelt worship with mere ritual. Isaiah branded this type of religion vain. The hypocrites in his day had substituted their own teachings for God's. Jesus' application of this quotation to the Pharisees and law teachers of His day, therefore, condemned their entire worship of God, not just their carefully observed traditions.
15:10-11 Jesus had been responding to the question of His critics so far. Now He taught the assembled crowds the same lesson and at the same time gave a direct answer to the Pharisees and scribes. He responded with a parable (v. 15). He did not utter this one to veil truth from the crowds, however. He urged them to hear and understand what he said (v. 10). This parable was a comparison for the sake of clarification. Yet some did not understand what Jesus said (vv. 15-16).
Jesus was speaking of ceremonial (ritual) defilement when He said that eating certain foods does not make one unclean.602This was a radical statement that went beyond even the Mosaic Law. Mark noted that when He said this Jesus declared all food clean (Mark 7:19). As Messiah, Jesus was terminating the dietary distinction between clean and unclean foods that was such a large part of the Mosaic system of worship (cf. Acts 10:15; Rom. 14:14-18; 1 Cor. 10:31; 1 Tim. 4:4; Titus 1:15). Matthew's concern, however, was not to highlight this termination but to stress the point of Jesus' teaching. The point was that to God what proceeds from the heart is more important than what enters the mouth. Motives and attitudes are more significant than food and drink.
15:12-14 Mark recorded that this interchange between the disciples and Jesus happened in a house after they had retired there from the public confrontation that preceded (Mark 7:17). Jesus' disciples, as all the Jews, held the Pharisees and teachers of the law in high regard. Since Jesus' words had offended His critics, the disciples wanted to know why He had said them. Jesus proceeded to disillusion His disciples regarding the reliability of His critics' spiritual leadership. If there was any doubt in the reader's mind that the religious leaders had turned against Jesus, the disciples' statement in verse 12 should end it.
First, Jesus compared the Pharisees and scribes to plants that God had not planted (cf. 13:24-30, 36-43). There are several passages in the Old Testament that compare Israel to a plant that God had planted (e.g., Ps. 1:3; Isa. 60:21). Isaiah also described God uprooting rebellious Israel as a farmer pulls up a worthless plant (Isa. 5:1-7). Jesus meant God would uproot the Pharisees and scribes because they were not people that He had planted, and they were worthless as spiritual leaders. This would have been a shocking revelation to the disciples. Jesus had previously hinted at this (3:9; 8:11-12), but now since they had definitely rejected Him He made the point clear.
Jesus told the disciples to leave the critics alone even as He said God would leave the weeds the enemy had planted in the field alone (13:28-29). Some of the Jews considered themselves guides of the spiritually blind (cf. Rom. 2:19). These Pharisees and scribes apparently did since they knew the law and understood its traditional interpretations. However, Jesus disputed their claim. To Him they were blind guides of the blind. They failed to comprehend the real meaning of the Scriptures they took so much pride in understanding. A tragic end awaits the blind guides as well as those whom they guide. The critics' rejection of Jesus was only one indication of their spiritual blindness.
15:15-16 Peter again took the leadership among the disciples (cf. 14:28). Jesus' answer to Peter's request for an explanation of the parable (vv. 17-20) identifies the parable as what Jesus had said about defilement in verse 11. Jesus again rebuked the disciples for failing to understand what he meant (cf. 14:31). The unbelieving multitudes were understandably ignorant, but Jesus' believing disciples should have known better. Jesus had taught them the priority of reality over ritual before (3:9; 12:1-21). Jesus' rebuke was probably also a pedagogical device. It would have made the disciples try their best to understand what He was teaching in the future so they would avoid further rebukes.
15:17-20 Jesus contrasted tangible food with intangible thoughts. Matthew's list of the heart's products follows the order of the Ten Commandments essentially. Jesus' point was this: what a person is determines what he or she does and says (cf. 12:34-35). Note that Jesus presupposed the biblical revelation that the heart is evil (cf. 7:11). True religion must deal with people's basic nature and not just with externals. The Pharisees and scribes had become so preoccupied with the externals that they failed to deal with what is more basic and important, namely a real relationship with God. Jesus had more concern for human nature than for the form of worship. He came to seek and to save the lost (1:21; cf. 6:1-33; 12:34-35).
In this pericope Jesus rejected the Pharisees and scribes as Israel's authentic interpreters of the Old Testament. He claimed that role instead for Himself. This was a theological issue that ultimately led to Jesus' arrest and crucifixion.
"The occupation with the outward religious ceremony, instead of inner transformation of the heart, has all too often attended all forms of religion and has plagued the church as well as it has Judaism. How many Christians in church history have been executed for difference of opinion on the meaning of the Lord's Supper elements or the mode of baptism or for failure to bow to church authority? The heart of man, which is so incurably religious, is also incurably evil, apart from the grace of God."603
