Matthew 15 - When God Provides Make Sure To Take the Leftovers!

Click Here To Read or Listen to Matthew 15

What's Happening in Matthew 15?

Jesus confronts the Pharisees for their focus on the externals and also their honoring tradition over the Word of God. Jesus exposes their false worship, which doesn't come from their heart but from outward rituals. This has much application for us today. 

Jesus also heals a Canaanite woman's daughter noting the exceptional faith she demonstrates on behalf of her daughter.  This is juxtaposed with the Pharisees and teachers legalism who focus not on faith but on religiosity. Finally, there is another miraculous feeding of 4,000, similar to yesterday's story of feeding of the 5,000. 

That Which Defiles

The Pharisees and Teachers of law talked a lot about what was clean and unclean according to the Mosaic Law. Although God did give the Israelites these laws in the wilderness, the Pharisees had lost sight of the purpose of these dietary laws. After they point out that Jesus' disciples don't wash their hands before they eat, Jesus points out how they break the more important commandment to honor one's father and mother. They justified their sin by saying what might have been given to them was given to God. 

"These ceremonial washings were commanded by tradition, not by Scripture. The religious leaders say as much when they refer to the tradition of the elders and not the commandment of God." (Guzik)

“This convenient declaration apparently left the property actually still at the disposal of the one who made the vow, but deprived his parents of any right to it.” (France)

Through this trick one could completely disobey the command to honor his father or mother, and do it while being ultra-religious. (Guzik)

Jesus then quotes Isaiah 29:13 when he said, 

“‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’” 

This is quite an indictment on the Israelites and something we should be aware of too. It is easy to go through the motions in church just to say, "Well, I went to church today!" We also need to be aware of when we are focused on the traditions of man rather than the Word of God. Though there is nothing wrong with tradition, as long as they are true to scripture and honor God and Jesus, we need to remember they come from man not God. 

An example would be crossing oneself in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I cross myself, as I remember the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and each of their distinct roles. But crossing myself does not make me any more spiritual. Someone who crosses themselves because they want to be seen by others or thinking somehow it is magical are taking a tradition and using it in vain. 

This was true of the religious leaders Jesus confronted and quoted the passage from Isaiah 29:13 to. Yet it may also be true of us. We can appear to draw near to God, all the while having our heart far from Him. It is easy to want and be impressed by the image of being near to God without really doing it with our heart. God is interested in the internal and the real. We are far more interested in the merely external and image. One must take care that their relationship with God is not merely external and image. (Guzik)

Jesus also weighs in on the very important issue of eating food in relationship to what is "clean" and "unclean".  He says this, 

“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 a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”

In this way Jesus declared all food and drink clean in and out itself. There is nothing morally wrong with eating foods like pork. There is nothing morally wrong with having a glass of wine. What is more important is what comes out of your heart. Evil thoughts make one unclean, not having bacon for breakfast. 

Someone can eat all the right food, yet have a hardened and bitter heart, which spills out into their relationships with others. This is a lot more important to Jesus than the food we eat. Of course, this doesn't mean we shouldn't eat healthy, as our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.

“The principles set out by Jesus’ words in Matthew 15:11 and 17-20 made the ultimate abandonment of the Old Testament food-laws by the church inevitable.” (France)

Said plainly, many people who worry about external habits (what they eat and drink and other such things) should care more about what words come out of their mouth. They do more against God and His people by what they say than by what they eat or drink. (Guzik)

The Faith of a Canaanite Woman

The faith of the Canaanite woman is in stark contrast to the legalism of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law. First of all, we see how she addresses Jesus. She says, 

“Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! 

Unlike the Pharisees, she realizes that Jesus comes from the Messianic line of David.  She point to Jesus being the true Messiah. Secondly, she believes Jesus can heal her demon possessed daughter. She has faith in Jesus. She has heard of Jesus' healing ministry and believes he can do the same for her.

At first, Jesus shrugs her off saying that he had come only for the lost sheep of Israel. We will take a look at this, but I don't it meant Jesus didn't care about the Gentiles. In this this season of his ministry, he was called to go FIRST to the house of Israel. 

Yet, the woman persists saying, "I will take even the crumbs that rolled off the table." Jesus sees her great faith and rewards her by healing her daughter AT THAT VERY MOMENT! 

We are at the great disadvantage of not hearing the tone of Jesus’ voice as He spoke to this woman. We suspect that His tone was not harsh; we rather suspect that it was winsome with the effect of inviting greater faith from the woman. It is possible to speak harsh words in a playful or winsome manner.

Here are some very important insights by David Guzik as Jesus' response to the woman's faith. 

O woman, great is your faith! Jesus never said this to another person. He complimented the great faith of the Roman centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant (Matthew 8:10), but He said it to the crowd, not to the centurion directly. This Gentile woman heard it from Jesus directly.

Significantly, the only two people to receive this compliment from Jesus were these Gentiles. This shows us that:

Great faith may be found in unexpected places – not merely Gentiles, but a centurion and a woman!

Jesus Feeds the Four Thousand

Similar to the previous situation, after doing ministry Jesus sought refuge and solitude by the mountainside. But once again the crowds brought all of their sick to Jesus and he healed them all. The people praise God when they see Jesus doing his miraculous work. They realized that only God could do such remarkable miracles. 

Again, Jesus turned to his disciples and asked them to provide food for these people. Later, we learn it is a crowd of 4,000. The disciples ask how they can feed the multitude with only 7 small loaves of bread and a few fish? Similar to the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus took their meager offering and gave thanks to God. When the disciples distributed to the people who were seated and everyone was fed. Once again there were even leftovers. 

If you are like me, I love leftovers. In this case it shows that when God he provides, he provides abundantly.  Also, when God provides it is important for us not to waste what he has given us. 

Some people ask if this is the same story and just re-told in a different manner. This would be somewhat problematic if Matthew merely repeated the same story with different details to make it look like Jesus did this twice when he didn't. However, there is no reason Jesus could not have done this miracle twice. 

 It is important to see that this is not just a retelling of the previous feeding of the 5,000.There are many differences distinguishing this from the prior feeding of the 5,000:

· Different numbers of those being fed.

· Different locales (on the western and the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee).

· Different seasons of the year, indicated by no mention of grass in the second account.

· Different supply of food at the beginning.

· Different number of baskets holding the leftovers, and even a different word for “baskets” in the second account.

· Different period of time of waiting for the people (Matthew 15:32)

How has God provided for you when you were in need? When he provided did you handle responsibly the things he has given you?

This is a big reason to give part of what God has given us back to the church so the church can fulfill the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations!