Law & Grace - Matthew 15:1-39 "Traditions, commandments & hearts"

Good morning. A warm welcome to you, especially today. One of the things that I wanted to bring up, yesterday we had the first in the trio of marriage seminars up at Fort Collins and very well received, over two dozen people there. At any rate, we do need to have sign-ups for the one that we're having here in less than two weeks. Last I checked, there was nobody signed up and that's not so good. I'd be glad to talk to nobody, I suppose, but it's not quite as productive.

At any rate, looking forward to that. In the passage, we want to kind of summarize. Here's what happens in Matthew chapter 15. We're going to walk our way through the entire chapter here. Tradition in the Law of Moses is the theme of verses 1 through 14. I threw in this picture here from The Fiddler on the Roof, the song Tradition. If you've never heard of that movie, don't worry about it. OK.

What really does and doesn't impact a person's heart is Jesus' point with his disciples in verses 15 through 20. We will, of course, go through that. You know, what exactly is it that impacts and doesn't impact a person's heart? What is it that reveals the character of a person's heart? So we'll talk about that when we get into that passage.

The verses 1 through 28 Jesus tells who he was sent to in his first coming. It said, Was sent only to and then we'll talk about what that was Finally in the last part of the chapter Jesus healed the crowd one person at a time So at any rate what happens here in Matthew excuse me the last one a fed the 4,000 which we'll talk about there All right, now, the scribes and the Pharisees, as Vicente read for us.

Now, the scribes and the Pharisees were buds, okay? They were buds. Why? The scribes were the ones who copied scripture, which consisted of the Old Testament, additional significant documents of importance to the Jews. They not only copied but also did initial recordings on significant events, significant decisions, and things of that sort. They were buds of the Pharisees because the Pharisees were the most popular of the various groups that you hear about. in the New Testament among the Jews.

You hear about the Sadducees. You hear about, actually not by name in the Bible, but there's another group called the Essenes. There's a politically oriented group, the Herodians. Not sure which political group I'd like to associate that with in our modern time, but anyway. So the Herodians was another group. So there are various groups.

The Pharisees was the one most popular, and they were in fact the ones who were most missionary about taking the various stories to other countries and other lands outside of Israel. And by the way, two-thirds of the Jews during this time lived outside of Israel. So most of the Jews lived in other places. And it was the Pharisees who went to them, not the Essenes and not the Sadducees. And that's the group that has survived. Today's Orthodox Jews would say that they inherited their belief in large part from the Pharisees.

They came to Jesus from Jerusalem, the place where the temple was, the place where was the seat of government for Israel, both so far as Rome and its domain, as well as the Jewish leaders in the Sanhedrin. They came to pose what they thought was a challenging question to Jesus. Something that they would ask Him that would stump Him. Something they would ask Him that would set Him back.

Well, at least that's what they thought. They said this, Why do your disciples break, oh that sounds terrible, break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. Ah! Disgusting. Now, We got a red flag here. The red flag is this.

While Jesus kept taking the Israelites back to the Law of Moses, he also spoke against the traditions that they surrounded it with. See, the Israelites would have additional traditions because, after all, if I've got 613 laws that I have to keep, that's the number of laws in the Laws of Moses, if I have 613 laws, I'm going to need additional laws to help me keep those laws.

And so, for example, one of them, you weren't supposed to do work on a Sunday. And so how far can you walk before it becomes work? Well, they came up with a figure. In fact, the term is used in Acts chapter 1, a Sabbath day's journey, about six-tenths of a mile. Here they have this red flag issue. Jesus keeps coming and saying, you have heard that it was said, and he goes and says the tradition, but I say to you, that's multiple times in Matthew chapter 5.

Now, you might ask, but isn't washing hands before eating a good idea? I mean, you know, wash everything thoroughly and use soap and lots of water, you know, get your hands washed. I mean, we've discovered in the last century plus that that's a very good thing to do, right? So, I mean, isn't that a good idea? I mean, isn't this a good tradition? Well, before we jump to that conclusion, let's talk about something.

Certainly from a personal hygiene standpoint, washing your hands and just doing it for a period of time, I think I heard one time that you're supposed to sing happy birthday, that that's the right amount of time. So sing happy birthday while you're washing your hands and you'll do it the right amount of time. Well, that's a good way to prevent bacteria and viruses and things like that from getting eaten and whatnot. Problem.

The rabbis had come up with this hand-washing ritual not to wash your hands. It was to be ceremonially clean, not physically clean or sanitary. Why do I say that? The water required by the rabbis was only the volume of one and a half eggs, three tablespoons.

That's enough to get your hands wet. That's about all. That was what they came up with as their rule. So they only took about three tablespoons of water and splashed it on their hands and you're done. Now, is that sanitary? Not so much. If your kids did that, you'd say, go back. It wouldn't fly. One more thing, and the three tablespoons might be contaminated. Which isn't going to help at all. So you got filthy, dirty hands, and then you put contaminated water on them, three tablespoons worth? That's not going to help.

Now, so Jesus comes back to them and says, guess what? I'm going to answer your question with a question. And you're going to love it. Not so much. Rather than answer the question, which would put Jesus on the defensive, Jesus responds with a question that points out that there are many traditions added to the Law of Moses break that law. And in truth, there are a number of them. He's going to present one.

Here's one with the Sabbath day's journey I told you about. By the way, it was the Sabbath day's journey from the temple out to the Mount of Olives. That was as far as you could go on the Sabbath. Sabbath day's journey about six tenths of a mile. Okay, so where could you go?

You could go from your house, six tenths of a mile, and then that's all. You can't go any farther than that away. So they figured out a way around it. Here's how you do it. You take small objects from your house. and you put them in a pocket or a purse or something, right? Then you walk six-tenths of a mile. I won't walk off the edge, honest. You walk six-tenths of a mile and then you take that part of your house and you put it down on the ground and maybe hide it. and then you can walk another six-tenths of a mile and take that part of your house and put it down.

You see what the deal is? So as long as the total weight that you're carrying of things from your house doesn't make it work to pick up, you can go as far as you would like. So they figured out a way around it and I could come up with more, but that gives you the idea.

So this is what Jesus is going to object to. They would have the law and then they'd use their tradition to figure out ways around the law. So the law of Moses was very clear. The Jews were to honor their parents under the penalty of death. Be honorable to your parents or it's not so good for you. That is multiple places in the Old Testament.

We give several references there. However, depends on what you mean by honor. It's kind of like we had a president who said something, it depends on what you mean by is. But anyway, the word honor included not only words and behavior, but material goods as well. So honor isn't just I say good things and I behave honorably. It actually included the definition of supporting them as they have need with material goods. As a matter of fact, that use we give a reference in 1 Timothy chapter 5. Twice the word honor is used in terms of material support, not just saying and behaving honorably.

The rabbis had devised a tradition where anything that you didn't wish to give in support of your parents, you gave what was called a vow of dedication. And of course, you have to keep your vows, right? So anything you said, well, I don't really want to give this to my parents, and you'd go around and you'd say a vow of dedication for that object. And then, of course, since you gave a vow, you can't possibly give it to your parents. And so as many things as you wanted to dedicate, in that way, you could avoid having to give it to your parents in support.

Right? And so anything dedicated was called Korban. That was their term. And that was their way of getting around honoring your parents, even though it was considered very serious and a death penalty if you didn't do so. So that was another one of their ways around the law of Moses. Now, So we find here that tradition, the Jews said, trumps law. Now, you may be wondering, it could be said, does a person think that Vern means bridge game suits when we say trumps? Or does it refer to this other guy here? Pharisees, you're fired. Is that what he means? Or is it the Pharisees saying to Donald, no, you're fired. We don't allow bad hair days. OK? All right.

Anyway, the problem with the tradition is that these many man-made traditions were held on the same level of authority as the Law of Moses, even if the tradition allowed one to break the law without penalty. It's just the sort of thing that Jesus had already brought up.

You see, the Jews allowed you to lie as long as you made a vow by something that wasn't binding. And Jesus brought that up in the Sermon on the Mount where he said, don't swear by anything because all that swearing by this and swearing by that complicated the matter. He says, just tell the truth. And that was another instance where you could break the law as long as you did it just right by the tradition.

Jesus spoke strongly against the common teaching of the rabbis there in the Sermon on the Mount. We give the reference there in Matthew chapter 5 and elsewhere. And also in the parable of the Good Samaritan. One of the things that Jesus had difficulty with the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees on was this.

He would heal on the Sabbath. As a matter of fact, there are places where you can see he intentionally healed on the Sabbath. He says, is it unlawful for me to do a good thing on the Sabbath? And of course the answer was, no it's not. Here with the Good Samaritan, here is the issue. Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan and the first two guys that go by, this fellow who is injured on the highway, injured by thieves, this fellow who is injured, the first two guys that go by have a problem.

The traditions and laws would say if they touch that guy and he were dead, that they would be, you know, unclean. Again, ceremonially unclean for at least a week. And of course, if you're a priest, that's really inconvenient. You can't do your job. So you justify on the basis of your understanding of the law, I'm not going to help this guy, even though the law says, love your neighbor, right? So the tradition said, no, we're going to step by this fellow who is injured and might be dead.

And so what happens, here is this Samaritan, who of course the Jews despise, because he's a Samaritan, right? The Samaritan comes by, he's not subject to that tradition, and so what does he do? He helps the man who was injured along the roadway. And by the way, The nation of Israel has just established a museum at what is believed to have been the inn of the Good Samaritan, just the last couple of years ago.

Okay, here is Matthew 15, 6-9, and by this you invalidate the word of God for the sake of tradition, you hypocrites! Rightly did Isaiah, this is Isaiah 29, 3, prophesy of you, this people honors me with their lips, They say all the right things. It's honor me, but it is honor me only with words. But their heart is far away from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. The traditions are generated by men and not by God.

All right. Doctrine isn't just words on paper. It is a matter of the heart. You see that in these verses? Doctrine is not just words on paper. People will often think, ah, doctrine, and actually speak ill of it. They'll think doctrine, and I think we have a doctrinal statement that's kind of, pardon the dust, and, you know, yeah, here it is. A heart that is far away from God is separated from Him. That sounds to me like an identification truth, isn't it? And next, human beings can and ought to teach and live doctrine, but the doctrine needs to come from God, not man-made. See the difference there?

Now, from there, Jesus addresses the crowd and talks to them about it. Jesus told the crowd to hear and understand. So it's not just let the physiology go in, but let this sink in and spiritually comprehend this. It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth. This defiles the man and shows the man, by the way, to be defiled.

But the disciples told Jesus that he had offended the Pharisees. Well, as a matter of fact, Peter comes up with that. He said that they, that is the Pharisees, not being planted by God would be uprooted. That is a Old Testament figure for judged. They would be judged on the basis of their setting out traditions in conflict with the Word of God. Uprooted.

They are also blind guides, and guiding the blind, both would fall into the pit. And by the way, the Law of Moses said you have to cover the pits. They were required to cover any pit or cistern that you had in the ground. And he says that they will lead other blind people into these pits that were, according to the law, supposed to be covered.

Now, so then the question comes up. Peter asks the Lord to explain his parable, and Jesus wonders at his lack of understanding. Hmm. I told you a parable. Now, we'll put it this way. A couple of chapters ago, he didn't have chapters, but a couple of chapters ago, and you understood. How come you don't understand this? Well, he does explain it.

He tells them that pouring a few teaspoons, and that's our term, not his, pouring a few teaspoons of water on the hands doesn't clean up the inside. It doesn't fix anything. And we know, of course, that pouring a few teaspoons doesn't even take care of the bacteria and virus and other filth kinds of issues. If the inside is full of vile and horrific sin, a few tablespoons of water is not even going to come anywhere close to fixing the problem. Vile and horrific sin is what will come out of that vile and horrific heart. The traditions don't clean or change or touch hearts. By the way, what does touch hearts? Pardon? Yeah.

Ephesians 4.12. The Word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword.

And it goes where? How deep? Between the dividing line between soul and spirit. Nothing, nothing gets that deep. And by the way, talking about a book that's sitting in your pew racks in front of all of you here. This is an amazing thing. There is nothing else on this planet that can go that deep.

The Word of God is alive and powerful. And that's the distinction he's trying to make with these disciples. The Word of God is inspired by God and it goes and touches deep. And it establishes what is true with a capital T. Three tablespoons of water doesn't cut it. It doesn't get there. It doesn't go that deep. Now, the next part, real interesting.

Why did Jesus go to the district of Tyre and Sidon? All right. In a few instances, and this is one of them, Jesus went into places that were populated mostly by Gentiles, non-Jews. And so I've had people tell me, well, see, Jesus went to the Gentiles too. But wait a minute. Why, if he was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, would he do that?

Here is a map of northern Galilee, including the area up to the city of Tyre. The city of Tyre here is along the coast and at the time was an island as well as a place right along the ocean next to the island. Alexander the Great took the city and moved it out to make a bridge so it's now no longer an island, it's a peninsula. But that's the city of Tyre and he went into that region This was after Alexander the Great, so it no longer was an island, it was a peninsula. He went to that region, which was definitely a Gentile city.

Something very interesting is where did Tyre get most of its crop kind of food? Galilee. Interesting connection. To the east of the north part of the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee is an area that was also predominantly Gentile. And Jesus went there as well. Why would he do such a thing if he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel? Why would he go to those places?

Doesn't that seem contradictory? Is something wrong here? Did Jesus mess up? I don't think so. Let's find out why. Jesus went into lands that were originally intended for the Israelites to conquer and drive out inhabitants and would be included in the coming kingdom at his second coming.

He went into those lands even if they were predominantly Gentile. The Israelites were supposed to conquer those lands and drive out the inhabitants and hold that land as their own, which of course they did not. They were supposed to have done it as was initiated under the leadership of Joshua.

They didn't complete the job. Nonetheless, Jesus went into those places. Here is Tyre, and what you see for the northern part of Israel, color-coded there on the map for the northern part of Israel you see the lands by tribe that each tribe was to take the area around Tyre was to be taken by the tribe of Asher by the way that's the tribe of Anna in the New Testament the tribe of Asher was supposed to have taken Tyre they never did take that area but Jesus went there as part of the kingdom over which he would in one day rain. So that was one. Additionally, the area to the east that we talked about was supposed to have been taken by Manasseh, the tribe of Manasseh, the half tribe. They were supposed to have taken over that east area, which they did not complete. But that also is another area that he went to. And why? Because it was a part of the land that was to be Israel's and will be Israel's in the coming kingdom.

Now, so this Canaanite woman whose daughter was demon-possessed pleaded for Jesus to have mercy and even calling him Lord and the son of David. Wow, I mean that's quite a bit to recognize, isn't it? A few years ago I happened to have an email conversation with a fellow who was from this area. He says, yeah, I'm a Canaanite and I'm a believer. I'm a Canaanite and I'm a believer. He also would have said, called Christ Lord and Son of David. As a matter of fact, he does that now.

Jesus doesn't respond to this woman, which seems almost uncharacteristic, except that A reason that we'll see just in a minute here. The disciples ask Jesus to send her away. She's just irritating. Besides that, Jesus isn't responding. She's so persistent.

Jesus said that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now, what would people do with that kind of a statement in our day? I mean, that would sound racist or something, right? Maybe headlines like this. Christ insults the Canaanite. Right? Okay. Now, but in our era, of course, things are a little different.

Jesus told his disciples not to go back, this is back in Matthew chapter 10, when he was sending out the disciples two by two. Remember that? In Matthew chapter 10, we read how Jesus sent out the disciples two by two, and he said, don't go on a road that leads to the Gentiles or even to the Samaritans.

Go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now that phrase, lost sheep of the house of Israel, is not just something that Jesus invented. and is recorded just in Matthew 10 and 15. Psalm 119.76 talks about the Jews, and speaking first person, I have gone astray like a lost sheep. And Psalms, where this is from, it is Israel's national hymn book. So here is the Israelite declaring one at a time, I have gone astray like a lost sheep.

Jeremiah 50 verse 6, My people have become lost sheep, their shepherds have led them astray." Who were the shepherds of Israel who led them astray in Jesus' time? It's the Pharisees, it's the Sadducees, it's the one who just came thinking that they were going to challenge Jesus and put Him back. Instead, what this refers to is these shepherds, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, have misled these people and led them astray. I have come to find these lost sheep. and to go to them. That's why I've been sent, is what Jesus declares. And finally, this passage that we just see here in Matthew 15, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

So, the Canaanite woman, does she go away? Does she say, oh, I give up? That's enough. I'm irritating these disciples. I think I'll stop. No. She, instead, pleads all the more and she begins saying, she begins talking in terms of using this word, dogs. And you may wonder, well, what's that about? Well, it turns out both Jesus and this woman use the term dogs. And she was saying, you know, even the dogs get the crumbs off the master's table, right? The dogs was a Jewish term for the Gentiles, non-Jews. And they both use that term here, referring essentially to her.

Jesus, who does say that her faith is great, grants that her daughter be healed of demon possession without him even seeing her. There's no evidence that he went and saw the daughter at all, but granted the woman's wish right there. He does say not just you have faith, but actually your faith is great. Great faith.

Now, what's interesting, a similar healing was something we read about in Matthew chapter 8. There, in that instance, Jesus came into Capernaum, and a Roman officer, a centurion, said, you don't even need to come to my house. All you have to do is say the word, and this person in my household, some translations have it as servant, but the word could mean even a child, this person in my household will be healed. You don't even need to come.

And Jesus marveled at this man's faith as well. So very interesting, very similar instances here. Two Gentiles ask, would you please heal? And Jesus appears to heal in each case from a distance. And in each case, Jesus makes note of the faith of this Gentile person. Then, Jesus heads back to Galilee. As Jesus returns to Galilee, he takes some time to be alone on the mountain. At least that was the original intent. It didn't turn out that way. Why?

His location is discovered and soon the crowds began gathering at his feet. Jesus is here! And word gets around really fast in even those small towns and especially if you don't have cell phones and stuff. It gets around really fast. My dad was in Mexico doing a short-term missions trip years ago and he was in a small town and he was actually talking to this town's mayor.

And he was helping with a tribe up in the mountains called the Tarahumara tribe. And he was helping set up a radio. And he actually flew into this half runway. I say half because it was, you fly on the edge of a cliff into this runway that ends up like this. Anyway, he was in this small Mexican town and talking to the mayor. And the mayor was wanting to do some favors for him.

And my dad, being a little elementary in his Spanish, was trying to say, you don't have to do any special favors for me. You don't have to make a special trip for me. But he turned Viaje around to Vieja, and he said to the guy, you don't need to make a special old woman for me. Anyway, OK, enough stories.

The location is soon discovered, and news gets around really fast. And by the way, that account went through all the town. As he walked through the town, everybody was laughing and pointing. Anyway, okay. In these little towns like this, even without cell phones and email and all that, word gets around really quick, and everybody's flocking to this remote location.

Jesus heals them of all their diseases and various conditions. and they marvel at what he has done. You think about it in a world of that kind where a lot of the medical solutions that we would think very little of now had no solution. To have someone come and just instantly deal with the problem was just huge. And being disabled, especially in a culture and community where manual labor was the way you made your living, it made for a great stress to have these conditions just remain and remain and remain, a stress on the rest of the family.

The people of the crowd also are said to glorify, interesting, not just glorify God, glorify the God of Israel. He had been sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and at least these people got the point. As they see these healings, they glorify the God of Israel.

And while this retreat, I'll call it that, this retreat is great for the few days that it lasts, people are starting to run out of food supplies. As a matter of fact, they're getting down to the point where they have just very meager and small quantity of food left. It says that Jesus told the disciples they had compassion on them. He looked at them and he said, oh, we've been here for three days. This has been wonderful. Many are glorifying the God of Israel. But people are getting hungry. It's getting to be difficult, you know. And we're running out of supplies here. And we're here in this remote location.

So Jesus asked the disciples how many loaves they had, to which they replied, seven and a few small fish. And I would suggest to you, as I talked about in the previous chapter, that the fish were likely dried fish. There were three ways that the Jews had fish, and one was fresh, but you only had that within hours of catching it, because there's no way to refrigerate anything, within hours of catching it, pretty close to the place where you caught it. So you could buy fresh fish, but here where they're in a remote place away from the Sea of Galilee, very likely, since otherwise they would have said, let's go catch some fish, right? Very likely in a spot where they had carried dried fish. And it keeps fairly well. It'll keep for quite some time. And it's also lighter because the water's out of it. Right?

So seven and a few small fish. Seven loaves. So Jesus had all the people sat down and he gave thanks for the loaves and for the fishes. Very similar account, not identical, to the feeding of the 5,000 in the previous chapter. He gave thanks for the loaves and the fishes. Thank the Lord for this. Interestingly, he gave thanks when there wasn't enough.

Hmm. I wonder if we could do that. That would be very interesting. Okay. Thanks when there isn't enough. So this is the feeding of the 4,000 as opposed to the feeding of the 5,000. So Jesus continued to give out the loaves and the fishes. Break it off and hand out some more. Break it off and hand out some more. to all 12 of the disciples, and they distributed the loaves, it says loaves, should be loaves, loaves and fishes to the entire crowd of more than 4,000 people.

Spell checkers don't catch stuff like that. Okay. In the end, all were satisfied with what they received, and the 12 disciples gathered up all the leftover pieces. all the leftover pieces of bread and fish and there were seven baskets full. And by the way, this was after feeding 5,000 and having a similar kind of experience. Now there's 4,000.

Let me ask you a question. Was one of those disciples Judas? Yes. Isn't that amazing? Twice Judas saw Jesus doing this miracle, taking a very small amount of loaves and fishes and reproducing enough to feed thousands of people and half leftovers. Judas saw that. Hmm. I got some points to ponder here, okay?

Are all traditions a bad idea? Or is there a way to judge the traditions to be set aside and those kept? Notice the principle Jesus gives us here, Matthew 15, 6, and by this you invalidated the Word of God for the sake of your tradition. So a tradition by itself is not the problem, it's the ones that are in conflict with the Word of God.

As a matter of fact, we could point to the Last Supper, which was a Passover. There was a lot of it that was traditional and not spelled out in the Law of Moses, and Jesus appears to have followed the tradition. Why did he criticize the tradition of the Pharisees, in the case of the washing of the hands with three tablespoons, and then carry out this tradition? This tradition, which had many things in addition to the Law of Moses, was not in conflict with it.

So it was fine. So it's fine for us to have various traditions. I have a tradition when I come to church, I wear pants. Isn't that great? So anyway, as long as it's not in conflict with scripture, it's fine. Now, we've got some other questions. Now this requires a little bit of logic, so bear with me. Don't growl, just bear.

If Christians are prone to ask, what would Jesus do? And if Jesus kept telling the Jews to do what Moses said to do, follow the logic here, and Jews didn't want to listen to what he said, and if Jesus wouldn't talk with the Gentiles, does that mean that we Christians should only talk with people who don't want to listen to what we have to say? Anyway, think about that one.

If men like Judas would see healing and feeding miracles, but still not believe, Then are the people who say that they would believe if they saw a miracle, are they for real? If it didn't work with Judas, would it work with them? I knew a fellow, as a matter of fact, he was Jewish. I knew a fellow who years ago said, I would believe if I saw God wave out from behind a cloud and say, hi, it's me. Well, I think not. Judas was a fellow who was also Jewish. And he saw miracles, many of them, by the hundreds, probably the thousands, and still didn't believe.

If doctrine really is a matter of the heart, and doctrine really is to be lived out, not just the dry, dusty papers on the shelf or in some book, then aren't we who believe actually living doctrinal statements? Hmm. Interesting. Let's pray about that. Okay.

Lord, we thank you as we look at this passage, as we look at the things in it, there are definitely some points for us to ponder. There are definitely some things for us to consider and to weigh out. And Lord, even we in this culture where we have all sorts of flexibilities, we do have our traditions. And we just ask that you would bring forward any of those that we ought to be taking a close look at. We thank you for your faithfulness as you take us through each day and through this next week. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.