Harmony of the Gospels
Lesson 49
Discourse on Pollution
Matt. 15:1-20
The Teaching of the Ancestors
Matt. 15:1-2 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the Law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked him, “ Why is it that your disciples disobey the teaching handed down by our ancestors? They don’t wash their hands in the proper way before they eat!”
Comments: Immediately after the discourse in the synagogue there came to Jesus some representatives of the Scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem. They were sent no doubt, to counteract the influence of Christ. They were bitter opposers of Jesus. They posed a question about the transgression, not of the law of Moses, but the traditions of the elders, which had as much authority with the Pharisees as the written law. These sub-laws or traditions of the elders, were purported to be precepts never written in the Scriptures, but handed down from the times of Moses and the elders by oral means. These precepts were spoken of as the “law upon the lip,” and have been embodied in the Talmud. They were additions to the written word. The particular transgression they had a question about was the washing of hands before eating. The orthodox Jews insisted on washing the hands before eating, not to remove filth, but lest they might have touched something ceremonially unclean. This commandment was purely traditional, but so rigidly did they insist upon observing it that Rabbi Akiba, imprisoned by the Romans and with scarcely water to sustain life, preferred to use all provided for his ceremonial washings, and to die of thirst.
Matt. 15: 3-4 Jesus answered, “ And why do you disobey God’s command and follow your own teaching? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who says bad things about his father or mother must be put to death.’
Comments: We notice that the Lord does not deny their charge, but strikes at the evil by showing that their human traditions led them to break God’s written law.
The Ten Commandments promised long life to those who honored father and mother. Here the Lord quotes the punishment of dishonoring them. On nothing did Moses insist more than respect for parents.
Matt. 15:5-6 But you teach that if a person has something he could use to help his father or mother, but says, ‘This belongs to God,’ he does not need to honor his father. This is how you disregard God’s word to follow your own teaching.
Comments: By following your traditions, you say one thing while God says in the law just the opposite. The scribes taught that a Jew by calling his possessions “Corban” (a gift to God, Mark 7:11), was absolved from the duty of caring for his parents, even though he did not afterward devote his property to sacred uses. Thus by an artifice the law with respect to parents could be set aside. The Talmud furnishes a curious illustration of this perversion of the command. The Mishna says: “ He that curses his father or his mother is not guilty, unless he curses them with an express mention of the name of Jehovah.”
Christ condemns them for trying to get around the law by their man made sub-laws. Modern Pharisaism does the same thing. Church tradition leads to dogmas that set aside God’s commands. The corruption of the simplicity of early Christianity is due to following human tradition.
Matt. 15: 7-9 You hypocrites! How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you! These people, says God, honor me with their words, but their heart is really far away from me. It is no use for them to worship me, because they teach man-made commandments as though they were God’s rules!’ “
Comments: The word hypocrites so rendered might mean one self-deceived as well as a deceiver, but was always a rebuke. Isaiah did prophesy about them in Isaiah 29:13. Verses 8 and 9 are the quotation from Isaiah. The people Isaiah was talking about were the Jews, he said their hearts were far from God. The essential of true worship is that the heart be wholly given to God. Even the forms commanded by God are worthless unless they are obeyed from the heart. Because of this attitude, their worship was worthless. This worship is all idle, empty, and without profit, because they teach as doctrines the commandments of men. This rebuke to the Pharisees, who had added to the law of Moses many traditional, human precepts, applies equally to all modern religionists who have modified or added to the Christianity of Christ and the apostles. Whatever one cannot find in the New Testament is of such a character. The devout worshiper should go right to the New Testament for his religion, and reject every ordinance or precept that is not to be found there.
Matt. 15: 10-14 Then Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them, “ Listen, and understand! It is not what goes into a person’s mouth that makes him unclean; rather, what comes out of it makes him unclean.” Then the disciples came to him and said, “Do you know that the Pharisees had their feelings hurt by what you said?” “Every plant which my Father in heaven did not plant will be pulled up,” answered Jesus. Don’t worry about them! They are blind leaders; and when one blind man leads another one, both fall into a ditch.”
Comments: Jesus called the multitude in order to show them that these Pharisaical expounders of the law did not understand its real sense. The Mosaic law forbade Jews to eat what was ceremonially unclean, in order to teach the need of moral purity.
The Rabbis added stringent precepts to prevent the slightest contact with ceremonial uncleanness, but were careless about moral purity. Christ shows that a pure heart is far more important than clean food, in the ceremonial sense, in the stomach. Pharisees in all ages have paid more attention to the letter than to the spirit, to the symbol than to that which it signified. The impure words that come out of a mans mouth, indicate an impure heart. What one eats does not render him defiled before God, but what he says.
The Pharisees found fault with his teaching. They would insist that he set aside the law, whereas it was tradition that he rejected.
The plant that he referred to that would be up rooted was a general truth, but here refers to doctrines not of God, Like “ the tradition of the elders.” Jesus told his disciples to leave the Pharisees alone, they were very troubled by their opposition. They pretended to be spiritual guides of the people, while spiritually blind themselves. The blind are unsafe guides of the blind.
Matt. 15:15-20 Peter spoke up, “ Tell us what this parable means.”
Jesus said to them, “ You are still no more intelligent than the others. Don’t you understand? Anything that goes into a person’s mouth goes into his stomach and then on out of the body. But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart; such things make a man unclean. For from his heart come the evil ideas which lead him to kill, commit adultery, and do other immoral things; rob, lie, and slander others. These are the things that make a man unclean. But to eat without washing your hands as they say you should, this does not make a man unclean.”
Comments: Jesus explains the meaning of his teaching, what is eaten passes through the body and passes away. It does not defile the soul. What comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, the emotional nature; the mind. Evil deeds are begotten of evil thoughts; evil words are the expression of these evil thoughts. These indicate a sinful heart and make a man sinful, or defiled.