Matthew
Chapter 15
On Tradition
Later, some Pharisees and teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. They said to him:
“Why don’t your disciples follow the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands before eating.”
Jesus answered:
“And you, why do you violate God’s command for the sake of your traditions?
For God commanded: Do your duty to your father and your mother, and whoever curses his father or his mother is to be put to death.
But you say that anyone may tell his father or mother, ‘What you could have expected from me is given to God.’
In this case, according to you, a person is excused from his duty to his father and mother. So, you have nullified God’s command for the sake of your traditions.
Hypocrites! Isaiah accurately prophesied about you when he said:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
The worship they give me is meaningless,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.
On True Purity
Jesus then called the crowd to him and said:
“Listen and understand:
What enters the mouth does not make a person unclean. What defiles a person is what comes out of his mouth.”
After a while, the disciples gathered around Jesus and said:
“Do you know that the Pharisees were offended by what you said?”
Jesus answered:
“Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted shall be uprooted.
Ignore them! They’re blind leading the blind. When one blind person leads another, both will fall into a pit.”
Peter said to him:
“Explain this parable to us.”
Jesus replied:
“So you’re dull, even you?”
Don’t you see that whatever goes into the mouth ends up in the stomach and then exits the body?
But what comes out of the mouth originates from the heart, and that’s what makes a person unclean.
Indeed, evil desires originate from the heart: murder, adultery, immorality, theft, lies, slander.
These are the things that make a person unclean, but eating without washing their hands does not make a person unclean.”
The Faith of a Canaanite Woman
After leaving that place, Jesus went to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
A Canaanite woman from the region came and called out:
“Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering from a demon.”
But Jesus did not answer her, not even a word. So his disciples approached him and said:
“Send her away! See how she is shouting after us.”
Then Jesus said to her:
“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the nation of Israel.”
But the woman was already kneeling before Jesus and said:
“Sir, help me!”
Jesus replied:
“It is not right to take the bread from the children and toss it to the dogs.”
The woman replied:
“That is true, sir, but even puppies eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
Then Jesus said:
“Woman, how great is your faith! Let it be as you wish.”
And her daughter was healed at that moment.
Multiple Healings
From there, Jesus traveled to the shore of Lake Galilee and then went up into the hills, where he sat down.
Great crowds gathered around him, bringing the deaf, the blind, the lame, the crippled, and many others with various illnesses. People carried them to Jesus, and he healed all of them.
Everyone was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the lame walking, the crippled healed, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.
Feeding the Four Thousand
Jesus called his disciples and said to them, “I am filled with compassion for these people; they have already followed me for three days and now have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away fasting, or they may faint on the way.”
His disciples asked him, “And where shall we find enough bread in this wilderness to feed such a crowd?”
Jesus asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They replied, “Seven, and a few small fish.”
Jesus ordered the people to sit on the ground.
Then, he took the seven loaves and the small fish, gave thanks to God, broke them, and handed them to his disciples to distribute to the people.
They all ate until they were satisfied, and the remaining pieces filled seven wicker baskets.
Four thousand men had eaten, along with women and children.
Then Jesus dismissed the crowd, got into the boat, and went to the region of Magdala.
Commentaries
On Tradition – On True Purity.
The Pharisees and scribes of Jerusalem ask Jesus about his freedom and that of his disciples regarding traditions, which they had misused and turned into law. In this case, the ritual is washing hands before eating. Jesus turns the question into a debate and uses it to teach his message with confidence and clarity. Ultimately, all those traditions of legal purity had no other purpose than to preserve the identity of the Jewish people as God’s chosen people among others. And this is, in fact, what Jesus challenges by getting to the root of what makes a person pure or impure, worthy or unworthy before God: what comes out of their heart and is reflected in their actions, not the kind of food that enters their mouth.
The Faith of a Canaanite Woman.
Matthew uses this story to illustrate Jesus’ earlier teaching. Jesus’ apparent objections to performing the miracle actually reflect the concerns of the Christian community for which Matthew is writing, which had not yet fully accepted believers converted from paganism among them. It’s as if Jesus raised objections only to dismiss them later with the miracle. The importance of racial purity in their Jewish heritage still heavily influenced those first-generation Judeo-Christians.
Multiple Healings.
The next summary Matthew gives takes place on a mountain—the evangelist’s favorite spot for Jesus’ revelations. The context continues to be the pagan world, meaning the needy men and women of all nations and times for whom the reign of God offers final liberation. Matthew describes this liberation through the crowd’s joy as they marvel at how the mute speak, the lame walk, and the blind see (31).
Feeding the Four Thousand.
Was there truly a second multiplication of the loaves? Luke and John mention only one. Matthew (similar to Mk 8:1-10) describes two, but rather than a literal repetition of the miracle, we should see it as an extension of its meaning for the new audience gathered at Jesus’ feet on the mountain: the pagans. They, like the Jewish crowd in the first miracle (14:13-21), have been called to join in the messianic banquet, symbolized by the abundance of bread offered and shared.