Matthew 15

THE TRADITION OF THE ELDERS

15Then^v Jesus was approached by Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem, who asked,^{w 2}“Why do your disciples^x break the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat.”^Aa

³He answered them, “Why do you break God’s commandment because of your tradition? ⁴For God said:^B Honor your father and your mother;^Cb and, Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death.^{Dc 5}But you say, ‘Whoever tells his father or mother, “Whatever benefit you might have received from me is a gift committed to the temple,” ⁶he does not have to honor his father.’^E In this way, you have nullified the word of God^F because of your tradition. ⁷Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said:

⁸This people^G honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me.

⁹They worship me in vain,

teaching as doctrines human commands.”^d

DEFILEMENT IS FROM WITHIN

¹⁰Summoning the crowd, he told them, “Listen and understand: ¹¹It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles^e a person, but what comes out of the mouth—this defiles a person.”^f

¹²Then the disciples came up and told him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?”

¹³He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father didn’t plant will be uprooted.^{g 14}Leave them alone! They are blind guides.^I And if the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”^h

¹⁵Then Peter said, “Explain this parable to us.”ⁱ

¹⁶“Do you still lack understanding?” he^J asked. ¹⁷“Don’t you realize^K that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated?^{L 18}But what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this defiles a person.^{j 19}For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies,^k slander.^{l 20}These are the things that defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a person.”^m

A GENTILE MOTHER’S FAITH

²¹When Jesus left there,ⁿ he withdrew to the area of Tyre and Sidon.^{o 22}Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came and kept crying out,^A “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely tormented by a demon.”^p

²³Jesus did not say a word to her. His disciples^q approached him and urged him, “Send her away because she’s crying out after us.”

²⁴He replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”^r

²⁵But she came, knelt before him, and said, “Lord, help me!”

²⁶He answered, “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”^s

²⁷“Yes, Lord,” she said, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

²⁸Then Jesus replied to her, “Woman, your faith is great. Let it be done for you as you want.” And from that moment^B her daughter was healed.^t

HEALING MANY PEOPLE

²⁹Moving on from there,^u Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee.^v He went up on a mountain and sat there, ³⁰and large crowds came to him, including the lame, the blind, the crippled, those unable to speak, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he healed them. ³¹So the crowd was amazed when they saw those unable to speak talking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing,^w and they gave glory to the God of Israel.

FEEDING OF THE FOUR THOUSAND

³²Jesus called his disciples and said,^x “I have compassion on the crowd, because they’ve already stayed with me three days and have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry, otherwise they might collapse on the way.”

³³The disciples said to him, “Where could we get enough bread in this desolate place^y to feed such a crowd?”

³⁴“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked them.

“Seven,” they said, “and a few small fish.”

³⁵After commanding the crowd to sit down on the ground, ³⁶he took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.^{z 37}They all ate and were satisfied. They collected the leftover pieces—seven large baskets full. ³⁸Now there were four thousand men who had eaten, besides women and children. ³⁹After dismissing the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.^Ca