Matthew 15

Matthew 15:1-9

In this chapter we have, 1. Christ’s discords with the scribes and Pharisees about human traditions and expeditions, etc. 1—9. 2. His discords with the multitude, and with his disciples, concerning the things that defile a man, etc. 10—20. 3. His calling the devil out of the women of Canaan’s daughter, etc. 21—28. 4. His healing of all that were brought to him, etc. 29—31. 5. His feeding four thousand men with seven leaves and a few little flakes, etc. 32—39.

1. THEN came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, 2. Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash out their hands when they eat bread. 3. But he answered and said unto them, Why do you also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? 4. For God commanded, saying, ‘Hooom thy father and mother: and, ‘He that curfeth father or mother, let him die the death. 5. But ye say, Whoever shall say to his father or his mother, it is a gift by whatever thou mightest be profited by me, 6. And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. 7. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, 8. This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips: but their heart is far from me. 9. But in vain do they worship me, teaching for deftirate the commandments of men.

Since the purity of the Redeemer’s conduct was such that his most inveterate enemies could not convince him of sin, the scribes and Pharisees endeavoured, if they could not prove him guilty of a breach of God’s law, to accuse him at least as a breaker of the canons of their church.

1. The accusation laid against him is far permitting his disciples to transgress the tradition of the elders, and eat bread with unwashed hands which to them appeared highly criminal, who, having left the spirit and power of godliness, were wholly engrossed with the form, and spent their zeal in practising and enforcing the vain superstitions of their own invention as the most essential parts of religion. And similar hereunto we still too frequently see the most rigid and superstitious observers of the form of godliness the greatest enemies to the power of it, and the most inveterate perficutors of the spiritually-minded.

2. Christ answers their accusation, vindicates his disciples, and rebukes their hypocrisy.

(1.) He vindicates his disciples, by shewing the folly and wickedness of the traditions on which they grounded their charge, and recriminates by a suffer accusation of their conduct who made void the commandments of God by their traditions. In proof of which he produces the fifth commandment, where the duty of children towards their parents is enjoined, and in the honour we must pay to them there is included the relief of givemans, in caste of need: and to this law God hath announced the most awful foreflow: The transgressor who cures, or has just, corresponds of, his father or mother, is doomed to death, and, viz. 17. But their false certainty had provided an evasion, to avoid admitting to the necessities of their parents; and their

tradition affirmed, that however object them might be, if they vowed to employ in favour of us, while should have been given to relieve their parents’ wants; or rather, as Dr. Gill interprets the passage, vowed that what they had should be of Canaan, as if dedicated to the sanctuary, and should not be given to their parents use; they were then supposed to be bound by their vow; and though the things were not employed in favour of us, they thought themselves authorized under this pretext to withhold from their father or mother the relief they ought to have afforded them: a tradition as absurd as impious, and utterly overturning the law of God. Now, (1.) Many who are flaming in zeal for trifling human ceremonies, disregard and violate the most essential precepts of charity, and the most evident commands of God’s law. (2.) Tradition has been over a treacherous guide; therefore neither antiquity nor authority must weigh a rush with us against the revealed truths of God’s word.

(2.) He rebukes their hypocrisy. He knew their hearts, and therefore there was no rashness nor uncharitableness in the charge laid against them: and he brings his reproof from Islam; for what the prophet (spake as the character of the men of his day, had also a further view to the generation than present, who exactly answered the description; and they are indeed equally applicable to the state of all hypocrites and formal practices to the end of time. They made an outwash show of religion, and, so far as lip-service and external worship went, pretended to honour God; but their hearts, without which he is pleased with no services, were far effranged from him: and whilst they appeared to pay the highest respect to God, they set up their traditions and human inventions, many of them in direct opposition to God’s law; and this rendered all their worship and apparent devotion vain, useless, and rejected. Now, (1.) Hypocrisy is among the most common and fatal sins; and though more may not discover it in us, from God it cannot be hid. (2.) God’s first requirement of us is our heart; if this be alienated from him, nothing we can offer him beside will meet with any acceptance.

10. And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear and understand. 11. Not that which goes into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. 12. Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knoweth thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying? 13. But he answered and said, ‘Every place which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be routed up. 14. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. 15. Then answered Peter, and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. 16. And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding? 17. Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entitle in at the mouth, goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? 18. But those things which proceed out of the mouth, come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. 19. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnefs, blasphemies. 20. These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashed hands, defileth not a man.

Matthew 15:10-20

Having vindicated his disciples, and rebuked the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, he endeavours to set the multitude in general right in a matter of such importance, which had been so grievously mistaken. And for this purpose he calls them unto him, as they probably had withdrawn whilst the Pharisees had talked with him, and held them hear and understand; for it requires much attention and careful examination before we can emancipate ourselves from the fetters of long-rooted error, and the prejudices of education.

1. He says down this grand axiom, that all defilement comes from within. It was a superstitious tradition which the Pharisees inculcated, that the meat eaten with unwashed hands communicated pollution to the soul; whereas nothing can defile that but sin, which taking its rise in the heart, often forth at the mouth. And herein he levelled a tacit rebuke against these cavillers, who, whilst they contended for cleansed and purply, betrayed the venom and mahagery of their own hearts. The feverish conf649 of others are wholly thus found most culpable themselves. Whilst they pretend to pluck the mote from their brother’s eye, they discover not the beam which is in their own.

2. When they were retired into a house, the disciples, aware of the great offence that declaration gave to the Pharisees, expressed their concern about it, as if the obfervation had been better supperified, and might prejudice and exasperate them against him. Now, (1.) Truth, however offensive, must be spoken, and the woe lies not against those who give the offense, but against those who take it. (2.) We are too apt to

hour for others, and to fear, least some of the madness should be disguised with plain dealing. But they who would convert men’s souls, must often be content to offend also ours.

3. In answer to their suggestion, Jesus vindicates what he had spoken, as proper and necessary. As these men, and their traditions, were not those heavenly plants, which God the Father had planted; they are thus, by the piercing word of truth, discovered, detected, and rooted up. If they are offended, the disciples need not regard it; for high as their character was among the people, they were in fact no better than blind leaders of the blind, ignorant themselves of having truth, and misleading those who blindly and implicitly obeyed their defiance. And the necessary consequence of this was, that they must perish together, and fall into the pot of eternal misery. Note, (1.) However plausible men’s predictions may be, and however satisfied their characters, if they are not the planting of God, and experimentally partakes of the quickening influences of his spirit, their ruin is as sure as that of impunity publicisms and harbors. (2.) Pride and blindness of heart are inseparable companions; and more are so far from the light of truth, as those who, filled with the conceit of their own wisdom and abilities, vainly boast how clear they see. (3.) The deceived and the deceive will perish together; and they who chuck their own delusions, have themselves only to blame for the ruin which seldom.

4. Peter, in the name of the disciples, not understanding the meaning of the parable, or still leafed by the prejudices of education, desires his master to explain himself much difficulty on this point: and though their backwardness to understand was culpable, their desire to be informed was commendable. It is always good to be inquisitive about the great concerns of our souls, and Christ is willing to teach those who desire to learn, whilst the wilfully ignorant, the self-sufficient, and the proud, are justly left to their darkness and ruin.

5. Christ rebukes the dislous of their capacity, yet graciously condescends to give a farther explication of what he had advanced. Are he also yet without understanding? They had enjoyed many and long opportunities for producing amics him, and it was a shame in a matter so plain, they should be yet to ignorant. Christ justly expects our means and motives should produce a proportionate advancement in grace and knowledge. Nothing could be more evident than that the meat, of whatever sort is were, which entered at the mouth, and merely called through the body, could communicate no moral defilement to the soul. But the heart being the source and fountains of all spiritual impurity, what flowed from thence alone communicated in God’s sight deficiencies to the man: and the corrupt and impure firemen which flow from thence he encounters, a dreadful catalogue, but the natural produce of every fallen spirit. (1.) Evil thoughts, such as loved desires, inflicted misfortune, coverous wishes, malicious purposes, fraudulent designs, which never appeared in words or actions, but were naked and open before God, and brought guilt upon the soul. (2.) Absence, not only the effusion of human blood, but every word of anger, every act of violence, every expression of malice, hatred, or revenge. (3.) Absence, fornication, with all the various steps and contrivances which have a tendency to lead man to their horrid deeds. (4.) Thrift, whether consumed by force or fraud. (5.) Folio natural in perjuries, lies, deceit, and misrepresentation. (6.) Neighbours, against God or man. These are the great violations of God’s law, the things which involve the conscience in guilt, and make us loathsome in the eyes of divine purity; whilst to eat with unwellable hands communicates no defilement to the soul, nor in the least renders any man a sinner before God.