CHAPTER 15

(A.D. 32)

JESUS REBUKES THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES

¹Then came to Jesus Scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying (almost all of the opposition to Christ came from religious leaders),

²Why do your Disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? (Their confidence was in their man-made rules rather then the Word ofGod.) for they wash not their hands when they eat bread (had nosanitary meaning; this tradition taught that an evil spirit could sit on the hands of people, and when the hands were washed, the evil spirit would be removed).

³But He answered and said unto them (proclaims Christ drawing them back to the Word of God), Why do you also transgress the Commandment of God by your tradition? (He ignored their tradition because it was not Scriptural. He then tells them that their traditions were causing them to transgress the Commandment of God.)

⁴For God commanded, saying, Honour your father and mother: and, He who curses father or mother, let him die the death (Ex. 20:12; 21:17).

⁵But you say (in direct contradiction to what God commanded), Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift (dedicate their estate to the Temple so that they wouldnt have to take care of their aged parents, and a crooked Priest would then give it back to them, after taking a percentage), by whatsoever you might be profited by Me (making an illegal profit off of God, which compounded their sin);

⁶And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free(free from responsibility). Thus have you made the Commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

⁷You (was said to their faces) hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,

⁸This people draw near unto Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me (this defines the hypocrite).

⁹But in vain they do worship Me (worship that was not accepted by God indicative of much of the modern Church as well!), teaching for doctrines the commandments of men (anything that adds to or takes away from the Word of God).

THE THINGS THAT DEFILE

¹⁰And He called the multitude, and said unto them (did so in front of the Scribes and Pharisees), Hear, and understand (what He will now say, will be the opposite said by the Scribes and Pharisees):

¹¹Not that which goes into the mouth defiles a man; but that which comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man (Christ draws the minds of the people away from externals to the true condition of the heart).

¹²Then came His Disciples, and said unto Him (concerns a time of private contemplation regarding the things said by Christ), Do you not know that the Pharisees were offended (scandalized), after they heard this saying? (As one divine of old said, if offence arises from the statement of the Truth, it is more expedient that offence be permitted to arise than that the Truth should be abandoned.)

¹³But He answered and said (He did not remain silent, but further proclaimed His position), Every plant, which My Heavenly Father has not planted, shall be rooted up (means that the doctrine of the Pharisees was not of divine origin, but of earthly origin; the day is coming when the tares will be removed from among the wheat).

¹⁴Let them alone (does not mean to not address their error, but means that them being offended is not to be a deterrent to preaching the Truth): they be blind leaders of the blind (a designation applied to all who were not following the Word of God). And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch (a guaranteed ultimate conclusion).

¹⁵Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable (give us more explanation).

¹⁶And Jesus said, Are you also yet without understanding? (The great reason for the need to be filled with the Spirit, and led by the Spirit [Rom. 8:14].)

¹⁷Do you not yet understand, that whatsoever enters in at the mouth goes into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? (Proclaims the fact that the eating of food has nothing to do with the spiritual side of man.)

¹⁸But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man (not everything that comes out of the mouth of a man is defiling, but only that which proceeds from an evil heart).

¹⁹For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies (this proclaims the depravity of the unconverted human heart, which was the condition of the Pharisees, despite their religiosity):

²⁰These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashed hands defile not a man (Satan is a master at placing the emphasis on the insignificant, instead of the real problem).

THE HEALING OF THE DAUGHTER OF THE CANAANITE

²¹Then Jesus went thence (left Capernaum), and departed into the coasts (borders) of Tyre and Sidon.

²²And, behold, a woman of Canaan (a Gentile) came out of the same coasts (borders), and cried unto Him (the woman was desperate), saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil (demon).

²³But He answered her not a word (being a Gentile, her petition was wrong, addressing Him as Son of David; only the Jews were then privileged to use that term). And His Disciples came and besought Him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us (better translated, do something for her).

²⁴But He answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel (His Mission, at least in His First Advent, was exclusively to the Jews).

²⁵Then came she and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, help me (her position is now beginning to change!).

²⁶But He answered and said, It is not meet (appropriate) to take the childrens bread (that which belonged to the Jews), and to cast it to dogs (Gentiles were looked at as dogs, so in effect, He was testing her faith).

²⁷And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters table (when she took the place of a dog, thus admitting that she had no claim, throwing herself on His Grace as Lord, He at once responded, just as He will presently).

²⁸Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is your faith: be it unto you even as you will. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour (the Lord always responds to faith; only two people are spoken of as having great Faith; the first was the Gentile Centurion [Mat. 8:5-10], and now this Gentile woman).

JESUS HEALS THE SICK

²⁹And Jesus departed from thence, and came near unto the Sea of Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down there (probably on the northeast side of the Sea of Galilee).

³⁰And great multitudes came unto Him (could have been several thousands of people), having with them those who were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus feet; and he healed them (He healed them all):

³¹Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel.

JESUS FEEDS FOUR THOUSAND

³²Then Jesus called His Disciples unto Him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with Me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way (probably ten thousand or more, had had very little to eat in the last three days and nights).

³³And His Disciples say unto Him, Where should we get so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude? (Did they not remember the great Miracle He performed a short time before of this same nature? How so quick we are to forget as well!)

³⁴And Jesus said unto them, How many loaves have you? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes.

³⁵And He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.

³⁶And He took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and broke them, and gave to His Disciples, and the Disciples to the multitude (the Disciples had to keep coming to Jesus for fresh supplies for the need of the multitude; they had no resources of their own; they were dependent totally upon Him; this is what He is teaching us).

³⁷And they did all eat, and were filled (satisfied): and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full.

³⁸And they who did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children (probably near ten thousand people).

³⁹And He sent away the multitude (but sent them away filled physically, and spiritually), and took ship, and came into the coasts of Magdala (a small town located about ten miles south of Capernaum).