A group of Pharisees and teachers from Jerusalem asked Jesus, “Why do your followers break the old traditions? They don’t wash their hands before they eat bread.”
“Why do you break God’s instructions because of your traditions?” Jesus answered. “God told you to honour your parents, and if you speak badly of your parents, you must die. But you say that if someone tells their parents they can’t help them out because they are giving to God, they aren’t honouring their parents. You have stopped following God’s instruction because of your traditions. Hypocrites! Isaiah was correct about you when he prophesied, ‘The people honour me with what they say, but their hearts are far away from me. They aimlessly worship me and give men’s instructions like they are from God.”
Jesus called to the crowds around him, “Listen up and try to understand! It’s what comes out of a man’s mouth, not what goes into it, that ruins a man.”
His followers asked him, “Do you know that the Pharisees are offended by what you’re saying?”
“Every plant that my Heavenly Father did not plant will be torn out,” Jesus replied. “Leave them. They are the blind leading the blind. When blind lead the blind, they will both fall into a hole.”
“Explain the story to us,” Peter said.
“You still don’t understand?” Jesus asked. “You don’t understand that everything going into the mouth goes into the stomach and eventually is pooed out? The things that come out of the mouth come from the heart and these things ruin a person. Evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, lying and abuse comes from the heart. These things ruin a person. Eating without washing your hands doesn’t ruin a man.”
Jesus left from there and went to the regions of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from the area approached him and cried out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David. My daughter is terribly possessed by demons.”
Jesus didn’t reply.
His disciples said, “Tell her to go away. She keeps yelling at us.”
“I was only sent for the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” Jesus said to the woman.
The woman bowed before him and said, “Lord, help me!”
“It’s not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
“Yes, Lord. But the dogs eat crumbs that fall from their owners table.”
“You have great faith, woman!” Jesus replied. “What you desire will happen.”
Her daughter was instantly healed.
Jesus left and went along the Sea of Galilee. He sat down on a hill. A big crowd of people came to him. They brought disabled, blind and mute people, among others, to him and he healed them. The crowds were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the disabled restored and walking, and the blind seeing. They praised the God of Israel.
Jesus called his disciples over. “I feel sorry for the crowds. They have walked with me for three days and haven’t had anything to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry because they might pass out on their way home.”
The disciples asked, “Where can we get enough bread in this deserted place to feed the crowds?”
“How much bread do you have?”
“Seven loaves and a few small fish.”
Jesus told the crowds to sit down. He took the seven loaves of bread and the fish. He prayed, then broke and handed the pieces of food to the disciples. The disciples handed it out to the crowd. Everyone ate until they were full. There were seven baskets full of leftovers. 4000 men, not including women and children, were fed.
Jesus sent the crowds home, got into a boat and travelled to the region of Magadan.
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Continue exploring Matthew 15
If you’d like to read Matthew 15 in other translations, here are a few BibleHub links:
For a translation that aims to be word-for-word, try Matthew 15 in the English Standard Version.
For a translation that aims to be more thought-for-thought, try Matthew 15 in the New International Version.
For a translation that aims to communicate the overall meaning, try Matthew 15 in the Contemporary English Version.
If you prefer to read the Bible in a hard-copy format, here are cheaper versions from Amazon:
[These are Amazon affiliate links which support the production of this blog]
For a translation that aims to be word-for-word, ESV Economy Bible
For a translation that aims to be more thought-for-thought, NIV, Economy Bible, Paperback: Accurate. Readable. Clear.
For a translation that aims to communicate the overall meaning, Holy Bible: Contemporary English Version
If you’d like to explore Matthew in more depth, here are some commentaries I would recommend:
[These are Amazon affiliate links which support the production of this blog]
Easy to access commentaries that include life applications:
The NIV Application Commentary: Matthew
Matthew (The Story of God Bible Commentary)
For a commentary that goes into more depth:
The Gospel of Matthew (The New International Commentary on the New Testament)

Jesus came to bring the truth of God’s Word – revealed to him by the Father (see Matthew 11:27). The Pharisees took God’s words and twisted them to fit their own agendas (much like Satan did in Genesis. And if you read Matthew 23, Jesus rips the Pharisees a new one- calling them out on their hypocrisy and lies. In John 8:44, Jesus says the Pharisees are the sons of the devil because they speak his lies and not God’s truth.
We must learn to recognize truth from lies according to the Bible. We must learn the true meanings of Jesus’s words (the parables, Revelation) and keep them. I pray we all can become one in faith and doctrines as Ephesians 4:4-5, and 13-14 say.
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