God’s Saving Word: Wisdom
Introduction
Matthew 15:1-20: The religious leaders challenge Jesus about ritual cleansing, and Jesus upbraids them for their hypocrisy and quotes from Isaiah 29:13. He accuses the religious leaders of following their own teaching and disobeying God’s command. Jesus declares that evil ideas within one’s heart that come out of one’s mouth are what make a person unclean.
Scripture Reading
The Teaching of the Ancestors
15 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the Law came from Jerusalem to Jesus and asked him, 2 “Why is it that your disciples disobey the teaching handed down by our ancestors? They don’t wash their hands in the proper way before they eat!”
3 Jesus answered, “And why do you disobey God’s command and follow your own teaching? 4 For God said, ‘Respect your father and your mother,’ and ‘If you curse your father or your mother, you are to be put to death.’ 5 But you teach that if people have something they could use to help their father or mother, but say, ‘This belongs to God,’ 6 they do not need to honor their father.[a] In this way you disregard God’s command, in order to follow your own teaching. 7 You hypocrites! How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you!
8 ‘These people, says God, honor me with their words,
but their heart is really far away from me.
9 It is no use for them to worship me,
because they teach human rules as though they were my laws!’”
The Things That Make a Person Unclean
10 Then Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand! 11 It is not what goes into your mouth that makes you ritually unclean; rather, what comes out of it makes you unclean.”
12 Then the disciples came to him and said, “Do you know that the Pharisees had their feelings hurt by what you said?”
13 “Every plant which my Father in heaven did not plant will be pulled up,” answered Jesus. 14 “Don’t worry about them! They are blind leaders of the blind; and when one blind man leads another, both fall into a ditch.”
15 Peter spoke up, “Explain this saying to us.”
16 Jesus said to them, “You are still no more intelligent than the others. 17 Don’t you understand? Anything that goes into your mouth goes into your stomach and then on out of your body. 18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these are the things that make you ritually unclean. 19 For from your heart come the evil ideas which lead you to kill, commit adultery, and do other immoral things; to rob, lie, and slander others. 20 These are the things that make you unclean. But to eat without washing your hands as they say you should—this doesn’t make you unclean.”
Today’s Key Verse: Matthew 15:11
[Jesus said:] “It is not what goes into your mouth that makes you ritually unclean; rather, what comes out of it makes you unclean.”
Reflect
What is Jesus’s key teaching in today’s reading? What are your thoughts about Jesus’s statement in verse 11? In what ways do our words have an impact? What words will you speak today that will be uplifting and a source of hope and encouragement to others?
Pray
Lord Jesus, cleanse me from any immoral thoughts lodged within my heart. May I speak words that are pure and kind and reflect your love. Amen.
Tomorrow’s Reading
Matthew 20:1-16: Jesus teaches about equality in God’s Kingdom.
