All signs point to Jesus: A journey through the book of Matthew Chapter 15, week 12

 

CHAPTER 15

This week, I’ve placed my commentary after the answer to each question in italics. 

Be blessed!

Questions

What is the danger of focusing our attention on traditions?

Why did Jesus want the crowds to hear His teaching as well as the scribes and Pharisees?

What lesson can we learn from this woman about our prayer life?

What lesson can we take from the sheer number of people Jesus healed on this mountain?

Why did Jesus miraculously feed this large crowd in addition to feeding the larger crowd earlier?

And just like that we are already in the Lenten season. I grew up in the Catholic Church and the season of Lent is was a special time of preparing for Easter.  This time would commence with Ash Wednesday, which was just this past Wednesday on Feb 22. This is  a ceremony of spreading ashes on the forehead.  It is a reminder of our mortality and need for repentance and reconciliation.  I believe it originates from Genesis 3:19, just after the fall when God told Adam, ‘for you’re made from dust and to dust you will return’. 

Not all churches celebrate this tradition and since I am no longer a practicing Catholic, I do not practice this tradition.  I’m not arguing for or against the practice of this tradition but I thought it was appropriate to note here  as we get into this chapter where Jesus actually makes a warning about practicing traditions. 

Jesus teaches scribes and Pharisees the difference between traditions and commandments.

Read 15:1–9.

Q 81: What is the danger of focusing our attention on traditions?

A 81: Traditions can be good ways to deal with one another, but they must never take precedence over God’s commandments. Our relationship with God is the basis for right relationships with other humans.

Jesus teaches the crowd about true defilement.

© 2019 Concordia Publishing House. Scripture: ESV®.

In verses 1-9, Jesus illustrates a clear difference between the tradition of the elders versus the God’s law. He warns against these ‘man-made ideas’ v.9. One might ask what are the man made teachings of today? Some would say the cultic teachers, Jehovah witness, mormons even the Catholic Church.  Any thing that takes on cultural traditions and contemporary trends and puts them ahead of God’s biblical teachings.

In some ways I am grateful for my religious upbringing but in a lot of ways, I feel I was robbed of the true teaching of the Bible as the traditions took precedence.  I followed the traditions of ash Wednesday and lent because I was supposed to but it had no personal meaning for me.  Eventually, even going to church had no meaning for me. I might have been familiar with the stories, but not once was I encouraged to open the Bible and read the words myself  or what meaning they had.  It was always the tradition or the teaching of the priests that was held as the truth.  Instead, and as Jesus teaches here, we should magnify the Word of God and let the Word consume the teaching and the preaching. It is the Word that should drive our decisions and practices. 

Read 15:10–20.

Q 82:

A 82:

Why did Jesus want the crowds to hear His teaching as well as the scribes and Pharisees?

Because the crowds were being misled to put their confidence and reliance in rituals, which did not make them clean. Jesus exposed that the source of our uncleanness is the sinful nature that lives in the human heart. Ritual purity from washing only symbolized the true washing we need deep down in our hearts. The only way to be forgiven from evil is through repentance, Baptism, and the shed blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

© 2019 Concordia Publishing House. Scripture: ESV®.

Jesus teaches here that we need to cultivate hearts of holiness.  The exposition commentary says it best, ‘our greatest need is not cleaner hands, but changed hearts.’

The implication here is that the world doesn’t need the spread of superficial religion. The world needs the spread of supernatural regeneration. 

A Canaanite woman shows great faith and persistence.

Read 15:21–28.

Q 83:

A 83:

What lesson can we learn from this woman about our prayer life?

Too often we ask hesitantly, fail to pray with determination, or give up too easily when we must wait for our prayer to be answered. This woman teaches us never to give up, and to bring up Jesus’ promises in our prayers.

© 2019 Concordia Publishing House. Scripture: ESV®.

Something else to learn from the Canaanite woman is that she addressed him as Lord.  If she couldn’t come to him as a Jew to her Messiah, then she wold come as a creature to her Creator. I always thought Jesus response was a little harsh, like is he calling her a dog?  But actually he is n’t trying to be hurtful but by healing he is provoking her faith seeing if she would acknowledge her unworthiness to receive the least of his mercies. Her response, ‘I am not worthy but do it for your underserving creatures’.  

Jesus heals many people on a mountain by the Sea of Galilee.

Read 15:29–31.

Q 84:

A 84:

What lesson can we take from the sheer number of people Jesus healed on this mountain?

Jesus reminds us of His concern for our physical well-being as well as our spiritual health. Jesus came to redeem both body and spirit. The multitude of healings reminds us that when Christ returns He will instantly heal and transform the bodies of all believers and restore His creation to true perfection.

Jesus had compassion for ALL nations.  If we are to nurture a passion for the nations and be a part of God’s global purposes, we must spend ourselves for the glory of God's name. 

Jesus feeds a crowd of four thousand men, besides women and children.

Read 15:32–39.

Q 85:

A 85:

Why did Jesus miraculously feed this large crowd in addition to feeding the larger crowd earlier?

Clearly the disciples had forgotten the first feeding since they asked where they could get enough bread to feed the crowds in such

a desolate place—even though they had some bread just as they had before. We too easily forget God’s gracious daily giving of our food, clothing, and the means to provide our physical needs in life. We should receive His gifts with great thanksgiving, praise, and confidence that He delights to care for our bodies when we entrust our needs to His fatherly care.

© 2019 Concordia Publishing House. Scripture: ESV®.

Again, Jesus shows us here that  the harvest field is ripe. The miracle was with a Gentile crowd.  As followers of Christ today, our desire should be the same, that all peoples will be at the table. We give our lives to the accomplishment of Gods mission until we die or Christ returns.