In the Fulness of Time/Part 101

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Explanation of Pharisaical Traditions to the Multitudes. Matthew 15:10-11

Matthew 15:10-11 “And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.”

If the scribes and Pharisees remained within the sound of His voice when Jesus spoke to the multitude, they heard Him give the simple explanation of verses 10-11. His answer to their traditions concerning “washing” rituals is that food eaten with unwashed hands does not defile a man. As He will add later in verse 17, food goes into the stomach and the residue is cast out of the body as waste. There is no moral issue involved; but when immoral things pass from the heart, out of the mouth, this defiles a man. The repeated washing of hands, the washing of cups, pots, bronze vessels, even of tables, were purely rituals and were not required by the Levitical code. Had their hearts been right before God in obeying what actually was in the Law, none of these additions to the Law would have been made.

Discussion with His Disciples. Matthew 15:12-20

Concerning the Pharisees. Matthew 15:12-14

Matthew 15:12-14 “Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Let them alone; they are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”

There is some question whether the Pharisees were offended at the entire con­versation with Jesus, or whether “this saying” which is really “the word” (ton logon) refers only to that which Jesus spoke to the multitude. Of course, the specific issue brought forth by the Pharisees was the refusal of the disciples to perform the re­peated hand washing rituals; and this is the content of Jesus’ reply in verses 10-11. Yet, it is true that everything Jesus said on this occasion would offend them greatly since He denounced all their traditions as hypocritical. Then, too, in His evaluation of the Pharisees, Jesus used two illustrations in which He clearly denounced their lack of spiritual life and spiritual leadership.

First, Jesus said that they were not plants which were sown by His heavenly Father. They are, in effect, the “tares” of 13:25, placed there by the enemy, who is their father, the Devil (John 8:44. They may be Abrahem’s physical seed, but they are not Abraham’s children (John 8:37-39). Like the tares in 13:25 they will one day be “rooted up” and will perish because they have no spiritual life.

The second analogy indicates their lack of spiritual leadership. Having warned them against this system of traditions, Jesus now commands His disciples to “let them alone.” As the Apostle Paul remarks in Romans 2:19, unbelieving Jews are confident that they are a “guide to the blind, a light of them who are in darkness.” While the first part is true, the second part is impossible; Jesus calls them “blind leaders of the blind” with only one possible result: “both shall fall into the ditch.”

Concerning the Parable. 15:15-20

Matthew 15:15-20 “Then answered Peter and said unto him, Explain unto us this parable. And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding? Do not ye yet understand that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the stomach, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man; but to eat with unwashed hands defileth not a man.”

Jesus shows His displeasure with the disciples because they did not understand a simple principle. Apparently there were no questions from the multitude; one wonders whether they comprehended this truth more readily than the disciples!

The principle advocated by Jesus was that there is a difference between physical uncleanness and moral uncleanness. The natural workings of the bodily functions of food and elimination of waste have a way of cleansing foods as foods. The ASV, NASB and NIV Bibles include a few words at Mark 7:19b which allow the possibility that Jesus may have been annulling all the Levitical restrictions concerning unclean food. After Jesus says: “Do ye not perceive, that whatever thing from the outside entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the stomach and goeth out into the draught,” the NASB translates “Thus he declared all foods clean,” or as in the NIV, “In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.”

Two things can be said here: first, that whichever reading is preferred, Jesus could not possibly have contradicted what He said in Matthew 5:17-20, that He did not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it; and second, that even if the parenthetical statement is included, it could be taken as specifically referring to the physical process which cleanses all foods taken into the mouth, whether these are things permitted by the Law, or all foods in general.

In other words, the question of whether Jesus cancelled the Law is not necessar­ily an issue on this occasion. He is merely showing the lack of any relationship between the physical process of taking food into the mouth and the moral putrification of the heart which comes out of the mouth, as He describes it in a long list of sins. It is the deceitful, desperately wicked heart (Jeremiah 17:9) which defiles a man, not the failure to observe the man-made ritualistic tradition of ceremonially
washing the hands.

After the complete fulfillment of the Law through the death and resurrection of Christ, His followers were free from the Law. But even then it was not easy for a strong, stubborn Jew like the Apostle Peter to accept these revolutionary changes until after his experience in Acts 10, when the sheet was let down from heaven filled with all kinds of animals, clean and unclean, which Peter was commanded by God to eat. This freedom was enforced by the Apostle Paul in Romans 14:14: “I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.” Later, in verse 21 he adds: “It is good neither to eat meat nor to drink wine, nor anything by which thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.” When the letter of Acts 15:23­29 was written from the early officials to the Gentiles, it made clear in verse 24 that the rite of circumcision and the keeping of the Law were not commanded. In order to be an inoffensive testimony to the Jews, four “necessary things” were listed: “That ye abstain from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication.” Even when this letter was delivered, it was called te paraklesei, “the exhortation” not a law. This is all true because “in the fulness of time,” God sent forth His Son to redeem them that were under the Law!

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