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15:1-20
Jesus and the Pharisees
From Jerusalem, the Jewish capital city, came Pharisees and scribes -
keepers of the Law of God, and guardians of the traditions which were piled on
top of it - and these religious people came with only one purpose in mind : to
find fault with Jesus.
The first thing they said to him was a criticism.
"Look at what your disciples are doing!" said these
narrow-minded men, "They don't wash their hands properly before they
eat!"
(To understand this attack, you have to understand what they meant by
"washing". In the Old Testament, God made some ceremonial rules about
what was "clean" and what was "unclean". God said that, for
example, if a person touched a dead body, or ate certain things, he was
"unclean", and as a result he had to go through a cleansing ritual.
The whole idea was to teach people not to take God in a trivial or disrespectful
manner.
But over the years, the Pharisees and others had added many new additions
to God's Law. They now said that, for example, if a man had been to the
market-place, he had to take a ceremonial bath. And washing was never good
enough either; the hands had to be washed up to the elbow, and so on. In fact,
it was very difficult to do anything without some Pharisee's rule being imposed
on it, so life had become very difficult for many Jews as they struggled under
this burden of rules.)
Jesus had no time for stupid hand-washing rituals. He faced the Pharisees
and fired a few well-aimed shots at their hypocrisy :
"You Pharisees break God's commandments" he said, "By
following your own traditions! For example, God says "Honour your parents,
and always speak well of them, and show them every respect", but what do
you Pharisees do? You dishonour and neglect your parents!
"How do you do this? By saying this little speech : "Any money
I have, and which could be used to support you, has been dedicated to God, and
therefore I cannot give it to you". You think that by reciting this formula
that you are free from your responsibility to care for your parents? This is a
devious tradition, and it goes completely against what God commands!
"This is nothing but hypocrisy!
"Hear what God says about this sort of thing, in the book of Isaiah
: "These people come to Me, and they look so holy. They come with fine
words, and they make great speeches. They put on such a show . . . but their
hearts are far away, lost in the useless traditions made up by sinful men."
(Is.29:13).
The Pharisees and scribes had nothing to say to this, because they
realised that Jesus was right. Jesus turned from them and addressed the people
who had gathered around to hear the debate.
"Listen!" said Jesus, "I want you to understand something
about my way and the way of the Old testament. In the Ceremonial law, people can
be defiled, or made unclean by what they eat (For example, in Leviticus, people
were not allowed to eat the meat of an animal which did not chew the cud, or eat
a fish unless it had both fins and scales.)
"But my way is different. I'm saying that things like hypocrisy, and
traditions, and wicked words . . . these are what defile! My disciples can eat
with unwashed hands all they like, with impunity, but these Pharisees can wash
their hands every five minutes, but it will not make any difference - they will
still be defiled!"
Jesus walked away from the scene and found a place to sit down, then his
disciples came and sat nearby. They told him how upset the Pharisees were at
what Jesus had just told them.
"Those Pharisees" said Jesus, "Are like weeds, or tares.
My Father never planted them! And they are like blind men too, wandering around,
claiming to know where they are going, but falling down ditches! Anyone who
follows them will end up in the ditch with them!"
"Could you explain this a little more?" asked Peter.
"Hasn't it sunk in yet!?" said Jesus in surprise, "Are you
still trying to work this out? I'll
spell it out for you - are you listening?"
"When you eat something, it goes into your mouth, and down to your
stomach, and through the bowels, and then whatever is left goes into the toilet.
So in what way does food affect your morals? It has no effect at all.
"But if you were to have a close look at your inner nature, your
heart, you would find these things : bad thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual
immorality, stealing, lying, and blasphemy, to name but a few. Its a real
cesspool in there, as unclean as a dead carcass left in the sun for three days!
"So when these Pharisees play their holy games, they forget what
they are like inside. They hide their filth with ceremonial clothes, and
traditions, and rituals, and they miss the whole point about being washed
inwardly!"
15:21-31
Tyre and Sidon
Jesus travelled to an area outside Jewish territory
- Canaanite country, where the remnants of a people which God had told
Israel to wipe out, still lived. It was thanks to Israel's failure to obey God
that there were any Canaanites around. He began to heal and teach as he went
along, still working to gather Israelites in, but at the same time giving these
Gentiles an opportunity to become part of God's kingdom too.
A woman came to him, searching him out. She had heard about his power to
drive demons away, and her daughter was possessed of one, so she turned
to Jesus for help.
At first she called to Jesus from some distance away.
"Lord! Have pity on me! Son of David, hear me! My daughter is
demon-possessed!"
Jesus, of course, could not respond to this. The woman was a Gentile,
with no basis on which to approach him as David's son. She was outside the
covenants, and not even related to Israel.
The disciples, seeing the lack of response by Jesus, thought that he was
seeing her as a nuisance, so they offered to escort her away, but she was no
such thing.
"She is not an Israelite" said Jesus, "And my mission is
to find the lost people of Israel, not the Gentiles." (Ez.34:11-16)
The woman ignored the frowns of the disciples and pushed her way through,
falling at the feet of Jesus in abject worship.
"Lord . . . help!"
she said, pleading for attention.
"You want me to throw food reserved for the people of Israel to the
pups?" said Jesus.
"I know I am not of Israel" said the woman, "But you are
the Master, and there must be crumbs left over for the pups?"
"Woman" said Jesus with obvious pleasure, "I see you have
great faith. Go home now, and you will find that your daughter is delivered of
the demon."
The woman got to her feet and walked away, and a report came later on
that her daughter had been set free of the demon at the very time when Jesus had
spoken to her.
(Some interesting points. The Jews called the gentiles "dogs",
but Jesus used the Greek word meaning "little dog, or puppy". Also,
Jesus wouldn't respond to the call "Son of David" but he acknowledged
the woman when she used "Lord" = kurios = Owner,
as in owned to Owner.)
15:29-31
Healing in large numbers
Having made a brief visit to Canaanite country, Jesus went back to the
Sea of Galilee and travelled around its edge, drawing people from their towns
and homes as he went. Eventually he knew he would have to stop, so he went up a
hill and sat down. The following crowds clustered around him, spreading out like
a sea of faces on every side.
(In Mark 7:31 it seems that Jesus left Tyre, travelled north to Sidon,
then east to Jordan, south through the region of Decapolis, and along the side
of Galilee.)
Along with the many able-bodied people were a wide variety of sick and
diseased ones. There were also lame people, hobbling along on crutches, or
leaning on the shoulders of their friends, and blind people, wearing rags and
carrying begging bowls, and people who could not speak, and crippled beggars,
coming on mats or in the arms of helpers. Some of these people made their way
through the crowd, unsteady and in pain, only to return with a spring in their
step. Some, less mobile patients had to be placed in front of Jesus - they
usually left with their mats under their arms, or their crutches across their
shoulder.
When the people saw the steady flow of instant healings - to all who
came, there was no case too difficult - they began to thank the God of Israel
for sending Jesus to them."
15:32-39
Feeding twelve thousand
For three days Jesus healed people continuously, and then, as the third
day drew to a close, he realised that there was insufficient food with the
people to keep them fed.
"I feel sorry for these people" said Jesus, "Because they
have stayed here with me so long, they've eaten all the food they brought. I
don't want to send them away hungry because some of them may faint on the way
home . . ."
"You expect us to feed them?" said the disciples, surprised,
"Where are we going to get enough food for all these people?! We're not
camped beside a market-place or shopping centre!"
This was an opportunity for the disciples to remember what had happened
earlier on, when Jesus fed the fifteen thousand, but the disciples failed
miserably. Forgiving their lack of understanding, Jesus looked at them
patiently.
"What food do you have with you?" he asked.
"Only a bit of bread and a few fish."
"Give them to me" said Jesus, raising the bundle above his
head.
"Thank you, Father, for caring for our needs" he said.
The people were watching.
"Everyone, sit down!" said Jesus, then he started to break the
five little loaves into pieces. Once again, as fast as he broke the bread, more
bread appeared, and the two or three fish became hundreds and hundreds of fish,
until there was food everywhere. The disciples carried huge loads of it up and
down, and the people passed it along, eating and shouting with delight.
And when the feast was over, seven large baskets (Greek = spuris) were
used to collect the leftovers.
My estimate of the number of people there was about 4,000 men, plus about
the same number of women and children, which gives us a total of about 12.000
people.
When Jesus was satisfied that all the people were properly fed, he told
them to go home. It was amazing to see them slowly melting away from the
hillside, as most of them wanted to stay. Jesus walked back to the edge of the
lake and boarded his boat, then he set sail for Magdala, which is on the eastern
side.