The Grace Commentary – Your free verse-by-verse Bible commentary Matthew 15

Matthew 15:1

Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,

(a) Pharisees; see entry for Matt. 3:7.

(b) Scribes; see entry for Matt. 5:20.

Matthew 15:2

“Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”

The traditions of the elders refer to the teachings of Jewish teachers and sages that had been orally handed down. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and scribes for putting more emphases on these teachings than the commandment of God (see next verse).

Matthew 15:3

And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

God. Most of the time when Jesus spoke about God, he called him Father (see entry for Luke 2:49). But when speaking to the religious leaders and those under law, he sometimes called him God (theos).

Matthew 15:4

“For God said, ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,’ and, ‘HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.’

Honor. Some believe they must hate their parents because of what Jesus said in Luke 14:26. But Jesus doesn’t want us to hate anyone (Matt 5:43–44), and our parents are worthy of honor.

Matthew 15:6

he is not to honor his father or his mother.’ And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

The word of God in this context is the law, specifically the fifth commandment (see Matt. 15:4).

The word of God is the means by which God reveals himself and his will. In the old covenant, God communicated his will to Israel through the Ten Commandments and the law. However, the religious Jews twisted the law to suit their traditions. By doing this the nullified the word of God.

Matthew 15:10–11

After Jesus called the crowd to him, he said to them, “Hear and understand.
“It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.”

(a) Jesus called the crowd to him. Jesus has spoken to the Pharisees privately (verses 3–9); now speaks directly to the people. He wants them to know that their leaders have some screwy ideas about holiness and things that defile us.

(b) What enters the mouth. Religion puts a lot of emphasis on what we can and can’t eat, but food doesn’t make us more or less holy (see verse 17). Neither does eating food with unwashed hands (see verse 20).

Matthew 15:13

But he answered and said, “Every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted.

Uprooted. All the weeds planted by the evil one shall be gathered up and destroyed (Matt. 13:30).

Matthew 15:15

Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.”

(a) Peter. Simon Peter; see entry for Matt. 4:18.

(b) Explain. Jesus explains himself in verses 17–18.

(c) Parable. The disciples often asked Jesus to explain his parables (Matt. 13:36, Mark 4:10, 7:17, Luke 8:9). However, Jesus’ teaching about things that come in and go out of our mouths (verse 11) was more of a proverb than a parable.

Matthew 15:16

Jesus said, “Are you still lacking in understanding also?

“After being with me all this time are you still having trouble discerning the spiritual meaning of my words?”

Matthew 15:17

“Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated?

Goes into the mouth. Food that passes through our bodies has no bearing on our standing before God. There are no foods that make you more or less holy. All foods are clean (Mark 7:19). Although the Jews were bound by the dietary restrictions of the old covenant (e.g., Lev. 11), in the new covenant we are free to eat anything (Rom. 14:14, 20, 1 Cor. 8:8). “Everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude” (1 Tim. 4:4).

Matthew 15:18–19

“But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.

An unregenerate heart that yields to sin will be revealed in the way we talk.

Matthew 15:21

Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon.

Tyre and Sidon. Jesus leaves Galilee and enters southern Phoenicia (modern-day Lebanon), possibly to take a break from ministry (see Mark 7:24).

Matthew 15:22

And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.”

(a) Canaanite woman. She was a Gentile woman, a Syrophoenician (Mark 7:26).

(b) Mercy is how grace appears to the needy. See entry for Mercy.

(c) The son of David. The Gentile woman had heard the Jews utter the Messianic title “Son of David” (see entry for Matt. 1:1). She thought that by using this title, she could pass herself off as a Jew and convince Jesus to help her.

Matthew 15:23

But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and implored Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.”

He did not answer her a word. Jesus was more than willing to help her, but first she had to stop pretending she was somebody she was not.

Matthew 15:24

But he answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

The prophets said God would send a Messiah to shepherd and care for the sheep of Israel (Eze. 34:23, Mic. 5:2–4). Although Jesus had ministered to a few Gentiles (e.g., the Centurion), at this stage of his ministry his focus was exclusively with the Jews.

Matthew 15:25

But she came and began to bow down before him, saying, “Lord, help me!”

“Lord, help me!” This woman had a revelation that our God is a God who helps, and the chief way he helps us is by revealing his love and power through his Son. See entry for Heb. 13:6.

Matthew 15:26

And he answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

(a) The children’s bread. The children are the Jews to whom Christ had been sent as the bread of life (John 6:35, Rom. 9:4), while the dogs were the Gentiles.

(b) Dogs. In other words, “I know you are not who you are pretending to be and that you are a Gentile.”

Matthew 15:27

But she said, “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”

She admits she is a Gentile without any right to the blessings promised to the Jews. Yet she still has faith that Jesus can help her.

Matthew 15:28

Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once.

Your faith is great. Like the centurion of Matthew 8:10, the Canaanite woman had a revelation of God’s goodness that was greater than most.

It’s a mistake to conclude that the size of our faith matters or that we need more faith before we can access the grace of God. Even a small mustard-seed amount of faith is enough to move mountains (Matt. 17:20). We don’t need more faith as much as we need a deeper revelation of God’s love for us. It is his goodness that inspires us to trust him.

Matthew 15:32

And Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, “I feel compassion for the people, because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.”

Compassion. The original word for compassion (splagchnizomai) appears a dozen times in the New Testament and in every case it is associated with the divine compassion revealed in Jesus Christ. See entry for Compassion.

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Matthew 15