Then Jesus was approached by Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem, who asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat.”
He answered them, “Why do you break God’s commandment because of your tradition? For God said: Honor your father and your mother; and, Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death. But you say, ‘Whoever tells his father or mother, “Whatever benefit you might have received from me is a gift committed to the temple,” he does not have to honor his father.’ In this way, you have nullified the word of God because of your tradition. Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me.
They worship me in vain,
teaching as doctrines human commands.”
Summoning the crowd, he told them, “Listen and understand: It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth — this defiles a person.”
Then the disciples came up and told him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said? ”
He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father didn’t plant will be uprooted. Leave them alone! They are blind guides. And if the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
Then Peter said, “Explain this parable to us.”
“Do you still lack understanding? ” he asked. “Don’t you realize that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated? But what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this defiles a person. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slander. These are the things that defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a person.”
When Jesus left there, he withdrew to the area of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came and kept crying out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely tormented by a demon.”
Jesus did not say a word to her. His disciples approached him and urged him, “Send her away because she’s crying out after us.”
He replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
But she came, knelt before him, and said, “Lord, help me! ”
He answered, “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
“Yes, Lord,” she said, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
Then Jesus replied to her, “Woman, your faith is great. Let it be done for you as you want.” And from that moment her daughter was healed.
Moving on from there, Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee. He went up on a mountain and sat there, and large crowds came to him, including the lame, the blind, the crippled, those unable to speak, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he healed them. So the crowd was amazed when they saw those unable to speak talking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they gave glory to the God of Israel.
Jesus called his disciples and said, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they’ve already stayed with me three days and have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry, otherwise they might collapse on the way.”
The disciples said to him, “Where could we get enough bread in this desolate place to feed such a crowd? ”
“How many loaves do you have? ” Jesus asked them.
“Seven,” they said, “and a few small fish.”
After commanding the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied. They collected the leftover pieces — seven large baskets full. Now there were four thousand men who had eaten, besides women and children. After dismissing the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.Matthew 15
“That’s not how we’ve always done it!” Tradition is an interesting thing. It’s a connection to the past and a way for previous generations to teach us the way, but it’s also not the scripture. What is meaningful at one time and leads people closer to Jesus might have become stale or might not have the same impact in a different place and time. Don’t be someone who honors Jesus with your lips, going through the motions of empty traditions that started from a good place, but now have become an empty ritual which doesn’t stir your heart. You aren’t a Christian because of what you say, or what you do, you’re a genuine follower of Jesus because his spirit resides in your heart and a your life is a reflection of him from the inside out. She wasn’t from the right family, she didn’t have the right background, her traditions were the wrong traditions, but her heart was right, she believed in Jesus, and he honored that. Jesus healed many people, not because of who they were, but because of who he was. Trust in him, follow him with your heart, from the core of who you are, don’t just go through the motions, give meaning to what you do. Don’t just do it, do it and feel it. See you Sunday.
