Truth vs. Tradition, Part 2

Matthew 15:1-20

Last time, we studied the confrontation between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 15.

1. The Confrontation (Matt. 15:1-9)

A. Pharisees confront Jesus about tradition (15:1-2)

They came from Jerusalem and charged Jesus with teaching His disciples to transgress the traditions of the elders—specifically regarding the ceremonial washing of hands before eating. They condemned those who did not follow their man-made traditions. Jesus hadn’t broken God’s Law; He hadn’t offended God; He had simply failed to play their traditional religious games. Traditions that are man-made carry no divine authority.

B. Jesus confronts Pharisees about God’s law (15:3-9)

Jesus then turned the spotlight on the Pharisees and charged them with transgressing God’s law in order to keep their traditions. Specifically, they broke the fifth commandment to honor their father and mother by keeping a tradition of vowing their possessions to God. They used their tradition as an excuse to disobey God. Jesus called them hypocrites (Matt. 15:7), said that their hearts were far from God (Matt. 15:8) and that they worshipped God in vain because they taught as doctrines the commandments of men (Matt. 15:9).

So we learned last time that religious traditions can easily become sinful transgressions when they cause us to set aside the clear commands of God’s word and become a substitute for a true relationship with God by faith.

Next, having dealt with the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, Jesus then turns from the hostile, unbelieving Pharisees and speaks directly to the crowds, the common people. And He teaches them the spiritual truth that the religious leaders had failed to either grasp or teach. It’s the lesson that stands behind the other things that Jesus has said in this passage about religious traditions and the religious leaders who demand that those traditions be followed.

2. The Application (Matt. 15:10-20)

Jesus taught the surrounding crowd a universal principle regarding spiritual cleanness and spiritual defilement. It answers the fundamental question regarding the whole nature of man’s relationship to God—the question of “defilement”. What is it that truly makes a woman or man “unclean” before a holy God? And what must that man or woman do to become “pure” in His sight?

Remember the context here in Matthew 15. The Pharisees and scribes were defending a religious tradition. They were saying that it defiled someone to eat food without first going through a traditional hand washing ceremony. They were defending the idea that religious purity before God had to do with external things. But Jesus taught that …

A. Spiritual defilement is internal, not external (15:10-11)

Matthew 15:10-11 says, “When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear and understand: Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man“

Jesus begins with an invitation: “Hear and understand . . .” The proud Pharisees and scribes “heard”, but their minds were closed, they could not understand the truth of God from the lips of the Son of God. So, Jesus offers that truth, not to the proud and learned religious leaders, but to the common multitude who had gathered around Him.

The Pharisees were concerned about hand washing because they wanted to be clean before God. But Jesus says quite plainly, “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” Nothing that enters you from the outside can make you unclean before God. So, their ceremonial washing was useless for spiritual cleansing.

Jesus says that they have things backward. They said that a man is defiled, or made unclean, by what goes in his mouth. But Jesus declared that a man is defiled by what comes out of his mouth. Jesus says, if you want to guard something, don’t guard what goes in your mouth, guard what comes out of it. Remember what Jesus taught in Matthew 12?

³³ “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. ³⁴ Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. ³⁵ A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. ³⁶ But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. ³⁷ For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matt. 12:33-37).

On the day of judgment, you won’t give account for what you put in your mouth. But you will give account for what came out of it. The words that come out of your mouth are an indicator of the condition of your heart.

What Jesus said to the crowds—and by implication, also to the scribes and Pharisees—was extraordinarily stunning. The term “defiled” or “unclean” was a major issue for a first-century Jew. If you didn’t stay “clean” by avoiding certain foods, avoiding certain people, and by keeping a long list of rules and regulations, you couldn’t attend Temple, your friends would shun you, your business would decline, and your reputation would suffer. The people lived in fear of being found to be unclean. Man-made traditions cause people to live in bondage. Try to grasp how absolutely revolutionary Jesus’ words must have sounded to people who were taught all their lives that their eternal destiny hinged upon eating the right kind of food and not eating the wrong kind of food.

What Jesus said was, in fact, so shocking and offensive to the normal Jewish religious convictions that the disciples were compelled to ask Jesus more about it.

B. Man-made religion is dangerous (15:12-14)

Matthew 15:12 says, “Then His disciples came and said to Him, Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?’” Of course, the Pharisees were offended by what Jesus said. Hypocrisy is based on deceit. Truth exposes hypocrites, and therefore it offends them. It was no surprise to Jesus that the Pharisees were offended. He knew their hearts. He knew their hypocrisy. He knew their religion was just man-made traditions.

So, Jesus answers His disciples by teaching them two brief parables about the danger of man-made religion. First, he uses the illustration of a plant, “But He answered and said, ‘Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.’” The Pharisees had substituted their traditions for the word of God. Anytime you abandon the word of God, you are no longer speaking for God but for yourself. God’s word endures forever. Therefore, those who abandon God’s word will be like a plant pulled up by the roots. The Pharisees’ religious tradition was not something that the Father had planted. So, it was ultimately doomed to be pulled up by the roots on the great day of judgment. A plant pulled up by the roots will never grow again. What a warning against man-made religion that replaces God’s word with traditions of men!

Second, Jesus uses the illustration of the blind guide. Jesus said, “Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.” (Matt. 15:14). The disciples were worried about the Pharisees’ reaction, but Jesus says to “Let them alone,” leave them, ignore them. Jesus had taught the truth and rather than repenting, the Pharisees were offended. Their hearts were hardened toward the truth. They abandoned the light of God’s word, and so they are blind guides. Following their religious traditions was just like blind men groping around in the dark.

Think about it! Here was the Son of God, standing before them, and they were offended at Him and seeking to destroy Him. And that’s what made them especially guilty, because they were not only spiritually blind, but were also in arrogant denial of their blindness—setting themselves up to be guides to others. To be “blind” is bad. But to be a “blind leader of the blind” is nothing short of deadly!

Remember when Jesus gave sight to a man born blind in John 9? The Pharisees tried to disprove the miracle, and when the former blind man defended Jesus, they threw him out. Later, when the man found Jesus again, “… he said, ‘Lord, I believe!’ And he worshiped Him” (John 9:38). And Jesus answered saying, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind” (John 9:39). John then tells us that the Pharisees heard these words and asked Jesus, “Are we blind also?” (John 9:40). And Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.” (John 9:41). They are blind guides.

Therefore, Jesus warns His disciples to leave them, stay away from those who arrogantly set themselves up to be spiritual leaders in opposition to Christ and the truth of God’s word. Our standard is Christ and His word. We must measure teachers and their teachings by the infallible word of God. Man-made religion is dangerous because God has not planted it and will fatally uproot it. And it is dangerous because those who follow these blind guides will also fall into a pit.

Finally, Jesus teaches His disciples that …      

C. The problem of sin is the heart (15:15-20)

In Matthew 15:15, speaking for the group of disciples (Mark 7:17), “Then Peter answered and said to Him, ‘Explain this parable to us.’” The fact that Jesus had to further explain His clear and unambiguous teaching just shows how deeply ingrained these traditions were in even Jesus’ disciples. “So Jesus said, ‘Are you also still without understanding?’” (Matt. 15:16). In the original language, Jesus literally asks, “Still [or “even now”] also are you without understanding?” After being with Jesus for so long and hearing Him teach so much, He expected them to be beyond having to ask this question by now! I wonder how many times Jesus would need to say the same to us.

Jesus knew that what they were asking about was His statement in Matthew 15:11—the one that offended the Pharisees, “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” It’s not really a parable. What Jesus taught is not a hidden truth—Jesus taught it clearly—but it is a hard truth. It went counter to all they had been taught about spiritual defilement and spiritual cleansing. It’s a hard pill for many people to swallow because if it’s the things outside of us that defile us, then we can simply avoid those things by following our rules and traditions about cleansing things. But if the defilement is inside us, how do we make our hearts clean?

Look at what Jesus goes on to teach His disciples. In Matthew 15:17, Jesus asks, “Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated?” Jesus wants them to understand that it is not food that makes you clean or unclean before God. Eating food with dirty hands does not make you unclean before God. Any foods you eat, clean or unclean, go straight into the stomach and then leave the body. Food is physical. But being clean before God is not a physical matter. So, Jesus leads us away from focusing on the externals.

Being clean before God is a spiritual matter. It is a matter of the heart. Listen to Jesus in Matthew 15:18, “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.” What proceeds out of the mouth? Words. What we say with our words is an expression of what is in our hearts. But Jesus’ focus goes beyond just the words we speak. His focus is the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. He describes seven expressions of evil, certainly not an exhaustive list, but enough to show the evil that is within. First, He says, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts . . .” (Matt. 15:19). Evil words and evil deeds, all of them, first spring forth from evil thoughts in our minds and evil desires in our hearts.

Then, having already confronted the Pharisees about breaking the fifth commandment, Jesus lists commandments six through nine in order, “… murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” Notice that Jesus states these sins in the plural form, no doubt to express the various ways these evils in the heart manifest themselves. Remember what Jesus taught in Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount. “Murders” include not only deadly acts of violence but also brutal words and verbal expressions of hatred (Matt. 5:21-22). “Adulteries” and “fornications” are not only acts of unfaithfulness and sexual immorality but also impure thoughts or verbal expressions of lust (Matt. 5:27-28). “Thefts” are not only actual acts of stealing but the intent to take or have what belongs to someone else. “False witness” is not only saying false words but also intending to deceive (Matt. 5:33-37). Finally, “blasphemies” not only include speaking wrongly of God’s character or misusing His name but also may include slandering the image of God in other people.

The point is that spiritual defilement is not external, it’s internal. Uncleanness is not physical, it’s moral. Sin does not come from external things—it comes from the heart. One preacher put it this way, “Every sin is an inside job.”[1] Every sin you commit begins in your own heart. Jesus concludes in Matthew 15:20, “These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.” Therefore, what we do not need is not an external, ceremonial washing; what we need is an internal, spiritual washing.

Man-made religion will tell you how to clean the outside—do the ceremony, follow the rules, clean up your act. But it can never cleanse the heart. So the evil remains. How can we rid ourselves of the impurity within? How can a man cleanse his heart? Here is the biblical answer to that: you can’t. Nothing any person can do—no religious ceremony, no amount of good deeds, no measure of sacrifice or service—nothing we do can ever cleanse our hearts of the sin and evil within.

So, you say, “Well pastor, is it hopeless?” What is the solution? How can our hearts be cleansed? The answer is only God can cleanse our hearts. And He has provided for that cleansing in His Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:7 says “…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Hebrews 10 says we have “… boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,” therefore we may “…draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” The blood of Jesus cleanses all who come to Him by faith. Paul writes in Titus 3,

⁴ But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, ⁵ not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, (Titus 3:4-6).

When you put your faith in Christ, your sins are forgiven and God gives you his Holy Spirit, He washes your sins away and makes you new and clean in His sight. Believing in Jesus is not a work that you do. Salvation is the gift of God that you receive (Eph. 2:8-10). Faith is the open hand that receives the free gift. Spiritual cleansing begins with the washing of rebirth. It is a work of the Holy Spirit through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is how we are justified, made righteous in God’s sight. This is how we are sanctified, set apart for God.

That is our initial cleansing when we are born again by the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus. We are forever counted righteous and clean for the sake of Jesus Christ because we have died with Him and been raised to a new life in Christ. His once-for-all sacrifice on the cross paid my sin debt in full and I am no longer condemned as unclean before God. I have died with Christ to sin and been raised to life as a new creation with a new heart.

Yet, because we live in this sinful world and in this body of flesh, we still sin and stain ourselves with unrighteousness. So, we also need ongoing cleansing. This cleansing includes the process of sanctification “with the washing of water by the word” (Eph. 5:26). In John 17:17, Jesus prayed to His Father for those who believed in Him, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” God’s word cleanses by renewing our minds, giving us the mind of Christ with godly desires from the heart. When we do sin, we need cleansing to restore that close fellowship with the Lord. This comes by repenting and confessing our sins. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Christ continually cleanses us from sin when we confess it to Him. What does the old song say?

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

O precious is the flow
that makes me white as snow;
no other fount I know;
nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Only Jesus can make you clean. And let me tell you, there is nothing better than being clean before God, having your sins washed away, being born again as a child of God, having a new heart, being indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, and having the assurance of heaven. Come to Jesus. Believe He died to forgive your sins and make you clean. Trust in Him as the risen Lord who is able to cleanse you forever. You need Jesus, only Jesus.

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[1] Alistair Begg, https://www.truthforlife.org/broadcasts/2021/01/30/behaving-part-2-of-2-/