The End of the Beginning

Matthews account of the final phase of Jesus ministry in Galilee (the north) is begins with His hometown rejecting Him as Messiah. They said…”isn’t this guy Mary’s son… don’t we know His brothers”… who does He think He is preaching at us, taking about us being judged? Christ took upon himself the form of a simple working class man. Lived and suffered with them side by side… yet that humility act kept them from seeing Jesus for what He really was… their Lord and master. They couldn’t believe… they couldn’t hear him... they rejected Him.

Next, Jesus receives news John the Baptist has been executed in prison by King Herod.

Jesus Offers The Bread of Life

Matt 14:13a Jesus responds emotionally to what they had done to John… He sought privacy… probably to mourn, to talk with His Father in prayer. All Judea had gone after John, to confess their sins and seek baptism… and now John was dead. All Galilee had thronged to Jesus for healing. As He healed He taught for 3 years… they were listening but not understanding, not believing. Now He was setting out in a little boat with His few loyal disciples across the lake.

Matt 14:13b-21 The people of Galilee may have been rejecting the message of the Kingdom Jesus offered… the seed was falling on shallow, stony, and thorny soil… BUT the people still wanted the earthly blessings Jesus could provide. Desperately the followed Him around the lake… and even in His own moment of grief He had compassion on them… He healed them… and this time He even fed them. Jesus had so much more to offer them but that’s not what they were looking for.

We know from John’s account of this same day that the immediate response of the crowd (5000-10,000 people) was that they wanted to declare Jesus King by force. Rally together to avenge the death of John the people’s hero… march on Jerusalem… a proletarian revolution headed by this man – Jesus –  why with His miraculous power… It’s a no-brainer!

Matt 14:22-23a Jesus acts quickly… first He needs to get His disciples out of there so they don’t get caught up in the sweeping revolutionary emotions of the crowd… while they leave He stays behind to disperse the crowd. Then He proceeds to climb up the mountain for an intense night of prayer.

Was Satan once again tempting Him with the idea of taking the kingdoms of the world and their splendor as His own? … to establish the Kingdom through political power rather than through the power of His own sacrificial blood?  Perhaps this is why Jesus climbed up on the mountain to pray by himself… to quench the stirring of worldly desire… to realign His will with the will of the Father.

Matt 14:23b-38 – read no comments

We know from the parallel account recorded in John 6 that the following day… in Gennesaret… after this long session of prayer that Jesus gave the intensely spiritual sermon recorded in John 6. Jesus urged them to seek and eat the “true bread of life”… His body… and His life… He was telling them about the sacrifice He would make of His own life to pay the penalty for their sins and open the pathway to eternal life to them. But now even many of those who followed Him rejected Him.

Jesus disciples needed to be sifted… separating those with faith and trust in Him… from those who were not spiritually minded. To accept this difficult teaching required a person to trust Jesus and take a step forward in faith… like the step of faith Peter took getting out of the boat to walk on water with Him. Peter’s was not perfect faith by a long shot… but it was something Jesus could work with.

The True Meaning of Clean & Unclean

News of what Jesus was doing in the north had reached the powers that be in Jerusalem. Representatives from the capital were now on the scene to ask Him what they considered crucial questions regarding religious observance… hand washing.

Matt 15:1-9 Ritual hand washing was not a law from the OT scripture. It was a man-made tradition.

The law of God categorizes a number of things as “unclean”… dead bodies, various types of animals, menstruating women, gentile idol worshipers, leprosy, etc. Contact with these things made one “unclean” (say brushing up against them, or touching another person who himself had become unclean, so it was tough to avoid)… if you were unclean you couldn’t go into the temple of God. This was especially important for the priests. Something unclean could not be considered holy or used for holy purposes.

Jewish religious leaders wanted to be considered holy. So they came up with elaborate rituals for washing themselves to combat uncleanness… especially with regard to what went into their mouths… dirt, gnats, dust from the foot step of a gentile etc.

To perform these washings “properly” you had to hold your arms just so etc. it was onerous, sanctimonious, unscriptural… and useless… (according to the OT if you became defiled then even after washing you were still unclean for a day and couldn’t go to God’s temple)… but the point was it made them look special, holy, set apart from, and above others. A working man couldn’t stay on top of this sort of stuff… he would always be unclean. These washings meant nothing to God… they did not make people more just, more caring, more like God.

To the religious Jew all this ritual ceremony was religion. It’s what they believed God demanded. To do these things was to please God, and to be a good man. To them ritual washing was just as important and just as binding as the Ten Commandments themselves. It was as important to wash the hands in a certain way as to obey the commandment: "Thou shalt not covet."

Note that Jesus doesn’t debate washings with them. He confronts the idea that their traditions were somehow “of God” and “pleasing to him”… He shows an example of how their traditions made it possible for a heartless son to escape the express will of God as written in the commandments…  The 5th commandment… that they care for their parents. (explain the Corban law)

The Church of God is Tasked With the Same Unwelcome Message…

Jesus taught people to go back to the truth of scripture and question the man-made traditions of religion. Likewise the Church of God confronts traditions that obscure and confuse humanity regarding who God is, what is He doing, how and why He is working with them to bring about something bigger and better than we could ever imagine.

Matt 15:10-14 Washings, Corban, Christmas and every vain, confusing, counter-productive man-made tradition is to be pulled up by the roots and destroyed.

Matt 15:15-20 Once again Jesus teaches that being a righteous person, a good person is a matter of a heart and mind which loves God and expresses that love through obedience to what God has actually said… not through rituals, ideas, or doctrines, we have made up our selves… A person after God’s own heart is learning and practicing love toward neighbor… a love that begins with an understanding and keeping of the commandments (note that Jesus cites commandments 6 thru 9).

Add to this understanding and expressing the fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, gentleness, loyalty, self-control, patience and perseverance. These are the qualities that make a person holy… which is the epitome of cleanness in the eyes of God.

In matters of the heart and mind… what is unclean? Adultery, sexual immorality, idolatry, and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions.

2 Corinthians 6:17  The distinction between clean and unclean is still operational. The difference (explained more fully in Romans or Ephesians) is that now we do not arbitrarily define a person as clean or unclean based on nationality or race. BUT a person can still be called unclean… unfit to enter the presence of God… in the New Covenant, it is based on the spiritual character that is in his heart. Ephesians 4:17-19 / 5:1-7

About Having a Good Heart…

Some folks say “What matters to God is not so much how we act, but why we act; not so much that we actually do, but what we wish in our heart of hearts to do”. I say this is foolish and misleading. Doesn’t Christ clearly teach here and elsewhere that the proof of the heart is known by what comes out of the mouth? Through words and deeds? Matt 12:33-37… (good tree = good fruit)

Evil is not excused because of good intentions… If you really have those good intentions then you will recognize the evil… confess it before God and repent… if damage was done you will seek to restore or provide restitution… once again your heart will be known by what it brings forth… the acts it leads to… not what lays deep down in there never seen and never heard.

Your need to distinguish and choose between what is holy and clean and what is evil and unclean still remains. Discerning between clean and unclean types of food provides a daily reminder of this essential spiritual purpose and goal set forth by God… be holy just as I am holy. Separate yourself from what is evil and touch no unclean thing.

Jesus Goes into Pagan Territory

Matthew tells us that after this Jesus went out of Galilee to the gentile / pagan regions of Tyre & Sidon (the only time in the scriptural record that He left Israel)… perhaps He wanted to get away from the crowds, to prepare for His final journey to Jerusalem…  but surely also to provide this example of an “unclean” woman rewarded Jesus because of her faith.

Matt 15:21-28 At first He did not answer her… we know from other accounts that He surely already knew her heart… but He waits to hear the words on her lips… perhaps also wanting the disciples to take note. She persists… she humbles herself before Him… acknowledges Him as Lord… believing that He would and could help her.

The people of Galilee didn’t humble themselves before Him and believe His teaching. The scribes, Pharisees and powers that be from Jerusalem would not humble themselves and accept His authority. They were rejecting Him… their King & Messiah… and would, therefore, themselves be rejected.

Who is holy? Who is clean? Are you willing to humble yourself before Him?

Jesus Feeds & Heals the Unclean

Matt 15:29-38 Jesus was still in pagan/gentile territory (the Decapolis) when he duplicated the miracle of feeding a vast crowd of people. The crowd would be mostly made up gentiles. People considered unclean… but now they too would have access to the “bread of life” and all that went with it… forgiveness of sin… a new start… and a path to eternal life in the family of God.

Jesus healed them and fed them and the unclean people praised the God of Israel.

Matt 15:38-16:4 Jesus now re-enters the territory of Israel (Magadan)… and is greeted by the leaders of the Jews who demand that He perform a sign. He gives them the same reply He did last time… you’ve had plenty of “signs”… all you will get beyond these is the sign of Jonah… the resurrection of the Christ.

Finally they head back into Israel proper Jesus warns the disciples to beware of the deceptive teaching of the religious leaders of the day.

Matt 16:5-12 The disciples wondered if the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees referred to their lack of bread supply for the trip…  Jesus tells them He’s not talking about bread. To make His point He reminds them how he miraculously provided bread for 5,000 Jews (the supposedly clean people)… and later for 4,000 gentiles (supposedly unclean). Then they realize Jesus is warning them about what the Pharisees and Sadducees taught about religion, worship and holiness.

Perhaps they also thought about the unclean gentile woman of Tyre who got down on her knees and called Jesus… Lord… who was she compared to the oh-so-clean Jewish leaders who rejected the Messiah and His message… clean on the outside yet so filled with anger, fear, pride, and vanity that they were already plotting to kill Him.

Remember to Seek True Cleanness

God’s wants you to have a clean heart… a clean conscience… to hate what is evil and hold tight to what is good. So the next time you turn down the offer of some unclean meat… or are checking the ingredients on a grocery item… consider it a reminder of the weightier matters that such decisions point towards…