The Challenge From Jerusalem (15:1-9).
In Chapter s 11-12, after the discourse in chapter 10, Matthew had begun by drawing attention to the imprisonment of John (Matthew 11:2), spoke of the opposition of he Pharisees (Matthew 12:1-14), and led on to the approach of the Scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 12:38), now after the discourse in chapter 13 he is repeating the pattern, but with an increase in intensity. He first describes the imprisonment and death of John in Matthew 14:1-12, and he now describes the arrival of Pharisees and Scribes from Jerusalem. (Note the change in order of Scribes and Pharisees following Matthew's regular chiastic method). Their opposition is seen to be hotting up. Now they are no longer just seeking a sign, but are here to challenge His whole approach at what they see as one of the central points in their disagreement, the requirement for ritual washing. Along with the Sabbath, ritual washing was a central feature in their whole system. They had taken up the Scriptural teaching on washing with water and had expanded it into a daily process. It was their way of daily maintaining their ‘purity' in the face of an ‘unclean' world, because they saw themselves as God's own people and separated off from both the riff raff among the Jews who ‘did not keep the Law', and from the Gentiles who had no Law, and as therefore needing to maintain their separateness. But it was a ritually obtained separation, not a genuine separation in holiness of life. And as far as Jewish readers were involved it was necessary to demonstrate how Jesus had dealt with this question before progressing to His ministry to the Gentiles in Matthew 15:21 following. For otherwise they would have asked themselves how He could so easily accept Gentiles.
The importance of the passage is enormous because it emphasises that all tradition must be judged against the Scriptures. Jesus was counteracting what He saw as the latest ‘heresies' by appeal to the Scriptures as the sole determining authority of what could be required of a man in God's Name. He wanted to break through the surface ritual to the heart, and to bring out that what should be of most concern was right moral living springing from a true faith in God.
The passages that follow can also be seen as an illustration of the difference between ‘the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees' and the righteousness required by Jesus (compare Matthew 5:20, and see also chapter 23), the former mainly ritualistic, the latter requiring obedience to God's moral requirements.
Analysis.
a Then there come to Jesus from Jerusalem Pharisees and scribes, saying, “Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread” (Matthew 15:1-2).
b And He answered and said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3).
c “For God said, ‘Honour your father and your mother' (Matthew 15:4 a).
d And, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death'.” (Matthew 15:4 b).
d “But you say, ‘Whoever shall say to his father or his mother, That by which you might have benefited from me is given to God' (Matthew 15:5).
c “He need not honour his father” (Matthew 15:6 a).
b “And you have made void the word of God because of your tradition” (Matthew 15:6 b).
a “You hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, ‘This people honour me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men' ” (Matthew 15:7-9).
Note that in ‘a' Jesus is accused of transgressing the traditions of men, and in the parallel Jesus retaliates that their traditions of men are precisely that, and therefore their worship is in vain. In ‘b' He accuses them of transgressing the commandment of God by their tradition, and in the parallel of voiding the word of God by their tradition. In ‘c' He declares that God's command is that they honour father and mother, and in the parallel their behaviour says that they need no honour their father. In ‘d' to speak evil of father and mother is to incur the judgment, and in the parallel he describes how they speak evil towards their father and mother.