In Matthew 14 we can read about the beheading of John the Baptist, Jesus Feeding over 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish, and Jesus walking on water. We will focus in on chapter 15 when the Pharisees accuse Jesus of breaking Jewish law.
Verses 1-14:
Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, ”Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ he is not to ‘honor his father’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
” ‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.’”Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.’ ”
Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”
He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”
Again we see Jesus teaching that following God is a matter of the heart and not tradition or outward appearances. The Pharisees had become so proud of their tradition and man made rules, that they even allowed for breaking God’s laws in order to keep their rules. The disciples were worried about how Jesus angered the Pharisees by his words. Jesus responds with a reminder of God’s judgement.
Peter then asks what Jesus meant by saying what comes out of the mouth makes a man unclean. Jesus replies in verses 16-20:
Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. ”Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.’ “
Jesus points to the heart of man as the problem, not following religious rules. The various ceremonial laws set up in the Old Testament were meant to be a physical representation of the things of the heart. But the people had come to put all emphasis on the external, and ignore the original meaning of the ceremonies. This problem has not gone away. Today, many people that follow the Christian religion are very proud of their baptism, church attendance, monetary offerings to the church, taking communion, etc. These are all good things because they are meant to remind us of the deeper meaning. Doing these things for the sake of doing them does not impress God or put us in a better standing with Him. Rather, having a heart that longs for the things that the heart of God longs for, accepting the grace that God provides through Jesus, loving one another as we love ourselves; these are the things that God wants out of our lives. True worshipful living is more important than going to church and performing our weekly religious duties.
Chapter 15 ends with Jesus healing more people (including a Canaanite, the historical enemies of the Jews) and feeding another huge group of people out of just a few loaves of bread and a little fish.