Who am I? The Gospel According to Matthew

The Gospel According to Matthew

Matthew 15

Today we are going to look at three stories in Matthew chapter 15.  In one of the stories there is a woman who is quite persistent.  You could say she is one of those people you just can't shake.  One of those people who just don't get the hint.  

Question of the morning: Have you ever been really persistent about something? Did it pay off?

When I was nine my mother was pregnant with her 4th child.  I currently was the middle child and the only girl.  So naturally I started praying for a sister.  I prayed every single night! I can remember the rug by my bed.  I knelt on that rug and prayed every night that this new sibling would be a sister.  I knew God had the power and he could grant me the desires of my heart.  On May 31st my brother Peter was born.  My mother was concerned about my faith.  She was sure the disappointment would forever color my relationship with God. When she asked if I was disappointed, I very strongly answered her, "NO not at all! I KNOW God is just saying, "wait a while".   After my fathers vasectomy about a year later, I had a difficult time understanding how I could have been so wrong.  I was SURE!!! God was telling me to just wait.  I KNEW he had heard me and would give me a sister... Then just weeks after my fathers surgery we found out that mom was pregnant.  I never once prayed for a sister I praised God for my sister and she was born on April 1.  

READ: Matthew 15: 1-20

15 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”

3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’[a] and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’[b] 5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ 6 they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

8 “‘These people honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain;
    their teachings are merely human rules.’[c]”

10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”

12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”

13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides.[d] If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

15 Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”

16 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. 17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person;but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”

In case you are confused about the honoring your parents part that Jesus is talking about here.  Let me try to explain.  Jesus is talking about a tradition known as korban. To declare something "korban" was to declare it as dedicated or set aside for God.  However if you declared money "korban" it didn't mean you gave it to the treasury or to the church right away.  It just meant eventually it would go to the church.  People were doing this so they didn't have to use their money for their parents.  Essentially they could claim having no money because their funds were dedicated for God.  

Is there ever anything we do to skirt around our responsibilities?  We have been called to honor our parents, to feed the poor and to take care of widows and orphans.  Do we come up with justifications or reasons as to why we are exempt from helping? 

In this time the clean and unclean physically were connected to the clean and unclean spiritually. Here Jesus is making it clear that not washing your hands doesn't make you unclean spiritually.  

Is this saying that it doesn't matter what we eat?

Does it matter?

Why or why not?

We are the Adventist Church with a health message.  Are we like the Pharisees? Do we make someone unclean if they eat the unclean? 

Have we made it more than a health message?

What does make someone unclean? 

How important is what we say?

READ: Matthew 15: 21-28

21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”

23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

It is important to know something right off the bat.  Jesus was not insulting her when he called her a dog.  The word here used for dog is actually better translated as "puppy" and Gentiles were known for having dogs as pets. So it wasn't as bad as it seems right off the bat.  

In this culture for a gentile woman to reach out to a man was unheard of.  She was bold.  She was determined and was willing to cross all cultural correctness to get to him.  She is so determined.  

If you could sit at the feet of Jesus this afternoon what would you ask of Him?  

If you had time with Jesus, what would want from him?

What keeps you from being determined enough to cross cultural boundaries, or whatever is getting in your way to get to Jesus?

Do you believe that if you passed him on the street, you would beg him?

Why or why not?

Great faith.  We have seen this before.  Do you have great faith?

READ: Matthew 15: 29-39

29 Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. 30 Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. 31 The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.

32 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”

33 His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?”

34 “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked.

“Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.”

35 He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. 36 Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. 37 They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 38 The number of those who ate was four thousand men, besides women and children. 39 After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.

Ok I have to confess.  I read this and said, "wait am I on the wrong page?"  I was sure I had just read this story and that I must have been reading the wrong chapter.  After all last week we studied the feeding of the 5 thousand.  Wait this is feeding of the 4 thousand, (men).  Maybe it is a retelling?  I was confused. 

How can this story that is so similar to the first like this really be?  But, it is.  Once again, the disciples needed to feed the crowd and even though they had just been apart of the feeding of the 5 thousand they still doubted and start looking around to find a place to buy food.  Seriously.  Is their memory that short?

When have you doubted God just after he "fed" you?

Michael Card mentions in his book that the word for basket here is a word that is used for a man sized basket.  One that is used to lower people down, etc.  So the surplus was so much more.  His miracle so much greater!  What an amazing thing.  

I know that Jesus is waiting to pour out onto you blessings that after you have used the blessings, you will have man size baskets left over.  So what is keeping it from happening?

Are we too caught up in our own rules and regulations, that we have forgotten about HIS rules and regulations?

Are we too consumed worried about what the world thinks to chase down Jesus and beg, shamelessly beg for his healing touch?  

Have we forgotten what he has done and once again we are looking around at our own resources instead of using the miraculous power of Jesus?

Who am I?  I am a humble girl who KNOWS, REMEMBERS, and BELIEVES!