Matthew 15

¹Then Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem approached Jesus and said, ²“Why do your disciples overstep the tradition of the elders? For they do not ritually wash their hands when they eat bread.”

³He answered them, “And why do you overstep the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? ⁴For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘The one who speaks evil of father or mother must surely be put to death.’ ⁵But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever support you might have received from me is now a gift dedicated to God,” ⁶he is then not required to honor his father.’ And so you have invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. ⁷You performers! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said:

⁸‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me; ⁹they worship me in vain, teaching as their doctrines the mandates of men.’”

¹⁰Then, after calling the crowd to him, he said to them, “Listen and understand: ¹¹It is not what enters into the mouth that renders a person profanely common; rather, what comes out of the mouth—this is what renders a person profanely common.”

¹²Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were tripped up when they heard this saying?”

¹³He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted. ¹⁴Leave them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind person guides another blind person, both will fall into a pit.”

¹⁵Peter responded and said to him, “Explain this parable to us.”

¹⁶He said, “Are you also still without understanding? ¹⁷Do you not realize that everything entering the mouth passes into the stomach and is discharged into the latrine? ¹⁸But the things that come out of the mouth originate from the heart, and those are the things that render a person profanely common. ¹⁹For out of the heart come evil designs, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, and slanders. ²⁰These are the things that render a person profanely common; but to eat with unwashed hands does not render a person profanely common.”

²¹Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew into the regions of Tyre and Sidon. ²²And look, a Canaanite woman from those districts came out and began crying out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession.” ²³But he did not answer her a word. His disciples approached and urged him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps crying out behind us.”

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

²⁵But she came and bowed down before him, saying, “Lord, help me.”

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

²⁷She said, “Yes, Lord, for even the house dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

²⁸Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, your trust is great! Let it be done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

²⁹Jesus moved on from there and went along the Sea of Galilee. He went up on the mountain and sat down there. ³⁰Large crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others. They laid them at his feet, and he healed them. ³¹The result was that the crowd was filled with wonder as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made sound, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.

³²Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I am moved with deep compassion for the crowd, because they have remained with me for three days now and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they might collapse on the way.”

³³The disciples said to him, “Where could we get enough bread in this desolate place to satisfy such a large crowd?”

³⁴Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.”

³⁵After instructing the crowd to recline on the ground, ³⁶he took the seven loaves and the fish, and after giving thanks, he broke them and began giving them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. ³⁷And they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up seven large hampers full of the leftover fragments. ³⁸Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. ³⁹After dismissing the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.