Shepherd’s VineyardChristianChurch
Sunday SchoolFebruary 7, 2010
Clean and Unclean
Introduction
Jewish law, the Law of Moses, dictated that some foods were unclean and so could not be eaten. It also dictated that non-Jews, Gentiles, were unclean and that Jews should not associate with them. Part of Jesus’ mission was to correct the old covenant teachings and introduce changes that the new covenant would bring.In the verses we will cover today Jesus introduces changesto the Jewish understanding of cleanliness.
Lesson (Matthew 15:1-31)
It appears that a report had been sent to the temple in Jerusalem that Jesus’ disciples were not following the teachings of the elders. A group was dispatched to investigate and instruct.
1Then 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!"
Jews were expected to learn and obey the Jewish law. But they were also expected to learn and obey a large number of rabbinical lawsand traditions. And “people commonly recognized that the Pharisees passed on ancestral laws not written in the Law of Moses. Hand washing was one such […] tradition, perhaps originally adopted from foreign Jews, concerning which the Pharisees were especially meticulous.”[1]
Jesus respondsby explaining that some of their traditions and rabbinical laws conflicted with the Law of Moses and that should never be. “Nevertheless, [such conflicts are] bound to result in some instances if we spend more time, in religious institutions or in society, debating laws as laws than in teaching [the] ethical principles behind the laws.”[2] Jesus is challenging Pharisaic views about the danger of evaluating morality on the basis of extra-biblical traditions.
Jesus then makes a more general statement about cleanliness:
10Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. 11What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.' "
When Jesus speaks of being unclean he is speaking of a spiritual uncleanness or defilement that separates us from God. But in Jewish understanding of the law and in tradition, to eat (or even touch) an unclean thing would make a person unclean and therefore injure the relationship between that person and God. Jesus is saying this is not so – and in fact that it never was so. The religious leaders have misunderstood the teachings of The Law. For the religious leaders, and even forJesus’ disciples, who were all raised with these teachings,Jesus’ teaching is hard for them to accept. At first His disciples believe it must be a story with a hidden meaning.
15Peter 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? 18But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' 19For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.' "
“Alluding to the Isaiah passage he has quoted (Isaiah 29:13), Jesus emphasizes the heart […]. The Pharisees of Jesus' day would have agreed with his emphasis on inwardness, although not that the outward did not defile.”[3]The message here is that physical uncleanness does not cause spiritual uncleanness.
Now we move onto a related problem, uncleanness of Gentiles. “Placed immediately after a discussion of purity in both Matthew and Mark, Jesus' encounter with this Gentile woman brings out the implications the Evangelists find in his view of purity: Gentiles will no longer be separated from Israel”.[4] The Law had commanded that God’s people keep themselves separate from Gentiles. It was God’s will that they do this so that they might survive as a people until His coming. But this requirement will not be part of the new covenant.
In Jesus’ time the cities of Tyre and Sidon, which were north of Galilee, were predominately populated by Canaanites. But Jews lived there too, usually in clannish clusters, as they did through most of the known world at that time. “Historically, Tyre and Sidon were bitter enemies of the people of Israel. The wicked queen Jezebel, who sought to replace the worship of Israel’s God with the worship of Baal, came from Sidon. […] For Jews, the people of Tyre and Sidon seemed like rich oppressive tyrants. Those cities had made peace with the Roman government, and many of their people became wealthy with trade and seafaring.”[5]
21Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession."
Notice two important things she says. By saying Lord, which in other translations is even “my Lord”, she recognizes that He is a person of power and authority. By the words “Son of David” she displays a surprising understanding of who he is – given who she is.
23Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us."
24He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."
Jesus’ disciples believe they understand why Jesus has not responded to her – she is not a Jew – worse she is a Canaanite. And their statement shows that she has made quite a pest of herself with the disciples.
Other translations make it clearer that Jesus’ response is to the disciples; He still has not addressed the woman. His reply is true of course. His mission is “to the Jews first”. “The bitter implication appears to be that Jesus’ power to bless is for Israel only. Those outside Israel are not worthy of it. It exists only for the chosen. There is not enough for others”[6]
25The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said.
She knows that He is the only one who can help her. In submission and desperation she makes her plea.
26He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."
Jesus’ answer cannot have been a complete surprise to her. She almost certainly would have experienced this attitude before from Jews, that Gentiles were a lesser people than Jews. But she refuses to be turned away, even by such a seemingly negative comment.
“There is another aspect to Jesus’ statement, however, that we need to keep in mind. The story about giving the children’s bread to dogs assumes that there is only enough bread for the children alone. It would be irresponsible for a parent to feed dogs and let the children go hungry. But is the bread really as limited as that?”[7] We’ll return to that question.
Jesus’ response appears to be very harsh, even racist. Why would he say such a mean thing as to draw a parallel between Gentiles and dogs? He does this because he knows he can draw out a deeper expression of faith from her … and he gets that.
27"Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."
She is challenging the assumption in His earlier response, that there is only enough bread for the children and that the children will eat it all. Her responsedraws a parallel between the children of God and the children of man,reasoning that the children of God, like the children of man, will miss out on some of the blessings they could have had. These crumbs are all that she needs.
In her persistence and her words, and in not a little wisdom, she has shown what Jesus wants to see.
28Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
Did the children of God make mistakes that led to them missing some of their blessings? Certainly. Did this mean there were crumbs left for others? No. The Gentile woman received her blessing because the supply of bread is inexhaustible. The Gentiles can eat the same bread as the children.
29Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. 30Great 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. 31The 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.
By healing many people immediately afterward, Jesus demonstrates that “clearly the Canaanite woman was right: there is plenty of bread at the Lord’s table, so that no one needs to be turned away.”[8]
Conclusion
We saw Jesus correct a misunderstanding of the spirit of Jewish Law regarding teachings about uncleanness. He also rejected some of the man made traditions that they had attached to it. We also recall from other places in the Gospels that He did this in many other cases.
We also saw Jesus introducing the idea that the time of Jew and Gentile was about to end. In healing the Gentile woman’s daughter, He showed that, although his mission was “Jews first” his real desire was for faith and that transcended race.
It also seems that part of the purpose of this trip to Gentile territory must have been to teach His disciples through the example of this woman. They had been having trouble with faith issues and would continue to do so. He must also have been showing them that Jew or Gentile, and clean or unclean would mean nothing in the new covenant.
In our present time most Christians understand Jesus message about cleanness, both in terms of the foods we eat and relationships between Jews and Gentiles. For us there are deeper meanings. We must be careful that obeying traditions doesn’t become more important than obeying the will of God. And, as Gentiles, Christians and whatever else we may be, we need to understand that Jesus loves us all equally and that should be our example.
Questions
It is in the nature of man to supplement or even substitute man made traditions for God’s teachings. We see this many times. When there is not spiritual understanding, physical actions take its place. Jesus repeatedly points out instances of this in His time. Can you name an instance since that time when church traditions interfered with the work of the church?
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[5] NIV Standard Lesson Commentary, Christ the Fulfillment, Unit 3, Recognized in GentileTerritory
[6] NIV Standard Lesson Commentary, Christ the Fulfillment, Unit 3, Recognized in GentileTerritory
[7] NIV Standard Lesson Commentary, Christ the Fulfillment, Unit 3, Recognized in GentileTerritory
[8] Standard Lesson Commentary, Christ the Fulfillment, Unit 3, Recognized in GentileTerritory