Jesus Calls the Pharisees Hypocrites -- a study of traditions and laws from Matthew 15:1-20
- mww
- 1 day ago
- 16 min read
Washing your hands does not make you clean before God.
Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for Matthew 15:1-20
In the next confrontation with the Pharisees, Jesus finally calls them hypocrites and tells the disciples that the Pharisees are some of the very "weeds" He warned about a few parables ago. They had elevated their own laws about physical cleanness to the level of the Old Testament, revealing that their hearts were so far from God as to become God's enemies.
But what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this defiles a person. (15:18)
Getting Started: Things to Think About
Arguments Over Handwashing
We've all been given rules about washing our hands. What have been the biggest arguments you've been subjected to in handwashing?
frequency
temperature of the water
length of time to wash
type of soap
rinse/wash/rinse?
type of towel
Do those answers change based on your workplace? (Medical, food service, industrial?) Have you ever seen someone fired because they failed to follow the handwashing rules?
What are your personal practices, and what have you taught your children?
I'm assuming that we would all agree that washing our hands is important. But what is the level of that importance? "Cleanliness is next to godliness"? We're going to read about some men who put their handwashing rules up there with the Ten Commandments.
The Latest in Scamming
Since the last I time used this topic, AI has helped scammers get even better at scamming, so even if you just use this topic as a PSA, it's always valuable to help protect your people.
Americans reported losing $12.5B in 2024, up 550% in five years. The FTC believes that a small fraction of the total losses (an AARP survey showed that 40% of people have been victims of fraud, and only half reported it to the police). Here are some recent articles:
Because of generative AI, scammers can easily coordinate emails, text messages, phone calls, social media contacts, and even websites. According to some statistics, young people are getting scammed at the same rate as senior adults (!). Why? Because they put so much of their lives into social media, and AI can quickly skim all of that data to identify vulnerabilities, clone voices, and create a convincing digital profile.
In this week's passage, Jesus calls out the Pharisees as hypocrites -- they claim to have been speaking for God, but in reality they were promoting their own preferred teachings and interpretations. There were some real red flags that the people ignored, but Jesus pointed them out. We have to be very vigilant about what we believe.
I'll admit that the connection of "AI scamming" with this week's passage is a stretch. What the Pharisees were doing wasn't some sort of AI scam; they were pulling the same kind of religious shenanigans that people have been doing in every generation before and since. And further, they apparently believed they were right! But to everybody else, this functions like a scam -- the people should have been watching for warning signs and staying away from their (in hindsight) clearly bogus teachings.
It's simple -- "What scams have you seen recently? What scams would have fooled you except for someone's warning? What are you doing to protect yourself and your loved ones?"
[Thursday note: this video popped up yesterday; it's useful.
Good Traditions and Bad Traditions
I want to be very careful here, but I can't help that the passage is about a "precious tradition" that had gone horribly wrong and was actually taking people away from God.
We've done multiple versions of this idea (because Jesus was routinely bumping up against traditions in the Gospels), so here's a proposed variant. Keep it spiritual from the get-go --
What are unique traditions in your family that bring you all closer to Jesus? What are unique traditions in your church that you think distinctly enhance your relationship with Jesus?
The dangerous part is the inverse question -- what are traditions you've seen in churches that you think might actually take people further away from God? I've seen plenty of such traditions on other church's websites and in the news, and not surprisingly, every one of them is a "Pharisee's traditions of the elders" -- something that church celebrates that isn't found in the Bible or in line with biblical truth.
We all have traditions. Our traditions can bring us closer to Jesus. But we have to be vigilant to make sure that over time they don't start drifting away from Him.
Tone Deaf
In this week's passage, some Pharisees say things that are incredibly "tone deaf". Our media (and social media) loves to jump on people who say things that are out-of-touch, lack self-awareness, or just extreme callous. Let's not make this topic so easy.
When was the last time you said something that you realized was very tone deaf, and what happened in the fallout?
This Week's Big Idea: Mishnah and Midrash
And Talmud. And Halakah.
If you do your own research this week -- and I hope you do -- you'll find a lot of Jewish words in the literature. The "simple" explanation of these words really isn't bad, and you don't have to be an expert to appreciate what was at stake in this passage.
The Pharisees confront Jesus with their own "tradition of the elders" that Jesus wasn't respecting. If you look this up, you'll often find the word "Mishnah". Long story short, Mishnah refers to "Pharisee case law". Pharisees were just lay Jews, not born into a priestly line. They were ultra-conservative, and they believed that the entire Jewish nation needed to follow their conservative approach to the Old Testament law so that God would once against find them righteous. But as we realized when we studied Numbers and Deuteronomy, the Old Testament law was not comprehensive but representative. The Pharisees wanted something comprehensive, so certain particularly well-respected rabbis began compiling their preferred interpretations of how the Old Testament law would be applied in certain situations (case law). This process began roughly 150 BC and continued until about 220 AD.
Important note: in Jesus' day, there were still multiple dominant schools of thought among the Pharisees. In other words, the Pharisees who spoke to Jesus in this week's passage did not speak for all Pharisees -- they were speaking only for the particular tradition they followed. After the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the remaining Pharisees were unified under one tradition that survives to this day. But that tradition is not necessary the same as the tradition that kept butting up against Jesus.
Make sense?
Mishnah: a collection of Pharisee case law used to apply the Old Testament law to every situation in Jewish life.
So what about those other terms? If Mishnah refers to a school of how to interpret and apply Jewish laws, Midrash refers to a school of how to interpret the entire Old Testament. (Loose example: Matthew Henry's Commentary of the Entire Bible is like a Midrash. "Reformed Theology", which gives rules on how to understand the Bible, is also like a Midrash.) Halakah refers to "the law" -- this includes all of the laws in the Old Testament as well as the additional laws written in explanation of those laws. Haggadah refers to everything else in the Old Testament. In summary:
Mishnah is a commentary and application of Halakah, which includes the Old Testament laws and the derived laws that certain rabbis deemed just as important.
Midrash is a commentary and school of hermeneutics of Haggadah, which includes the entire Old Testament -- law and prophets and wisdom and history.
Where We Are in Matthew
Last week, we studied the miracle-filled day of chapter 14 -- Jesus hears about the execution of John the Baptist, and they try to get away to mourn. The people find them, leading to a full day of teaching and healing, ending with the miraculous feeding of everybody present. Jesus then sends the disciples on by boat where they get caught in a storm, and Jesus walks to them on the water, resulting in their declaration that He is the Son of God (whatever they thought that meant at the time).
The end of Matthew 14 is this:
34 When they had crossed over, they came to shore at Gennesaret. 35 When the men of that place recognized him, they alerted the whole vicinity and brought to him all who were sick. 36 They begged him that they might only touch the end of his robe, and as many as touched it were healed.
This week's passage immediately follows. Matthew does not suggest if this happened that very day or not.
But there's a very important setup detail in those verses: a bunch of sick people are swarming around Jesus and touching Him. And you know who's always on a witch hunt for uncleanness?
There you go. Thus this week's encounter.
Part 1: The Pharisees Are Very Full of Themselves (Matthew 15:1-6)
Then Jesus was approached by Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem, who asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat.” 3 He answered them, “Why do you break God’s commandment because of your tradition? 4 For God said: Honor your father and your mother; and, Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death. 5 But you say, ‘Whoever tells his father or mother, “Whatever benefit you might have received from me is a gift committed to the temple,” 6 he does not have to honor his father.’ In this way, you have nullified the word of God because of your tradition.
What a noble sacrifice the Pharisees were making being in the vicinity of so many . . . sick people. They must have felt very good about their commitment to their faith, following around Jesus and all that uncleanness. (This comedy clip is pre-covid, so give Tim a break.)
[Make sure everybody in your group appreciates what's going on -- sick people are being healed, lives are being changed, and the religious leaders are worried about their cleanliness rules being followed. And sadly, the equivalent still happens today -- a movement of the Spirit being quenched because it doesn't fit within the paradigm of ministry established by the leaders. Every ministry leader I've talked about this with is just as concerned as I am of unintentionally fighting the Spirit because we don't truly see what's happening. We want to keep away from counterfeit spiritual movements, but we need to embrace movements of the Spirit. The Pharisees had labeled what Jesus was doing as a counterfeit. Why? Because He was not following their rules. They had elevated their own rules to that of God's.]
The "tradition of the elders" in Jesus' day would eventually become known as Mishnah (see above). A rabbi would comment on the law (this was largely an oral tradition), giving his interpretation of how laws would apply to different situations. His followers would then compile and spread those teachings. We don't know which particular rabbi the Pharisees in this week's passage followed. And as I said above, this particular strain of Mishnah may not be what was eventually codified in the second century.
The Pharisees, because of their focus on personal and national righteousness, elevated their preferred Mishnah to the level of canon. [We might be tempted to say this is like what Roman Catholics and others do, elevating their councils to the save level of authority as Scripture. But I think this is closer to "schools of thought" -- "whatever R. C. Sproul says that means" or John MacArthur or David Jeremiah or Matt Chandler or even D. A. Carson -- "whatever that person says the Bible means is what the Bible means". Having a teacher you follow can be good! But when you uncritically follow that person, you end up with the devotees of Joyce Meyer or Joel Osteen or Mark Driscoll or the like. Who's going to protect you when the "blind is leading the blind"?]
To illustrate how some rabbis were fixated on cleanliness, D. A. Carson included this example interpretation:
If a man poured water over one hand with a single rinsing, his hand is clean; but if over both hands with a single rinsing, R. Meir declares them unclean unless he pours over them a quarter-log or more (M Yadaim 2:1).
You could have some fun with this (I suggested this topic at the top). A common rule I've heard is to sing "Happy Birthday" twice while you wash your hands. Have an argument over how fast you should sing it and whether you should include a fermata or a ritard. (Btw, the CDC recommends 20 seconds.) And if you instead break out the stopwatch, do you need to wash the stopwatch before you touch it with your clean hands? Those are the sorts of debates the rabbis would have. What's the most ridiculous debate about handwashing your group can come up with?
Jesus has had enough of this. He had been avoiding such direct public confrontation because He knew that it would "start the clock" on His arrest, but it was finally time to start the clock.
[Note: Mark goes into more detail about this encounter. Matthew, writing to a Jewish audience, didn't feel the need to explain the stakes.]
Jesus cites Exodus 20:12 and 21:17 where God specifically discusses the child's responsibility to honor the parent. To Jesus, this includes at the very least caring for a parent in need. But the Pharisees had created a loophole to get them out of it -- the principle of "korban", where they could set aside their possessions to be a future gift to the temple treasury. Now here's the kicker: the Pharisee could still use those possessions for himself, but he could "legally" tell his parents that he can't use those possessions for them. That's just slimy, isn't it? [And no, I didn't recommend legal loopholes as a discussion topic; it's all so slimy.]
Now -- how does this intersect with Jesus' declaration,
The one who loves a father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; the one who loves a son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. (10:37)
Jesus is not doing the same thing that the Pharisees were doing -- He's not saying that following Him absolves a child of responsibility to a parent. He's saying that following Him comes first; a true disciple would know when those two responsibilities are mutually exclusive. But the Pharisees were using their made-up rule as a way to get out of their responsibility to their parent. See the difference?
Part 2: The Pharisees Are Hypocrites (Matthew 15:7-11)
7 Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said:
8 This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 9 They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines human commands.”
10 Summoning the crowd, he told them, “Listen and understand: 11 It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth—this defiles a person.”
Jesus then lets them have it. This is the first time He flat-out calls them hypocrites. This is a big-deal accusation, and I hope it cuts you to the heart any time you think you have been a hypocrite.
Note that Jesus said Isaiah was prophesying about those Pharisees ("you"!). But clearly Isaiah 29 was addressed to the Jews living in Isaiah's day, right? This is a fascinating case, and it gets a lot deeper than I can understand, but basically, you want to read Isaiah 29 (at the least) and get a sense for what was going on in Isaiah's day. The people had become "spiritually blind", even though they thought they could see just fine. In condemnation, God was going to bring judgment on them by destroying Jerusalem and bringing about a future restoration of a new Israel.
So, yes, Isaiah's words clearly applied to the people Isaiah was speaking too -- the imminent destruction of Israel proved that. But Jesus is saying is equally applies to His hearers. That would suggest all of Isaiah's words applies to His hearers. Their drift from God was just as severe as the drift in the horrible days of the original fall of Jerusalem, and the consequences would be just as severe. God had rejected these Jews as His people.
This was not a minor disagreement between Jesus and the Pharisees on matters of interpretation of the law. Jesus was declaring that God had rejected them as His people because they had abandoned Him. Everything they said and taught and believed was to be distrusted.
Note that Jesus said that part in private. Then He called everybody together to teach some truth. What He says seems pretty straightforward -- He wants them to "understand" it, but note that the disciples will call it a "parable" (see next section). They have been so taken in by the "prevailing Pharisee worldview" that they can't see around it.
Jesus explains everything in a few verses, but you might start by asking what your group's first reaction to this verse was. What did they first think it meant?
What We Skip
The lesson skips a few priceless words.
12 Then the disciples came up and told him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?”
Wow. The disciples still don't get it.
I think our takeaway has to be that the disciples still respect the Pharisees because the Pharisees have put themselves into such a lofty position in Jewish society. And further, they really don't understand what Jesus said that made the Pharisees so upset.
13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father didn’t plant will be uprooted. 14 Leave them alone! They are blind guides. And if the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
So Jesus spells it out for them. If the disciples continue to try to follow/respect the Pharisees, they will be led into a pit. This calls back to the parable of the weeds we studied a few weeks ago -- one Jesus explained to the disciples. "So, guys, the Pharisees are the weeds we talked about." They aren't just unpleasant snobs; they are enemies of God and pawns of Satan. Oh.
15 Then Peter said, “Explain this parable to us.”
Oy. Jesus' exasperation bleeds through in the next section.
Part 3: The Pharisees Are the Blind Leading the Blind (Matthew 15:16-20)
16 “Do you still lack understanding?” he asked. 17 “Don’t you realize that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated? 18 But what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slander. 20 These are the things that defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a person.”
Now we're finally getting back to the earlier statement about clean and unclean. It seems that the disciples were quite concerned about the Pharisee's accusation of uncleanness. We studied clean/unclean a year ago --
If you want an overview of the basic Levitical rules, that post is for you!
Here's a summary of some key points:
Things/people are categorized as holy (sacred) or common (profane)
to consecrate (sanctify) = move from common to holy
to desecrate (profane) = move from holy to common
Further, those things can then be clean (pure) or unclean (impure)
to purify (cleanse) = move from unclean to clean
to defile (pollute) = move from clean to unclean
It was okay to be unclean; you just had to be "cleansed" before you were allowed to do certain religious duties. And much more importantly, Jesus was going to handle that issue of being unclean, another topic we studied a year ago:
The Pharisees were doing two unforgiveable things:
They were calling all sick people "common" and themselves "holy", creating a class system that wasn't even reality (more on this below). And,
They were declaring that Jesus did not have the authority or the ability to cleanse and sanctify those sick people.
This rightly angered Jesus.
"Clean vs. unclean" has a valuable place in the society of God's people. It helps us take our behavior seriously, take our restoration seriously, and remember the price Jesus paid for our salvation. But it was never meant to be a tool to segregate classes of humanity or, more importantly, excuse the things in one's heart.
Jesus already covered this in the Sermon on the Mount, and He calls back to that here.
For example,
5:21 You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment. 22 But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment.
The Pharisees believed that if they washed their hands properly, they were clean before God, regardless of the content of their hearts.
They were so wrong, and Jesus didn't want His followers to travel that same road (which ended in a pit, obviously).
To me, this calls back to what we just studied about the Sabbath:
12:11 Who among you, if he had a sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, wouldn’t take hold of it and lift it out? 12 A person is worth far more than a sheep; so it is lawful to do what is good on the Sabbath
Doing good superseded "Sabbath laws", and God expects us to do good, even when that action butts up against those laws. Likewise, the content of the heart superseded cleanliness laws (in a negative direction); being physically clean did not necessarily make someone spiritually clean. And further, the content of the heart can also supersede behaviors possibly considered unclean (in a positive direction); doing good resulting in making someone physically unclean did not make them spiritually unclean.
You hopefully say, "Wait, Jesus is talking about food here. Where's this 'doing good' talk coming from?" Well, it's a seed that was planted that will be harvested just a few years from this moment:
That's the story of the clean and unclean animals and the Roman Cornelius. And it did take years for this lesson to finally sink in. Salvation is available to all people. God wants Christians to reach out to and minister to people from every walk of life. We no longer think in terms of "ceremonially unclean", but that would have been on the minds of Matthew's readers.
Some scholars have gone so far as to say that Jesus was here completely doing away with the entire Levitical system of clean and unclean. I don't think we have to go there. I think Jesus is just echoing the complaint of Isaiah and other prophets.
8 This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
Or Jer 12:2 You are ever on their lips, but far from their conscience. Or Ps 50:16 But God says to the wicked: “What right do you have to recite my statutes and to take my covenant on your lips?"
The Pharisees had missed the point of everything, and now they were going so far as to wield their own version of God's laws as weapons (1) to enrich themselves, and (2) to speak against the very Son of God.
I'm hoping and assuming that your group has understood this from previous studies of the Bible. Christianity is not a list of behaviors. It is a changed heart resulting from a new relationship with God.
Just to be safe, make sure that's clear with your group.