Matthew 15:1 - Meaning and Application

Bad habits often lead to good laws. The hot zeal of the Jewish teachers for protecting their own system led our Savior to give many clear teaching words that settled the truth. Here that happens again.

The scribes and Pharisees, the leading teachers in the Jewish church, came with a complaint against Christ’s disciples. These men acted as if they cared deeply for God’s law, but they really wanted to protect their own power over people’s consciences. They were educated, active men, and they came from Jerusalem, the holy city and center of worship and judgment. That should have made them better than others, but in fact they were worse, and great privileges often make people more proud and more bitter when they are not used well.

Their charge was about church tradition, that is, rules passed down by their religious leaders. They said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they eat” (Matthew 15:2). This was a serious charge in their eyes. The tradition said people should wash their hands often, and always before meals. They treated this as a matter of religion, not just cleanliness, and they even said it was a sin against God not to do it. Some of their teachers went so far as to say eating with unwashed hands was as bad as adultery. One rabbi, while in prison, used the water he had left to wash his hands rather than drink it, saying he would rather die than break the elders’ tradition.

The disciples had not done this, which offended the Pharisees, especially because the disciples were otherwise known for taking faith seriously. The custom itself was harmless as a civil habit, and washing before meals could be a decent practice. But once it was made into a religious rule, with great stress put on it, the disciples did not follow it. They had learned the right lesson: even if something is allowed, a believer should not let it gain control over him. They were not willing to submit to a human rule that claimed authority over their conscience.

The Pharisees took their complaint to Jesus, asking why he let his disciples do this. That was good, because the disciples themselves might not have been ready to defend their actions fully. Christ answered by showing that they themselves were breaking God’s command while pushing their own tradition. While they were looking for small faults in his disciples, he exposed a far greater fault in them. And this was more than a personal defense. He showed that human authority must never be placed against God’s authority.

He said they were breaking God’s commandment by means of their tradition. They called it the tradition of the elders, leaning on its age and on the status of the men who taught it. Christ called it their tradition, because they had made it their own rule. Those who support and keep up unlawful commands will be held responsible for them. People who are strongest in pressing their own rules are often weakest in obeying God’s commands. Even if this handwashing rule did not directly violate one command of God, Christ still exposed it by showing how they treated other parts of God’s law.

He pointed them to the fifth commandment: “Honor your father and your mother” (Matthew 15:4). This command comes from the common Father of all people, and when children respect and care for the ones through whom God gave them life, they honor the One who gave them life through those parents. Honoring parents includes more than words. It means helping them, supporting them, and meeting their needs when they are in need.

Honor widows, that is, support them, as in (1 Timothy 5:3). The promise in the fifth commandment is that your days may be long, but Jesus does not use that promise here. He leaves it aside so no one would think the command is only wise and helpful, not necessary. Instead, he points to the penalty for breaking it in another Scripture: “Whoever curses father or mother must die,” from (Exodus 21:17). That makes the duty of honoring parents clearly serious and required.

Here, cursing parents is set against honoring them. People break this command not only by openly speaking badly of their parents, but also by wishing them harm, mocking them, or using insulting and abusive language. If calling a brother “Raca” is so serious, what must it be to call a father that? By Jesus’ use of this law, it is clear that refusing help or care to parents is also included in cursing them. Even if the words sound respectful and contain no insult, what good is that if the actions do not match? It is like the son in the parable who said, “I go, sir,” and never went (Matthew 21:30).

Now see how the tradition of the elders went against this command. It did not attack it openly, but it gave people clever ways to escape it. Their teachers gave rules that made it easy to avoid obeying this command in practice (Matthew 15:5, 6). We hear what God says, but then men, even learned and powerful men, say something different. That must always be tested against God’s word, and if it disagrees, it must be rejected (Acts 4:19).

Their tradition said a man could never use his money better than by giving it to the priests and dedicating it to the temple service. And once something was dedicated that way, it could not be used for anything else. They claimed that all other duties, even just and holy ones, were set aside by that gift. This came partly from their special devotion to temple ceremonies, and partly from greed, because they benefited from what was given to the temple. The first was their excuse, but the second was the real cause.

They applied this to children like this. When parents were in need and asked for help, the children said that whatever they could spare had already been devoted to the temple treasury. “It is a gift,” they said, “so you cannot expect help from me.” They even suggested that the parents would somehow gain spiritual benefit from what had been given away, and so should be satisfied with that. They taught that this was a valid excuse, and many disobedient children used it. The leaders approved it and declared the child free. Some explain the sense this way, that he had done well and had kept the fifth commandment properly. So a claim of religion made it seem acceptable, even commendable, to refuse support to parents.

But this tradition was plainly foolish and sinful. True religion was meant to strengthen natural duty, not destroy it. One of the most basic laws of nature is honoring our parents. If they had understood God’s words, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” they would not have made empty rituals cancel out plain moral duty. This was making God’s command have no effect. Anything that leads people into disobedience, or excuses it, in effect makes the command useless. Those who claim the right to set aside God’s law are, in Christ’s judgment, repealing it. Breaking the law is bad, but teaching others to do so is worse (Matthew 5:19).

What good is a command if it is not obeyed? To us, the rule is useless if it does not rule us. It is time for the Lord to act, and time for the great Reformer and Refiner to appear, because they have made God’s law void (Psalm 119:126). They not only sinned against the command, they did what they could to destroy it. Yet, thanks be to God, the command still stands in full power despite them and all their traditions.

Christ’s other answer is a sharp rebuke. He charges them with hypocrisy, saying, “You hypocrites” (Matthew 15:7). Only the One who searches the heart and knows what is in people can truly name hypocrites. Human eyes can see open wickedness, but only Christ can detect hypocrisy (Luke 16:15). And this is a sin his soul especially hates.

Jesus draws his rebuke from (Isaiah 29:13): “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you.” Isaiah said this about the people of his own day, but Christ applies it to these scribes and Pharisees. The warnings and rebukes in Scripture were meant to reach people and patterns like these all through history. Scripture is not for private interpretation only (2 Peter 1:20). The sinners of later days are also foretold (1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 3:1; 2 Peter 3:3). Threats aimed at others also belong to us if we share their sins. Isaiah spoke not only of them, but of all hypocrites, and that word still stands against such people today. Scripture’s prophecies are being fulfilled every day.

This prophecy gives a true picture of a hypocritical people. First, it describes them in their religious acts, when they draw near to God with their mouth and honor him with their lips, while their heart is far from him (Matthew 15:8). A hypocrite does go far. He draws near to God and outwardly honors him. In appearance, he is a worshiper of God. The Pharisee went up to the temple to pray, so he was not among those who live without God in the world. He had a place among those who seemed close to God.

They do honor God in one sense. They join in religious acts and help keep up the outward look of godliness in the world. Through that, God still gains honor, even when they do not mean it. When God’s enemies submit only in a false way, and lie to him, as the Scripture says (Psalm 66:3), it still brings him honor. He makes his name known even through them.

Second, hypocrites rest in words alone. Their worship comes only from the mouth and lips. It is religion only from the teeth outward. They speak much about love and devotion, but there is no true love in their hearts. They raise their voices and make a show of worship (Isaiah 58:4), and they mention the name of the Lord (Isaiah 48:1).

Hypocrites are people who only go through the motions of religion. In words, even the worst hypocrites can sound as good as the best saints. They can speak smoothly, with Jacob’s voice, but that is only surface-level faith.

The main problem is the heart. “Their heart is far from me” means they are habitually turned away from God, separated from him in their inner life (Ephesians 4:18). They may be thinking about other things all the time, with no serious thought of God, no holy desire toward him, and no concern for the soul or eternity. God may be close on their lips, but far from their inner selves (Jeremiah 12:2; Ezekiel 33:31).

The heart is what God chiefly looks at and requires (Proverbs 23:26). If the heart is far from him, the worship is not true and cannot be pleasing. It is not a reasonable service, and so it is not acceptable. It becomes the sacrifice of fools, empty religious duty without inward reality (Ecclesiastes 5:1).

They also show their hypocrisy in what they teach others. Jesus says they teach human commands as if they were God’s truth. The Jews at that time, and the papists later, gave oral tradition the same respect they gave God’s word, receiving it with the same reverence. When people attach human ideas to God’s commands and then force them on others, that is hypocrisy and only a man-made religion.

God wants his own work done by his own rules, and he does not accept what he did not appoint. Only what comes from him can come to him in a way he approves. So the judgment on hypocrites is brief and sharp: “In vain do they worship me.” Their worship does not reach its purpose. It does not please God, and it does not help themselves.

If worship is not done in spirit, it is not true worship at all. Then it is all empty. A person who only seems religious but is not truly so has a worthless religion (James 1:26). How sad it is to live through prayers, sermons, sabbaths, and sacraments in vain, doing all of it with the heart left out. Lip-service is wasted effort (Isaiah 1:11).

Hypocrites sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. They trust in empty things, and emptiness will be their reward. In this way, Christ justified his disciples for not following the traditions of the elders, and the scribes and Pharisees gained nothing from their criticism. We do not read of any answer they gave. If they were not persuaded, they were at least silenced, and they could not stand against the power with which Christ spoke.