Matthew 15

15 ¹ Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ² "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they eat."

³ He answered them, "And why do you break the commandment of our Father for the sake of your tradition? ⁴ For our Father said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'Whoever curses father or mother must surely be put to death.' ⁵ But you say, 'If anyone tells his father or mother, "Whatever help you might have received from me is a gift devoted to our Father," ⁶ he need not honor his father with it.' So for the sake of your tradition you have cancelled the word of our Father. ⁷ You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly 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 the commandments of men as doctrine.'"

¹⁰ Then he called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand: ¹¹ it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth — this is what defiles a person."

¹² Then the disciples came to him and said, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?"

¹³ He answered, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. ¹⁴ Leave them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit."

¹⁵ Peter said to him, "Explain this parable to us."

¹⁶ "Are you still as dull as the others?" Jesus said. ¹⁷ Don't you understand that whatever enters the mouth passes into the stomach and is then expelled? ¹⁸ But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these are what defile a person. 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 anyone."

A Woman's Persistent Faith

²¹ Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. ²² And a Canaanite woman from that region came and cried out, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is terribly tormented by a demon."

²³ But he didn't say a word to her. And his disciples came 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 the house of Israel."

²⁵ But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me!"

²⁶ He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."

²⁷ "Yes, Lord," she said, "yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."

²⁸ Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, your faith is great! Let it be done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed at that very hour.

The Father Feeds the Four Thousand

²⁹ Then Jesus moved on from there and went along the Sea of Galilee. He went up on the mountainside and sat down there. ³⁰ Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they laid them at his feet; and he healed them. ³¹ So the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they gave glory to the Father of Israel.

³² Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "My heart goes out to the crowd, because 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 faint on the way."

³³ The disciples said to him, "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 said, "and a few small fish."

³⁵ So 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 the disciples gave them to the crowds. ³⁷ They all ate and were satisfied, and they gathered up seven baskets full of the leftover pieces. ³⁸ Those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. ³⁹ After he had sent the crowds away, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.