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15 Then Peter answered and said to Him, "Explain this parable to us." 16 So Jesus said, "Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? 18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. 20 These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man." ~ Matthew 15:15-20
Today, we return to our study of Matthew 15 where the Lord Jesus had just told His disciples that the problem with religion is that it emphasizes the externals to the detriment of the heart. He taught when we lay up treasures in heaven our hearts will look heavenward. The Lord Jesus, in the eyes of the disciples, had insulted the Jewish religious leaders with a parable they didn't quite understand. This is why they came to Him with the question in the previous verses. This is what prompted Peter to ask the Lord Jesus to explain the parable.
In v.15 of today's passage we read, "Then Peter answered and said to Him, 'Explain this parable to us.'"
As previously mentioned, the Jewish religious leaders had traveled 90 miles from Jerusalem to undermine the Lord Jesus. After they tried to discredit the Lord Jesus, He isolated the loophole that they had created. These religious leaders had come up with a ceremonial man-made law that religious Jewish people observed. They ceremonially washed their hands to signify that they were clean before they ate. They didn't use soap and water to really clean their hands, they just went through the motions to signify that they were clean.
This practice was all about religious rules and appearances, not about actually being clean. Their loophole enabled them in certain circumstances to avoid obeying the fifth commandment of Moses to honor their father and mother. God expects adult children to take care of their elderly and aging parents. But, according to the religious leaders, if someone didn’t want to support their parents, they could donate the money to the temple instead. This was nothing but greed on all sides. When we have fallen in love with our sin, we will hate the light without even knowing it.
The Lord Jesus used this example to show that the Jewish religious leaders were wrong in their love for their sin for it undermined the word of God. The reason they came from Jerusalem was to undermine the Lord Jesus and their words revealed the wickedness in their hearts. The disciples thought the Lord Jesus had insulted the religious leaders and due to their incorrect understanding of what was really going on, they didn't understand the parable the Lord Jesus had subsequently employed in His response. This explains Peter's need for explanation.
In v.16-19 of today's passage we read, "16 So Jesus said, 'Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? 18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.'"
Peter didn't understand defilement of the heart. He didn't understand that it is out of a sinful heart that all sin proceeds. He didn't quite get the idea that it is the sinful heart that gives birth to the outward behavior that is unacceptable. Peter didn't understand that we are not defiled by our diet. He didn't get that real filth comes from a wicked heart that we all share. Our hearts are given either to springs of living water or poisoned wells. Evidently, Peter had forgotten that it was the Jewish prophet Jeremiah who wrote in Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above everything, desperately wicked. Who can know it?"
This list of sins in today's passage is not exhaustive, as if these are the only sins that come out of the fallen human heart. Like most lists given in the Bible, this list is suggestive. It simply gives examples. The Lord Jesus identified seven deadly sins which reveal that our sinful behavior comes from our sinful hearts, and that is what makes us unclean before God. We sinned not because someone forced us to sin or we had no choice but to sin. It was not even because we weren’t smart enough to understand what we were doing. We sinned not because we just couldn’t help ourselves or because our parents did something to us to make us sin. We sinned and we sin because we have an evil heart.
The problem the Jewish religious leaders had was with the self. The self had become their final arbiter of truth. And, when that happens we will always be at odds with God because the flesh or the self is always contrary to the Holy Spirit. We fail to remember that mankind was given to evil the moment we took of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. It was then that we stopped being defined by God. When we were "born again" we entered into the battle for our heart. This battle takes place daily and will continue until we are removed from this earth through death or the Rapture. Therefore, we must be wise to recognize that if we are not daily giving our heart to God we risk the fate of the self-life which always brings with it various forms of death.
Our society loves to blame others for our sin. We turn sin into syndromes. We turn disobedience into disorders. We turn lusts into addictions. We turn alcoholism into a disease on the order of cancer. But at some point, we need to take personal responsibility for our sins. At some point, we need to come to the point where we admit that we are rotten and we are in desperate need of God. This is what repentance is all about, turning from ourselves and turning to God for His help to overcome the self-life.
Sin had blinded the Jewish nation along with their religious leaders. Sin corrupted us all in our heart and blinded our eyes. And, it is only those who own up to this truth who are positioned to receive forgiveness from God. The religious leaders of Israel did not see their need to repent. This is why they resisted the Lord Jesus as they did. What the religious leaders did not understand was the fact that their problem did not need a message about their change in behavior. What they needed was a message that explained the necessity of a change in their nature, something they were not willing to admit. The Lord Jesus wasn’t also under their control, so they desperately wanted to get rid of Him.
In v.20 of today's passage we read, "These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man."
While the Jewish religious leaders believed holiness was measured by external things like the washing of hands, the Lord Jesus taught holiness was a matter of the heart. Whether we realize it or not, understand it or not, or believe it or not, we are involved in a war for our heart every moment of every day. As the Lord Jesus had pointed out earlier in this chapter, the Jewish religious leaders had elevated their teachings over God’s word. This being the case, they were confused about sin, about what makes people unacceptable before a holy God. The religious leaders thought their problem was caused by what went into them. This is why the Lord Jesus corrected them. This is why John the Baptist came teaching repentance. Without turning away from our way, without a change of mind and heart to turn to the Lord and His way, we will never get to the heart of our problem. And, the heart of our problem is who will be our savior, ourselves or the Lord?
