7 || Luke 15:1-32 || A Heart for the Lost || Bryan Martin
Matthew 15:1-32 NIV
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!” [3] Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? [4] For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother ’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ [5] But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ [6] they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. [7] You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: [8] “ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. [9] They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules. ’ ” [10] Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. [11] What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” [12] Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” [13] He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. [14] Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” [15] Peter 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? [18] But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. [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 them.” [21] Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. [22] A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” [23] Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him 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 Israel.” [25] The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. [26] He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” [27] “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” [28] Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment. [29] Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. [30] Great 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. [31] The 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. [32] Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; 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 collapse on the way.”