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Matthew 15:1. Then the Jerusalem scribes and Pharisees come to Jesus and say: Matthew 15:2. Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. Although all countries had scribes and Pharisees, those in Jerusalem enjoyed greater honor. Therefore, they were most envious, as people who are more ambitious. The Jews had a custom, stemming from ancient tradition, of not eating with unwashed hands. Seeing that the disciples were neglecting this tradition, they thought that they were not considering the elders at all. What about the Savior? He doesn’t answer them anything, but on His part He asks them. Matthew 15:3. He answered and said to them: Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? Matthew 15:4. For God commanded: honor your father and mother; and: He who curses his father or mother shall die by death. Matthew 15:5. And you say: if someone tells his father or mother; a gift to God that you would use from me, Matthew 15:6. he may not honor his father or his mother; Thus you have made void the commandment of God by your tradition. The Pharisees accused the disciples of breaking the commandment of the elders; Christ shows that they violate the Law of God. For they taught that children should not give anything to their parents, but should put what they have into the treasury of the church, since in the church there was a treasury into which those who wished threw it and it was called “gaza.” The treasure was distributed to the poor. So, the Pharisees, convincing children not to give anything to their parents, but to trust what they have, to the treasury in the church, taught them to say: father! what you seek to use from me is a gift, that is, dedicated to God. Thus, they, the scribes, shared their property with the children, and the parents, depressed by old age, were left without food. Lenders did this too. If one of them lent money, and then it turned out that the debtor was faulty and did not repay the debt, then the lender would say: “korvan,” that is, what you owe me is a gift dedicated to God. Thus, the debtor became, as it were, a debtor to God and repaid the debt against his will. The Pharisees taught children to do the same. Matthew 15:7. Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied well about you, saying (Is. 29:13): Matthew 15:8. These people draw near to Me with their lips and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me; Matthew 15:9. but in vain they worship Me, teaching doctrines the commandments of men. With the words of Isaiah, the Lord shows that in relation to His Father they are the same as they are in relation to Him. Being crafty and through crafty deeds removing themselves from God, they only spoke the words of God with their lips. For in vain do they honor and pretend to honor God if they dishonor Him with their deeds. Matthew 15:10. And calling the people, he said to them: listen and understand! Matthew 15:11. It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth defiles a person. The Lord does not speak to the Pharisees, for they are incurable, but to the people. By calling them, He shows that He honors them so that they accept His teaching, and He says, “Hear and understand,” urging them to pay attention. Since the Pharisees accused the disciples of eating with unwashed hands, the Lord says regarding food that no food makes a person unclean, that is, does not defile. If food does not defile, then much less eating food with unwashed hands. The inner man is defiled only if he says what he should not. This points to the Pharisees who defile themselves by speaking words out of envy. Pay attention to His wisdom: He neither explicitly establishes eating food with unwashed hands, nor forbids it, but teaches otherwise; do not take evil speeches out of your heart. Matthew 15:12. Then His disciples came and said to Him: Do you know that when the Pharisees heard this word, they were offended? The disciples say about the Pharisees that they were offended. Moreover, they themselves were confused. This is evident from the fact that Peter came and asked regarding this. So, having heard that the Pharisees were offended, Jesus says the following. Matthew 15:13. He answered and said: Every plant that My Heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted; Matthew 15:14. leave them alone: ​​they are blind leaders of the blind; and if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit. He says that the traditions of the elders and the commandments of the Jews must be eradicated, and not the law, as the Manichaeans think, for the law is the plant of God. So, this is not the one that needs to be eradicated. For its root remains, that is, the hidden spirit. The leaves, that is, the visible letter, fall away: we understand the law no longer by the letter, but by the spirit. Since the Pharisees were beside themselves and incurable, He said: “Leave them.” From here we learn that if someone is voluntarily tempted and becomes incurable, then this does not harm us. The Lord calls them blind teachers of the blind. He does this for the purpose of distracting the people from them. Matthew 15:15. Peter answered and said to Him, Explain this parable to us. Peter, although he knew that the law forbids eating everything, but, afraid to say to Jesus: “I am offended by what You said, since Your words seem to be against the law,” he seems to misunderstand Him and asks. Matthew 15:16. Jesus said: Do you also not yet understand? Matthew 15:17. Do you still not understand that everything that goes into the mouth goes into the belly and is thrown out? Matthew 15:18. but what comes from the mouth - comes from the heart - this defiles a person, Matthew 15:19. for from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, blasphemy - Matthew 15:20. it defiles a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a person. The Savior reproaches the disciples and reproaches their foolishness, either because they were tempted or because they did not understand clearly. So, He says: have you not understood what is clear and more than clear to everyone? the fact that food does not remain inside, but comes out without at all desecrating the human soul, because it does not remain inside? Thoughts are born inside and remain there, but when they come out, that is, turning into deeds and actions, they defile a person. For the thought of fornication, remaining inside, rages, and, turning into deeds and actions, it defiles a person. Matthew 15:21. And leaving there, Jesus withdrew into the countries of Tire and Sidon. Matthew 15:22. And so, a Canaanite woman, coming out of those places, shouted to Him: have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David, my daughter is cruelly raging. Matthew 15:23. But He did not answer her a word. Why, forbidding his disciples to follow the path of the pagans, does he himself go to Tire and Sidon, pagan cities? Find out that He did not come there to preach, because, as Mark says, “He hid Himself.” Otherwise: since He saw that the Pharisees did not accept His teaching regarding food, He went over to the pagans. “Have mercy on me,” says the Canaanite woman, and not “my daughter,” for she was insensitive. Have mercy on me, who endures and feels terrible things. And he does not say: “come and heal,” but “have mercy.” The Lord does not answer her, not because he despised her, but because he came mainly for the Jews and in order not to give room for their slander, so that later they could not say that He had benefited the pagans; at the same time, in order to show the strong faith of this woman. And His disciples came up and asked Him: let her go, because she is screaming after us. Matthew 15:24. He answered and said: I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The disciples, burdened by the woman’s cry, asked the Lord to let her go, that is, they convinced him to send her away. They did this not because they were devoid of regret, but rather because they wanted to convince the Lord to have mercy on her. He says: I was not sent to anyone else, but only to the Jews, the sheep who perished from the wickedness of those to whom they were entrusted. This further shows everyone the woman’s faith. Matthew 15:25. And she, coming up, bowed to Him and said: Lord! help me. Matthew 15:26. He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Matthew 15:27. She said: yes, Lord! but the dogs also eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table. When the woman saw that her intercessors - the apostles - were not successful, she again eagerly approaches and calls Jesus Lord. When Christ called her a dog, because the pagans had an unclean life and fed on the blood sacrificed to idols, and called the Jews children, she reasonably and very wisely answers: although I am a dog, and am not worthy to receive bread, that is, any power and a great sign, give me this little for Your power, but for me it is great, for those who eat bread do not consider crumbs to be something important, but for dogs they are - large, and they feed on them. Matthew 15:28. Then Jesus answered and said to her: O woman! great is your faith; let it be done to you as you wish. And her daughter was healed at that hour. Now Jesus revealed the reason why He initially refused to heal the woman: it was so that the faith and prudence of the woman would be clearly revealed. Therefore, Christ did not immediately agree, but also sent her away. Now, when her faith and prudence have been revealed, she hears praise: “Great is your faith.” “Let it be done to you as you wish” - these words show that if she did not have faith, she would not have achieved what she asked. Likewise, if we wish, nothing prevents us from achieving what we desire, if only we have faith. Please note that although the saints ask for us, as the apostles did for this Canaanite woman, we achieve what we want more when we ask for ourselves. The Canaanite woman is a symbol of the church of the pagans, for the pagans, who were previously rejected, later became one of the sons and were rewarded with bread, I mean, the Body of the Lord. The Jews became dogs, apparently beginning to eat crumbs, that is, small, meager crumbs of letters. Tire means fear, Sidon means fishers, Canaanite means “prepared with humility.” So, the pagans, who were infected with malice and in whom the soul catchers, demons, lived, were prepared for humility, while the righteous were prepared for the height of the Kingdom of God. Matthew 15:29–30. Having crossed over from there, Jesus came to the Sea of ​​Galilee and, going up to a mountain, sat down there. And a great multitude came to Him, having with them the lame, the blind, the dumb, the maimed, and many others, and they cast them down at Jesus’ feet; and He healed them; Matthew 15:31. so that the people marveled, seeing the dumb speaking, the maimed healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and glorified the God of Israel. He does not live permanently in Judea, but in Galilee, due to the great unbelief of the Jews, for the inhabitants of Galilee were more inclined to faith than those. This is their faith: they climb the mountain, although they were lame and blind, and do not get tired, but throw themselves at the feet of Jesus, considering Him higher than man, which is why they achieve healing. So, you too, ascend to the mountain of commandments, where the Lord sits. Whether you are blind and are not able to see the good in yourself, whether you are lame and, seeing the good, are not able to come to it, are you dumb so that you are not able to listen to another when he admonishes, nor are you able to admonish another, are you crippled, that is, are you unable to stretch out your hand for alms, or are you sick with something else - if you fall at the feet of Jesus and touch the traces of His life, you will be healed. Matthew 15:32. Jesus, calling His disciples, said to them: I feel sorry for the people, because they have been with Me for three days now, and they have nothing to eat; I don’t want to let them go dumb, lest they become weak on the road. The people do not dare ask for bread because they came for healing. He, being a lover of humanity, takes care of himself. So that anyone could not say: they have food supplies, the Lord says: if they had, they spent it, for they have already been with Me for three days. The words: “so that they do not weaken on the way” shows that they came from afar. He says this to the disciples, wanting to encourage them to say to Him: You can feed these too, as well as the five thousand. But they were still unreasonable. Matthew 15:33. And His disciples said to Him: where can we get so much bread in the desert to feed so many people? Although they should have known that the Lord had fed large numbers of people in the desert before, they were insensitive. Therefore, when you later see them filled with such great wisdom, marvel at the grace of Christ. Matthew 15:34. Jesus said to them: How many loaves have you? They said: seven, and a few fish. Matthew 15:35. Then he ordered the people to lie down on the ground. Matthew 15:36. And taking the seven loaves and fishes, he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples, and the disciples to the people. Matthew 15:37. And they all ate and were filled; and they took up the remaining pieces, seven baskets full, Matthew 15:38. and those who ate were four thousand people, besides women and children. By teaching humility, he places the people on earth. Teaching to thank God before eating, He Himself thanks. You will ask how it is that there, although there were five loaves and five thousand were filled, twelve baskets remained, but here, although the number of loaves was greater and the number of those fed was smaller, only seven remained? We can say that these baskets were larger than the boxes, or that this was done so that the sameness of the miracle would not prompt them, the disciples, to forget, because if there were twelve baskets left now, then they could, due to the equality of the miracle, forget that the Lord performed a miracle on the loaves another time. You also know that four thousand, that is, those who have completely four virtues, eat seven loaves, that is, spiritual and perfect sayings, for the number seven is a symbol of seven spiritual gifts. They lie on the ground, placing everything earthly below them and despising it, just as those five thousand lay down on the grass, that is, they put flesh and glory below themselves. For all flesh is grass, and all glory of man is a flower of the field. Seven baskets remained here as a remnant, for that which was spiritual and perfect was that which they could not eat. What remains is what fits in the seven baskets, that is, what the Holy Spirit alone knows; “for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God” (1 Cor. 2:10). Matthew 15:39. And, having dismissed the people, He entered the boat and arrived in the region of Magdalene. Jesus leaves because no miracle gave Him more followers than the miracle of the loaves, so they intended to make Him a king, as John says. So He leaves to avoid suspicion of seeking royal power.