This is the twelfth installment in a yearlong series.  You can find the previous installments here.

The book of Matthew has a Jewish flavor to it. Matthew was a Jewish man, and he wrote his gospel with the intention of demonstrating how Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. Jesus often builds upon the established Jewish teachings and traditions throughout the book, which leads prominent Jewish figures to ask questions him questions concerning their customs and laws. We learn more from Matthew about Jesus, his disciples, and the Jewish leaders when we understand the Jewish nature of the book. The discussion in the first nine verses of chapter 15 are rooted in the Mosaic Law and the Jewish traditions in the first century. Look at the preconceived expectations that the Jews had for Jesus, and look at how Jesus responds.

Matthew 15:1–9

“Then Pharisees and scribes came from Jerusalem to Jesus and asked,“Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat!”

He answered them, “And why do you break God’s commandment because of your tradition? For God said: 

Honor your father and your mother; and, The one who speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death. 

But you say, ‘Whoever tells his father or mother, “Whatever benefit you might have received from me is a gift committed to the temple”— he does not have to honor his father.’ In this way, you have revoked God’s word because of your tradition. Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said: 

These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. They worship Me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commands of men.””

The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked him why he and his disciples did not wash their hands before eating meals. The Mosaic Law commanded the Priests to wash their hands and feet so that they would be ritually clean before conducting their priestly duties in the temple (Exodus 30:17-21; Leviticus 15:11). The Pharisees decided to take the idea of ritual cleanliness and apply it as a necessity to all people before each meal. By the time of Jesus, washing before a meal was a regular tradition set forth by the elders. God, however, never commanded the Israelites to wash their hands before each meal. Therefore, requiring the people to wash their hands was a good thing to do for sanitation reasons, but it was not necessary for the people to be ritually clean while eating. Furthermore, Jesus and his disciples were not breaking any of the Mosaic Laws by not washing their hands. For this reason, Jesus responded to their question by asking why they held more firmly to their traditions than God’s commands. He goes on to say

For God said “Honor your father and mother; and; The one who speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death” But you say, “Whoever tells his father or mother, ‘Whatever benefit you might have received from me is a gift committed to the temple’- he does not have to honor his father.” In this way, you have revoked God’s word because of your tradition.

The Fifth Commandment in the Ten Commandments was for children to honor their fathers and mothers. By Jesus’ time, the Pharisees had established their own law that allowed children to donate the money that should have been allotted for their parents to the temple. This blatantly contradicted God’s Fifth Commandment because parents were left without care in their old age, but the Pharisees thought it was okay because they were putting the money towards a noble cause. They rejected one of God’s commands and replaced it with their own law based on their convenience. The Pharisees tried to accuse Jesus of not following the sacred commands and traditions, but Jesus pointed out that they had elevated the sacredness of their own commands and traditions over the sacredness of the commands of God. Jesus called them hypocrites for doing so.