It is hygienic to wash hands before eating. That practice became a traditional way for religious people in Israel to express their piety. Successive generations had created a web of religious rules covering exactly how the people should live their daily lives. Although many of these were based on the Law of Moses, the details were added over the 500 years before Christ, so that the traditions were very different in concept to the Law of God.
True worship is all about giving honour and glory to God. We can only do that if our hearts are awed by His majesty and holiness, being deeply grateful for His mercy and grace. Worship should express the conviction that He is infinitely more valuable than we are, and yet He loves us. In worship our horizon should be filled with God. But, alas, much religious activity is really centred upon a desire to be great, expressed in human activity, following tradition which God has never prescribed.
The religious leaders were offended by what Jesus said. He cut across their traditions, and reduced their system of 'rules for daily living' to rubble. Jesus was deliberately provocative in order to confront their hypocritical hearts. Although they appeared to be holy, they were really self-seeking, greedy and hungry for praise. They were using their religion to glorify themselves, gain power over the people and have a good lifestyle.
The Pharisees knew the Old Testament, but did not understand what it meant. They did not grasp that God's law, and the history of Israel, were written to prepare people to submit to Jesus as the King who is greater than David. Those religious leaders thought God would be pleased with obsessive rule-keeping, so they made up more and more difficult rules for the people to obey. All that diverted attention from God who was not demanding holiness by discipline, but wanted to give Himself for them.
Jesus hated and still hates lies and hypocrisy. The religious leaders had created a system of 'holiness' which depended on obeying complex rules. The message they gave was that if people could discipline themselves enough, to achieve 'good marks in the tests', then they could consider themselves 'holy'. In Matthew 15:1-20 the 'rule', which was considered so important, was the obsessive washing of hands to avoid getting dirt into the body.
The disciples had seen, done and learned much with Jesus. He took them away from Israel to the coast; perhaps they thought they were going to have a holiday, a break from ministry. However their tranquillity was interrupted by a pagan woman who pestered them; calling out loudly to ask Jesus to deliver her daughter from demonically inspired mental anguish.
Jesus had just got back from a trip to the Mediterranean coast where He taught the disciples a lesson in cross-cultural evangelism (Matthew 15:21-28). Back in Galilee, the crowds gathered again. This time He led the disciples up into the hills overlooking the lake; and soon four thousand families gathered around Him. They included many people who could not help themselves, their health was broken and nobody could heal them.
The word 'disciple' means 'learner' or 'pupil'. Matthew had already recorded the feeding of 5000 families (Matthew 14:13-21) and in the next chapter he writes about 4000 hungry families waiting for Jesus to care for them. We know that the two events occurred separately and in that order (Matthew 16:9-10). So why did the disciples ask Jesus where the food might come from?
Jesus’ compassion had attracted the crowds, and then moved Him to want to provide food for them. The disciples had learned that the love of Christ was so powerful it could overcome all obstacles. When Jesus wanted to show His love, nothing could get in the way. But they did not realise that Jesus was using all these episodes to teach what they needed to know.
Signs are important because they point the way to a future destination. The Old Testament is full of signs pointing to Jesus but the religious leaders were not interested in understanding God’s salvation purposes. They had their own agenda, to retain power over the people; and Jesus threatened their position. Perhaps they thought that by repeated questioning they might find the secret of His power (as Sampson was worn down by Delilah in Judges 16:4-22).
