Pastor Steve

Nothing troubled the religious leaders of Israel more than becoming ceremonially unclean, and nothing made them more unclean than contact with “unclean” Gentiles. Yet in this next section of Matthew, Jesus leaves Israel to enter Gentile territory, where he helps a Gentile woman.

The last of the three conversations in Matthew 15.1-20 is between Jesus and His disciples, and it seems to have been private. The disciples come to Jesus to say that the Pharisees were offended by His teaching. Of course, they were offended by His teaching! Self-righteous persons are always offended when we speak of their…

The point of Matthew 15 as a whole is that the kingdom of God is for Gentiles as well as Jews because Christianity rests on an entirely different foundation than did Judaism.

Everything Jesus said seems radical to us because Jesus is God and God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are his ways our ways. Yet it is probably the case that nothing Jesus ever said was as radical in terms of the religion of His day and all human thoughts about religion and true worship…

“Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long…

What is most important in this story (Matthew 14.22-36), is what it teaches about the nature of true faith, which is certainly why Matthew included it. These chapters record the disciples’ first feeble attempts to understand and trust Jesus.