Rev. Harrison Goodman, pastor at Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church in San Antonio, TX, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study Matthew 15:1-20.
Jesus’ teaching continues to grow more direct, and the opposition from the scribes and Pharisees only grows with it. They travel all the way from Jerusalem to question His failure to observe the tradition of the elders. Jesus pulls no punches. He doesn’t let His opponents determine the conversation; He reveals that they have forsaken the Word of God for the sake of their tradition. They have let their fence around God’s Word lead them to overturn God’s Word completely, using the 4th Commandment as their example. It’s not that their traditions were wrong for being traditions. Traditions are helpful when they direct us to what God has commanded. However, the scribes and Pharisees allowed their traditions to replace what God had commanded, leaving their hearts far from Him. Jesus turns to the crowd and His disciples to teach them that God is, in fact, concerned about cleanliness, which is a matter of the heart. Those things that go into a person’s body do not make him unclean; rather, the evil that comes out of the heart defile a person. Jesus shows the true extent of the Law so that His disciples would not follow the blind Pharisees in self-justification, but would instead turn to Him in faith for His gracious justification by faith alone.
“All Righteousness Fulfilled” is a mini-series on Sharper Iron that digs into the Gospel according to St. Matthew. The first evangelist proclaims Jesus to Jews and Gentiles alike as the fulfillment of God’s saving words and acts throughout the Old Testament. As the Christ in the line of David and Abraham, Jesus is the promised King who comes to bring sinners from every nation to live under His gracious reign.
