Tradition, Purity, and the Canaanite Woman's Faith
Matthew 15:1-28
1Then Pharisees and scribes came near to Jesus from Jerusalem, saying,2Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.3He answered and said to them, "Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?"4For God said, Honor your father and your mother, and, Whoever reviles father or mother must die by death.5But you say, If anyone says to father or mother, Whatever gift from me might help you,6he will not honor his father. And you have nullified the word of God because of your tradition.7Hypocrites, Isaiah prophesied well about you when he said,8This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me.9They worship me in vain, teaching human precepts as teachings.10Then he called the crowd and said to them, Hear and understand.11Nothing that enters the mouth defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth defiles the person.12Then the disciples came and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard the word?"13He answered, Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted.14Leave them. They are blind guides of the blind. If a blind person leads a blind person, both will fall into a pit.15Peter answered and said to him, Explain this parable to us.16He said, Are you still without understanding?17Do you not understand that everything entering the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled into the latrine?18But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and those things defile a person.19For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimonies, and blasphemies.20These are the things that defile a person, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a person.21Jesus left that place and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.22A Canaanite woman from that region came out and cried out, Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David. My daughter is severely demon-possessed.23He did not answer her a word. The disciples came and asked him, Send her away, for she keeps crying after us.24He answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.25She came and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me.26He answered, It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.27She said, Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.28Jesus answered her, O woman, great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you desire. And her daughter was healed from that very hour.