Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 351
15:5-27
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mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must
be put to death.’ But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents,
‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have
given to you.’ In this way, you say they don’t need to honor their parents.
And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition. You
hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,
‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship is a farce,
for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’”
Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “Listen,” he said, “and
try to understand. It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you
are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.”
Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you realize you offended
the Pharisees by what you just said?”
Jesus replied, “Every plant not planted by my heavenly Father will be
uprooted, so ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and if
one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch.”
Then Peter said to Jesus, “Explain to us the parable that says people
aren’t defiled by what they eat.”
“Don’t you understand yet?” Jesus asked. “Anything you eat passes
through the stomach and then goes into the sewer. But the words you
speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you. For from the heart
come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying,
and slander. These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands will
never defile you.”
Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
A Gentile woman who lived there came to him, pleading, “Have mercy on
me, O Lord, Son of David! For my daughter is possessed by a demon that
torments her severely.”
But Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word. Then his disciples urged
him to send her away. “Tell her to go away,” they said. “She is bothering us
with all her begging.”
Then Jesus said to the woman, “I was sent only to help God’s lost
sheep—the people of Israel.”
But she came and worshiped him, pleading again, “Lord, help me!”
Jesus responded, “It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw
it to the dogs.”
She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but even dogs are allowed to eat the
scraps that fall beneath their masters’ table.”
