The Living Bible (303 page)

Matthew
15

Some Pharisees and other Jewish leaders now arrived from Jerusalem to interview Jesus.

    
²
 “Why do your disciples disobey the ancient Jewish traditions?” they demanded. “For they ignore our ritual of ceremonial handwashing before they eat.”
³
 He replied,
“And why do your traditions violate the direct commandments of God?
⁴
 
For instance, God’s law is ‘Honor your father and mother; anyone who reviles his parents must die.’
^5-6
 
But you say, ‘Even if your parents are in need, you may give their support money to the church
*
instead.’ And so, by your man-made rule, you nullify the direct command of God to honor and care for your parents.
⁷
 
You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you,
⁸
 
‘These people say they honor me, but their hearts are far away.
⁹
 
Their worship is worthless, for they teach their man-made laws instead of those from God.’
*
”

    
¹⁰
 Then Jesus called to the crowds and said,
“Listen to what I say and try to understand:
¹¹
 
You aren’t made unholy by eating nonkosher food! It is what you
say
and
think
that makes you unclean.”
*

    
¹²
 Then the disciples came and told him, “You offended the Pharisees by that remark.”

    
^13-14
 Jesus replied,
“Every plant not planted by my Father shall be rooted up, so ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and both will fall into a ditch.”

    
¹⁵
 Then Peter asked Jesus to explain what he meant when he said that people are not defiled by nonkosher food.

    
¹⁶
 
“Don’t you understand?”
Jesus asked him.
¹⁷
 
“Don’t you see that anything you eat passes through the digestive tract and out again?
¹⁸
 
But evil words come from an evil heart and defile the man who says them.
¹⁹
 
For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, lying, and slander.
²⁰
 
These are what defile; but there is no spiritual defilement from eating without first going through the ritual of ceremonial handwashing!”

    
²¹
 Jesus then left that part of the country and walked the fifty miles to Tyre and Sidon.
*

    
²²
 A woman from Canaan who was living there came to him, pleading, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, King David’s Son! For my daughter has a demon within her, and it torments her constantly.”

    
²³
 But Jesus gave her no reply—not even a word. Then his disciples urged him to send her away. “Tell her to get going,” they said, “for she is bothering us with all her begging.”

    
²⁴
 Then he said to the woman,
“I was sent to help the Jews—the lost sheep of Israel—not the Gentiles.”

    
²⁵
 But she came and worshiped him and pled again, “Sir, help me!”

    
²⁶
 
“It doesn’t seem right to take bread from the children and throw it to the dogs,”
he said.

    
²⁷
 “Yes, it is!” she replied, “for even the puppies beneath the table are permitted to eat the crumbs that fall.”

    
²⁸
 
“Woman,”
Jesus told her,
“your faith is large, and your request is granted.”
And her daughter was healed right then.

    
²⁹
 Jesus now returned to the Sea of Galilee and climbed a hill and sat there.
³⁰
 And a vast crowd brought him their lame, blind, maimed, and those who couldn’t speak, and many others, and laid them before Jesus, and he healed them all.
³¹
 What a spectacle it was! Those who hadn’t been able to say a word before were talking excitedly, and those with missing arms and legs had new ones; the crippled were walking and jumping around, and those who had been blind were gazing about them! The crowds just marveled and praised the God of Israel.

    
³²
 Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said,
“I pity these people—they’ve been here with me for three days now and have nothing left to eat; I don’t want to send them away hungry or they will faint along the road.”

    
³³
 The disciples replied, “And where would we get enough here in the desert for all this mob to eat?”

    
³⁴
 Jesus asked them,
“How much food do you have?”
And they replied, “Seven loaves of bread and a few small fish!”

    
³⁵
 Then Jesus told all of the people to sit down on the ground,
³⁶
 and he took the seven loaves and the fish, and gave thanks to God for them, and divided them into pieces, and gave them to the disciples who presented them to the crowd.
^37-38
 And everyone ate until full—four thousand men besides the women and children! And afterwards, when the scraps were picked up, there were seven basketfuls left over!

    
³⁹
 Then Jesus sent the people home and got into the boat and crossed to Magadan.

Matthew
16

One day the Pharisees and Sadducees
*
came to test Jesus’ claim of being the Messiah by asking him to show them some great demonstrations in the skies.

    
^2-3
 He replied,
“You are good at reading the weather signs of the skies—red sky tonight means fair weather tomorrow; red sky in the morning means foul weather all day—but you can’t read the obvious signs of the times!
⁴
 
This evil, unbelieving nation is asking for some strange sign in the heavens, but no further proof will be given except the miracle that happened to Jonah.”
Then Jesus walked out on them.

    
⁵
 Arriving across the lake, the disciples discovered they had forgotten to bring any food.

    
⁶
 
“Watch out!”
Jesus warned them.
“Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

    
⁷
 They thought he was saying this because they had forgotten to bring bread.

    
⁸
 Jesus knew what they were thinking and told them,
“O men of little faith! Why are you so worried about having no food?
⁹
 
Won’t you ever understand? Don’t you remember at all the five thousand I fed with five loaves, and the basketfuls left over?
¹⁰
 
Don’t you remember the four thousand I fed, and all that was left?
¹¹
 
How could you even think I was talking about food? But again I say, ‘Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’”

    
¹²
 Then at last they understood that by
yeast
he meant the
wrong teaching
of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

    
¹³
 When Jesus came to Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,
“Who are the people saying I
*
am?”

    
¹⁴
 “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist; some, Elijah; some, Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”

    
¹⁵
 Then he asked them,
“Who do
you
think I am?”

    
¹⁶
 Simon Peter answered, “The Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

    
¹⁷
 
“God has blessed you, Simon, son of Jonah,”
Jesus said,
“for my Father in heaven has personally revealed this to you—this is not from any human source.
¹⁸
 
You are Peter, a stone; and upon this rock I will build my church; and all the powers of hell shall not prevail against it.
¹⁹
 
And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; whatever doors you lock on earth shall be locked in heaven; and whatever doors you open on earth shall be open in heaven!”

    
²⁰
 Then he warned the disciples against telling others that he was the Messiah.

    
²¹
 From then on Jesus began to speak plainly to his disciples about going to Jerusalem, and what would happen to him there—that he would suffer at the hands of the Jewish leaders,
*
that he would be killed, and that three days later he would be raised to life again.

    
²²
 But Peter took him aside to remonstrate with him. “Heaven forbid, sir,” he said. “This is not going to happen to you!”

    
²³
 Jesus turned on Peter and said,
“Get away from me, you Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are thinking merely from a human point of view, and not from God’s.”

    
²⁴
 Then Jesus said to the disciples,
“If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
²⁵
 
For anyone who keeps his life for himself shall lose it; and anyone who loses his life for me shall find it again.
²⁶
 
What profit is there if you gain the whole world—and lose eternal life? What can be compared with the value of eternal life?
²⁷
 
For I, the Son of Mankind, shall come with my angels in the glory of my Father and judge each person according to his deeds.
²⁸
 
And some of you standing right here now will certainly live to see me coming in my Kingdom.
”