Week 5: Jesus the Son of Man
Matthew 15:1-28; Mark 7:1-30
During His life on Earth, Jesus brought about means for both the Jew and the Gentile to be grafted into His family through His crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus spent much of His time correcting the Pharisees, who were the religious, Torah-abiding Jews of the time, who focused on their own efforts to be made clean and righteous.
Jesus made a clear distinction between following the Law for the sake of following it and humbly submitting to the Father at the heart level when addressing the Pharisees in Mark 7 and Matthew 15. He tells them they are honoring Him with their lips “but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me” (Isaiah 29:13). He goes on to say “for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites!”, making it clear that Jesus cares about the posture of our hearts in worship rather than simply the outward appearance (Matthew 15:6-7). The tradition following Pharisees have missed the whole point of obeying God’s Word.
Just after proclaiming that “there is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him”, a Canaanite woman drops to her knees and begs Jesus to heal her daughter (Mark 7:15, 25-26). The Canaanites were non-Jewish and ancient enemies of God’s people, yet this woman is found begging God in humility and with faith to meet the longing of her soul. And miraculously, He does it! The Pharisees were supposed to be the ones honoring the Lord with their lives and humbly seeking Him; yet, it is the very ones who, culturally speaking, have no business doing so, due to historical disdain, who are falling on their knees before the Messiah in desperation. If it is not what we ingest that makes us unclean, but rather what comes out of us, then surely, Jesus is concerned with the condition of our hearts.
The law could never save us. A humble heart knows that. Jesus, the fulfillment of the law, is the one who sets us free. Admitting your need, your lack, your desperation, is not something to be embarrassed about, but the very birthplace of miracles.
