Kris Gholson

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Gospel According to Matthew Bible Study

Chapter 15

Book Four: Jesus Instructs Peter and the Twelve, Narrative: Various Travels and Miracles of Jesus

Questions

  1. (1-2) Who do their Pharisees accuse of breaking the “tradition of the elders”? At that time, did the Pharisees have the authority to add oral traditions to the Mosaic Law? Matthew 23:2-3 Why were the Pharisees so concerned with ritual purity? (Good background in this article .. Who Are the Pharisees) Does Jesus really answer their question?
  2. (3-9) Jesus calls out a particular tradition of the Pharisees called Corban (Mark 7:10-13). Is Jesus opposed to tradition? What is it about this and similar traditions added by the Pharisees that He is so upset by? Why does He call the Pharisees hypocrites?
  3. (10-11) Jesus teaches “… not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man”. Jesus has just made null and void all the dietary laws contained in the OT. What unspoken claim about His identity has Jesus just made by doing this? Who would have had the authority to nullify God’s Law? What was the purpose of OT dietary laws? Why would those be unnecessary in the New Covenant? Remember that Jesus did not come to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfil them.
  4. (19-20) The Pharisees question about eating with unwashed hands led to Jesus’ teaching (which is about more than just the tradition of hand-washing). Complete the blanks on your own summary statement of Jesus’ teaching … “__, not ___, is what defiles a man.” Share with the group if you would like.
  5. (21-28) Where geographically is Jesus this point in the Gospel? What is significant about the ethnic make-up of this region and the “Canaanite” woman? With what title does she address Jesus in verse 22 and why might this be surprising? Jesus does not answer her a word, tells His disciples (probably within range of her hearing) that He was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel, and then He says to her that “it is not fair to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs”. Does this sound harsh/rude? Why else might he have responded this way? Does he test faith elsewhere? Mark 5:21-36, Matthew 19:21-24
  6. (26-27) Who are the children at the table? What is the bread? Who are the dogs? Think about the woman’s response in verse 27. She put herself in Jesus’ parable and continued it. How is her faith great and what spiritual lessons can we learn from her petition of Jesus?
  7. (29-31) Jesus performs more healings. The crowd wondered and “they glorified the God of Israel”. What can we likely determine about the ethnic make-up of this crowd based on Matthew’s use of the phrase “the God of Israel”
  8. (32-39) Compare and contrast the feeding of the 4000 with the feeding of the 5000. Some (but probably not all) observations that could be made …
    • Also very Eucharistic (takes … blesses/thanks … breaks … gives)
    • What was His reason for having compassion on the 2 crowds? (Matthew doesn’t say why Jesus had compassion on the 5000 but Mark 6:34 does)
    • What do the disciples initially ask of Jesus?
    • Number of people
    • Number of loaves
    • Number of leftover baskets involved (7 baskets -> 7 nations - Deut 7:1)
    • The Greek work used for the baskets to collect the leftover pieces (Greek word used that was used for basket in the 5000 refers to Jewish wicker baskets whereas in the feeding of the 4000 it denotes a generic large basket)
    • Potential ethnic makeup of the 2 crowds (Great podcast on this from Hayden)
  9. Matthew records not one but two feeding miracles. These miracles have the effect of brackets, focusing the reader’s attention on what is between them: the offense the Jewish leaders take at the disciples. Contrast the roles Jesus assigns his disciples in these stories with the role the scribes and Pharisees play. How does this illuminate the difference between the Old and New Covenants? (Question from Jeff Cavin led Bible study on the Book of Matthew “The King and His Kingdom”)

Primary Resources

Secondary Resources

Logical Daily Gospel Exegesis (Hayden)

The Bible in a Year Podcast (Fr. Mike)