15:1
(Chapter 15, Verse 1) Then came to him from Jerusalem scribes and Pharisees, saying: Why do your disciples transgress the traditions of the elders? The stupidity of the Pharisees and scribes is evident as they accuse the Son of God of not keeping the traditions and precepts of men.
15:1-2
(Vers. 1, 2.) For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. Hands, that is, works, are to be washed, not of the body for sure, but of the soul, so that the word of God may be made in them.
15:3
(V. 3.) But he, answering, said to them: Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? He refutes false slander with a true response. For, he says, you disregard the precepts of the Lord for the sake of human tradition, why do you think that my disciples should be accused, because they disregard the commands of the elders, in order to maintain the knowledge of God?
15:4-10
(Verse 4 onwards) For God said, 'Honor your father and mother, and whoever curses his father or mother, let him be put to death.' But you say, 'Whoever says to his father or mother, Whatever help you would have received from me is given to God,' and does not honor his father or mother, you have made void the commandment of God because of your tradition. Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me' (Exodus 20, Leviticus 20). But they worship me without cause, teaching doctrines and commandments of men. And, calling the multitude to him, he said to them: Hear and understand. Honor in the Scriptures is not only felt in greetings and deference to offices, but also in acts of charity and the offering of gifts (Exodus 20:12, 21 and Leviticus 20). The Apostle says, 'Honor widows who are truly widows' (1 Timothy 5:3); here honor is understood as a gift. And in another place: Elders are to be honored with double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine of God (ibid., 17). And by this command we are commanded not to close the mouth of the ox that is treading out the corn (Deut. XXV) . And may the worker be worthy of his wage (Luke X) . The Lord had commanded, considering the weaknesses, ages, and hardships of parents, that children should honor their parents even in providing for their basic needs. The scribes and Pharisees, desiring to undermine this most provident Law of God and to introduce impiety under the name of piety, taught the worst sons that if anyone wished to vow to God (who is the true Father) those things which are to be offered to parents, the offering of the Lord should take precedence over the gifts of the parents; or certainly, the parents themselves, fearing that they would incur the crime of sacrilege by rejecting what had been consecrated to God, were consumed by poverty. And so it happened that the offering of children, under the pretext of the temple of God, went to the profits of the priests. This wicked tradition of the Pharisees came from another occasion. Many, having debts to pay and unwilling to repay what was owed, entrusted it to the priests, so that the money collected would be used for the services of the temple and their own needs. And this can also be understood briefly. He says, 'You compel the children to say to their parents: whatever gift I was going to offer to God, I consume it as food for you, Father, and it benefits you, Mother, so that they, fearing to receive what seems to be dedicated to God, would rather live in poverty than eat from the consecrated offerings.'
15:11
(Verse 11.) It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles a person; but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles a person. The word, properly speaking, is communicated through Scripture and is not worn out in everyday conversation. The Jewish people, boasting to be a part of God, call common foods, which all humans use, 'unclean.' For example, pork, oysters, rabbits, and other animals that do not have split hooves, do not chew the cud, and are not scale-covered in fish. And it is also written in the Acts of the Apostles: 'What God has cleansed, you must not call common' (Acts 10:15). Therefore, that which is commonly available to other people, and is as if it is not from God's side, is called impure. It is not what enters the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person. Let a wise reader oppose and say: If what enters the mouth does not defile a person, then why do we not eat idol-offerings? And the Apostle writes: You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons (1 Corinthians 10:20). Therefore, it must be understood that while food itself, being a creature of God, is clean, it becomes unclean through the invocation of idols and demons.
15:12
(Verse 12.) Then his disciples approached him and said to him, 'Do you know that the Pharisees were scandalized when they heard this word? From one speech, all the superstitious observance of the Jews had been eliminated; those who considered their religion to be based on the eating and abstaining from certain foods.' And because the term 'scandal' is frequently used in Ecclesiastical Scriptures, let us briefly explain what it means. Σκῶλον and scandalum can be translated as 'stumbling block,' 'fall,' or 'the stumbling and falling of the foot.' Therefore, when we read this: 'Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.'
15:13
(Verse 13.) But he answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father planted not, shall be rooted up. Even those things which seem plain in the Scriptures, are full of questions. Every plant, he says, which my heavenly Father planted not, shall be rooted up. Therefore, that plantation also shall be rooted up, of which the Apostle says, I have planted, Apollos watered (1 Cor. III, 6). But the question is resolved by what follows: But God gave the increase (Ibid., 9). He himself also says: You are God's field, God's building (1 Corinthians 3:9). And in another place: We are God's co-workers. Now if we are co-workers, then God is the one who plants and waters, while Paul and Apollos are only servants who work with God (1 Corinthians 3:6-7). Some people misuse this passage, introducing various interpretations, and say: If the planting that the Father did not plant will be uprooted, then the planting that he did plant cannot be uprooted. But listen to what Jeremiah says: 'I planted a true vineyard, how have you turned into the bitterness of a foreign vine?' (Jeremiah II, 21). Indeed, God planted it, and no one can uproot His plantation. But because this planting is in the will of one's own free choice, no one else can uproot it unless it itself gives consent.
15:14
(Verse 14.) Let them alone, they are blind, leaders of the blind. But if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit. This is what the Apostle commanded: Avoid a heretical man after the first and second admonition, knowing that he is perverted and condemned by himself (Titus 3, 10). In this sense, the Savior also commanded that the worst teachers should be left to their own discretion, knowing that they are difficult to be drawn to the truth, and that they are blind and lead the blind people into error.
15:15-16
(Ver. 15, 16.) But Peter, responding, said to him: Explain this parable to us. And he said: Are you still without understanding? What had been clearly stated and was clear to the hearing, the apostle Peter thinks was said in a parable and seeks a mystical understanding in a matter that is manifest. And he is reprimanded by the Lord for thinking that what was clearly spoken was said in a parable. From this, we observe that the listener is faulty, who wants to understand either clearly stated but obscure things, or things clearly stated in an obscure manner.
15:17-18
(Ver. 17, 18.) Do you not understand that everything that enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is expelled into the sewer? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile a person. All the passages of the Gospels among heretics and evil-doers are full of scandals. And some people falsely accuse this statement, saying that the Lord, ignorant of physical processes, thinks that all foods go into the stomach and are digested there: whereas immediately after being ingested, the nourishment is distributed through the limbs and veins, as well as the marrow and nerves. And so, many people who suffer from a constant stomach disorder, immediately vomit what they have eaten after meals and snacks, and yet they are still corpulent: because at the first touch, more liquid food and drink are poured through the limbs. But while these people want to criticize the ignorance of others, they show their own. For although a thin and liquid food, when it has been cooked and digested in the veins and limbs, passes through the hidden passages of the body, which the Greeks call πόροι, and goes to the lower regions and into the intestines.
15:19-20
(Verse 19, 20.) For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies: these are the things that defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a person. 'For out of the heart,' he says, 'come evil thoughts.' Therefore, according to Christ and not according to Plato, the soul's principal place is in the heart, not in the brain. Those who believe that evil thoughts are instilled by the devil and not born out of one's own will can be argued against based on this statement. The devil can be a helper and instigator of evil thoughts, but he cannot be the author. However, if he is always lying in wait, he may ignite the slightest spark of our thoughts with his fuel, but we should not assume that he can explore the secrets of our hearts. Rather, we should judge what we have within us by our physical appearance and actions. For example, if he sees us frequently admiring a beautiful woman, he understands that our hearts have been wounded by Cupid's arrow.
15:21-22
(Verse 21, 22) And Jesus went out from there and withdrew to the parts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman came out from those territories and cried out to him, saying. He leaves behind the scribes and the Pharisees who accuse him, and he goes into the parts of Tyre and Sidon, in order to care for the Tyrians and Sidonians. But the Canaanite woman goes out from her former territories, in order to fervently plead for her daughter's healing. Note that in the fifteenth place, the daughter of the Canaanite woman is healed.
Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David. For He knew how to call upon the son of David, because she had already gone out of her borders, and had abandoned the error of the Tyrians and Sidonians by changing their place and faith.