Matthew 15:35 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And directing the crowd to sit down on the ground,

NIV: He told the crowd to sit down on the ground.

NASB: And He directed the people to sit down on the ground;

CSB: After commanding the crowd to sit down on the ground,

NLT: So Jesus told all the people to sit down on the ground.

KJV: And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.

NKJV: So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.

For the last three days, people from the mostly Gentile region of the Decapolis have received healing and miracles from Jesus. He has expressed His compassion for their hunger, saying He does not want to send them away only to faint on the way home. He has collected the tiny amount of food the disciples have with them: seven loaves and a few fish (Matthew 15:29–34). In this way, the miracle again emphasized how God can take what little we bring Him and make it into abundance: so much so that there's a considerable amount left over (Matthew 15:37).

Now Jesus directs the people in the crowd to sit down on the ground. During the first miraculous feeding (Matthew 14:13–21), the people were made to sit in groups of 50 and 100, which would have made it easier to count them and to hand out the food in an orderly way. We're not told if that happened in this case, though it seems likely since Matthew has a count of the number of people present.

Matthew 15:32–39 describes another miraculous feeding, separate from an earlier event where Jesus provided as many as twenty thousand meals (Matthew 14:13–20). Jesus has compassion on the hungry crowd after three days with them. He does not want to send them away without feeding them. He takes the disciples' seven loaves and few fish and makes all the people sit down. He gives thanks and starts handing food to the disciples, who pass it out until everyone has eaten all they want, which includes four thousand men plus women and children. While the first miraculous feeding was for a mostly Jewish crowd, this assembly is almost all Gentiles. After they leave, the disciples return to Jewish territory on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Pharisees and scribes come from Jerusalem to challenge Jesus. They are offended that His disciples break the religious leaders' tradition about ritual handwashing before meals. Jesus turns that attack upside down, pointing out that His critics honor tradition above God's actual commands! He insists that nobody is defiled by what goes in the mouth—by the literal matter itself—but by the overflow of the spirit, such as the words that come out of the mouth. He and the disciples travel out of the country. Jesus casts a demon out of the daughter of a persistent Canaanite woman. They travel to the southeast side of the Sea of Galilee where Jesus feeds thousands of people from a few loaves and fishes. These last two events set up the eventual spread of the gospel beyond the people of Israel.

Matthew 15 begins with a confrontation between some Pharisees and Jesus. They ask why His disciples break the traditional practice of ritual handwashing. Pointedly, Jesus asks why they allow the obvious intent of God's commandments to be broken through their traditions. Jesus and the disciples travel out of Israel, encountering a Canaanite woman. He praises her faith and casts a demon from her daughter. They travel to the southeast side of the Sea of Galilee where Jesus heals more people and feeds thousands more from another few loaves and fishes. This sets up another confrontation with religious leaders, warnings about their teachings, and predictions of Jesus' death in the next chapter.

The Gospel of Matthew clearly shows the influence of its writer's background, and his effort to reach a specific audience. Matthew was one of Jesus' twelve disciples, a Jewish man, and a former tax collector. This profession would have required literacy, and Matthew may have transcribed some of Jesus' words as they were spoken. This book is filled with references to the Old Testament, demonstrating to Israel that Jesus is the Promised One. Matthew also includes many references to coins, likely due to his former profession. Matthew records extensive accounts of Jesus' teaching, more than the other three Gospels.

Accessed 5/1/2024 7:31:03 PM