EVERY PLANT, WHICH MY HEAVENLY FATHER HATH NOT PLANTED, SHALL BE ROOTED UP

The first twenty verses of Matthew chapter 15 sum up the great controversy of the New Testament - between the law and the gospel. Jerusalem scribes and Pharisees had travelled sixty miles north to Galilee to oppose Christ. They accused His disciples of eating with unwashed hands, v. 2. Their dogma prescribed ritual washings, not for reasons of hygiene, but of holiness. They preached separatism, regarding much of mankind as ‘unclean’.

The Lord strongly condemned their hypocrisy in observing the letter of the law, while denying its spirit, vv. 3-9. Then, He tells the multitude about true and spurious defilement, using a parable of the human body, vv. 10, 11. This He interprets pri­vately to His disciples, Mark 7. 17-23. Ceremonial washing and dietary restrictions do not affect moral purity. Wicked hearts will still spawn evil thoughts, words, and deeds. Christianity prom­ises and begets a clean heart - ‘truth in the inward parts’.

The disciples were concerned that this teaching would offend the Pharisees. Christ responds by telling two more short parables, showing the futility of basing religion on the tradition of the elders, rather than ‘the commandment of God’, v. 3.

‘Every plant’ - this is not a wild, but a cultivated plant or tree. The word occurs only here, and in the LXX, 2 Kgs. 19. 29; Ezek. 17. 7; Mic. 1. 6, where it refers to the vine, the most highly cultivated of all plants, and the trees planted by Abraham pledg­ing Israel’s future possession of Palestine, Gen. 21. 33. The Father, the divine Husbandman, has planted one ‘true vine’, His beloved Son. He will uproot every rival plant cultivated by human hands including, of course, that of the Pharisees.

In the second parable, He likens them to ‘blind leaders of the blind’. They had been judicially blinded by God because of their wilful unbelief. In Israel, many souls were afflicted with blindness, and hazardous pits and ditches abounded. It was dangerous for the blind to walk about without help or guid­ance. How much more perilous if that person were leading others! The Lord warns His disciples, v. 14, ‘Let them alone’ - don’t join or follow them, or you too will fall into the ditch!