Gift from Creator Tells the Good Story 15

CONFLICT OVER TRADITIONS

The teachings of Creator Sets Free (Jesus) were becoming a great concern to the spiritual leaders in Village of Peace (Jerusalem). So messengers were sent to spy on him to try to find ways to accuse him and make him look bad in the eyes of the people.

1Some of the Separated Ones (Pharisees) and scroll keepers came to Creator Sets Free (Jesus) from Village of Peace (Jerusalem).

2“Why do your followers not keep the traditions given by the elders and wash their hands before they eat?” they accused him.

3Creator Sets Free (Jesus) asked them, “How is it that you use your traditions to ignore the instructions given by the Great Spirit? 4For he said, ‘Give honor to your father and your mother,’#15:4 Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16 and, ‘The ones who speak evil against them must die.’#15:4 Exodus 21:17; Leviticus 20:9 5But your tradition says, ‘If you give to the Great Spirit the gifts that were meant for your father and mother, 6you no longer have to honor them.’ This is only one of the many ways you use your traditions to do away with the instructions given by the Great Spirit.”

He paused and let them think about what he had said. Then with fire in his eyes he raised his voice and spoke sharply to them.

7“Your false faces do not fool me!” he said loud enough for all to hear. “The prophet Creator Will Help Us (Isaiah) was talking about you when he said, 8‘These people honor me with their lips but their hard, cold hearts are far away from me. 9Their prayers are empty words and their ceremonies are for show. The things they tell others to do are only rules made up by weak human beings.’”#15:9 Isaiah 29:13

10Creator Sets Free (Jesus) then gathered the people around him and said, “Listen with your hearts and understand what I tell you. 11There is nothing you can take into your mouth that will make you impure. It is what comes out of your mouth that makes you impure.”

12Then his followers came to him and said, “Do you know that what you said insulted the Separated Ones (Pharisees)?”

13“Every plant that has not been planted by my Father from above will be pulled out by the roots,” he answered. 14Then he warned them, “The Separated Ones (Pharisees) are blind guides. The ones who follow them are also blind, and they will both fall into a ditch. You will do well to stay away from them.”

15Then Stands on the Rock (Peter) said to him, “Tell us the meaning of the wise saying about what is pure and impure.”

16“Do you still not understand,” he answered, 17“that when food enters the mouth it goes into the stomach, not the heart, and then out of the body? 18It is what comes out from the mouth, from deep inside, that makes people impure. 19It is from the heart that come things such as the taking of lives, unfaithful marriages, uncontrolled sexual desires, stealing, lying, and speaking against the Great Spirit. 20It is things such as these that make you impure, not failing to wash your hands when you eat.”

A LOWLAND WOMAN

21From there Creator Sets Free (Jesus) journeyed into the territory of Rock Land (Tyre) and Hunting Grounds (Sidon) along the coast of the Great Middle Sea (Mediterranean)north of Circle of Nations (Galilee).

22A Lowlander (Canaanite) woman from that territory came to Creator Sets Free (Jesus).

“Honored One! Descendant of Much Loved One (David),” she cried out to him. “Have pity on me, for my daughter is tormented by an evil spirit.”

23Creator Sets Free (Jesus) gave no answer to the woman.

His followers came to him and begged him, “Send her away, for she is bothering us with her loud crying.”

24He then said to the woman, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the tribes of Wrestles with Creator (Israel).”

25She came close and humbled herself before him. “Honored One,” she begged him, “help me.”

26“The children’s food should not be given to the dogs,” he said to her.

27“That is true, Honored One,” she answered, “but even the dogs can feed on the crumbs from the table of their Honored One.”

28“Dear woman,” he answered back, “your answer shows how great your faith is! What you have asked for will be yours.” Her daughter was healed from that time forward.

THE GREAT HEALER

29Creator Sets Free (Jesus) journeyed from there past Lake of Circle of Nations (Sea of Galilee) to a mountainside, where he sat down to rest.

30Once again great crowds of people came, bringing to him the lame, the blind, the ones who could not walk or speak, and many more. They laid them down at the feet of Creator Sets Free (Jesus), and he healed them all. 31When they saw the healings, the crowds were filled with wonder and amazement and gave honor and thanks to the Great Spirit of the tribes of Wrestles with Creator (Israel).

HE FEEDS FOUR THOUSAND

Creator Sets Free (Jesus) spent the next three days healing the sick and injured. People came from the Ten Villages (Decapolis) and surrounding area, where many people from Outside Nations lived. The number of people had grown to over four thousand.

32Creator Sets Free (Jesus) called his followers to his side and said to them, “I have pity in my heart for all these people, for they have been with us for three days with no food. Some of them have come from a great distance, and if I send them away hungry, they might lose their strength and faint.”

33“This is a lonely and desolate place,” they answered him. “Where could we find enough food to feed all these people?”

34“How much food do we have?” he asked.

“We have seven pieces of frybread and a few small fish,” they answered.

35Creator Sets Free (Jesus) instructed all the people to sit down on the ground. 36He then took the seven pieces of frybread and the two fish, gave thanks, and broke them into small pieces. He gave them to his followers, and they gave them out to the people.

37Everyone ate as much as they wanted, and when they were done eating, his followers gathered up the leftovers—seven baskets full! 38They had fed four thousand men, besides women and children.

39After sending the crowds away to their homes, he climbed into the canoe with his twelve followers and went to the territory of Creator’s High Lodge (Magdala).

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