“How can we get our hearts right?” Matthew 15 answers that question by placing two responses to Jesus side by side. First, we meet people who look impressive and get the heart badly wrong. Then we meet someone who looks unqualified and gets the heart wonderfully right.

When religion keeps the heart far away
Pharisees and scribes come to Jesus with a criticism of his disciples. Their concern is not pride, immorality, or faithlessness, but ceremonial hand-washing. They are offended that the disciples do not perform a ritual cleansing before eating.

Jesus exposes what this reveals. Quoting Isaiah, he says, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8). Their religion focuses on outward performance while neglecting inward reality. Outwardly, they appear devoted to God. Inwardly, they rely on themselves. Outwardly, they keep religious rules. Inwardly, they do not love God or their neighbour.

Jesus describes this kind of spirituality with stark images elsewhere. They “strain out a gnat and swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:24). They are “whitewashed tombs”, clean on the outside and full of decay within (Matthew 23:27). They prefer appearance over repentance.

This blindness runs deep. They do not see what Scripture says about them: the heart is “deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9). Nor do they see what the law is truly demanding. The greatest commandment is not first about ritual correctness, but about love: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:5). And that is precisely what exposes their helplessness. You can discipline behaviour, but you cannot command a heart into genuine love.

Moses points to the deeper need when he says, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart” (Deuteronomy 10:16). What is required is inner cleansing, something only God can do.

Underlying the Pharisees’ confidence is a false assumption that people are morally neutral and simply choose between good and evil. Jesus rejects this. Actions reveal what already lives in the heart. “The tree is known by its fruit” (Matthew 12:33).

A woman who gets the heart right
Immediately after this confrontation, Matthew introduces a striking contrast. Jesus meets a Canaanite woman. Both Matthew and Mark place this story directly after the rebuke of the Pharisees.

By visible standards, she is entirely unqualified. She is a Gentile, a Canaanite. Yet she comes to Jesus and addresses him as “Lord, Son of David” (Matthew 15:22). She sees who he is.

The exchange is uncomfortable. Jesus speaks of his mission to Israel and uses language that sounds like rejection. Yet the woman does not argue her worthiness. She agrees with the judgement and appeals to mercy: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table” (Matthew 15:27).

Jesus responds, “O woman, great is your faith!” (Matthew 15:28). Her faith shows itself in need and trust. The Pharisees feel no need for a doctor. She knows she needs help, and her prayer is simple: “Lord, help me.”

What produces a heart that trusts?
This trust does not come from good behaviour or from Scripture reading alone, as the Pharisees themselves demonstrate. Jesus tells them, “You search the Scriptures… yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39–40).

A second contrast clarifies the issue. In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, the Pharisee lists his religious achievements. The tax collector cries, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13).

The Pharisee reads Scripture and mainly sees commands. The tax collector sees mercy. He sees what Scripture declares about God: “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6).

A heart learns to trust when it sees both the depth of its own sin and the depth of God’s mercy. When either is missing, trust collapses. Blindness to sin breeds self-reliance. Blindness to mercy breeds fear. But where God is known as gracious and the self is known as needy, the heart is freed to trust.

The lie that turns hearts cold
Scripture describes hearts turning away from God when people “exchange the truth about God for a lie” (Romans 1:25). That lie appears in Genesis 3, where the serpent distorts God’s generosity and portrays him as unkind.

Scripture tells a different story. From the beginning, God pursues his people. He delights in steadfast love. In Jesus, this kindness becomes unmistakable. After his resurrection, Jesus meets disciples who abandoned him and says, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19).

Love born from forgiveness
Jesus captures this truth when he says of the sinful woman, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little” (Luke 7:47).

Forgiveness awakens love. When Christ is seen as gracious and kind, the heart responds.

Getting the heart right begins with seeing the kindness of the Saviour. When God is known as merciful rather than reluctant, honesty about sin becomes possible. Such a heart no longer hides behind performance or despair, but comes to Christ for help. From that encounter, love grows, and delight in the Lord becomes real.