“But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.”
My Notes
What Does Matthew 15:13 Mean?
Jesus responds to the Pharisees' offense at His teaching with a devastating agricultural metaphor: "Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up." Anything not planted by God—regardless of how established, how old, how deeply rooted—will be torn out. The criterion isn't how long it's been growing or how impressive it looks. It's whether God planted it.
The context is the Pharisaic tradition—the elaborate system of oral law and religious regulation that had accumulated over centuries. Jesus declares that this system, however ancient and established, was not planted by His Father. Its antiquity doesn't validate it. Its institutional support doesn't legitimize it. If God didn't plant it, it gets rooted up.
The word "rooted up" (ekrizōthēsetai) describes violent extraction—not gentle pruning but complete removal, roots and all. This isn't reformation. It's uprooting. When God removes something He didn't plant, He doesn't leave the root system in place for regrowth. He takes the whole thing out.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What in your life looks established and permanent but might not have been planted by God?
- 2.If God is uprooting something you've been attached to, can you trust that it's making room for what He actually planted?
- 3.How do you distinguish between what God planted and what grew up on its own or was planted by human tradition?
- 4.The uprooting takes the whole thing—root and all. Is there something God has been removing from your life that you keep trying to replant?
Devotional
"Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up." Every one. No exceptions for age, size, or impressiveness. If God didn't plant it, it's coming out. Root and all.
This is both threatening and liberating. Threatening because it means that things you've invested in—systems, traditions, beliefs, relationships—might be pulled out if God didn't plant them. No matter how established they seem. No matter how long they've been growing. The question isn't how deep the roots go. It's who planted the seed.
Liberating because it means the things that God did plant are permanent. If He put it there, no force can root it up. The calling God planted in you, the faith God seeded in your heart, the relationships God established—these stay. They're not subject to the uprooting. Only what God didn't plant faces extraction.
The uprooting isn't always comfortable. Sometimes the plants being removed are things you've grown attached to—traditions you love, systems you depend on, structures that feel essential. But if God didn't plant them, their removal is mercy, not cruelty. God is clearing the garden of what doesn't belong so that what He planted has room to grow. Let the uprooting happen. What remains after the extraction is what God actually wants in the garden.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
But he answered, and said,.... As being unconcerned at their rage, and having nothing to fear from them; and being well…
See also Mar 7:15-17. And he called the multitude - In opposition to the doctrines of the Pharisees, the Saviour took…
Christ having proved that the disciples, in eating with unwashen hands, were not to be blamed, as transgressing the…
Every plant Not a wild flower, but a cultivated plant or tree; the word occurs here only in N. T.; in LXX. version of O.…
Cross References
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