[Machine transcription]
In the name of Jesus, amen.
Dear saints, this Canaanite woman from our gospel reading today is one of the best examples of faith we can have. Now, this is a rather astonishing thing to say, given that her descendants were those Canaanite pagans who God had commanded Moses and Joshua to destroy in the conquest all those centuries ago. And so considering that, this woman really shouldn’t be there at all. But yet here she is, coming face to face with the very God who once ordered the total annihilation of her people and asking him for mercy. Because this woman like Rahab before her had heard of the God of Israel and was turned from her idolatry to faith in the true God. And in this faith, she seeks out Jesus.
Jesus, who, Matthew tells us, was in the region of Tyre and Sidon to beg for mercy on behalf of her demon-possessed daughter. But as she went, she met someone that I don’t think she was expecting to meet. Rude Jesus. Imagine the intense mix of desperation and hope that this poor woman felt as she came to the one who she knew was the only one who could heal her daughter. And then being received in what sure looks a lot like cold indifference. Now the silence that Jesus gives to this woman, the cold shoulder treatment, that’s hard enough. But then the words that he speaks to her are so much more difficult for us to hear and then how much more so for her.
Now, some people have tried to soften Jesus’ words by saying, for instance, that when he refers to the dogs eating crumbs under the table, he’s maybe trying to convey an image of these beloved little house pets, you know, the little puppies under the table, rather than the dirty scavengers. But I do not think that’s right. I really think that Jesus is trying hard to be rude to this woman on purpose. And so what are we to make of that? Yes. How do we reconcile a God who calls himself love with this kind of behavior? And I want to submit to you today that Jesus’ unusually bad manners are for a very particular purpose. An important reason.
See, he’s teaching us alongside this Canaanite woman a very hard but critically important lesson about the Christian faith. And he’s doing this by pressing her faith hard and testing its very foundation. Now, it’s very clear from the text that this woman believed. She approached Jesus by calling him Lord and Son of David. And so her use of these titles tells us that she knew from the prophetic scriptures who the Messiah was to be. She had heard the prophecies of his lineage and his mission, and she believed in the promises of God. And this is why she confessed the faith like an Israelite would, calling him Lord, Son of David.
And while we might marvel at this, Jesus, after hearing her confession and prayer, says absolutely nothing. He ignores her. So what is this poor woman supposed to think? That all the scriptures, that all the stories about this Jesus that she had heard were false? I mean, certainly the easiest thing would be to just despair and give up hope and go home. Because the prophecies and the promises concerning him suddenly seemed very starkly at odds with her perception, and certainly with her feelings. And at his silence, she is faced with a question. What can a person do when, by all reason and perception, God is silent and seems indifferent?
And so we see her answer. Cling to that, which is more certain than your perception and your feelings. The Word of God. When all the world and the devil scream that God doesn’t care, when God himself feels distant as though His grace could not be further away from a sinner like this woman, like you and like me, well, His Word promises differently. And this Word tells of a God who loves His people in such a way that He sent a Savior to crush the head of Satan, to take away sin, death, and hell for us so that by his life he would bring to us life and healing. And this word is far more sure than anything that the devil or the world can tell you.
It’s far more sure than anything that you might feel in your heart in the moment. Because man lives not by feelings and by flighty perception, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. And so armed with this word, our Canaanite woman presses on in humble confidence. Now she continues to plead. And the disciples finally intercede for her. They come to Jesus and they make a request. Now it seems that their request to send her away is not so much one of dismissal, but it might have been one of pity.
Because Jesus’ answer is actually to deny their prayer request by giving them a reason to continue ignoring her. It’s as if they had said, Jesus, just heal her daughter and send her home. I mean, do you really want her following us around like this all day? But whether they desire this out of compassion or they’re simply tired of her being around, it’s clear that they want Jesus to send her away. But very ironically, the only person who’s not done with this woman is Jesus who has ignored her to this point.
And so he continues his pursuit and he presses her harder by his reply to the disciples. He says, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now this response that Jesus gives was to the disciples who had asked the question. He’s still not talking to the woman directly. But Mark in his account of these events tells us that all of this was taking place in a house. And so it seems likely that our faithful woman overheard this comment. And in fact, I think Jesus might have meant for her to overhear it. Because his third challenge to her, which we’ll get to later, actually logically proceeds from this statement here.
Now, after hearing this, maybe the woman could have lost hope. After all, Jesus could be pretty easily understood as having said, The life and the hope that I bring are just not for you. And that would be absolutely crushing if it was what he was saying. But it’s not. It’s very important, in fact, for us to note in this story that at no point did Jesus tell the woman, no. And the Canaanite woman understood that. And so instead of despairing, her ears of faith pick up on what Jesus did not say.
See, our Lord’s statement is so carefully crafted in such a way that he says who he came to without saying who he came for. Amen. Now, it’s true that he did come to the house of Israel. I mean, this is true just simply geographically, but also that the Messiah has been promised from ancient times to the children of Israel by the prophets. These Israelites whom God chose as his own people. But the Messiah came for all people. And this woman knows that.
And her faith is tested this second time by our Lord, and she pulls through only by standing firm on the word of God, which has promised from ancient times that the Christ would come and be the Savior for both Jews and for Gentiles. So our faithful saint continues her fight of faith and for the last time she approaches her Lord in complete humility, falling to her knees and begging for mercy at the feet of Jesus. And just when we think ah, now that Jesus has tested her faith, surely he will now show her mercy. No. He instead presses her yet further.
Although this poor, pious woman has received more testing than many could withstand, Jesus presses. He hears her plea, Lord, help me. And he offers her this little proverb. It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs. Now maybe we should consider this a miracle text. Because after hearing these words, this Canaanite woman didn’t give up, break down, and run from the house in tears. Now surely this proverb from Jesus has incredible power to sting. Right?
This woman knows her ancestry. She knows that she is not of the house and the lineage of Israel to whom God gave the law and the prophets. In fact, Jesus here is giving her a reminder who she is related to. Jezebel, who 900 years before was an evil queen of Israel who was killed and eaten by dogs. And she came from the same region this Canaanite woman has come from. And so this woman knows her complete and utter unworthiness of grace in the face of her Lord. And yet, in spite of all this, in a jaw-dropping and wonderful act of faith and perseverance, she does not back down.
This woman is not cowed, nor is she angry as though somehow the insinuation that she and her daughter are dogs is unjust. No, instead, from the floor at Jesus’ feet, she owns it. And she gives the only response that her faith has to give. Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table. And here, as this faithful woman clings to the hope that she has in the Word of God, she proves that his mercy is for her.
And she traps Jesus in his words. All the Pharisees, the scribes, all the Sadducees, they try for three years to trap Jesus in his words. All the experts in the law give it their best shot, but this woman does it in minutes where they never could, because Jesus wanted her to. She proved from his own metaphor that he and his mercy are for her and for her daughter. And see, in owning the title of dog in Jesus’ little proverb, she demonstrates a very deep understanding that she has of her place according to the law. That she does not deserve the gifts of God in the very least.
But also, she shows that she understands his overabundant grace. Because she knows that even after God has given grace to the children of Israel, there is plenty left over for the Gentiles, even as a dog would eat crumbs from the table of its master. She doesn’t want that which doesn’t belong to her. She asks only for the crumbs. Right? Because she knows that God in His mercy gives so much that there is enough for her. And that is enough.
And so she comes in repentant hope, confident of God’s goodness toward even Gentile sinners, and beautifully, just so beautifully. By owning this title of dog, this beloved and saintly woman proves herself to be one of the children, a daughter of Abraham by faith. Like Paul will go on to say in Galatians chapter 3, know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And so here, in response to the woman’s reaction to his third challenge, Jesus finally relents.
And you can almost hear the smile in his face and the warmth in his voice as he responds to this woman. He says to her, Oh woman, great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you desire. And so here at last, this woman is shown the loving kindness of our God and the lavish mercy of Jesus, who has cared the whole time, even while testing her faith in the most difficult of ways. Indeed, Jesus is for her as the word of God has always promised.
And her faith has now been purified and refined in the Lord’s testing. And like Jacob, who had gone before her, this woman in her own way wrestled with God, and the Lord named her faithful. Now, earlier I had said that our Lord was teaching us a lesson by this woman’s trials. And what a valuable lesson it is for us. See, Jesus is teaching us with this Canaanite woman that God’s word, that holy and perfect, beautiful, and always completely true word of God, is to be trusted above all else, above how we feel about God in the moment, about how we think and feel about others, and above how we think and feel about ourselves.
That was the point of these challenges, to point this woman to the sure and steadfast foundation of faith which is the word of God, which delivers to us Christ and him crucified. And when all was said and done, our Lord had so graciously granted to her not only this strengthening of faith, but also a healthy daughter. In the midst of thinking of all these trials and faith, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that our Lord heard her petition and answered it with yes in his mercy.
So dear saints, as we go through this season of Lent, repenting of our sins and laying down in the dust with this woman and acknowledging that we are but dogs beneath our master, know that you too, with this blessed Canaanite woman, are indeed called children of faith. Children who are fed not only with grace upon grace, but also who have a royal inheritance of forgiveness, of life and salvation given to us by our king and our master, Jesus Christ.
And this king and this master loves you deeply. He cares for you and he hears your every prayer, just as he has promised you in his word. So hold fast to that word of God, dear saints, as we await his coming with repentant joy. In the name of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, amen.