Evangelical Free Church of Embarass

Let’s pray together.

Our Father, we ask You to continue to reveal Yourself to us as we come to Your word, as we look at Your Son Jesus and His encounter with a gentile woman, and as we study the important message of that encounter. Father, we pray that You would use this to further prepare us to come to Your table. In the name of Your Son, Amen.

This morning, we’re starting a new six-part series, titled “They Met Jesus.” We’ll look at a number of persons who had an encounter with Jesus Christ as recorded in Scripture. We’ll examine those encounters and what they meant for the people who met Jesus. I’m especially praying, and I want you to pray with me during each of these messages, that God would present Jesus and salvation in the person of Jesus to people who are here on any given Sunday, but don’t know Him. Eventually each week, we will get to the subject of salvation in Christ. So, be praying, especially for those that God sends here who don’t know Him. Maybe now will be the time for someone to come to Christ.

Next week we’re going to learn about two Roman men in positions of authority, and their encounters with Jesus. Later on, we’ll talk about a man who met Jesus while he was living in a cemetery. We’ll meet an immoral woman who had a conversation with Jesus, and see the impact the conversation had on her life. We’ll study about a religious leader who encountered Jesus at night, in the cover of darkness. One thing these very different people who met Jesus had in common was that their lives were affected by the experience.

Today, we’re going to talk about a woman who asked for crumbs. Her encounter with Jesus is recorded in Matthew Chapter 15, and also in Mark Chapter 7. Let’s start with Matthew 15:21 through 28: “Leaving that place (Galilee), Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to Him crying out, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.’ Jesus did not answer a word. So His disciples came to Him and urged him, ‘Send her away. She keeps crying out after us.’ He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.’ The woman came and knelt before Him. ‘Lord help me,’ she said. He replied, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ she said, ‘but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ Then Jesus answered, ‘Woman, you have great faith. Your request is granted.’ And her daughter was healed that very hour.” (Mark’s account says that she went home and found her daughter, free of the demon’s possession.)

Prior to this encounter, Jesus had experienced some tense times in His ministry. He had just been through one of them. In Matthew 15:12, the disciples came to Him and said, “Do you not know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” (Jesus had called the Pharisees hypocrites. He told them their worship was in vain and that they were giving higher priority to their traditions and rules than they gave to God’s word. His criticisms were very hard and to the point, and the disciples were very uncomfortable with what He had said to them.)

Right after that conversation, Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the cities of Tyre and Sidon on the Mediterranean seacoast, in a foreign region called Phoenicia some 30 or 40 miles northwest of Galilee. I think they went there for some rest and relaxation and to get away from the tension that was developing in Jesus’ ministry.

The Jewish people didn’t have fond feelings for the folks in Tyre and Sidon. Josephus, the great historian, even said that the people of Tyre were the Jews’ greatest enemies. They were gentiles, pagan in their worship, and the Jews despised them. In Matthew 11, starting with verse 20, you can see how much they were despised: “Jesus began to denounce cities in Galilee in which most of His miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. ‘Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes, but I tell you it would be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.’”

It’s interesting that when Jesus referred to cities in Galilee that were rejecting Him, He brought up Tyre and Sidon. He implied that these cities were looked upon as being really evil and worthy of God’s judgment. In fact, Tyre and Sidon in Jesus’ day were similar to the Old Testament cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Despite the fact that the Jews despised the entire Tyre and Sidon region, Jesus chose to take His disciples there for some rest and relaxation. Maybe nobody up there knew about Him, and it would be a good chance for Him to get away and spend quality time teaching His disciples.

Well, word got around. We know from other scriptures that some people from Tyre and Sidon had been to Galilee to observe Jesus’ ministry, and apparently some of them knew He had come to their region for a vacation. The Canaanite woman with the demon-possessed daughter found out that He was around, and she sought Him out. Verse 22 says that the woman came to Him, and they talked.

Here’s a mother in great need – her daughter was possessed by a demon. She said to Jesus, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me,” and told Him of her need. I would guess that none of us has any clue as to what it’s like to have a daughter possessed by a demon, but we know what it’s like to be concerned about our children. The woman was concerned about her daughter, and she cried out to Jesus for help and mercy.

Verse 23 is very interesting. “Jesus did not answer a word.” He didn’t respond – there was silence. Since Jesus didn’t respond, the disciples stepped in, saying to Him, “Send this woman away. Get rid of her, she’s bothering us. She’s crying. How can we rest? What kind of vacation is this anyway?”

You can probably understand why they said that. The woman was a gentile and spiritually, she was probably pagan. She was from the Tyre and Sidon region, which the Jews despised. They also despised its people, who they looked upon as being at the bottom of the spiritual barrel. They didn’t care that she was crying out for help and mercy on behalf of her daughter.

This wasn’t the first time the disciples had determined who Jesus had time for and who wasn’t worthy of His time. Earlier in Matthew, there was a multitude of hungry people who had been with Jesus all day. He was concerned about feeding them, but what did the disciples say? “Send them away.” Later on in Matthew, some parents brought their little children to Jesus to see if He would bless them. What did the disciples say? “Send them away. They are bothering us.” There’s yet another time when they met up with a person who was ministering in the name of Jesus. They were upset and said to Jesus, “Send him away, because he’s not one of us.”

I guess they had developed their own little Disciple Club. They couldn’t handle the idea of someone outside the club trying to do ministry in the name of Jesus, so they said, “Send Him away.” “Send the children away.” “Send the multitude away.” And now, “Send the woman away. She’s bothering us, and besides, she’s a gentile. Send her away.”

When Jesus finally spoke in verse 24, He answered the woman. “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” That’s an interesting comment. He brought up the priority of His mission. If you’re familiar with the Scriptures, you know that more than once this priority is spelled out. He came for the Jews first, then for the gentiles. So, He reminded her, “I came for the lost people of Israel.” Implication “You’re not one of them. You’re a gentile.”

What would you have done at that point if you were the woman? You come crying to Jesus for help for your daughter, but you get silence, no response. Then you overhear the guys with Him saying, “Send her away, she’s bothering us.” And now Jesus tells you that He only came for the lost people of Israel.

At this point, she could have just walked away, feeling rejected. Jesus didn’t want to help her, and the guys with Him certainly didn’t want to help her. She could have walked off and gone home, concluding that this Jesus she had heard about was insensitive and unloving, and didn’t care about her. But see verse 25: “The woman came and knelt before Him.” She actually came right up to Jesus, got down on her knees, bowed before Him, and said, “Lord, help me!”

Something very interesting happened here. If you were here for the worship series we just finished, this will be significant to you. The Greek word that’s translated “knelt before Him” is “proskuneo.” That same word is translated in other places as “worship” – “to kiss toward, to bow before, to give honor and reverence to.” In fact, some Bible translations might say, “She worshiped Him.” After begging and being met only with silence, after hearing the disciples’ comments and then Jesus saying that He only came for the lost sheep of Israel, this woman still bowed before Him in honor and reverence. “Lord, help me.”

Jesus replied in verse 26. “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” How many of you are thinking that Jesus was pretty rude here? He didn’t say anything at first, then said He came only for Israel’s lost sheep and now, with this woman on her knees before Him pleading for help, He said that it’s not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs. What did He mean by that? Who are the children? Based on His preceding comment, I think He’s talking about Israel. Who are the dogs? The gentiles – including her. What would the bread be? His help, His ministry, His message. (Translation: He is saying that it’s not right for Him to take the message intended for the people of Israel and give it to the gentiles.)

Jesus used the Greek word for “dog” that refers to a puppy, a family pet, and not the word for a dog that runs wild scavenging for food. Although that softens the statement a little, it’s still a dog, and we would excuse the woman for being angry and walking off, offended by a man who had the gall to refer to her as a dog. That would be understandable. But she didn’t walk away. Look at her response in verse 27: “Yes, Lord.” She agreed with Him. She acknowledged that what He said was true: She was an undeserving, unworthy gentile, not one of the children.

But she also was a quick thinker. She said, “But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” In other words, “I agree with You; I’m not one of the children. I understand that You came first for the lost sheep of Israel. I understand that I am not worthy of Your help. I understand that because of who I am, I am undeserving of Your mercy. But just give me the crumbs, because even the dogs get the crumbs. That’s all I’m asking.” I think she believed that even crumbs from Jesus were good enough to heal her daughter. That’s pretty amazing.

Based on the woman’s responses throughout the conversation, I suggest to you that when Jesus made these statements which sound rude and cruel to us, she must not have interpreted them that way. We don’t hear His tone of voice, and we don’t see His facial expressions or His eyes when He spoke to her. Just going by her responses, she did not seem to be offended or angry about what He was saying. She understood, and acknowledged it. “I am undeserving and unworthy, but please, just some crumbs of Your help, of Your mercy.”

Jesus said in verse 28, “Woman, you have great faith.” What a statement. Coming from Jesus, the expert on faith, they are powerful words. It would be like having a professional carpenter tell me, “Marlin, you did an excellent job.” Or a professional musician saying to someone, “You’re a great singer.” Or a pro athlete coming up to a high school student, and saying, “You’re a great ballplayer.”

So we have the expert on faith making that four-word statement, “You have great faith.” This encounter must have been very refreshing for Jesus. He had just had a conversation with the Pharisees, who had nothing close to great faith. They were resisting faith in Him.

How many times during His ministry did Jesus say to the disciples, “Oh you of little faith”? He said it a number of times – once personally to Peter. Earlier in Matthew, they left His home town of Nazareth and they didn’t go back there any more. Why? It was because of their lack of faith. Up to this point, everyone around Jesus had a faith problem. He had become used to saying, “Oh you of little faith,” and “Where’s your faith?” Now, here’s a pagan woman, a gentile, from a region despised by the Jews, and Jesus said to her, “You have great faith.”

He responded to her great faith by saying, “Your request is granted.” And according to Mark, when she got home, her daughter was fine. Jesus had helped her, shown mercy, and met her needs. Jesus had ministered to her in response to faith.

Notice the quote from Dwight Moody on your study sheet. “Jesus sent no one away empty, except those who were full of themselves.” This woman was certainly not full of herself. She was emptied by humility, and according to Jesus, full of faith. She wasn’t sent away empty at all. She was sent away full of mercy and grace from Jesus.

Tests of faith and love

Let me suggest that there were two tests going on in this encounter. There was a test of faith, and the gentile woman passed it. There was a test of love, and the disciples failed it.

Let me tell you what I mean. I don’t think Jesus intended to be cruel in what He said or how He responded. That doesn’t fit with our understanding of Him. I believe His intent was to give this gentile woman the personal opportunity, in the presence of twelve Jewish men, to show the genuineness of her faith. She passed with flying colors. Every time she spoke, she addressed Jesus as “Lord.” Even after He initially turned down her request, she still called Him “Lord.” That’s pretty significant. This woman showed humility throughout the entire conversation, from pleading for mercy and bowing before Jesus in reverence and honor, to saying, “Yes, I know I am unworthy, but please give me some crumbs. I’ll accept that.”

She also had a persistent faith in believing that Jesus was the one who could help her: “I have a need, and this Jesus is the one who can help me, and I will stay here, believing that He can and will.” She passed the test – she had great faith, according to Jesus.

I believe there was also a test of love going on here, and the disciples failed it. As this gentile woman comes to Jesus, we might ask, “What are the disciples going to do? Are they going to care about this woman in need, even if she’s a gentile? Will it touch their hearts at all, that this gentile woman has a daughter who is demon-possessed and needs help?”

We might also wonder whether the disciples will welcome this woman to Jesus and His ministry, by helping bring her to Him. Will they welcome her, even if she is a gentile? Is the disciples’ view of the Kingdom of God big enough to include even a gentile woman who has needs and is looking for mercy?

The disciples quickly answered those questions for us, because their first statement was, “Send her away, Jesus. She’s bothering us. Get rid of her.” They weren’t thinking about her plea for help. They were thinking about who she was – a gentile woman who was bothering them: “Send her away.” And then, the conversation continued and Jesus made comments like, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. It’s not right to give the children’s bread to the dogs.” As the disciples heard those comments and saw this woman continue to ask for help, not one of the twelve changed his mind and said to Jesus, “Maybe we should help her; she’s really in trouble.”

It must have been a real blow for these twelve guys to hear Jesus say something to a gentile woman that He had never said to them: “Your faith is great.” With them, it was always “Oh, you of little faith. Where is your faith?” Now, they hear Jesus saying it to a gentile woman of Tyre and Sidon. What an impact. They had failed the love test. They didn’t believe there was room in the Kingdom of God for a woman from Tyre and Sidon. They didn’t believe a gentile was worthy of Jesus’ ministry. They had to go through the humiliation and embarrassment of hearing Jesus say to her what He had never said to them. They failed, and they learned something.

What can we learn?

What can you and I learn from the encounter this woman had with Jesus? Well, if you don’t have a relationship with Jesus Christ, you’re in the same situation she was in. You can learn that no matter who you are and how undeserving and unworthy you feel, there is grace and mercy for you from Jesus. You might be here this morning, and not know Christ. When you consider your life, the way you have lived it, and the kind of person you have been and maybe are now, you might think, “That’s good for other people, but I don’t deserve it. I am so unworthy that God could never forgive me. How could He love me?”

The message for you here is that there is grace and mercy for you from Jesus. There was room in the Kingdom of God for this gentile woman who lived in the pagan region of Tyre and Sidon, and there is room for you. There is grace, mercy, and forgiveness. All you need to do is humbly acknowledge, by faith, that Jesus is Lord and ask Him to help you, like this woman did. Ask Him to forgive you, to have mercy, to come into your life. It doesn’t matter who you are. He’ll do it.

Second, for those of us who are followers of Christ, I think we can learn this from the text: No matter who those unbelievers around you are, love them. Welcome them to Jesus and His mercy and grace. You see, many of us are like the disciples. We have somehow decided who is worthy to come to Jesus and who is not. We have decided that some people are not going to get any love from us. We would rather stay away from them. They are like the pagans of Tyre and Sidon. We know their reputation, how they have lived, and what they’ve said about Christians in the past, and we’ve decided that they don’t fit in the Kingdom. As a result, we don’t welcome them to Jesus, and we don’t share His love with them.

I think we must learn the same lesson the disciples learned: No matter who people are, we need to love them for Jesus, because He will have grace and mercy even for them.

You might be here this morning, thinking that you were once like the gentile woman. If Christians had looked at you and the life you had lived, many of them and maybe even you would have thought that you were unworthy and undeserving. But here you are: a follower of Christ, in love with Him, a changed person. Please don’t refuse to extend that same love to others. Don’t decide that they are not deserving. No matter who they are, love them for Jesus.

Now, we come to the Lord’s table. The Lord’s table reminds us of the love, mercy, and grace of Jesus for anyone – not just for people of a certain race, gender, or social class, or who live a certain life style. This table reminds us of the grace, love, and mercy Jesus bestows on anyone who will come, acknowledging Him in humble faith as Lord and Savior. Anyone, whether a Jew, a Canaanite woman, or you, can receive the love, mercy, and grace of Jesus though His death on the cross.

Let’s pray.

Father, we thank You so much for the example of ministering and showing mercy to someone who was rejected by others, and who even knew herself that she was unworthy. Yet, Lord, You responded to her faith and humility. Thank You for also doing that in our lives. Lord, many of us at some point came to You acknowledging Your Lordship and seeking Your help. We asked You to forgive us, to be merciful, and to show us Your grace, and You did. We come to Your table being thankful. In Jesus’ name, Amen.