The Canaanite woman and Jesus

Leaving that place, 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, for 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 from that very hour (Matthew 15:21-28).


The word “Gospel” means “Good News.”  But today’s Gospel lesson doesn’t sound much like Good News.  Jesus seems cold and harsh, almost like He was talked into doing a miracle against His better judgment.  So let’s take some time to look at this incident in Jesus’ life and discover the Gospel that it contains.

Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  These were two coastal cities along the Mediterranean Sea.  The area was outside of Galilee; it was an area that had never accepted Jewish culture or rulership.  Back when Moses died and Joshua led God’s people into Canaan, the people living there did one of three things.  Most fought the Israelites and died.  Some joined the Israelites and became followers of the true God.  And some, if they were wealthy or influential, were allowed to stay put and practice their false religions. 

God had ordered Joshua to make Canaan a place that was completely dedicated to the Lord.  Residents would be allowed to stay only if they converted.  So when the Israelites started making exceptions for people with money or connections, the Lord became angry.  The Canaanites worshiped false gods.  Some of these religions viewed sex as worship and employed prostitutes in their temples.  Others demanded that the first born child in every family be burned to death as a sacrifice.  Our Lord hated such practices and He knew that if not stamped out, these other religions would eventually corrupt God’s followers. 

By Jesus’ time, the Jews had realized the error of their ways.  They wanted nothing to do with other religions or the people who practiced them.  It must have surprised the disciples when Jesus left Galilee and entered a place where the Jewish religion was not well respected.  Was Jesus tired of the crowds hounding Him for miracles, but unwilling to believe in Him as the Son of God?  Or did the Savior have another reason for this trip?

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."  We don’t have any details on what the demon was doing to the child.  From the Bible we know that some people were blinded, others had seizures, and still others became violent.  Regardless, the child’s mother was beside herself with worry. 

This mother was not raised in the Jewish faith.  Since Alexander the Great had conquered the area 300 years earlier, she probably was raised to believe in Greek gods like Zeus, Hera, and Aphrodite.  But Tyre and Sidon were seaports for major caravan routes—routes that went through Galilee.  Apparently, she had gotten wind of Jesus and what people were saying about Him.  Jesus was a descendant of David, the greatest king of Israel.  Jesus had power over sickness, storms and demons.  And Jesus was compassionate—a great man of great authority who cared about everyone.  So when she heard that Jesus was in the area, she risked leaving her child in the care of others and rushed out to meet Him.  She honored Him with her words—Lord, son of David.  As a Canaanite, you would expect her to have no love for King David or any Jew, but that was all irrelevant now—her daughter’s need trumped everything else.

Jesus did not answer a word.  This is where things start to seem strange.  Jesus ignoring someone in need?  Jesus always responds with compassion—sometimes He even starts conversations with those who need His help.  Then why this time does Jesus hold His peace?

His disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us."  The disciples are clearly annoyed by her behavior.  It sounds as if they don’t really care whether Jesus grants her wish or not, just as long as He gets rid of this woman as quickly as possible.  The disciples understood that Jesus was an important man doing important work, but they often failed to see others with the kind of compassion that fills Jesus’ heart. 

Yet that compassion seems oddly lacking here.  Our Lord doesn’t even address the mother, but instead says to the disciples "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."  Like everything else Jesus says, this is the truth.  God chose the people of Israel to be a holy nation dedicated to Him.  God had a very good reason for wanting all the Canaanites either converted or driven out of the Holy Land.  God intended Israel to be the hub for His saving work among humanity.  The people were to be like one big church congregation—united in love for God and outreach to unbelievers.  But God’s followers let some Canaanites continue living unconverted in their country, and eventually the corruption of false religion destroyed God’s people like slow spreading rot.  God allowed Israel to be conquered by Assyrians and Babylonians, the ancestors of modern day Iraqis.  Most of the people were deported for 70 years, during which time they learned to hate foreign religions. 

God permitted the exile to happen because He wanted the Jews to serve Him wholeheartedly.  Israel could not be a hub for ministry to the world if it embraced the false beliefs of the world.  In spite of everything bad they had done, the Lord wanted Jerusalem to be the capital of God’s earthly kingdom, a city on a hill that invites all people to come and worship the only true God.

But even after the exile, the Jews were not doing what God wanted.  They remained true to Him, but they had nothing but disdain for everyone else—Gentiles like the Canaanite woman, Gentiles like you and me.  God needed to change humanity by freeing us from sins like pride and prejudice and indifference to the suffering of others.  Everyone needs that kind of change, but God sent Jesus to begin this work among the Jews.  When Jesus said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel", He did not mean that His love stops with them; He simply meant that His time on earth was limited, so it would be spent among the people that God had chosen to be His first missionaries—the Jews. 

Jesus did not stray more than a handful of miles from Jewish lands.  He never went to Athens or Rome; He never traveled to Babylon or Chang’an, the capital of China.  When Jesus suffered and died it was in Jerusalem, within sight of God’s holy Temple.  Yet that suffering and death were for all people everywhere; Jesus said God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16).  Referring to His death hanging on the cross, Jesus said, when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself (John 12:32).

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."  This sounds particularly callous, but you have to understand a couple of things. First, Jesus is speaking in the form of a proverb, a general statement of principle.  He is not saying that the woman or any Gentiles are dogs, He’s merely pointing out that members of the family should be fed first.  The Jews, not the Gentiles, were God’s adopted children through the Covenant at Mount Sinai.  Second, family pets are also dearly loved; I’m sure you know at least one person who treats their pet like a member of the family.  Jesus is not dismissing the mother as unworthy of His love, He’s simply pointing out that as a Canaanite, she does not the same claim on His time as do the people of Israel.

Jesus proves His love for her with these words: "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted."  This was not a concession to her persistence; Jesus praised her for the powerful faith in her heart.  Although not a Jew, she trusted in Jesus’ power and mercy.  There is only one other person who received similar praise from Jesus—a Roman centurion who was also a Gentile!  Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus ever praise a Jew for having great faith in Him.

Jesus tested the mother’s faith.  It seems like a hard test, but there is precedent for it.  In the Old Testament, God made Abraham wait a hundred years for a son; then a few years later He tested Abraham’s faith by telling him to sacrifice the boy on an altar.  Testing through hardship makes people stronger, and when forced to choose between God and Isaac, Abraham’s faith in God grew stronger.  God, of course, spared Isaac’s life.  Job was also tested; he lost his wealth, his children, his standing in the community, and his health.  Again, God strengthened faith by forcing a choice—do you trust God fully, even in times of adversity, or will you curse Him as uncaring and just give up?

Jesus made the worried mother reflect on her beliefs.  When push came to shove, was she really willing to trust Jesus with her whole heart?  He was the Savior of the Jews, a group of people whose culture and religion had never been respected by her Canaanite ancestors.  Would she really abandon the gods and traditions of her people?  It’s easy to be a Christian when you need something from the Lord; how sincere was she in calling Him Lord and the Son of David?  Such words identified Jesus as God’s chosen Savior.  But by her ancestry, she had no claim on God’s covenant of grace.

The woman was not put off.  She understood that Jesus was sent to the Jews first, Gentiles second.  But she was completely confident in His love, even to someone who was not worthy of His attention.  In this she is a model for each of us.  No man or woman is worthy of Christ’s love.  None of us deserve His mercy. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).  The woman passed the test; she refused to give up on Jesus just because she didn’t get an immediate answer to her plea for help, did not curse the Lord and go back to the false gods she grew up with.  She trusted Him to help her, and that is precisely what Jesus did—first He saved her soul, then He healed her daughter.

But there was another test going on here as well.  Jesus was also testing His disciples.  They were not opposed to Jesus giving this woman what she wanted; they just wanted her out of their hair.  Like most Jews, they were prejudiced against all Gentiles.  They didn’t like associating with ‘that kind of people.’  Hardly an attitude for future missionaries to have.  So Jesus tests them.  He deliberately goes into Gentile countryside.  When a Gentile woman asks for help, He says words that any Jew would automatically agree with—it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs.  Would the disciples ask Jesus to show compassion to this worried mother?  Sadly, they did not.

Jesus said, salvation is from the Jews.  In Romans chapter 11, Paul talks about how the Gentiles have taken a prominent place in God’s universal Church, because the Jews continue to reject God’s Son.  But Paul reminds us to not get prideful like the disciples did; he compares the Jews to a cultivated olive plant and we Gentiles to wild shoots.  If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.  You might argue, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in."  Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid.  For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. 

God has adopted us into Israel, the holy nation that is to announce the Good News of salvation to a sinful, dying world.  Trust in the Lord as the Canaanite woman did, and take the message to all people as the disciples were instructed to do.