Matthew 15:21-28
21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”
23 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.”
24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.
Question:
ReplyDelete- Why was Jesus so rude?
https://bible.org/seriespage/23-lesson-hermeneutics-matthew-1521-39 says:
ReplyDelete(Tyre and Sidon were Gentile cities) Jesus is doing what He instructed His disciples not to do – go on the way that leads to Gentile cities. Thus, too, we see our Lord venturing into Gentile territory. In part, our Lord may well have been withdrawing from Jewish opposition, but He had to know where this journey would lead – to healings, miracles, and even the feeding of 4,000 men.
Let’s begin by focusing on this woman. She was a Canaanite. Think of what the Old Testament Law meant for her!
16 “As for the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is going to give you as an inheritance, you must not allow a single living thing to survive. 17 Instead you must utterly annihilate them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—just as the Lord your God has commanded you, 18 so that they cannot teach you all the abhorrent ways they worship their gods, causing you to sin against the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 20:16-18).
It was one thing to be a Gentile, and quite another to be a Canaanite. In Jewish eyes, this was about as low as one could go.
This woman was desperate because her daughter was demon possessed. She had no other hope than Jesus. And so when she saw Him, she persisted in crying out. This woman is not deterred from her mission by the scowling disapproval of the disciples, nor their pressing Jesus to be rid of her.
Once again the disciples do not come out looking good in our text. They find this woman’s persistence irritating and distracting. They revert to their shop-worn solution, “Send her away!” (verse 23), which reminds us of their insistence that Jesus send the hungry crowds away in Matthew 14:15. Compassion is not their strong point. I dare not fault them; I’ve been there myself.
I do have to wonder what factors contributed to the disciples’ indifference, even disdain toward this woman. Was it partly due to the fact that this woman was a Canaanite? We know that the disciples were not exactly filled with the milk of human kindness toward Samaritans:
51 Now when the days drew near for him to be taken up, Jesus set out resolutely to go to Jerusalem. 52 He sent messengers on ahead of him. As they went along, they entered a Samaritan village to make things ready in advance for him, 53 but the villagers refused to welcome him, because he was determined to go to Jerusalem. 54 Now when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them, … (Luke 9:51-55).
Or was it that this Canaanite was a woman? Whatever the reasons, the disciples pressed Jesus to be rid of her. His silence, followed by His later words, make it plain that the disciples were wrong.
https://bible.org/seriespage/23-lesson-hermeneutics-matthew-1521-39 continued:
ReplyDeleteSome people seem to think that Jesus was wrong here. But was Jesus wrong? Surely not! Let me begin by saying that we dare not judge our Lord by the process, but rather by the product of the process. Let’s look at the outcome of this encounter between Jesus, the disciples, and this Canaanite woman:
Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, your faith is great! Let what you want be done for you.” And her daughter was healed from that hour (Matthew 15:28).
Just what is it that troubles us about our Lord’s words and actions? Are we troubled by His silence? Remember, the disciples are pressing Jesus to get rid of her. When Jesus kept silent, He was refusing to grant the disciples’ request. To this woman, our Lord’s silence was golden, at least in part.
Now, what about Jesus’ seemingly harsh words to this Canaanite woman regarding Jews, Gentiles, and dogs? It has been helpful for me to consider this situation in the light of our Lord’s conversation with the Samaritan “woman at the well” in John 4.
In order for this Samaritan woman to come to faith, she needed to understand that her religion would not save her. The short version was, “salvation is from the Jews” (verse 22). Just as the scribes and Pharisees had to renounce their distorted version of the Jewish religion, the Samaritans had to reject their “faith” and trust only in Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. The same holds for the Canaanite woman. It had to be clear to her that Jesus came to Israel first, then to the Gentiles. Our Lord’s words to the Canaanite woman were the truth, truth necessary for salvation. They were no more harsh than the words of John the Baptist to the Jews, when he spoke of the coming judgment of God on (Jewish) sinners. Did Jesus humiliate this woman by speaking to her about “dogs”? I will deal with the term “dog” in a moment, but I would contend that we must be humbled if we are to come to God for mercy. We must see ourselves as unworthy sinners, undeserving of God’s blessings, and thus we are cast upon His grace, not our merits. What Jesus says to this woman is what the gospel says to every sinner: “You are not worthy to be in God’s presence. Confess that you are a sinner, worthy only of His eternal wrath, and call upon Him for mercy and grace.” The gospel is not meant to flatter us, but to save us from our sins and the penalty of eternal wrath. The things our Lord said (and didn’t say) to this woman resulted in one of the greatest declarations of faith in the New Testament. Why, then, do we seek to second guess our Lord in His dealings with this Canaanite woman?
ReplyDeleteHaving said this, I want to focus on this woman’s hermeneutics – her method of interpreting Jesus’ words and actions – leading to the appropriate response of faith. Unlike the feminists of our day, this woman was not offended by Jesus. She was not seeking to correct any flaws in Jesus’ thinking. She saw herself for what she was – a woman in desperate need, who could not rid her daughter of the demon that tormented her. She saw Jesus for what He was – a gracious and compassionate Savior, who was able (and hopefully willing) to extend mercy to her, and to her daughter.
I believe she (alone) rightly interpreted our Lord’s silence. In spite of the disciples’ persistent prodding to have Jesus send this woman away, Jesus did not tell the woman to leave. His silence in this regard was golden for the Canaanite woman. And what Jesus said was also encouraging to her. He said He was sent to the lost sheep of Israel. That was His mission. She was not seeking to dissuade Him from fulfilling His calling. And so she persisted to plead with Him to have mercy on her.
What seemed to be our Lord’s most inflammatory words did not put her off.
It has been commonly observed that our Lord’s choice of words for “dogs” is significant. He did not employ the term used for dogs that run wild in the streets (see Matthew 7:6; Luke 16:21), or which is used negatively of men (see Philippians 3:2; Revelation 22:15). Instead, Jesus used a term which might be rendered “lap dog,” because it was a household pet.
The Canaanite woman listened well to Jesus, even to His choice of words. Did Jesus refer to her as a “lap dog” that was a “household pet”? Good! She seized on this word, and made this the basis for her appeal.
Far from being offended by Jesus, she was inspired by Him to ask for what she desired. She was, in truth, a dog, and thus she asked for what such a dog might reasonably expect from its master.
https://bible.org/seriespage/23-lesson-hermeneutics-matthew-1521-39 continued:
How she must have delighted in our Lord’s response to her request. Jesus commended her faith in a way that no Jew was ever commended. Only the Gentile centurion was commended in a similar way (Matthew 8:10-12). She, like this centurion, trusted Jesus to heal the afflicted “long distance.”
My 2 cents:
ReplyDeleteJesus saw how His disciples wanted to send the woman away. I believe that His harsh words to the woman, her wise response, and His praise of her was for two purposes:
1. To give the woman's faith an opportunity to shine forth.
2. Perhaps even more importantly, it was a backhanded rebuke of His disciples. Jesus was probably saying what they were thinking, what they wanted Him to say. When the woman overcame the slur, He praised her. I believe that the watching disciples were probably ashamed at that point.
The disciples failed the test at the feeding of the 5000 and they failed the test here. Before they could take over Jesus' ministry, they needed their hearts to be right. They needed hearts that looked only at people's needs without seeing their own limitations in fulfilling them.
God is looking for disciples that are outraged when they see needs - to the point that not seeing them fulfilled is unacceptable. Failure is not an option.
My 2 cents (continued):
ReplyDeleteWhen seeing needs, we need to be in step with the Spirit. What we view as needs is not the same as what God sees. If we are outraged at something that God is not outraged at, He will not help us meet that need.
I'm sure that the disciples felt very strongly about certain things in which Jesus dismissed. Jesus was trying to get the disciples to care about what God cares about, and get their minds off of what they cared about.