Passing The Test

Passing the Test

Adapted from John Ortberg’s message

Intro:

Read Matt 15:21-28

How many of you think Jesus seems a little rude here?

Be honest. Boy are you in trouble.

Let me explain what’s going on in this passage. Among other things, Jesus is the greatest teacher to ever lived. I don’t know of another passage that more effectively shows the absolute brilliance of Jesus the teacher.

Several things characterize a great teacher and they are at work in this passage.

A great teacher aims not just at dispensing information, but at changing lives!.

A master teacher doesn’t just give lectures; he or she creates experiences for people.

The teachers knew truth is most powerful when people have to work to discover it.

The new truth discovered has a much deeper impact than truth just presented.

We’ve all experienced that. an update

And a master teacher is able to teach more than one person or group at a time. They’re teaching is going on at different levels. A master teachers methods are not always clear to their students at the time

For instance, Jesus was an expert at using what Walter Wink has called " deliberately induced frustration " e with his disciples.

He tells them once I to feed a crowd when they don’t have enough food.

He tells them to cast out demons they’re not able to cast out.

He puts them in a boat one day with a storm coming up.

Deliberately induced frustration in the hands of a master teacher is a powerful learning tool.

Master Teachers are always testing and probing to help their students see where they are on the learning curve.

This passage is about the master teacher.

Ken Bailey, has written insightfully on this encounter and notes that to grasp the point of the passage. you have to see what Jesus is giving a test for 2 different sets of people.

And tests are not always pleasant to the ones who were being tested

*illustration--- There is a story is a guy taking a class in ornithology, the study of birds.

The teacher has a reputation for being extremely difficult, so this guy studies his brains out for the final.

He comes the classroom feeling prepared, but instead of having normal test, there are 25 pictures on the wall of Bird’s feet.

He is supposed to identify the birds by their feet----- this kid goes nuts,

and he says to the teacher, “ it This is crazy. Nobody could take this test.

The teacher says, “ nevertheless, you have to take. "

The kid says,” I am not going to take it.”

And the teacher says, “You have to take it, or you fail. "

The kid says go ahead and fail me. I am not going to take this test

Teacher says, all right. That’s it. You have failed. Tell me your name.?

The Kid roll his pants up to his knees and says, “You tell me.”

This encounter with Jesus is a test both of his disciples and of this Canaanite woman, and we will see who aces it. and who gets in a complete.

Jesus goes for some rest with his disciples to a region far to the north. Tyre and Sidon are two Phoenician cities on the Mediterranean coast and the Israelites. Despised these people..

The Jewish historian Josephus , who wrote roughly in the time of Christ wrote , " the people of but Tyre are our bitterest enemies .

To see how badly they are of by the And Jewish people go to Matthew and 11:20

Jesus had performed miracles among the Israelites, but the people did not respond.

Then Jesus began to denounce the city’s " these are Israelite cities--- in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent.

Woe to you, Korazin!

Woe to you Bethasaida!

If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have to 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 .”

He is saying: Even the most wicked people you think you know—even Tyre and Sidon, the bottom of this. spiritual barrel---- would have repented if they had seen the miracle that you have seen.

The point is: This woman would have been regarded by the disciples as the enemy and member of the most spiritually degraded people they know.

She come to Jesus s in Matthew 15 with the traditional crying of a beggar.

" have mercy on me. She humble herself, and she added the title to let: Lord!

The Greek word “kurios” that could mean “sir” but it could also mean “Master” or “Lord.”