OPEN: In 1948, Harry Truman authorized an expenditure of $10,000 to have a balcony installed on the south side of the second floor of the White House. He’d barely gotten around to enjoying it when he became the first president since James Madison to evacuate the White House out of fear for his life.
“Found the White House ‘falling down,’” he wrote in his diary. “My daughter’s sitting room floor had broken down into the family dining room.”
Truman had lived in the White House long enough to know that it wasn’t in the best of shape – the floor in the upstairs study swayed and creaked when he walked across it, and the chandelier in the Blue Room swung back and forth for no reason. But he was astonished at the what structural engineers told him:
The beams that held the building up had been cut into so many times, and were carrying so much more weight than they had been designed to carry, that they had begun to split under the strain.
The entire building was on the verge of collapse. The family quarters on the second floor were in such bad shape that they were being held up “purely by habit”.
Truman had 3 choices:
1. Move away and have the White House designated a museum
2. Tear the White House down and build a replica in its place;
3. Save the exterior walls, tear down everything else, and replace it with an exact replica of the original interior.
Truman chose the third option and moved across the street to Blair House, normally the government’s guest house for visiting heads of state. According to Kenneth Leish:
“Mantelpieces, wall paneling, fixtures, moldings – all taken apart and stored for later reinstallation. Then the whole interior was demolished and steel beams were erected to support the new interior. The entire structure was fireproofed and air-conditioned and the outer walls were shored up. It took four years and more the $5 million…”(Uncle John’s Great Big Bathroom Reader p. 398)
APPLY: On the outside the White House of 1948 was a beautiful building that appeared to be structurally sound and stable.
But on the inside, it was falling apart and dangerous.
It was in serious need of drastic surgery to become useful again.
Keep that thought in the back of your mind for a moment.
The story we read here in Matthew seems to paint a picture of a Jesus I’m not entirely comfortable with.
I mean – the Jesus I know is:
The good shepherd.
The loving teacher
The healer who would reach into broken lives and make them whole
The Son of God who came to earth to die for our sins.
Everything we’ve read about Him in the Gospels speaks of a tender and loving savior who gave all He had for us
But here in this text we seem to be seeing an entirely different Jesus. Here, He appears to be harsh, callous, uncaring.
We’re told of grieving mother who comes to Him seeking help.
And what does He do?
First He ignores this woman.
Then He tells His disciples that His ministry is only for the lost sheep of Israel.
Then He calls her… a dog!
When I first read this… it made me cringe
This isn’t the Jesus I know.
This isn’t how I’d expect my Savior to respond to a woman in crisis.
But then… I looked a little deeper and I realized a couple of things that I hadn’t seen at first.
1. This is NOT the first time Jesus has been approached by Gentiles for help. In Luke 6:17 we’re told that shortly after Jesus chose His 12 disciples “a great multitude of people out of all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases”
Jesus healed people from Tyre and Sidon– just like this woman was - only a few months earlier
AND in Mt. 8 - just a few chapters previously– Jesus heals servant of a Roman centurion.
Romans were Gentiles just like this lady was
They were hated by almost all the Jews.
And yet Jesus didn’t object to healing that man’s servant.
2. This is the ONLY TIME we know of that He ventured into the land of Tyre and Sidon, and (as far as we can tell) this is the ONLY person that He met while He was there.
Do you think Jesus knew about this woman before she came to Him?
Do you think Jesus knew she was going to come and seek His help?
AND do you suppose that maybe He came to Tyre specifically to meet her? (I think so)
This is Jesus - the Son of God.
He knows everything.
And I’m convinced that He came to the land of Tyre and Sidon just for this encounter.
(pause)
Now, what kind of woman is she?
Well she’s a Canaanite.
A pagan.
More than likely she has been a worshipper of idols.
And she’s from the land of Tyre and Sidon.
Now this last is NOT a good thing.
Just a few days earlier, Jesus condemned the towns who’d rejected His teachings saying "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 will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.” Matthew 11:21-22
Tyre and Sidon were the personification of wickedness.
They were the “sin-cities” of their day.
Had there been an advertising company back then that could have been hired to promote their cities, the tag line might have read a little like this:
”What happens in Tyre and Sidon… stays in Tyre and Sidon”
Theirs was a land filled with immorality, corruption and self-indulgence
Now ordinarily, Jews didn’t have much to do with Gentiles.
A gentile was anyone who was not born of Jewish parents.
How many of you here have Jewish parentage? (no hands were raised)
Then you are Gentiles.
Jews wouldn’t talk to you.
They wouldn’t eat with you
They would have hated they idea of even doing business with you.
Archeologists have found giant pools in the homes of Jews of that day called “Mikvahs”, and it appears that one of the major uses of these pools was to wash off the ceremonial filthiness of items purchased from Gentiles.
The general attitude towards these non-Jews was that they were to be tolerated at best… hated at worst.
The Jews even had a term to describe their feelings about the Gentiles: “koo´-ohn”. (Strong # 2965)
It means “a Dog”
This is not dogs like Duke or Trixie or Poochie.
Jews didn’t name these kind of dogs.
These kind of dogs were curs, mongrels, scavengers that dragged garbage thru the streets.
They are unclean filthy animals.
So, when the disciples look at this woman that’s what they saw.
She was a “dog”
A worthless excuse for a human being.
But worse still… she was from the land of Tyre and Sidon. Her people were the worst of all Gentiles.
So, when she comes to the house Jesus is staying at crying out for help, the disciples just want to be rid of her: “Send her away,” they say “for she keeps crying out after us" Matthew 15:23
They don’t want her around.
She’s not worthy of their Master’s attention.
(pause)
Now these are the disciples of Christ.
Just a few months before, Jesus had spent all night praying about them, selecting them to be the future leaders in the church He had come to establish.
They’re going to set the pattern for what the church will be like.
They will establish the mindset of generations of believers.
And deep within their heart of hearts is this bigotry and hatred of people like this woman.
On the outside, these men look like they might be ready for the job of leadership.
They’ve been with Jesus for a couple of years now.
They’ve preached to crowds
They’ve healed the sick
They’ve cast out demons.
They look like their ready. But they’re not.
They look good… on the outside.
But on the inside, they’re a little like an old building that’s falling apart.
There’s something ugly and dangerous on the inside that makes them structurally unsound.
They are in serious need of drastic surgery to make them useful to God.
Jesus knows what’s going thru His disciples’ minds
He knows how they view this Canaanite woman
And that’s why they’re here in the land of Tyre and Sidon.
That’s why He lets this little drama play out as it does.
Jesus knows all about this woman.
He knows of her sorrow and her pain and her need
AND He knows that she’s the kind of person He came to earth to help
Jesus loves this woman… but His disciples don’t
In Luke 19:10 Jesus said that He had come “to seek and to save what was lost."
He repeatedly spent time with people who no one else wanted to have around
The tax collectors, the prostitutes, the losers, the sinners.
These folks were not that much different than the woman that stands outside the house He’s now in.
In Romans 5:8 we’re told “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Titus 3:3-5 says “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.”
He’s talking about US here.
He’s saying that before He came into our lives that’s kind of how we lived our lives.
And He could have left us that way. He could have totally ignored us.
He could have simply let us go to hell. But He didn’t.
Titus 3 goes on to say “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit”
Jesus starts out real slow here.
This woman stands outside the house He’s in crying out,
"Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession." Matthew 15:22
And Jesus treats her just the way His disciples would expect of a good Jewish rabbi.
He ignores her.
Maybe He’s reading.
Maybe He’s sitting in a chair with His closed.
Maybe He’s just looking off into space.
But He’s obviously ignoring this woman.
But she’s not the type to be ignored
She’s a desperate woman pleading for her daughter
She keeps crying out "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!
Again and again and again she cries out
And the disciples can’t hardly stand it.
Yes, she’s a gentile… yes, she’s part of a wicked nation.
Yes, they wouldn’t ordinarily give her the time of day.
But this is beginning to wear on their nerves.
“Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
They’ve seen mothers like this in their own villages and towns.
Women who love their sons and their daughters so deeply that they’d be willing to do anything to protect them.
They’ve seen pain like this before.
They’ve seen sorrow that can’t be healed
And they just want it to go away.
And so they say to Jesus "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." Matthew 15:23
Now, inherent in their request, is the desire that Jesus should grant her request…
That’s why Jesus gently prods them by saying:
"I’m sorry… I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." Matthew 15:24
This woman has worn them down with her constant pleas.
They want her now to get what she came for.
They want Jesus to heal the woman’s daughter… but He holds back… why?
Well, because there’s one more thing He wants them to see
And that’s when the woman runs into the room, and kneels down at Jesus’ feet
"Lord, help me!" she pleads.
It’s then that Jesus echoes the bigotry that His disciples had felt only a few moments before.
He replied, "It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their DOGS." Matthew 15:26
I can almost hear Him emphasize that last word
Because that’s what His disciples had thought of her just a few moments before.
She was no better than a mongrel, a cur, a filthy DOG
But Jesus doesn’t say this as a curse or an insult
In fact, He didn’t even use the same kind of word that most Jews would have spat out at her
Ordinarily, Jews used the word koo´-ohn - used of a filthy mutt
But Jesus used a slightly different word: koo-nar´-ee-on (Strong # 2952) - which means a little dog, or a puppy.
In the days of Jesus, wealthy people would keep little dogs as pets… just like we do.
If you have a pet dog or cat, how do you treat them?
You feed them.
You shelter them
You care for them
They’re like part of the family.
And I can see the woman… smile.
She knows what He’s saying.
He’s told her in a very simple way that she was beloved of God
And almost shyly you can hear her as she says:
"Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table." Matthew 15:27
You see… this is what His disciples needed to hear.
They needed to hear, and know, that God loved even this woman they had despised.
CLOSE: Years ago, the TV news program 20/20 had a segment on the marketing of baby chicks. They filmed the process of the packaging department as cute little tiny chicks traveled on conveyer belts past workers. As they moved along the belt the workers would select them to fit into boxes to be shipped out and sold.
The chicks were chosen by sex, size, general appearance.
But some were not chosen.
The cameras followed these unchosen baby chicks as they slipped by the workers and fell off the end of the conveyer belt… to die.
There are people in this world that don’t fit into the box.
They travel through life, never getting picked… never chosen
That’s the way of this world.
If you don’t fit into the box, you’re rejected and left to die.
But the cross declares that this is not the way God deals with us.
God doesn’t choose us because we fit into a box.
He chooses us because He loves us.
But there are a few conditions to being chosen by God, and this woman reflected those conditions in how she approached Jesus that day.
First she accepted Him on His terms.
He was the Lord… He was the Son of David.
He was the prophesied Son of God who had come to her Messiah.
Secondly, she came seeking mercy.
She didn’t come expecting what was fair/ just/ or equitable
She came to Him asking for mercy because she knew she didn’t deserve it.
And she came to Jesus on His terms
And that is what is expected of us today as well.
Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God?
Do you acknowledge that you are a sinner and that only the blood of Jesus can cover your sins?
Do you accept Him as your Lord and Master?
And are you now willing to be buried in the waters of Christian baptism and rise up to a new life in Him?
