The faith of a nameless mother
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.
I. Introduction
I want you to notice as we begin our study:
• Verse 28 “you have Great faith.”
• What is the quality of great faith?
• Greek word…’great’ is “mega”. “Mega-Faith.”
•
So Jesus says of this woman, “You have mega-faith, great faith.”
II. What is it about the faith of this woman that constitutes it as great faith?
The Bible has much to say about faith.
Weak faith, strong faith, bold, rich, abiding, steadfast, dead, precious, common, and many others.
It also speaks of little faith and great faith. This text is the second reference in Matthew’s gospel in which Jesus speaks of great faith. But what is it about Mega-Faith?
a. First incident , Roman Centurion story. Matt. 8:5
“I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.”
• Man felt unworthy for Jesus to enter under his roof.
• He had shown sincerity, sensitivity, humility, love and depth of faith.
Sometimes we receive instant answers from the Lord. Sometimes we don’t.
• Paul, prayed three times in great earnestness for his “thorn in the flesh” to be removed. Lord’s answer 2 Cor 12:7-9
Now let’s get to our text, verse 21
Jesus left Galilee….
• The political and military wanted to take Him and force Him to be a king, rush Him to Jerusalem in the Passover to overthrow Romans.
• The Scribes and Pharisees were confronting Him with a desire to plot against and take His life
• Add to that the fact that the mass of people who followed Him, after John 6, when He began to delineate to them the principles of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, "Walked no more with Him."
You can see that the religious leaders and religious people, who were initially attracted to Him, were beginning to move against Him.
Remember what Jesus said of tyre and Sidon?
Korazin and Bethsaida? Matt 11:20
She would have been one who repented.
This is the area Jesus is in. about 50 miles north of Galilee.
Same place as God sent Elijah to rest…and meet a woman.
Verses 22-27
Woman was a Canaanite, Mark calls her “Syro-phoenician.”
• Probably worshipper of Astarte a pagan God popular in that region.
Woman’s plea was evidence of her penitence.
• She knew she didn’t deserve Jesus’ help.
• She knew she was unworthy.
• Her only hope for undeserved forgiveness was in His mercy.
• She didn’t come demanding but pleading.
• She didn’t ask Jesus’ help on her goodness but Jesus’ goodness.
Today: Mother will pray ceaselessly for their children/spouse.
Adult son comes home, Mother sees them as their child not an adult. Father sees them as an adult. Mother’s will always nuture.
The woman cried out!, “Have mercy on me!
• She had come to know her unworthiness.
JESUS IS AN EXPERT ON FAITH.
The Bible tells us that He searched for it as a gem collector searches for fine jewels, and when He found it He was filled with joy. He didn’t always find it in His disciples.
Not once did He say to Peter, John, or James, “You have great faith.”
But He said it to this nameless mother from outside the house of Israel!
What did this woman do to deserve such praise from God? She had 5 remarkable elements of great faith.
III. first one is that great faith, or mega-faith, is properly directed
A. put her faith in the right person
B. disillusioned with Astarte, disillusioned with the idols, the no-gods, the dumb deities
C. She now puts her faith in the right object, and that is the first and foremost characteristic of great faith - it has the right object.
Can you say today, “I have great faith?”
For faith to make sense and have power, must be placed in trustworthy object.
The woman came, turning her back on the idols, and believed in the Lord, the Son of David. Her object of faith was correct.
• She turned from her faith in false gods, dumb deities, no-gods, idols, and cried out to Him.
Don’t place your faith in worldly things, just Jesus.
Hebrews 12:2 says Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith.
There are people who are being damned to Hell by faith in the wrong object; they believe in the wrong thing.
They may believe very hard, but it’s the wrong object.
Great faith has the right object, and is properly directed.
This women coming out of paganism
• Putting her faith in right person.
• This is great faith.
IV. Secondly, it is not only properly directed, but it is repentant.
• Turning from sin to God. Verse 22.
• What does mercy mean? What does mercy say?
Does it say, “Hey, I’m here to tell you what I deserve?” NO.
It says, “I’m here in spite of the fact that I don’t deserve anything.”
This lady is asking for mercy. A sense of unworthiness..
She is not coming demanding anything.
Her only hope was in Jesus’ gracious mercy.
There is repentance, a sense of unworthy, undeserving penitence.
Great faith has repentance; repentance isn’t something you add to faith. It is in it.
The Greek word repentance means “a change of mind.”
• God wants us to do this.
• The first step we must take is to change our minds about who will control our lives.
Our will says, “Let me be the boss.”
• kind of pride that caused Lucifer, the prince of darkness, to be cast out of heaven.
• Adam and Eve to be cast out of the Garden of Eden.
They all wanted to be equal with God and run their own lives.
Change your mind and get rid of lust, anger, fear, anxiety, bitterness, and other conflicts, which are the result of pride.
Peter says, "God is not slack concerning His promise, or willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
Romans 2:4 "The goodness of God is meant to lead you to repentance,"
So the woman came, and turned form idols, with a sense of unworthiness.
There was repentance, and in that repentance was a turning and penitence. This is mega-faith.
Do you have a repentant heart today?
• Do you fear the Lord in His divine truth?
• Do you ask for repentance in your prayers?
• Does your heart yearn for obedience to His name?
V. Her faith was not only properly directed and repentant, but it was reverent.
She could teach our day a lot, don’t you think?
Surely she is like the leper of chapter 8, who came and worshiped Him saying, "Lord, if You will, You can make me clean,"
She knew Jesus could raise her daughter from the demon vexation.
• How many nameless mothers’ today pray adamantly for the salvation of their children?
• Weeping, and mourning the Lord’s will done in their lives.
Yes, there is deity in her use of the word Lord.
Great faith, the kind of faith that you see with this woman, has great reverence, a sense of respect and awe.
It is kind of nice to see a pagan mother, outside the covenant, who didn’t know God, who loved her baby.
We don’t always see that in our society.
But I do see that basically, God has built in, even to pagans, that a woman should love her child. We see less than that today.
VI. Great faith is properly targeted, repentant, and reverent. A fourth thought, which the heart of the text is--Great faith is persistent.
This mother refused to be put off or intimidated. She was not going to take criticism or silence as an answer.
Jesus puts up a bunch of barriers.
• Some people against strong doubts before they believe
• Some struggle against the objections of friends/family
• Some struggle never heard gospel clearly presented.
But this woman struggled through the barrier of Christ himself.
• He answered her not a word." He didn’t say a word to her.
• She persisted, Jesus continued to ignore.
• Disciples came upset at women, puzzled at Jesus
• You say, "That isn’t like Christ. I mean, why did He do that?"
• But what was He doing? Why didn’t He say anything?
Jesus had enough of shallowness, of superficiality,
• People who came and got what they wanted and left.
• He had gotten all He needed of that in Galilee;
• There was enough shallow soil and weedy ground
He wanted to strengthen, test, pull this woman’s faith to its full flower
• So He puts up barriers through with she must persist to show the reality of true faith.
• Contrast with the shallowness of the prior ones we’ve seen.
Moving of this woman to great, saving, mega-faith.
Matthew 7, Jesus said that the gate is narrow and few find it?
Luke 13:24 says, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.”
It may foul up your theology a little bit, but Jesus resists shallow faith and wants to demonstrate in this woman the truest faith,
so He puts up the barriers through with only genuine faith will persist.
The gospel says, be careful, once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’” Luke 13:25
But he will answer, “I don’t know you or where you come from.”
Do you want to hear that?
JESUS REPLY: Instead, He says this to her, and of course, they heard. "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
What a terrible thing to say! It’s saying, "Lady, you’re not a Jew. Sorry."
Why would He say that?
He had healed
• the centurion’s servant
• given grace to a Samaritan.
• multitudes had come out of Tyre and Sidon in Matthew 4 and been healed,
• demons had been cast out of them. What is this? "
I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
That’s like saying, "Go away; you’re not a member of this church. We don’t care what your needs are; you’re not a member." What a strange statement.
What is He saying? I think, to the disciples
• He’s saying first of all that the plan is still on course.
• He hadn’t turned His back on Israel yet, in spite of their hostility, hatred, bitterness, and murderous plots against Him.
• He was still calling them to repentance.
• He would go back into Israel, and preach to them and call them to believe and come to His Kingdom; right up to the end,
But she had Great faith, He separates her from the shallow.
Persistence is the hallmark of godly-motherhood.
VII. The next characteristic of her faith - it was humble.
a. She showed humility and character.
* She was prepared to cross any obstacle to turn to Jesus for help. How?
Time: Making time, morn, night. Prayer, meditation. Church.
Culture: Rom 12:2….
Pride: the greatest barrier.
Science: if you can’t see it, does it exist?
She is humble. By the way, it says that she worshiped, and the word is proskuneo, which means she bowed down, and put her head in the dirt in worship.
VIII. This is the truly seeking heart, the beatitude attitude
where you come begging in your spirit, meekly, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and even the Lord Himself cannot put sufficient barriers to hold you back.
This is a great truth.
• Her request was so humble.
• She is bowed down, with her head in the dirt, saying, "Lord, help me."
• She doesn’t argue, or get into a theological debate.
• She is so humble, and in deep distress, with no pride.
She didn’t say, ”do you think Jews are Better than everyone else?" Not at all.
She doesn’t say, "Hey, Lord, it’s me. Aren’t You thrilled?"
There is none of that. She’s saying, "You’re the only one and I’m here because of that, and I’m going to stay here."
It is complete absence of pride, and self-reliance, and self-sufficiency. That marks great faith.
Jesus’ tested her faith. He has done this before…
He said to Abraham, "You’re going to have a son," then made him wait years until that son came.
Romans 4 tells us why: Abraham grew strong in faith. He was strengthened by testing.
Then there was the time that the Lord was going to feed the multitude, and He knew He was going to feed the multitude, and Philip says, "Lord, what are we going to do? What are we going to do?"
And Jesus plants the problem in Philip’s mind, but the whole time, He knows He’s going to feed the whole crowd! The Bible says, "This He did to test Him," or work on his faith.
When Lazarus died, He didn’t come; He stayed away until Lazarus was beyond sick, but dead. And not only dead, but dead four days. Then He shows up. Why did He wait? In John 11, He says, "For your sake, that you may believe." He tested their faith.
Verses 15:26-27, . 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.”
That’s what Jesus is doing with this woman:
• drawing out her faith,
• Letting it demonstrate its reality.
• He’s delaying to test her;
• putting up the fences and making her plow through them.
Jesus gives this barrier, "It’s not fitting to take the children’s bread and give it to dogs."
And she said, "Yes, Lord." “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
she’s persistent. It’s true.
• children refer to the Jews
• dogs refer to the Gentiles.
Through the time that Jesus was feeding the children of Israel, crumbs were dropping to the Gentiles, and we see it all through the gospel account.
Finally, of course, the dawn will come when the church is born and Gentiles are embraced in a marvelous way.
What a persistent lady. Will you be that nameless Mother today?
Watch our Lord’s response in verse 28. "Then Jesus answered and said to her, ’O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.’
And her daughter was healed from that very hour." I believe that was a saving day for that lady, because she had great faith.
Spurgeon says, "The Lord of glory surrendered to the faith of the woman."
What a story. She brought her great faith and found the blessing she sought.
That’s what great faith does.
Let’s bow together in prayer.
I’m reminded, Father, that we see many instances in the gospels where people break through hindrances keeping them from Christ - the paralytic breaking through the outward hindrance, the roof; blind Bartameus pushing his way through the hindrance of his fellow man; and this woman, maybe most heroic of all, breaks through the hindrances even placed by Christ Himself. We thank You, Father, for the true faith that forces its way through opposition until it can draw living water from the wells of salvation. May Your Spirit produce in the hearts of many this day great faith, faith that saves, desperate faith that says, "I turn from everything, acknowledging my unworthiness, I cry for help to the one who alone can help. Nothing will still that cry, and I ask in humble worship." Father, may that be the faith in our hearts.
We pray that You will work Your work, that no one would come short of great faith, and in having great faith, genuinely hungering and thirsting for Christ, coming in meekness and brokenness to embrace the Savior. Do Your work, Lord, and we will praise You. In Christ’s name, amen.
