Introduction:
Motherhood is a ministry; the moment the Lord commanded us to be fruitful and multiply was the very moment that the ministry of motherhood began. In life, we generally come across various forms of relationships like father-son, husband-wife, love, friendship and others, but the dearest of all is of a mother and her child’s relationship. In the terms of relationships the bond of a godly mother and her child is pure and holy. A mother is next to God, the late Rev. John J. Rector used to say, “Motherhood is the closet to divinity than anything on earth” it is a divine ministry (service).
In these difficult times we are living today, and as we come together to celebrate Mother’s Day the thought that has crossed my mind is that a mother’s faith in God is crucial to the welfare and livelihood of her children. As I grew up and became a man I never really gave it much thought that my mother’s prayers aided in bringing through. She would pray for me even when I was too mean to live but not fit to die. She would pray for me even when I refused to pray for myself. There’s something special about a mother’s prayer, for one thing you know a mother’s pray is from the heart and full of faith. These are critical here in America, unemployment, threats of nuclear war, debates concerning marriage of same-sex couples, etc. and of this affects the future of our children; we really need the prayers of mothers everywhere.
Here in the text, we find Jesus going up to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Tyre and Sidon are cities that are outside the boundaries of Israel, located in today’s Lebanon. This is Gentile territory that Jesus is entering. The people who lived there were not Jews; they did not follow the religion of Israel. They were Gentiles--“pagans,” who followed paganistic beliefs and could not care less about God or the things of God. This is a difficult passage to understand because Jesus’ response to this woman seems harsh and insensitive. He was silent and seemed to show a lack of interest to mother’s desperate need, which is an attitude that we wouldn’t normally attribute to Him. However, we need to remember: unlike us, Jesus knew what was in this woman’s heart and He knew exactly what she needed. For sure, He was not rejecting this woman, because He never turned from anyone who earnestly sought Him. The problem was, this woman, this mother saw Jesus as only the Son of David (flesh and blood), she viewed Him as only a great miracle worker. She limited Him to only having an earthly power and she needed to grow in her concept of Jesus. Before we become angry with her and misjudge her, let me say that most of us need to grow in our concept or our knowledge of Jesus Christ (Read 2 Peter 1: 2-11). The woman simply needed to grow in her faith and this exchange between Christ and this dear mother is the key to this story of the Syrophoenician woman, Jesus is merely teaching her (and us) what it takes to receive the things of God.
1.) SHE CRIED OUT TO JESUS
Jesus is taking His disciples aside for some much needed rest; He was taking them on a retreat so to speak. A quiet place away from the crowd, we all know that in order to fully rest it is required that we not receive any distractions. In fact, they went to vicinity or the outskirts of Tyre and not the city, and they did this in order to escape notice, and again to receive some badly needed rest. This woman had to very desperate in seeking out Jesus because in order to find Him it required her to do some traveling.
This mother was at her wit’s end, her daughter was not just ill she was acting very strange as well. Maybe she was struggling with seizures, experiencing bouts of temper; even foaming at the mouth, because the truth is she was possessed by a demon. She was suffering from something that your average doctor could not handle, this woman’s daughter must have transformed from a sweet little angel into an unrecognizable beast almost over-night. And there was no one to help, and at first the mother didn’t know what to do, what do you do when you don’t know what to do? Do you give up and just suffer it to be so? No, you call on the only One who is able to help you. Somehow she discovered that a miracle worker named Jesus was in town. And there was rumor floating around town that this miracle worker was able to do all kinds of healing, cure blindness, cause the lame to walk, raise people from the dead — and cast out demons. The only problem was that this miracle worker she heard so much about was not of her faith (if she had one) and not a member of her community. The problem for her was that He was a stranger, an outsider. And even today in the year 2013, there are people who see Jesus as a stranger, an outsider. Is Jesus a stranger to you? Be careful how you answer, remember the story of the road to Emmaus? The story of two friends feeling depressed after all that had happened to Jesus. He was their hope and now he was gone.
They were feeling pretty confused and frustrated. Suddenly out of nowhere a 'stranger' joins them on their journey. Of course we know this is Jesus. How many times in your own life have you failed to recognize Jesus? How many times have you felt discouraged, depressed, disillusion, and destitute? How many times have you felt all alone only to finally realize that He was there all the time? This poor woman, this mother who loved a child was tore up from the floor up, she had an extremely great need in fact it was an emergency, of all things for a mother to have to worry about she has to worry about an exorcism for her child. She lived in a hedonistic community, and so until Jesus came around she and her child were absolutely doomed, here in text when that this woman had to cry out to Jesus, and she cried out for at least three things.
First, she cried out for mercy, no matter what our problem may be Jesus can never turn away from a desperate cry for His mercy. In these critical times that we are living in, we have to cry out to the Lord for both His grace and His mercy. Secondly, she cried for the “Son of David” this is important to us because it allows us to see that she had a limited concept of Jesus Christ—she must have thought that the Jews Messiah was somehow they physical son of David through only an earthly lineage and as long as she thought this it prevented Jesus from working on her behalf, and it helps us to understand just why Jesus spoke to her in the manner He did. It helps us to understand that Jesus was actually trying to build up her faith. Thirdly, she didn’t cry out for herself, she cried out for someone else, she cried out for her child. A while back, the great Rhythm & Blues duo, Sam and Dave sung a beautiful love song entitled, “When Something Is Wrong With My Baby, Something is Wrong With Me” and I can’t help but think that this thought could easily be applied to any good mother who loves her children. When something is wrong concerning their children, it is no different than something wrong with them. She truly loved her daughter; she loved her so deeply until she considered her daughter’s problem her very own problem. We often cry out to the Lord because He is our first line (actually our only line) of defense.
2.) SHE NEVER GAVE UP
She had some major obstacles in her way, but they did not make her give up. Every mother or rather every good mother will not give up when it comes to her child. This woman never gave up, despite of Jesus’ silence, despite the objection of the disciples, and most certainly despite the fact that she was actually referred to as being a dog. Eventhough at first Jesus said nothing at all; she was not going to let Jesus go until He helped her. What does this say about some of us? We pray and if the Lord doesn’t answer us when we feel He should have, we sometimes place it in our mind that He just doesn’t care and as a result we give up praying to Him all together. But not this woman, she didn’t give up eventhough the disciples lodged their objections—you see she was extremely aggravating to them, and they already had dismissed her as being unworthy because she was a Gentile and being as such they fully expected for Jesus to promptly send her away.
It is obvious that she followed them around for quite some time, coupled with the fact that Jesus totally ignored her and so they just assumed that He would not assist someone who they actually considered an enemy. Now, I don’t about you but I’ll be honest I probably would have given up by then, and if you’re honest with yourself you would have too. I mean, the silence of Jesus and the objection of the disciples who thought it not wrong to prejudge me because of who I was? They didn’t know her, she was not Jewish and so as far as the disciples were concerned she had no right whatsoever to come knocking on their door. But despite all this, she wouldn’t give up, mind you if it were she who had directly suffered a problem it’s possible she would have thrown in the towel—but it was her child, and if it’s your child you’re going take whatever means necessary! That is if you are a good parent. It was a critical time in her life and in the life of her child and she was not about to give up.
Get this; she didn’t give up even after being called of all things—a dog. Jesus indirectly refers to her as a dog, and almost every Bible reader and/or interpreter has called this exchange an extreme insult. To be called a dog during this time meant that you were considered to be ‘unclean’ this word always carried with it some negative connotations. During this time, dogs were not domestic pets to given cute and unique names. They were considered to be no different than that of a rat. The word dog was a commonly used Jewish metaphor for Gentiles, which most likely indicated their ungodliness. Isn’t it strange that even today a few young men love to call their closest friends “my dog”? Here, Jesus is not being harsh or insulting as some may think, Jesus never spoke harshly or rejected anyone who came to Him with a desperate need. I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking well preacher, if these words were not meant to be insulting or harsh why did He even use them? I’m glad you asked Jesus had to move this woman, this mother forward in her faith, she had to learn how to be persistent yet humble and she had to learn how to trust in Him. Jesus knew that this was an extremely critical time in her life and in her child’s life. And in order to effectively help this poor woman it was necessary for her faith to be completely intact.
3.) SHE HUMBLED HERSELF
She had to know that He was the Lord and Master of everyone’s life and not just the Jews. He had to get her to inadvertently give Him a promotion within her own mindset because He was much more than just the Son of David. Some people of that day (and even today) had a deep misconception of Jesus Christ, Some said Jesus was a great teacher; some said He was a great revolutionary. Still a few others said that He was just a Prophet or a great spiritual leader. Jesus is actually all of these things, but He also is much, much more. Jesus is much more than a great teacher, more than a revolutionary, more than a prophet and more than a spiritual leader. Although the title Son of David is used in both the physical sense and spiritual sense, I believe this woman was simply stuck on Jesus’ power in a physical sense of the word. Most likely she still worshipped false gods and this made her undeserving; she had to be moved pass the concept of Jesus being merely a man made of flesh and blood and she had to see the truth that Jesus was the Messiah and the only hope for all mankind.
Yes, this woman was a heathen but she did something that most of us blood bought Christians never learned to do. She not only called Him Lord, she worshipped Him as Lord. At first she approached Him only as a great man but somewhere within the discourse she came to worship Him as Lord and when we worship Him as Lord then we should become humble before Him. Some in the church today say they worship Him as Lord but still lack humility. They argue and fight, become angry with the pastor, and jump from one church to the other all because they have not humbled themselves before the Lord. That’s why I said this woman—a heathen, learned more that day than a lot of us in church have learned, you have to humble yourself before the Lord. So the Lord tells this woman, this desperate mother, “It is not right to take the bread of the Gospel that belong to true worshippers of God and give it to dogs (heathens). She was a Greek; she was from a race of people who actually despised the Jews. Greeks often thought of themselves as being superior over the Jews and as a result they both hated each other.
Do you see the significance in all this? A Greek woman and mother caught up in a critical time in her life and in her child’s life. Here we have a woman who previously and most likely was a devout worshipper of false gods, a heathen, a sinner, and an outsider who met up with Jesus. And let me say that once truly, truly meet Jesus you will never be the same, she heard that Jesus was in town and she sought after Him and within their exchange she became humble before Him. Greeks were a proud people, much too proud to bow down to a Jew, but this woman, a good mother had great insight, she knew that Jesus was not being insulting, and she owned up to the fact that she was living a hedonistic life. Look at verse 25 once again if you will, it says “she knelt down before Him” for sure many prayers have been answered from a mother on her knees. Her answer to the Lord’s question was yes it is right for her to take the bread of Gospel, and it’s right because even the family dog ate the crumbs that fell from its master’s table.
CONCLUSION
If we don’t get anything else from this portion of scripture we need to understand this, the experience of this mother cause her to believe that Jesus meet her need in a critical time. And she would not let Him go until her need was met. She believes in Him so strongly until there was no way she would ever give up. A good mother never gives up on her child, and most importantly she never gives up in calling on the Lord. What a testimony, what a blessing, to have Jesus Himself to say that your faith is great. In the entire bible there are only two people whose faith the Lord called great, the centurion and this mother. In these critical times, violence everywhere, immorality everywhere, wars and rumors of wars, the faith of a good mother is a powerful weapon against the wiles of the devil.
