Introduction
As we continue our monthly theme this March “Know God, Know Mercy”, we have learned last week about the mercy and grace of God towards us. As we recall, Ptr. Mildred emphasized on how God showed His mercy and grace to His beloved people. Ephesians 2:4-5 “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
John 1:16 “Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.
There is an abounding mercy of God to His people because of His great love Who is rich in mercy and grace upon grace we have been blessed by God. Not only He saved us by His grace, but he blessed us continually due to His abounding mercy.
Now last week, we have defined mercy from grace. And as a simplest definition, mercy is the act of God not giving us what we deserved, while grace is the act of God giving us what do not deserved.
God’s abounding mercy means His mercy is without end, without limit, it never stops, and always available.
Today’s passage, we will see an instance where we can see God’s abounding mercy and grace to one of His mission here on earth, and that is to show His love and compassion to the needy. Let’s read
Matthew 15:21-28 NIV:
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.
Today we are also celebrating “International Women’s Day” where we see the power and effect of women in our society. Coincidentally, our story is about a woman who has an incredible faith to Jesus and because of that she experienced one of the great attributes of our Lord Jesus which His abounding mercy and grace. We will see and expound how this woman was able to get what she wanted from God and what God saw in her that He was able to give to her what she deserved.
What did Jesus saw on this Canaanite woman that Jesus wanted to see in everyone of us?
1. Her Persistency. – v22-24
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.”
What were the factors why this woman needed to be persistent in her request to God.
A. She was a Canaanite (v22). A Canaanite is a part of the Gentile nation and once a tribe is part of a Gentile nation, the Jews do not associate with them. Remember the Samaritan woman in John 4? Now, why is it that Jesus loves to go to these areas where Gentiles lives? Because His abounding mercy is not only for the Jews but also for the lost sons and daughters of Israel which pertains to the Gentiles.
So she knew that Jesus would not attend to her because of a different race, the more that she needs to be persistent so Jesus could meet her needs. It is the more that she needs to squeeze in herself to come to Jesus by shouting at Jesus “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me” which leads to another reason of her persistency.
B. There were a lot of opppositions (v23). Here we can see many oppositions on her actions.
1st from being a gentile herself, we saw that she needed to use the term Lord, “Son of David”. The term “Son of David” pertains to a Messianic title of Jesus. We know that in 2 Samuel 7:12-13, there was a promise of God to David stating that David’s offspring or children will be his successor and that God will establish his kingdom forever. (ask Joza to project the verse indepedently)
12 When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
People knew that it was not Solomon who built David’s kingdom and God’s temple because that time they were colonized by the Roman Empire and these structures were already brought down by the Babilonians. However, in Matthew 1:1 “This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” So it is fitting for Jesus to carry that Messianic title because He is about to establish His kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.
Using this title of Jesus and shout it at Him, she thought that it will help her to be noticed by Him, but she was wrong. In verse 23, instead of responding to her request to heal her daughter from demon possession, JESUS KEPT SILENT. Does that mean He did not noticed her? No at all!
How many times Jesus kept silent? 1. In a storm, where the boat is about to sink. 2. During a case of the adulterous woman, where He wrote something on the ground instead of arguing with the Scribes and Pharisees in John 8. 3. During His own trial with Pilate. But during those times of silence, Jesus wanted to see the attitude of persistency from us.
2nd is the opposition from His own disciples. How many times we saw His own disciples prevented people to come to Jesus? Blind Bartimaeus is one of them, who also used the same Messianic title to Jesus. The children to wanted to see and touch Jesus. And even the woman who was bleeding for 12 years, were the victims of His own disciples. But this opposition did not stopped her to beg for healing.
3rd, not even an opposition from Jesus Himself could not stopped her. In verse 24, Jesus told her one of the strong words from the Messiah by telling the woman “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel”. Yet even this words from Jesus would mean a racial discrimination from the God who says “Come to Me all of you who are heavily burdened and I will give you rest”. Does that mean He contradicted this promise to all Jews alone and not to all people of this world? Not at all!
Because what Jesus wanted from this woman is to see her persistency, to keep her asking so that her faith to Him would not be easily destroyed but to be developed through His mercy and grace!
2. Her Simplicity – v25
25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
She was so persistent even though there were a lot of oppositions and even distractions of many people following Jesus yet in her persistency she was able to do what Jesus was looking at her, it’s her simplicity. After hearing the strong words of opposition from Jesus Himself, she knew that she can’t use beautiful words to address Jesus, but what she did is to do what a mother can do out of her love for her daughter and that was to beg infront of Jesus.
• She came as a sinful, unworthy Canaanite woman ready to worship Jesus and place her trust on the Master.
• She came to worship Him / knelt before His feet
• She came who she was and not to impressed Jesus by her mere words but to express her trust and full dependence on Him, her last hope for her daughter.
She just knelt down at the feet of Jesus and beg for mercy, “Lord, help me!” It’s the same words we heard from Peter when he is about to be drowned “Lord, help me”. When we are in our last resort, when all our physical and mental capabilities are all limited and powerless, we come to the true source of power and strength. We just need to come to God as simple and as pure as we can yet boldly enough to admit that we need Him, “Lord, help me.”
This is the true essence of God’s mercy and grace. When we come to Him and accepted the fact that we are nothing and that we don’t deserve His love and affection because we all fall short for His own glory. But we know that we need a God who can help us, who can give us hope and heal us not because we are worthy or we are righteous but because of His mercy and grace.
Titus 3:3-5a:
3 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.
4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared,
5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.
We are all a product of God’s mercy and grace, when we accepted that He is truly our hope and our salvation. That’s why when Jesus heard her plea, the final test to this woman is..
3. Her Humility – vv 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.”
I think this was the turning point on which God’s mercy and grace fell on the woman’s request. It is the perfect example how Jesus showed mercy and grace to the woman and to her daughter. Look at Jesus answer to the woman “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs”.
• Jesus was speaking about a certain right (karapatan). Because we all knew that Canaanites were Gentiles and were not worthy to receive any blessings from the God of the Jews.
• Jesus simply talks straight to the woman that you are not worthy because you don’t deserve, you don’t have the right to receive from Me since I Am a Jew.
• And to make it worst, Jesus compared the woman or the Gentiles to a dog. “In Greek, the word “dog” here is similar to a “pet dog” where they usually wait for their master to throw excess food or left-overs to them so they can eat.
What can this woman react to what Jesus said to her?
• She can be ashamed of her own actions knowing that she really doesn’t have the right to ask a favor from a Jew.
• Or she can be disappointed hearing those words from Jesus who is willing to heal the sick as she even heard about how Jesus healed the servant of the centurion (which is also a Gentile) in Matthew 8:5-13. But how come she can’t get a favor again from Jesus which is a Jew?
Jesus only took the woman to its rightful place before Him. But again, it doesn’t mean that Jesus discriminately and intentionally did it to the woman for no reason at all. But rather, He knew that she has a great faith and it will be shown by a great act of humility before Him. You see great faith must be tested before a great God just like the case of Abraham when offered Isaac, or even Jacob who wrestled with the Angel of God, the faith of these 2 Gentiles must be tested.
Look at Matthew 8:7-9 and compared these verses to our texts.
7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.
9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
Please take note that in verse 7, Jesus tested already the faith of this Roman Captain if He will come with him and heal his servant. But look at verse 8, the centurion replied that he do not deserve that Jesus would come to him (an act of humility) but instead he asked for His grace to heal his servant by saying the word! And that is faith through God’s grace! And after hearing that, Jesus commended the faith of the centurion in verse 10 “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such a great faith!”
But for the case of the Canaanite woman, the test of faith through humility is something different. Jesus need to discourage the woman by not answering her, telling her true identity and doesn’t have the right for what he is asking and worst being compared to a dog!
But look at the woman’s boldness as she replied Jesus “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table”. The woman agrees that she doesn’t have the right and deserve to receive her request but she bravely said “Yes we are like dogs but we have the right to WAIT for the crumbs that will fall from our master’s table and that is out of mercy from our master. She is willing to be recognized as dog so long as there is a chance for food to fall.
This is what the woman is begging from Jesus, to give her a chance to show how great is her faith and how far her humility can go in order for her daughter get healed.
Again we need to go back to our simplest definition; “mercy” is the act of God not giving us what we deserved, while “grace” is the act of God giving us what do not deserved.
Jesus was talking about God’s grace not to be THROWN to the Gentiles, but the Canaanite woman replied back WAITING for God’s mercy! What a kind of humility and faith this woman showed to Jesus that He replied in verse 28 “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.”
Conclusion:
2 stories in the N.T. that shows great faith to God and that is the faith of the Canaanite woman and the Centurion. Both faiths were commended by Jesus because of their humility to God. These faith were both tested and was given by God the chance to show His mercy and grace.
I’ll end up with one great story in the Bible that shows God’s mercy and grace motivated by His endless love to us. It is the Parable of the Lost Son in Luke 15. But in verse 17 this is the turning point of the story
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!
18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’
And we know what happened, his father received him gladly (that is mercy) restoring all the things he had lost, and that is grace.
Friends, we are all saved faith through His mercy (by not allowing the results of our sins) and His grace (by forgiving all of our sins that leads to salvation). Let’s all co me to God with persistency, simplicity and humility.
