INTRODUCTION
Opening Statement: Have you ever been frustrated by a test or an exam that was unclear or needlessly confusing? I have and I am reminded of a story that I read this week in this regard. A guy was taking a class in ornithology (ôr´nə-thŏlʹə-jē), the study of birds. It was a class with a lot of students enrolled and the professor had a reputation for being extremely difficult, so the guy studied really hard. He went to take the exam feeling confident that he was ready. But instead of a normal test, there are 25 pictures on the wall of birds’ feet. He is supposed to identify the birds by their feet. The guy just goes ballistic. He marches straight up to the professor and told him, “This is crazy. Nobody can take this test and pass it. I’m not taking it.” The teacher told him, “You have to take it or you fail the class.” The guy said, “Fine, go ahead and fail me. I’m not going to take this test.” The teacher said, “All right. That’s it. You’ve failed. Tell me you name.” The guy thinks for a second, rolls up his pants to his knees and says, “You tell me.”
Transition: There’s a passage in Matthew’s Gospel that’s always puzzled me a bit, kind of like that college student. A Canaanite lady came to Jesus for help with her demon-possessed daughter and he appears to ignore her. It seems odd that Jesus would do such a thing to this one woman and her request for her daughter because he so readily helped so many other people. Why did Jesus do this? Why does he appear to be rude and just shrug off her request? He was testing both the disciples and her faith.
Title: A Test of Endurance
Text: Matthew 15:21-28
Background: Jesus has been very busy in ministry and opposition is becoming stronger against him. He needed to withdraw. Jesus is tired, away from home, among non-Jewish people, one of which was a woman who had very little to offer to Him, but who wouldn’t go away.
Recitation: 15:21 After going out from there, Jesus went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 15:22 A Canaanite woman from that area came and cried out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is horribly demon-possessed!” 15:23 But he did not answer her a word. Then his disciples came and begged him, “Send her away, because she keeps on crying out after us.” 15:24 So he answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 15:25 But she came and bowed down before him and said, “Lord, help me!” 15:26 “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs,” he said. 15:27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 15:28 Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, your faith is great! Let what you want be done for you.” And her daughter was healed from that hour.
Question: How could Jesus be so inconsiderate and cold? Some of you may be thinking, “Man, that’s a crumby passage!” He’s testing her.
OUTLINE
What She’s Got Against Her
Jesus is tired. He was withdrawing from the crowds as he often did to replenish his spirit and rejuvenate himself. The last thing he wanted to do was see somebody with another need! Jesus had become a resource for people and they were constantly after him to do something for them. Matthew used the key word "withdrew" many times (cf. 2:12, 22; 4:12; 12:15; 14:13). Divert daily. Withdraw weekly. Abandon yearly.
Canaanites were not “friendlies.” She was a Canaanite. The Jews hated Canaanites. Tyre and Sidon stood on the Mediterranean coast about 30 and 50 miles north of Galilee respectively. This was pagan Gentile territory. This hatred for Gentiles was tied all the way back to the time of the Judges when Joshua and the Israelites had to fight them to possess the land that God had promised to them.
Women were not high-priority, especially a Canaanite woman. According to extra-biblical sources, women had very few rights and were not held in very high regard in these days. Sometimes, this viewpoint bleeds through the biblical text and it bleeds through the disciples’ actions. They kept urging Jesus to get rid of her (v.23). I get this feeling that they were enjoying the notoriety that they were a part of here. Jesus was extremely popular and they were enjoying the popularity. They had very little concern for her. And Jesus appears to side with them, as He wrestles with what to do, he says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” In effect, he told her, “Hey, you’re an outsider. You don’t have a stake in this enterprise. You’re not within my mission. Maybe some other time.” Now Jesus did care for and heal Gentiles, but he did so on Israel’s soil (the Gentile centurion whose servant was sick made his request to Jesus in the friendly confines of Palestine when Jesus entered Capernaum (Matt 8:5).) Here, he’s actually in Gentile territory; to extend his mission here at this point would have detracted from his primary mission of offering the Promised Kingdom to Israel. So after the silent treatment, he in effects says, “I know my parameters and this place and your needs are not within it.”
She had very little to offer. When the text says that her daughter was “cruelly demon-possessed” I can’t imagine what her home-life must have been like. In the daytime she screams and hollers constantly. You can’t put new clothes on her because she’ll tear them off. No longer is her hair in those nice cornrows and pony-tails that you put them in, but they are almost all pulled out at the root and the remaining ones are left sticking up. Strange voices come out of her mouth. She can’t eat. She can’t sleep. She can’t play. She is grievously vexed with a devil. There’s a strange look in her eyes. Can you imagine the helpless feeling of this mother? I’m losing my little girl. I’m losing my little girl. I know that someone in here knows what I’m talking about. Someone knows how it feels like when you are losing your little girl. Losing your little boy. Losing that husband. Losing that wife. Losing that brother or sister. It’s a helpless feeling. But you know how a mother’s love is. It will go miles in search of help for her child. It will travel late at night, on foot, in the cold and the rain in search of help for what used to be her little “sweetie.”
Jesus either appears to be in a bad mood or uncertain as to what he’s going to do. We find Jesus doing exactly the opposite to what we think He should. He does not rush to her aid. He does not agree to follow Her home. He does not soothe her heart with words of encouragement. No, it says he remained silent. “He answered her not a word (v.23).” The religious leaders were opposing him. His ideas were being shot down. The timing is not right.
Application: It’s a hard thing to deal with God’s silence. I know. You wish that you could go through life with God thundering to you day after day. Letting you know this is the way walk ye in it. You wish that all your prayers could be answered right away. You wish that everything you ask for that God would give it to you on the spot. God is shy to intervene; He is silent. By shyness, I don’t mean a junior high school boy at his first dance. I mean by “shyness” that God is hesitant to act too quickly. I think He realizes that silence becomes sacred and we see things that we’ve never seen before. So at times, God is shy; at times, he is just plain silent.
Transition: She recognized the strikes against her. On one hand, things did not look good. But on the other hand, she did have some things going for her.
What She’s Got Going For Her
She came to Jesus. She found out that Jesus was in the neighborhood. She realized that she had nowhere else to go. Jesus was her only option. Jesus knows how to take care of the demonic!
She treats Jesus with the highest respect. She used the traditional cry of a beggar when she cried out, “Have mercy on me.” She even addressed Jesus as Lord throughout this story (v.22, 25, 27).
She knows something about Judaism. She called Jesus “the Son of David.” She’s hinting at his “Messiahship!” She is renouncing her forefathers’ pagan gods, beliefs, and practices when she addressed Jesus as Lord and Son of David. God cannot be contained within Judaism! He’s bigger than that and this passage demonstrates this fact.
She was persistent. When Jesus gave her “the cold-shoulder”, she could have walked away. When Jesus told her to get lost, she dropped to her knees and cried out, “Lord, help me!” Her daughter is in spiritual and physical agony. She was not going to be turned away.
She loved her daughter. Love made her approach a stranger. Love made her accept Jesus’ silence and yet still appeal to Him; love made her suffer apparent rebuffs from the disciples and still hang around.
Application: Jesus calls all of this “great faith.” When you turn to Christ in desperation it is an act of faith. When you seek for answers, it is faith at work. When you love people who are unlovely, it is great faith.
Transition: Look at what happened.
What Eventually Happened For Her
Exposition: 15:26 “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs,” he said. [The Gentiles had acquired a “nickname” – dogs. Jesus used this nickname to make his point. God, of course, was the Person providing the spiritual Bread of Life to His chosen people, and the dogs were the Gentiles, as the Jews regarded them.] 15:27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, [she’s going to spar a little bit with Jesus.] “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” [She used the diminutive form of "dogs" (Gr. kynaria) probably because small dogs are even more dependent than large dogs; a little housedog is in view. She also used the diminutive form of "crumbs" (Gr. psichion) that expressed her unworthiness to receive a large blessing. To paraphrase: Even the little housedogs get to eat the little crumbs… Go ahead, feed the children, feed your people, stay on target with your mission to your own people. But I’ll bet you’ve got a crumb to spare for me. And you are putting on such a great a feast for your people that all I need is one little crumb from you and my life and the life of my daughter will never be the same. I know you’re not going to be in our territory for long but whatever crumbs you can leave behind will be sufficient for me! The metaphor which Christ had used as a reason for rejecting her petition she turns into a reason for granting it.] 15:28 Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, your faith is great! Let what you want be done for you.” And her daughter was healed from that hour [Jesus had healed Gentiles before, but this was the first time He healed one in Gentile territory.]
Application: I see THREE APPLICATIONS…
#1: Some have walked away from the table. This entire story is in contrast to the previous story in Matthew where Israel’s own religious leaders (scribes and Pharisees) were taking offense toward Jesus. There, the feast was spread and people were getting up and walking away from the table. Here, a woman who doesn’t even have a place at the table receives God’s mercy because of her persistent heart.
#2: Some of you are facing the endurance test. Something is going on in your life, and it’s difficult. Things don’t look good. You don’t know if you will ever find relief. But it’s more than just a series of problems. You pray, you kneel, you beg, and still there is no response. God is silent, invisible and indifferent. He has put you on hold. You don’t give up. You persist until an answer comes! How does your faith compare to that of this woman? Have you over and over again asked God for healing or help, and it seems that He doesn’t hear you? Do you feel that He is not treating you as a Father would or should treat His children? Feel like a dog? Could it be that Jesus is testing you - refining you? (1Pet 1:6-7)
Illustration: A teenager had decided to quit high school, saying he was just fed up with it all. His father was trying to convince him to stay with it. “Son,” he said, “you just can’t quit. All the people who are remembered in history didn’t quit. Abe Lincoln didn’t quit. Thomas Edison didn’t quit. Douglas MacArthur didn’t quit. Elmo Cringle didn’t quit.” “Who?” the son burst in. “Who is Elmo Cringle?” “See,” the father replied, “you don’t remember him because he quit!”
#3: Some of you need to ask for help one more time.
Illustration: A story of persistence and enduring prayer comes from Tony Campolo. A prayer meeting was held for him just before he spoke at a Pentecostal college chapel service. Eight men took Tony to a back room of the chapel, had him kneel, laid their hands on his head, and began to pray. That’s a good thing, Tony wrote, except that they prayed a long time, and the longer they prayed, the more tired they got, and the more tired they got, the more they leaned on my head. To make things even worse, one of the men was not even praying for Tony. He went on praying for somebody named Charlie Stoltzfus. “Dear Lord, you know Charlie. He lives in that silver trailer down the road a mile. You know the trailer, Lord, just down the road on the right-hand side.” (All the while, Tony was thinking, ‘Man, you don’t have to give God the directions). “Lord, Charlie told me this morning he’s going to leave his wife and three kids. Step in and do something, God. Bring that family back together.” Tony eventually got the preachers off of his head and was able to deliver his message. He got in his car to drive home when he noticed a hitchhiker. He picked this guy up and after driving a few minutes said, “My name is Tony Campolo. What is your name? “My name is Charlie Stoltzfus.” Tony was shocked. He immediately got off the next exit and went back the direction he had just come from. Of course, Charlie wanted to know where Tony was taking him. Tony told him, “I’m taking you home.” “Why?” Tony said, “Because you just left your wife and three kids.” The guy was in shock and never took his eyes off of him. Tony said what really blew him away was when he pulled right up to his silver trailer. “How did you know I live here?” “God told me.” Tony lead them to Christ.
I don’t know how long those preachers had prayed for Charlie Stoltzfus, but their persistent, enduring prayer paid off. God eventually responded.
CONCLUSION
Prayer: Father, we know that the needs of humanity would totally exhaust us if we had to deal with what you see and deal with on a daily basis. We know you have great plans for our world. At times, we are not sure if you have great plans for our lives. We feel that we have very little to offer to you. But nevertheless, we come to you. You must act in our behalf. We cannot go on without your intervention. God would you give us a crumb?
