Mercy and Faith Beyond the Border
Matthew 21: When Jesus left there, he withdrew to the area of Tyre and Sidon. 22 Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came and kept crying out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely tormented by a demon.” 23 Jesus did not say a word to her. His disciples approached him and urged him, “Send her away because she’s crying out after us.”
24 He replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
25 But she came, knelt before him, and said, “Lord, help me!”
26 He answered, “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she said, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
28 Then Jesus replied to her, “Woman, your faith is great. Let it be done for you as you want.” And from that moment her daughter was healed.
Matt. 15:21-28
In our text for today, Jesus travels to an area that is beyond those borders that are considered Jewish areas. He goes to the area of Tyre and Sidon, in a land known as Phoenicia (which coincides with the present-day country of Lebanon). And what is found beyond those Jewish borders is faith in Christ and mercy from Christ.
The woman of our text is called a Canaanite. This is a little bit odd because technically there were no Canaanites at this time. Canaan as a nation, a kingdom, had not existed for hundreds of years. So why is she called a Canaanite? In Mark’s account she is identified as Gentile (a non-Jew) and as one who was born and lived in Phoenicia. Who were the Phoenicians? They were descendants of the Canaanites.
So, this woman is described as a Gentile, a Phoenician, and a Canaanite. And here’s why that is important: the Canaanites and their descendants, the Phoenicians, were pagans, big time pagans. You might say their brand of paganism was paganism on steroids. They had no less than ten gods and goddesses they worshiped. Baal was the most popular. They approved of and promoted all kinds of sexual immorality. They also practiced child sacrifice.
This Baal worship was often a temptation for the Jews. During the Exodus, the Jews through sexual immorality were tempted with Baal worship, and some of them went for it. But Moses put a lid on it. Baal worship became a problem for the Jews when they entered the promised land. But then it seemed to die down for a while. When Israel divided into two kingdoms, the northern kingdom especially went astray, but mostly their worship focused on, not one but, two gold calves. Baal worship initially was not something as a nation they embraced; it was there but it was found mainly among the non-Israelites, among the Canaanites, including in the pagan Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon.
But then, one king of Israel – Omri – made a pact with Sidon, and he had his son marry the princess of Sidon. His son’s name was Ahab and the princess from Sidon he married was Jezebel. Jezebel lived and breathed Baal worship. She brought that with her. And she brought with her or had ordained 450 prophets of Baal and made it the state religion. In fact, she was so zealous that she systematically started murdering all the prophets of the LORD. But one of them was able to escape her murdering: Elijah. And Elijah was able to arrange a challenge with all 450 prophets of Baal. And to make a long story short, by the power of the true LORD God, Elijah proved Baal to be a totally false god and he had the Baal prophets all slaughtered – prophets who were not only false but promoting a paganism of the worst kind and who were undermining and destroying the truth of God in the minds and hearts of the Israelites.
Now, back to the Gentile, Phoenician, Canaanite woman of our text. This was her background, heritage, this is where she came from. This is what, in a very real sense, she inherited, by nature: A rejection and hatred of the true God, his moral law, his word, and his salvation plan.
Now, we do not know what she had been believing and practicing over the years – she may have been steeped in a paganism as bad as her ancestors, or she may not have been; but she had inherited a nature just as horrendous as theirs.
However, somewhere along the line she had heard about this Jesus of Nazareth: his miracles, his teachings, his claims about himself, and what he would do. And she believed. When she came to Jesus, we see she called him “Lord” three times. She called him the “Son of David,” which meant she knew him to be the Messiah, the Christ. Somehow, in some way, she was able to confess, “This person, this Jesus of Nazareth, is the one predicted in those Jewish scriptures. There is no doubt, and I believe it.” She came to Jesus because her daughter was being tormented by a demon, something against which she was helpless; she could do nothing for her daughter. So when she heard that this Jesus was right there close to where she lived, she came crying out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David!”
And then we have Jesus’ strange reaction to her. By all appearances, he had no love or compassion for her and her daughter whatsoever. But in one sense this is understandable. When you take into account her ancestry, her heritage, that in-your-face paganism which her ancestors embraced – hating God, killing children, killing true prophets, bowing down before gods who are no gods, rejecting God as God, rejecting his compassion and salvation plan, all of which she had inherited – his responses make sense. He ignored her. He said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” (which probably gave her some hope for she was perhaps thinking, “Hey, I am one of those lost ones too”). And finally he called her a dog: “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” “You are a Canaanite dog, lady.” But even in that, she found hope, as we see in her response.
So what was Jesus really doing? He was testing her. It was a very severe test. I do not think he treated any other individual so harshly. He wanted to find out and wanted others to see if what she confessed with her mouth about Jesus was also the confession of her heart. He wanted to find out and he wanted others to know if she was one of those described in the OT lesson for today: No foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord should say, “The Lord will exclude me from his people,” … I will give them, in my house and within my walls, a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give each of them an everlasting name that will never be cut off.” (Is. 56:3-5) Are you really one of them? Prove it by persistence in faith.
And she did. She accepted the title of “dog”: “Yes, Lord, I know what I have inherited from my forefathers, and it’s horrible, and I own it. But I also know that one crumb of your compassion and grace is completely sufficient, because I know you are and why you have come. It is for those who have been lost like me. I know you are the promised Son of David, and I will not turn back.”
So, faith is found beyond the Jewish borders within this woman, and a great faith at that.
And wherever such faith is found, God’s mercy follows, mercy is apprehended, mercy is experienced. In her case, the mercy that followed, that was apprehended, and experienced was twofold. One is that her daughter was freed from the cruel oppression of the demon. Second – and this one applies to all of us – this woman, the moment she came to faith in Christ, she received, apprehended and experienced freedom from captivity to sin, freedom from captivity to death, and freedom from captivity to false religions and paganism that she had inherited. She was, in the words of our epistle lesson, one of those wild olive branches that was grafted into the cultivated olive tree, into Christ, to share in the riches of his grace and mercy, by faith. (Rom. 11:17).
And that is you, as well, if you approach Christ the same way. By birth, you are all Gentiles (as far as I know – you were not born Jewish). You come from a same lineage as this woman, having inherited the same Canaanite dog-nature. It is ugly and rebellious. It is sinful and unclean. But if you own that, if you own up to that, and have been baptized and believe that Jesus is the Lord, the Son of David, the Messiah, the Savior, the Redeemer, the one who went to the cross for you and your sins, you have also received, apprehended, and experienced his mercy. You are freed from the captivity of sin, death, and lies of any and all false religious and their gods. I had the privilege of sharing this text with a man and who said, “This is me! I am this Canaanite dog. But God because of Christ has shown me mercy after mercy, and especially the mercy of forgiveness.” He broke down and wept, thankful and comforted with the mercy God had provided for him.
Now, pondering what this woman went through, you should not be surprised if and when God tests you: those times when he seems distant, as if he is ignoring you; times when it seems like he is sending you the message, “Christ does not want to include you” (yes, he does); or those times when you are reminded of and have to face your inherited, Canaanite-dog nature. In such times, persevere with faith in Christ: who he is and that he acquired mercy, grace, forgiveness, and salvation for you.
One more point. Remember that Christ is not only our comfort, but also our example. So, as Christ and his word went beyond the normal Jewish borders to those who would never appear to be a likely candidate for the Christian faith, who, we think, would never desire his mercy, do not be afraid to take Christ beyond your borders of comfort. Never say of anyone, “No way will that person ever become a Christian.” That may be true, but that is not for you to decide. That was the sort thing said of apostle Paul as he was trying to destroy the Christian church. But looked what happened to him! That is the sort of thing that could have been said of your pastor, or of you, you Gentile by nature. Here’s something interesting: over the last five or six years, four (and maybe more) of our seminary students at our BLTS in Mankato had previously been atheists or agnostics. That’s a pretty significant percentage considering we only graduate about four or five seminarians a year! You just never know. My point is, do not look at another’s ethnicity, income, nationality, the family he comes from, the friends he has, where he lives, how he lives, his current religion, his disdain of Christianity, his terrible views on moral and social issues, or even the depth and the ugliness of his sin and conclude, “No way!” Instead, look at the cross of Christ and ask, “Did Christ really die for him?” And answer, “Yes, just as much as he died for me.” We need to offer Christ to our neighbor, no matter who he is.
The Gentile, Phoenician, Canaanite woman, just like you, not in spite of her heritage but because of her heritagee, came to believe in Jesus of Nazareth as Lord, as the promised Son of David, and she received his mercy. So have you. And we hope and pray our neighbor will as well.
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