Persistent Faith
Matthew 15:21-28
When Jesus left there, he withdrew to the area of Tyre and Sidon. 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.”
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.”
He replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
But she came, knelt before him, and said, “Lord, help me!”He answered, “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
“Yes, Lord,” she said, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
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
This poor Canaanite woman. Things could not get much worse. She was afflicted because her daughter was afflicted, physically or emotionally or both. Most parents can relate to this: seeing a son or daughter in great pain or suffering and knowing there is nothing they can do about it. I remember when my parents were there for me in one of my afflictions. They, like me, were afflicted because of my affliction. And they, like Canaanite woman, knew there was nothing they could do about it. I have been with parents as they are with their suffering and sometimes dying son or daughter. There is next to nothing that compares with that degree of suffering.
But for a Christian parent, there can be a greater affliction to bear. It is bad enough to have a child undergo a temporal affliction – a disease or an accident or to suffer emotionally or in some other way. But what is worse is when Satan and his demons mess with a child of ours to strip him of his faith and eternal life in Jesus. This is always the ultimate goal when it comes to demons and the devil and our children, and even us for that matter. But when we see our children or our grandchildren buying into the lies of the devil and departing from Christ, this is a great affliction to bear.
Our text, however, does not just apply to the afflictions occurring around the child-parent relationship, but afflictions anywhere and everywhere. And the really good news is there are some amazing and wonderful things to be learned from this woman of great faith, of persistent faith, things to be learned by all of us no matter what our station in life, and no matter what our affliction may be.
First of all, I want to review who this woman was. Jesus in our text had come to the very border of regions that were considered Jewish lands. It appears he even crossed the border and traveled into the highly non-Jewish region of Tyre, north of Galilee along the Mediterranean Sea. This is Gentile territory. The people there would generally not have had a whole lot to do with the Old Testament Scriptures. Also in this event, it is interesting how this woman is described. In Mark’s Gospel, the woman is called “a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth” (Mark 7:26), clearly identifying her as non-Jewish and coming from a non-Jewish culture. In our Gospel account she is called a “Canaanite” which may have simply indicated her ancestry, but it also could be descriptive of what was her belief system until she switched religions and recognized Jesus as the promised Son of David. To understand who the Canaanites were, we have to go back fifteen hundred years. These Canaanites were the people who were to be annihilated or driven out of the promised land that the Jews were entering because the religion of the Canaanites, their worldview, was so atrocious and extreme. The Canaanites had gods such as Baal, Dagon, Asherah, and many others. They had goddesses of sex and war. Male and female prostitution were common and accepted among them. Child abuse and child sacrifice – killing one’s child for religious reasons – were established practices in the Canaanite religion. In other words, this religious culture was strikingly different than the religion the Jews were to practice as laid out for them in the Old Testament. The Canaanite religion was not merely non-Jewish, it was paganism to the extreme, paganism “in your face.” It is why God said to the Jews before they entered the land of the Canaanites: “I am the LORD your God. You … must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God” (Lev. 18:2-4) “Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God.” (Deut. 20:18). Unfortunately, the Jews did not listen. They did not obey, and the Canaanites were not removed. The result was the Jews, more often than not, became indistinguishable from the Canaanites in their life and doctrine.
My point is this: because of the area where this event of Matthew 15 took place (outside of typical Jewish regions) and because of the non-Jewish terms used to describe this woman (“Gentile,” “Syrophoenician,” and “Canaanite”), the gospel writers are making it clear that this woman represents a false religion that is extreme – an “in your face” paganism.
So, we might say that Jesus’ reaction to this woman, who pleads for mercy, is not too surprising. First, he ignores her: “Jesus did not say a word to her.” Next, when she persists in her pleading, he reminds her she is not Jewish: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” “and you are not one of them.” Third, when she kneels before him, he insults her: “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” “Compared to the Jewish people, woman, you are a mere dog – you have ugly pagan roots, woman.”
Pretty harsh.
But again, this reaction to her cannot be divorced from the outrageous paganism she somehow represented, something that was in her ancestry, and in her “genes.”
However, what is most important here is her response to Jesus. This is where her great and persistent faith is revealed. There are two aspects to her response. We have probably all been subjected to accusations and name calling from other people. And those accusations and name calling can be either right or wrong, either accurate or inaccurate (or somewhere in between). But even if the accusations and name calling are accurate (or somewhat accurate), the human tendency is to reject it, to say “No, you are wrong,” to justify or excuse ourselves, and to reciprocate and insult them or call them names in return. And if they are wrong in what they accuse us of, we feel all the more justified in reacting with anger toward them.
But when it is Jesus Christ who accuses us and uses a name to describe us that makes us sound really sinful, our response should be what the Canaanite woman’s response was, and that is because Jesus is never wrong. This woman never denied she was a dog. She accepted the label, insulting as it was. She was owning up to her former paganism that had been in her ancestry and in one sense was very much a part of her nature. “Yes, Lord, I am a Canaanite dog. I do not argue with you there. Guilty as charged.” What is this? It is acknowledgment of the reality of great sin, against God and against man. Repentance. Contrition over sin. That is one aspect of her response.
The other aspect is this: the Canaanite woman had a non-stop, never-to-be-deterred belief in the mercy of this one she knew to be the Son of David, the Messiah. “Jesus,” she was saying, “I know you are the one promised in the Old Testament. [Somehow that prophetic message had come to her and had been shared with her.] And I come to you not because of my pedigree (obviously), not because I am worthy. But I come to you only because I know, I really know, that you alone have the mercy I need. You can ignore me, you can remind me over and over again that I am not Jewish by birth, you can call a Canaanite dog (which I do not deny). But what you have, above all, no matter what, is mercy; a mercy that is real and deep and powerful and is meant to be received. I need it. You’ve got it. So, here I stand.” Great and persistent faith.
Now, there are some things we need to clarify here. The first clarification is this: The reality of the deep and powerful mercy of Jesus Christ does not mean a Christian can be or will be delivered from every affliction here on earth. Look at the apostles, for example: they were sometimes saved from afflictions, but they were just as often plunged into them and kept there. The reality of the mercy of Jesus means much more than deliverance from temporal afflictions when and where we think such deliverance should occur. What we have to remember is the ultimate destination of the merciful Son of God while on earth was the cross. The cross! For there was achieved the ultimate mercy: forgiveness. Forgiveness for my pagan heart, for my sinful Old Adam, for my daily sins, including my lack of faith in times of affliction. And for yours as well. That is the deepest and most powerful mercy of Christ. And that, of course, when believed will eventually be translated into deliverance eternally from sin, death, and the devil.
Second, we need to remember why God sends afflictions. He does so to test us. When he afflicts you in some severe way and then makes the affliction all the worse by seemingly ignoring you or making you feel like you are not his own dear child or by reminding you that you are a sinful creature (a Canaanite dog), you need to remember this is always a test from God. That’s what Jesus was doing with the Canaanite woman. “I am testing you by how I am treating you.” And she passed the test. She passed it by saying, “Lord, though you are ignoring me and describing me in the worst possible way in the midst of my affliction with my daughter, I will not give up on your mercy. I know it is real. I will continue to trust that you are merciful and I will harass you with my prayers until l have your mercy.”
Now, I am going to strongly recommend something you can do in your time of affliction and testing. I was discussing not too long ago with several others what we do in times of stress to help and settle us down and calm us. We threw out several things: time, going for a walk, being away from others, being with others, talking with someone, writing our thoughts down. And these can be fine and good. But here is something that will especially help when the affliction is severe and almost seems too much to bear. It is something I have used and has often brought me great relief: Sing a hymn. And not just any hymn. But hymns like “A Mighty Fortress” (ELH 250 & 251) or “I Walk in Danger All the Way” (ELH #252). Sing them with others or in the privacy of your home. Come and use the sanctuary of the church if you want during the week. Sing them loud and with gusto. They contain some of the most powerful and comforting words of Christ and his gospel. And if you do not want to sing them, say them out loud. You may have tears and weep as you sing or say them. But you will be amazed what these hymns can do for you for they remind us of and direct to us and bring to us the mercy of Christ. That’s what they do.
Finally, here is something you not only can do but are commanded to do by Christ himself for your comfort. The Canaanite woman said, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” “All I need, Lord Jesus,” she was saying, “is a crumb of your bread, a crumb of your mercy. That’s all. Just a crumb that falls from your table will work. That will satisfy.”
Look at this. What is it? [A communion wafer.] It is one of the smallest pieces of bread that one can eat. And what is this? [An individual communion cup containing wine.] It is barely a sip of wine. But when Jesus Christ says what he is about to say over them, this crumb of bread and these few drops of wine are also then the true body and blood of Christ, given and shed for you for the remission of your sins. It is the ultimate mercy. In this little piece of bread and in this little bit of wine, you are receiving the mercy of Jesus. Brothers and sisters, in your affliction that is what you need. That will satisfy you.
Amen.
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