Jesus is the greatest teacher who ever lived, and there’s not another passage of Scripture that more effectively shows the absolute brilliance of Jesus than the one we study this week. You just gotta come and see it. This week we have the opportunity to be students of Jesus, learning from him how to truly love people.
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[SLIDE_01]
Good morning and happy Mother’s Day moms.
Today we’ll look at one of the most striking and unusual interactions Jesus ever had with a mother. Actually, it’s probably the strangest interaction he ever had with anyone, but she happened to be a mother.
It’s a passage of Scripture that puzzles a lot of people.
This is what’s written in Matthew 15:21-28.
[SLIDE_02]
Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
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.”
[SLIDE_03]
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.”
He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
[SLIDE_04]
The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
“Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
[SLIDE_05]
Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.
Okay, so be honest. How many of you think Jesus seems kind of rude here?
Some of you are thinking, “I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to say something like that about Jesus in church.”
[SLIDE_06]
Just be honest, show of hands — how many of you think this looks like rude behavior?
Wow! I can’t believe you would think that about Jesus!
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Well, let me explain a little bit about what’s going on in this passage.
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Jesus is the greatest teacher who ever lived, and there’s not another passage that more effectively shows the absolute brilliance of Jesus as a teacher.
I need to set this up before we walk through this passage.
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There are several things that characterize a great teacher and Jesus displays a lot of them in this passage.
A great teacher is more interested in life change than in dispensing information.
A great teacher doesn’t just give lectures. He or she creates experiences for people.
A great teacher knows that truth is most powerful when people have to work to discover it.
A great teacher knows that truth discovered has a much deeper impact than truth just presented. We’ve all experienced that.
A great teacher is able to teach more than one person or group at a time. They teach different groups on different levels at the same time.
A great teacher uses methods that are not always clear to the students at the time.
For instance, Jesus was an expert at using what Walter Wink called “deliberately induced frustration” with his disciples.
He tells them once to feed a crowd when they don’t have enough food — just a few loaves and fish.
He tells them to cast out a demon that they’re not able to cast out.
He puts them in a boat one day when a storm was coming.
Deliberately induced frustration in the hands of a great teacher is a powerful learning tool.
And great teachers are always testing their students to help them see where they are on the learning curve.
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And this passage is not only about a great teacher. This passage is about the master teacher.
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Ken Bailey, a New Testament scholar, has written very insightfully on the interaction Jesus has with this woman.
He says to grasp the point of this passage, we have to see that Jesus is giving a test here for two different sets of people.
He gives a test to his disciples and he gives a test to this Canaanite woman.
We’ll see who passes and who fails.
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Alright, let’s look back at the text — verse 21:
[SLIDE_07]
Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
Jesus gets away for some rest with his disciples to a region far to the north. They’re in foreign territory.
Tyre and Sidon are two Phoenician cities on the Mediterranean coast, up above where the Israelites live.
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[SLIDE_08]
Keep in mind the Israelites despised these people. It’s important to remember this to understand the context of this story.
Jewish historian Josephus, who wrote roughly in the time of Jesus, wrote, “The people of Tyre are our bitterest enemies.”
These are the Israelites’ bitterest enemies.
To see how badly they’re regarded by the Jewish people, look with me at Matthew 11:20.
Jesus had performed miracles in the towns of Galilee, among the Israelites, but the people didn’t respond much.
Verse 20 says this:
[SLIDE_09]
Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent.
[SLIDE_10]
“Woe to you, Corazin! Woe to you, Bethzaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.
Now, why does he use Tyre and Sidon?
He’s saying, “Even the most wicked people you think you know, even Tyre and Sidon — the bottom of the spiritual barrel — they would have repented if they had seen the miracles you saw.”
[SLIDE_11]
The point is this woman, who is from this region, would be regarded by the disciples as the enemy — a member of the most spiritually degraded people they know.
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Alright, lets look back at Matthew 15 now.
[SLIDE_12]
A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!
This woman comes to Jesus with the traditional cry of a beggar, “Have mercy on me.”
She humbles herself and adds the title, “Lord.”
The Greek word “kyrios” could mean “sir,” but it could also mean “Master or Lord.”
And I want you to notice how that title is repeated throughout this story.
She also calls him the son of David, which means she knows something about Judaism. She’s deeply respectful.
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Then verse 23 says:
[SLIDE_13]
Jesus did not answer a word.
This woman’s daughter is suffering terribly, so she appeals to Jesus with humility and reverence, and he acts like he doesn’t even hear her.
He responds with silence, with what looks like indifference and rejection.
[SLIDE_14]
And you’ll notice, the writer, Matthew doesn’t try to hide this. He deliberately draws our attention to it in the text, because Matthew knows what we don’t know yet.
He knows how this story will end. He knows this is a test, and for now, he wants us to wrestle with whatever it is Jesus is up to.
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Now the woman could walk away at this point.
She has to decide in the face of Jesus’ silence, “How deeply do I want healing for my daughter? How much am I willing to trust this man?”
And this is part one of her exam.
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Alright, we’re going to leave her for a moment and look at the disciples, because Jesus is going to give them a test too.
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The disciples are not surprised that Jesus doesn’t talk with this woman, because no self-respecting rabbi in their day would.
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This is a rabbinic saying from ancient times.
[SLIDE_15]
“He that talks with womankind brings evil on himself, neglects the study of the law, and at the last, will inherit Gehenna.”
Gehenna is a reference to hell. This is an actual rabbinic teaching from that day.
So the disciples are not surprised by how Jesus treats this woman.
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[SLIDE_16]
Jesus deliberately ignores this woman, but Jesus is watching to see what the disciples will do.
Do they understand that he came to make the kingdom of God available to everyone, including Gentiles, including women? Do they get it? Do they understand yet what he came for?
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Their response comes in verse 23, and they’re confident their words will meet with his approval.
They say, “Send her away.” Look at verse 23.
[SLIDE_17]
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.”
“Send her away. She keeps crying out after,” who? “Us.” She hasn’t said anything to the disciples, has she?
Who’s she there for?
She’s there for Jesus. But the disciples rather generously include themselves in Jesus’ power and ministry.
[SLIDE_18]
“She’s bothering us. We came up north for a little R&R! Everyone wants a piece of us. So, Jesus, you send her away.”
It reminds me of the story in the gospels when children come to Jesus. Do you know what the disciples’ response was? The text says, “They rebuked the children.”
The disciples thought they understood what kind of people Jesus did and did not have time for.
Well, we’ll see if they’re right.
Jesus goes on to part two of the exam.
He’s talking to his disciples here.
The woman comes up, the disciples say to him, “She’s bothering us. Send her away.” So Jesus says:
[SLIDE_19]
“I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
Now why does he say this?
In other places, he makes it very clear that he’s come for the whole world. He’s not willing that anyone should perish. So why does he say here, “the lost sheep of Israel”?
Because he’s testing the disciples.
Remember, good teachers don’t just give lectures and hand out information.
They know experience is a much more powerful teacher than just presentation.
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[SLIDE_20]
So Jesus doesn’t simply give his disciples a lecture about negative attitudes.
He tried that after his disciples shooed the children away.
The lecture method isn’t working so well with them.
The disciples need some remedial help.
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You know how most elementary school teachers assign children to reading groups based on how well they can read.
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In an attempt to make the students feel good, some teachers will use things like birds to distinguish the groups.
Although you can tell how well you’re doing by the type of bird your group is named after. Do you know what I mean?
Like there may be the eagles, and the robins, and the pigeons.
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Well, guess which group the disciples are in? They’re in the pigeons group.
They’re not doing very well on the kind of people Jesus has time for.
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So Jesus appears to agree with them. “Of course I’ll get rid of her. I’m sent to Israel, God’s favorites. We have no time for Gentile, female, second-rate riff-raff. Good call, guys! I’ll send her away.”
But you notice, he doesn’t send her away. He doesn’t do what they ask.
He appears to agree with them, but then he watches to see – how will they respond?
Will anyone dare to disagree? Does anyone have the guts to stand up for this woman?
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And of course they don’t.
They all nod their heads – “That’s right, send her away.”
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Now, simultaneously, the woman goes through part two of this test.
She hears what Jesus is saying. Picture this scene. Jesus is talking to and facing his disciples. His words, in effect, say to her, “You’re an outsider. I’m the Son of David. I was sent for the lost sheep of Israel. You are not my mission. Why should I serve you?”
And the question here is — is her concern for her child so deep? Is her confidence in Jesus’ compassion and power so strong? Will she persevere in her request despite the obstacles, even when Jesus seems unwilling?
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I imagine she can hear her daughter’s screams in her mind.
She has nowhere else to go. So she kneels on the ground in a posture of reverence and humility.
Notice what is says, verse 25.
[SLIDE_21]
The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!”
This is the cry of the human soul. “Lord, help me.”
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She doesn’t understand it all, but a second time, she calls him “Lord.”
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Now, the disciples are watching.
The tension starts to build in them, as Jesus knew it would.
Because their theology tells them this woman is to be shunned, rejected, and ignored.
They themselves would say just the same thing Jesus said.
And yet, something inside them begins to be moved.
[SLIDE_22]
This is the cry of a desperate mother for a beloved daughter who is in physical and spiritual agony. Could it possibly be that God is bigger than their theology?
See, this encounter is striking at beliefs and prejudices and junk that is so deeply embedded in them that it will not get rooted out all at once.
It will take a long time. But a seed is planted here.
That seed will not be fully grown and harvested until in the Book of Acts when Peter sees the Holy Spirit fall on a Gentile named Cornelius, another centurion. And Peter says, “Now I realize.”
The implication was: “Now, at last, I realize it’s true. God has no favorites. He accepts human beings from every nation.”
But that won’t happen until after Jesus’ death and resurrection, after the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost.
When it finally clicks, Peter will say, “Now at last, now I understand.” But he’s not there yet. The disciples don’t get it yet.
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So Jesus speaks again.
He had been speaking to his disciples, and the text says nothing about his turning around at this point.
This is the way I think it happened.
It will help to get the dynamic of this story if you picture Jesus still looking at his disciples.
He’s still watching their faces, still testing. Verse 26:
[SLIDE_23]
He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
Now the meaning of this statement was very clear. Who are the children?
The Israelites.
Who are the dogs?
The Gentiles. This woman.
Dogs in the Middle East were despised animals. They were scavengers and garbage eaters, not the way that we think of dogs in our society.
They were considered almost as unclean as pigs.
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[SLIDE_24]
I think what’s going on here is Jesus is forcing the disciples to face themselves.
He says to them, in effect, “You want me to get rid of this woman? You want me to limit my ministry to Israel?
“Okay, I’ll do what you ask. You just watch her. Listen to the cries of her daughter.”
And then he gives voice to their theology.
You know it’s one thing to have contempt for someone behind their back. It’s quite another thing to hear the ugliness of your thoughts and feelings expressed out loud before a real human being.
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Will any of them speak up for this woman? Will one of them love her?
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Not this day. Not one disciple gets it.
And this is the end of their test.
There will be other tests in days to come, and they will do better. They’re still learning.
But they don’t get it this day.
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You know, some of you are in exams right now.
For some of you, Jesus is giving you a test. Maybe it’s the same test that was given to the disciples.
[SLIDE_25]
I would call it The Love Test.
Maybe there’s someone in your life you’re having a hard time loving in an authentic way.
Maybe it’s a parent.
Maybe it’s your child.
Maybe it’s your spouse.
Maybe it’s someone at work.
Maybe it’s someone you’re in a group with.
Maybe it’s someone you’re serving on a team with at this church.
Maybe, as with the disciples, it involves a whole group of people that you have problems with.
Maybe it’s people you don’t approve of.
Maybe it’s people you don’t think are very high functioning.
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The love test goes on all the time in our world.
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This is from a book written by Tony Campolo. He writes:
“Some time ago I was invited to be a counselor at a middle school camp. I don’t know how many reading this are Roman Catholics, but that old Roman Catholic theology is right: there is a purgatory, it’s middle school camp. A place between heaven and hell where people go to suffer for their sins.
“I’ve never met meaner kids in my life than at this middle school camp. Don’t get me wrong, I love middle school kids individually, but the gang at this camp was really bad.
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“These kids at this camp really turned mean. And their meanness was focused on an unfortunate kid named Billy.
“Billy broke my heart because he’d been born with a whole host of birth defects. He had cerebral palsy, and his brain was unable to exercise proper control over the movements of his body or his speech.
“The other kids mocked him. They called him spastic.
“Billy would walk across the grounds of camp in his disjointed manner, and the others would line up behind him, imitating him and mimicking his every movement.
“They thought this was funny. It was the worst kind of cruelty I’ve ever seen.
“One day I watched as Billy asked one of the boys a question. ‘Which way is the craft shop?’
“The other boy twisted up grotesquely, pointed a dozen different ways, and said, ‘That way.’
“I felt like punching out that mean kid. How could he be so cruel to a boy with disabilities?
“The level of meanness reached its lowest point on a Wednesday morning. Billy’s cabin had been assigned the morning devotions for that camp of one-hundred fifty kids.
“All the boys in his cabin had voted for Billy to be the speaker.
“I knew, and they knew, he couldn’t do it. They just wanted to get him up there so they could mock him and laugh.
“They thought it would be fun to watch spastic Billy try to deliver a devotional talk.
“I was livid. I was seething with anger.
“As little Billy got up out of his seat and limped his way to the platform, you could hear the mocking laughter and sneering going through the group.
“I could not remember ever being so angry.
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“What was amazing was that the ridicule of the boys did not stop little Bill. He took his place behind the podium and started to speak. It took him almost ten tortured minutes to say through tears, ‘Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. And I love Jesus.’
“And when he finished, there was dead silence.
“I looked over my shoulder, and there were middle school boys shaking and trembling and crying all over the place.
“A revival broke out in that camp, and kids turned their lives over to Jesus.
“A host of middle school boys committed their lives to Christian service. I wish I’d kept count of how many ministers I have met as I travel across the country who have told me that they gave their lives to Christ because of the witness of a kid named Billy.”
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You see, there are tests that come for you in so many moments of the day.
It may be just a simple interaction with someone who comes into your life.
And the question is, will you say, “God, will you help me love this person? Will you help me speak and act with compassion and truth and courage?
“God, here’s someone who’s difficult for me. Here’s someone who doesn’t know you. God, here’s someone, maybe they’re far away from me physically, but they’re poor and they’re needy, and I have stuff, and you’re calling me to love them.”
This is the will of God for you — to love the people in your life.
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I hope you’re doing well on this test.
I hope you’re living as a student of Jesus, learning from him how to love.
Because he’s still looking for disciples who are willing to love.
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Alright, back to Matthew 15.
Jesus makes this statement in verse 26, and he uses very harsh language about dogs, I believe, to force the disciples to face themselves – to give voice to what it is that they’ve been thinking and feeling privately. So they have to experience that shock of hearing it out loud before this woman.
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I believe Jesus uses the word “dog” for the disciples’ sake. “You want me to treat all Gentiles like dogs? Here’s what it looks like.”
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Now this is the hardest part of the test for the woman. Will she run away? Because she could.
She could have decided, “This is not worth the effort.” She could have just given up. She could have insulted him back. She would have been justified in doing that. “Who do you think you are? Where do you get off talking to me like that?”
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Yet, her love for her daughter is so intense. Her trust in Jesus’ power to heal is so deep. Her faith in Jesus’ compassion is so strong. Her commitment to Jesus as Lord is so unwavering, that she can’t give up.
And her response is unbelievable. Verse 27:
[SLIDE_26]
“Yes it is, Lord,” she said.
For a third time she speaks to him, and for a third time she calls him “Lord.”
Still… he’s her Lord.
“Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
She comes back at Jesus with guts and grace, and even wit.
There’s an element of playfulness here from her. She has a little attitude going on here. “Come on, Lord! You’re still my Lord and Master. Go ahead, by all means, feed the kids. But I bet you have a crumb for even me. I know you.”
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She just won’t give up. She won’t quit.
[SLIDE_27]
This is what might be called The Endurance Test.
The disciples faced the love test, she faces the endurance test.
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And some of you are facing an endurance test in your lives.
Something is going on in your life, and it’s very difficult.
You don’t know if you’ll ever find relief. But it’s not just that. What’s hardest is that you pray, you plead with God, and you don’t understand God’s response. He seems silent, or indifferent, or even hostile.
I think this is the hardest test.
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A friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer when he was 45 years old. We went to college together. He was one of my groomsmen in my wedding.
He was also a pastor who served God his whole life. He was a gifted leader and teacher who had so much potential to do great things for God in this world.
I remember sitting across the table with a close friend of ours just weeping together when we learned that our friend Ron was not going to make it.
And I remember weeping for his wife and three children. His family was his pride and joy. He was an unbelievable husband and father.
How do they go on after that?
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And why does something like that happen?
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You know, there’s so much I feel like I don’t know.
I only know that in the end, the choice every human being faces is the choice between hope and despair.
And Jesus says, “Choose hope.”
Jesus says, “I know my Father very well, and my Father and I say there is very good reason for choosing hope, so choose hope.”
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You may be facing an endurance test today.
I don’t know what it is. But the question is, will you keep going, even when you don’t know why, even when you don’t know if or when you will get relief? Even when you don’t get answers that could make the pain go away?
Will you still say, “My Lord,” even when his ways are not clear to you?
Will you keep going with all the grace and faith that you can muster, and live in hope that one day he will set everything right?
Will you trust that the Lord is good?
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I thought of a lot of characters in Scripture this week when I thought about this woman. I’ll just mention one.
I thought about Jacob. It’s the story in Genesis 32 where he meets a man at a stream.
He realizes afterwards that it’s God. He says, “I met God face to face and lived.”
He met this man and he wrestled with him all night. And when it was almost daylight, the man said, “I have to leave.”
But Jacob wouldn’t quit wrestling, and it says the man reached out and touched his hip, crippled his hip, and said, “Let go.”
And even at that point, Jacob says, “I won’t let go until you bless me. I won’t let go.”
When the man saw that Jacob wouldn’t quit, he blessed him.
And he gave him a new name.
Do you know what his new name was?
“Israel,” because he said, “you have wrestled with God, and prevailed.”
The name Israel means “one who wrestles with God.”
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Why does God wrestle with Jacob? Why does he wrestle all night long?
Obviously God wouldn’t have a problem winning relatively easily. Why does he wrestle with him all night long? Why didn’t he just give him the blessing?
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Well I don’t know the whole answer, but I think it has something to do with the fact that God cherishes human beings that persist and persevere and will not give up.
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God wants his children to endure and wrestle and persevere and refuse to quit.
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People like the woman in Luke 18 who keeps banging on the door of the unjust judge, and will not give up.
People like the man in Luke 11 who keeps pounding on the door of a neighbor, confident that eventually there will be an answer.
People who cling to the goodness of God even when there is little that they can see clearly.
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This woman in Matthew 15. Do you know what her name was?
Her name was Israel. One who wrestles with God and prevails.
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And the disciples, who didn’t do so well on their little test, are watching this encounter with open mouths.
They have never seen someone show so much confidence with Jesus, or demonstrate such risk-taking love.
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When this woman approached Jesus, they thought they were superior. She was the spiritual bottom of the barrel.
It turns out she is their master in every respect.
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She‘s relating to Jesus on a level of understanding and humility and reverence and trust and boldness that puts them to shame.
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And they look at Jesus, and now finally I think Jesus turns to face this woman.
Now the mask comes off.
For a moment he concealed the goodness of his heart, but he had a purpose.
But now that purpose is fulfilled. Now the test is over, and it’s time for the grades to be given out.
Verse 28:
[SLIDE_28]
Then Jesus said to her, “Woman
In the Greek text, there’s a single letter first. The letter “O.”
“O, woman.”
It’s what a person says when their heart is full. “O!” And Jesus’ heart is full, maybe his eyes are, as well.
He turns to her and he says, “Wow!”
“Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.
Jesus says, “You were my beloved daughter the whole time. You have wrestled with God and prevailed. O, woman. Great is your faith.”
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The word “great” comes from a form of the Greek word “mega.” We get words like mega-malls or mega-churches.
“You have ‘mega-faith.’”
He didn’t use that word for his disciples.
In an earlier passage, Matthew 8, when they flunk the storm test, do you know how he describes them? He says, “You of little faith.”
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[SLIDE_29]
Turns out, these Jewish men are in the pigeons group; and she, this Gentile woman, is in the eagles group. “You have great faith.”
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And the first turn out to be last, and the last turn out to be first.
That’s the way it is in the kingdom of God.
And this woman, who everyone thought was the spiritual bottom, is honored by Jesus. She’s honored by the one she persisted with and continued to call, “Lord.”
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Would you take a moment during this next song and just to talk to God?
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It may be that there’s something you’re facing right now that’s discouraging you, or confusing you, or troubling you.
Maybe there’s some measure of pain in your life.
And you need to say to him what this woman said to him. “Lord. Even though I don’t understand, still I call you Lord.”
Maybe you need to tell him that right now. “I still call you ‘Lord,’ I still bend my knee. I’m going to wrestle with you on this and I’m not giving up, but I still call you Lord. I still trust you and believe in you.”
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Let’s pray as the Michaela and the team come to lead us in a closing song.
Blue Oaks Church
Pleasanton, CA
