Encounters with Jesus Crumbs from the Master’s Table

Encounters with Jesus

Crumbs from the Master’s Table

Matthew 15:21–28 (ESV)

21 And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.”

23 But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26 And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 27 She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 28 Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

An Encounter with a Woman

As we enter the Season of Lent we begin a series of sermons, studies of encounters that Jesus had with various people.

It’s designed to be a series that particularly focuses on evangelism and focusing particularly on various kinds of people who put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We’re going to see an extraordinary encounter that Jesus had with a woman, a woman who was very distressed, a woman weighed down with care and a burden that many of you can relate to…especially mothers can relate to this morning.

This is a woman who was burdened about her young daughter, her little child who is sick.

In the Gospels she is described as being possessed of a demon, and no further explanation is given.

whether that was a physical distress that she was manifesting (probably it was), and probably also some kind of psychological side effects associated with that.

It’s not the disease itself and it’s not the affliction itself…it’s the burden of this mother, and where do you turn?

Jesus Withdrew

Matthew 15:21 (ESV)

21 And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.

Tyre and Sidon were ancient cities on the Mediterranean coast north and west of Galilee.

They had been major cities of Phoenicia, a significant civilization that flourished in Canaan hundreds of years before Christ.

By Jesus’ time, Phoenicia had long since fallen, and Tyre and Sidon were part of the Roman province of Syria.

These cities were cultural centers because they were major seaports, an important inheritance from their Phoenician past. Both cities still exist today and are part of Lebanon.

Why did Jesus venture into this area, which was outside the regions of the Jews and therefore largely Gentile and pagan?

Perhaps He simply wanted the anonymity that would give Him a breather from all of the ministry activity that followed Him everywhere He went in Galilee.

Perhaps He wanted to escape the imminent danger posed by the Jewish officials.

We do not really know why He went there, but we do know This is the only time during His ministry that Jesus left the ancient borders of Israel and went into a pagan land.[1]

Pressing Appeals for Help

Matthew 15:22 (ESV)

22 And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.”

Here in this story you have a concerned mother. She’s concerned about her little girl. Some of you — and in fact, a number of you — can enter in in a remarkable way this morning to what this woman is going through.

You’ve been there. You’ve had those nights in which you could not sleep, nights in hospital, nights contemplating yet another surgery, nights in which you didn’t know which way to turn, nights filled with worry–worry over what may happen, worry over what may eventuate. It’s a familiar scene, isn’t it? It’s seen all over the land. It’s seen in countless numbers of homes You’re concerned about your children — your children who are unwell, your children who are not performing as they should, your children that are demonstrating signs of deep concern.

There are a number of obstacles facing this woman.

Geography

Tyre and Sidon is technically outside the boundaries of Israel.

She’s a Gentile. Do you know what the Jews called Gentiles? The text tells us. “Dogs.”

She has all kinds of obstacles.

There’s an issue of race: she’s a Syrophoenician. She’s not “one of us.”

She’s an outsider. She lives in a foreign part. She’s an enemy.

And she’s a woman.

Yes. This This is the first century.

You know, almost every Jew in the first century prayed a prayer on a daily basis — men, that is — giving thanks to God that they were not created women.

That was a daily prayer in the first century.

Christianity changed all that.

Christianity emancipated women from that bondage. It is Paul who writes in Galatians that in Christ there is neither male nor female.

Don’t ever forget that. It was Paul who wrote those words that in Jesus Christ there is neither male nor female.

But Paul hasn’t written those words yet, and as far as Jesus’ disciples are concerned she was an enemy. She was a foreigner, and she was a woman — and a noisy one, at that.

She is a Canaanite woman, that is, a pagan woman from that region, somehow recognized Jesus.

We can only surmise that Jesus’ reputation had spread all over that region of the ancient world.

It seems likely that His abilities as a healer were especially talked about, for the woman appealed to Him to heal her daughter, just as so many had appealed to Jesus in Galilee.

She did not state the symptoms of that particular experience of demonic possession, as sometimes happens in the Gospel accounts, but she indicated that her daughter was severely demon-possessed. So, she asked Him to have mercy on the girl.

Nearly everything about this woman’s appeal to Jesus is remarkable, beginning with the fact that she addressed Him by saying, “O Lord, Son of David.”

In this instance, “Lord” may have simply been a title of respect,

but she also called Him “Son of David.”

This was a highly significant title for Jesus, for it had been prophesied that a king from the line of David would rule forever (Isa. 9:7).

Matthew identifies Jesus as “the Son of David” from the beginning of his Gospel (1:1).

The crowds at His triumphal entry would laud Him as “the Son of David” (21:9).

This was a messianic title. We cannot know how this pagan woman came to know and use this title for Jesus, but

It is interesting that she was willing to identify Him as the Messiah when so many in Israel were unwilling to do so.[2]

She comes with this extraordinary burden, this heart-rending burden for her daughter: “Have mercy on me,” she says to Jesus.

And He ignores her.

He says not a word.

Matthew 15:23 (ESV)

23 But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.”

How absolutely unlike Jesus this non-response was.

There was a consistent pattern throughout His earthly ministry—whenever someone looked to Him for help, He stopped in His tracks and dealt with that person’s need. His ministry was marked, above all things, by compassion.

It seems, at least at first glance, that Jesus ignored this Canaanite woman. [3]

Have you ever been ignored? Oh, yes, you have!

You’ve gone into a store and someone was having a bad day behind the counter and ignored you.

And you felt insulted. You’ve been a little annoyed, and maybe if things got the better of you, you actually said so. Imagine this.

This is Jesus we’re talking about now, and He ignores her. He says not a word. its as if she is invisible to him and he has no sensitivity to her pain.

What do the disciples say?

They go to Jesus and they say, “Send her away.

She’s just being a nuisance. She’s making all this noise and commotion. We can barely think. Lord, send her away!” (Meaning, “She’s not one of us.”) I like to think that the disciples were making an implied request for Jesus to minister to the woman.[4]

Jesus Responds

Matthew 15:24 (ESV)

24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

It was not that Jesus was saying He would not exercise His power except within the confines of Israel. He was saying: “I am a missionary. I was sent by God to a particular place at a particular time for a particular task.

I was sent to the lost sheep of Israel. This woman is not one of those lost sheep.

She does not fall within the parameters of My mission.”

I believe that was what Jesus was saying, but it still seems as if He was becoming more and more insensitive.

Now that’s true, of course. He had come for the Jews; He had come for His people. Now His people rejected Him, of course, but He had come first of all for the Jews.

She kneels and says to Jesus, “Lord, help me.”

Matthew 15:25 (ESV)

25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.”

She said the three words that are among the most important words any human being can utter in the presence of Jesus: “Lord, help me!”

She recognized Him as God incarnate and appealed to Him for help.

She did not want any sort of recognition.

She did not care what Jesus said to her or how He seemed to treat her.

She was convinced that He was the only hope for her daughter, so she kept pressing Him for help.

Jesus Answers

Matthew 15:26 (ESV)

26 And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

And you think now the heart of Jesus would be broken,

but He says, “It is not right to cast the children’s bread and give it to dogs.”

Extraordinary! Takes your breath away! If this wasn’t the Bible, you’d say I was making this up! This is Jesus!

So many obstacles to coming to faith in Jesus Christ…disciples who want rid of her…disciples who are saying “Send her away”…God, who seems to be ignoring her.

She needed Jesus, so she came with a simple but urgent plea. Jesus, however, still hesitated. Then

He uttered what seems to be His most insensitive statement yet: But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs” (v. 26).

In ancient Israel, one of the worst ways to insult someone was to call him or her a dog.

Commentators have pointed out that Jesus spoke here of “the little dogs,” which were small dogs that were kept as pets, not feral dogs roaming the streets. Also, the setting He pictured was that of a family meal, with children seated at the table and the small dogs on the floor below. He rightly said that it would not be right for the parents to take the food that was intended for the children and give it instead to the dogs. But no matter how we cut it, Jesus called this woman a dog.[5]

Is that you? You want to believe, but there are so many obstacles to believing.

You’re married to someone who isn’t a believer, and you can’t even contemplate the consequences of putting your faith in Jesus Christ because your spouse is totally against it.

There are all sorts of obstacles, all sorts of criteria that emerge in the course of our existence that prevent us from coming to Jesus and putting our faith in Jesus Christ.

This woman is facing the most extraordinary obstacles. But she is a trophy. All these obstacles, you see, have one aim. Jesus is taking her on a journey. He’s putting her to the test to bring out of her genuine faith of the most extraordinary kind.

She agrees.

Matthew 15:27 (ESV)

27 She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

She doesn’t throw a tantrum. She doesn’t lash back.

She says, ‘Yes, Lord. Okay. But even the dogs may eat of the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.’ You have dogs who lie underneath the table when you’re eating? If you don’t, you’re not in the same world as me!

What an extraordinary thing for her to say. I mean, extraordinary, because you’d think, wouldn’t you (I mean, let’s be honest )…

most of us here would be offended by what Jesus has just said. And she agrees with Him, and she says,

“Yes, Lord, but even the dogs may eat of the crumbs that fall from the masters’ table.”

That is why, when Jesus likened her to a dog, albeit the household pet variety, she did not protest.

That was a tacit acknowledgment that she knew she was not one of Jesus’ people and He owed her nothing. In short, she did not come with a sense of entitlement.

In the United States today, there is a burgeoning sense of entitlement. We seem to hear it everyday—people making the argument that the society or the government owes them something. We’re all susceptible to this mind-set, but we need to resist it with all our beings.

The problem with such an entitlement mentality is that it can grow to the point where we believe God Himself owes us something—health, wealth, happiness, and myriad other things.[6]

There was no sense of entitlement with this Canaanite woman at all.

She did not come to Jesus with a chip on her shoulder, demanding His help as her due. She knew she had no right to His help. She acknowledged herself to be a “dog” and said she was only hoping for a few crumbs to fall her way, just as any domestic dog would do.

This woman knew who Jesus was. She knew that He was the Lord and the Son of David, that is, the Messiah.

A Woman of Great Faith

Matthew 15:28 (ESV)

28 Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

Jesus saw faith in this Canaanite woman.

Her eyes had been opened to know Him and believe on Him. For that reason, He granted her petition.[7]

She didn’t have a Bible.

She knew nothing of the New Testament.

She knew nothing of the doctrine of justification by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone apart from the works of the law.

But she knew this much: that the answer to her problem, the answer to her predicament lay in one person and in one person alone.

There was only one who could answer her predicament: it was Jesus. It was this one standing right in front of her there and then. And no matter what the obstacles, no matter what the difficulties, she persevered.

She believed however small the evidence might seem to be.

And Jesus says of her, ‘Your faith is great. Your faith is great.’

She abandons everything and lays hold of what at first seems to be only a glimmer of hope:

that if Jesus was first, as the parallel account in Mark says, sent to the lost sheep of the tribe of Israel,

there was at least some hope that in the second place Jesus was sent for those who are not of Israel, and, therefore, for her.

Applications

1. This passage is a rebuke to those of us who are Christians. It’s a rebuke for what is often our prejudice about people who are not like us, and not of us.

…from a different race, who smell, whose clothes are funny, who speak with a funny accent and we dismiss them.

And tell me if this is not so: tell me that we don’t say with the disciples from time to time, ‘Lord, send them away. Send them away, because they’re just a nuisance.’

2. This passage is also teaching us that anyone can come to Jesus and find mercy — anyone.

Matthew 11:28 (ESV)

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

That’s Jesus’ word to you.

You may be a concerned mother just like this woman, and Jesus is saying to you, my friend, “Come unto Me. Bring your burden, bring your trial, bring your predicament, bring the sense that no one understands you, and come to Jesus and you will find in Him a friend who sticks closer to you than a brother.

You’ll find in Him, everything…everything…forgiveness of sins, a new life, new fellowship, new vitality, a sense of life that you’ve never had before.

And you can do that now in the quietness of your hearts:

“Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me; and that Thou bidst me come to Thee. O Lamb of God, I come.”

Come to Jesus as this woman came to Jesus. Against all kinds of obstacles, she would not hear no. And you’ll find, my friend, the open arms of Jesus saying, “Come, come.”

[1]Sproul, R. C. (2013). Matthew(p. 478). Crossway. [2]Sproul, R. C. (2013). Matthew (p. 479). Crossway. [3]Sproul, R. C. (2013). Matthew (p. 479). Crossway. [4]Sproul, R. C. (2013). Matthew (p. 479). Crossway. [5]Sproul, R. C. (2013). Matthew (pp. 480–481). Crossway. [6]Sproul, R. C. (2013). Matthew (p. 481). Crossway. [7]Sproul, R. C. (2013). Matthew (p. 482). Crossway.