The Uncommon Faith of a Foreign Mother

Introduction

Last week we saw Jesus’ interaction with the Pharisees who were criticizing Jesus’ disciples for eating bread with unwashed hands. That is to say, they were eating without the ceremonial washing of their hands. They believed that without this ceremonial cleansing of their hands, they would defile themselves morally. So Jesus makes it clear to the Pharisees and the crowd around them - what goes into your mouth, what you eat, does not make you morally unclean. However, what comes out of your mouth shows whether or not you are morally unclean or not.

Jesus mentioned several sins - evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, lying, pride, foolishness, and blasphemy. These sins, along with all other sins, defile a person. But these sins don’t just appear out of nowhere - they are premeditated. They start in the heart. “And these things that come from within the heart,” Jesus said, “these defile a person.”

Remember, these particular Pharisees had come to Jesus in Galilee from the region of Judea. It seems that they had been waiting for Jesus to show up in Jerusalem for the Passover celebrations, but Jesus began to avoid all of Judea because there, He was being plotted against. The Pharisees desperately wanted Him dead. So Jesus keeps to Galilee. Now remember, in Galilee, he is also wanted by Herod Antipas, who thinks that Jesus is John the Baptist raised from the dead. So, at various times, Jesus withdraws from Galilee to be away from Herod, but now, He cannot go into Judea because there they want Him dead. So what does Jesus do?

Well, we’ve seen the first instance already when Jesus withdraws from Galilee, and that is when He goes to a desert place outside of Bethsaida. This is the time when Jesus feeds the crowd of 5,000 men, plus women and children.

Today we see Jesus once again leave the area of Galilee, not to Judea, but to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. Tyre and Sidon are closely related cities. They were located north of Galilee on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. These cities were originally intended by God to be part of the inheritance of Israel, but when Israel conquered the land of Canaan, they did not conquer it fully, and Tyre and Sidon were cities that they never did take over again.

So, now Jesus retires from the area of the Jews and Galileans and travels north, about 35 miles, from Capernaum to area of Tyre and Sidon. The people here are not Jewish, they are Canaanites. Jesus’ primary mission on this earth was to the children of Israel, but Jesus needs to retreat to an area where he can probably rest and have some private instruction time with the 12 disciples.

Let’s look at what the Bible has to say. We will be referencing both Matthew and Mark throughout this sermon, so Make sure you are following along. Go with me to Mark 7:24

Mark 7:24 KJV 1900

24 And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.

The Uncommon Faith of a Foreign Mother

We saw in Mark 7 that Jesus leaves Galilee to go to Tyre and Sidon, and once there, enters a house to have some privacy, but even there, His fame has spread, and He cannot be hid. Poor Jesus, all He wants is to have some rest and recovery time with His disciples, but it doesn’t seem that He can catch a break anywhere!

Now, at least at this time there is nothing indicating that there is a multitude of people that are beating down Jesus’ door. The Bible tells us on just one - this foreign woman, a mother, foreign not to these lands in which Jesus finds Himself, but foreign to the Gospel, foreign to the first fruits of the Gospel, and foreign in a sense of not being a Jew.

Read with me Mark 7:24-26

Mark 7:24–26 KJV 1900

24 And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid. 25 For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet: 26 The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.

This woman has a problem, her daughter is possessed by a devil, a demon. The Bible tells us that this woman is Greek. The Greek conquest of the area had Hellenized the culture there so that though Tyre and Sidon were cities of Lebanon and Syria, respectively, they had adopted much of the Greek culture that culturally, they were Greek. In Matthew, as we will read in a little bit, it tells us that she is a Canaanite. That means that she is not Greek by birth, but by culture, and she is a non-Jewish inhabitant of this region. Mark further narrows it down by telling us that she is a Syrophenician. That means that she was a Syrian dwelling in Phoenicia, the region to which Tyre and Sidon belonged. This distinguished her from other Syrians who lived further north in Syria proper.

So, what is important to note here is that this woman has zero ties to Jesus. Genealogically she was different.

Her genealogy is different to Jesus’. She is not Jewish. She is not Galilean. She is not a descendant of Abraham at all. Even the Samaritan woman had ties to Jesus through her ancestors, but this Syrophoenician woman, not thread.

Culturally she was different. She was Greek by culture, which means she had a different dress, diet, and customs than Jesus.

She was also religiously different. The Syrophoenicians were heavily influenced by Greek culture, which probably would have spread to their religion as well, but the people of Tyre and Sidon worshipped all sorts of gods. The primary two gods of the region were Baal and Astarte/Ashtaroth. These false gods demanded sacrifices and other religious rituals. And it is probably a result of those rituals and that worship to these demonic false gods that resulted in this woman’s daughter being possessed by an evil spirit.

This woman is different, but she has heard of Jesus. Jesus tried to escape multitudes and hide himself for a while, but this woman knew about Jesus. She had heard the accounts of others being delivered from demons. Perhaps she had even heard the account of a man from Decapolis who once had a legion of demons, but now was free and was publishing this name of Jesus all around that region.

And now, word has it that Jesus has just wandered into Phoenicia, into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. Why would Jesus do that? Why would He leave His people and come hang out with Gentiles, whom the Jews hated. I mean, even being in the presence of Gentiles made the Jews ceremonially unclean, but now they are staying in a house owned by a Gentile, in a Gentile city? Whatever the reason, it did not matter to this woman, she had heard about Jesus and was determined to find him and ask Him to deliver her young daughter. The use of the term “young daughter” or “little daughter” is one word in the Greek and it is the diminutive form of the word ‘daughter’. It denotes a special love and care for this girl. She wasn’t just some girl, this mom was crying out, “Jesus, can you please help my sweet girl?!”

Correct, she had zero ties to Him. She could not appeal to him as a countryman, she could not appeal to him culturally, and she could not appeal to him religiously, but perhaps, just maybe, she could appeal to him as the merciful and gracious God He claimed to be.

Let’s read Matthew’s account, and in reading it, we will gather a little more of this woman’s attitude toward Jesus.

and Matthew 15:21-22

Matthew 15:21–22 KJV 1900

21 Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.

This woman, this woman of Canaan, this woman who has no ties to Jesus at all goes to Him and cries out, she lifts up her voice, she yells for Jesus and the world around her to hear, “O Lord, have mercy on me.”

I want us to notice first that she asks for mercy for herself. This phrase, “have mercy on me,” precedes her request to deliver her daughter. She could have easily said, “Have mercy on my daughter,” but as any mother would know, to see your child in anguish is to be in anguish yourself.

For Jesus to deliver the girl would also mean deliverance for the mother, but not just in freeing her from seeing her child so vexed, so anguished, so tortured by this evil spirit, but it would mean deliverance from guilt.

Notice how this woman addresses Jesus - Matthew 15:22

Matthew 15:22 KJV 1900

22 Have mercy on me, O Lord...

The Greek word is kyrios, and it means “supreme in authority; controller; by implication, Master (as a respectful title): — God, Lord.”

See, “have mercy on me, O Lord,” is a recognition that what she once believed, what she once was involved in, the rituals and practices and sacrifices that she once participated in and had taught to her daughter as her mother had taught to her, were the wrong thing. Ashtoreth and Baal and the pantheon of false gods, most of whom represented very real demonic entities, we false. They brought no peace, they brought no joy, they brought nothing permanent except struggle and anguish and vexation, and it had taken control of her daughter in a most literal sense.

With this simple phrase this woman acknowledged that Jesus was the true Lord and that all the ones she had followed before Him were false. It was a change of mind. It was a change of heart. It was a public profession of her faith, and this is what we call repentance, for that is what repentance is - a change of mind.

She was appealing to Jesus as the supreme authority, sovereign, Master, and God.

To those that might think, “Well, Lord was a way to address those in authority, not simply God. This woman had heard of Jesus’ exploits, and was now just respectfully calling him by the title ‘Lord’ so that he would pay attention to her.” To those that would consider that possibility, I encourage you to pay special attention to her next words.

Matthew 15:22 KJV 1900

22 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David...

This woman had never recognized David as one of her kings before, because David, though rightful king of the land of Canaan, was not the king of the Sidonians, the Phoenicians, or the Syrians. He was king of the Israelites, of the Jews. Neither the Syrians nor the Phoenicians nor the Greeks had prophecies concerning David and his descendants. Neither the Syrians, the Greeks, nor the Phoenicians had ever recognized David as their king nor any of his descendants.

But this woman not only recognized Jesus as a miracle worker, she recognized Jesus as what she had been looking for for all her life in the false gods of her culture -she recognized Jesus as God. This was not some spur of the moment recognition. Her use of the phrase, “Son of David” implies that she had researched Jesus. She had asked around. She had investigated and found the prophecies that the Messiah, God in the flesh was not a demigod born of either Baal or Ashtoreth or Zeus or Jupiter.

No, the real God, the true God would become man himself, not for a pleasure-seeking, self-indulging interactions with mankind like the stories of the Greek gods. Oh no, the real God, the one, true God, the God Creator of the universe and all that is in it became flesh, not to have a good time, but to reconcile sinful mankind to Himself.

He would defeat sin. He would defeat death. He would rule on the throne of David. He would perform miracles as signs for those that were looking - healings, delivering people from evil spirits, control over nature itself. This woman had investigated, at least some of who Jesus claimed to be, and she recognized Him for who He was and placed her faith in Him. She had better insight on the person of Jesus than the majority of the Jews.

And she came to Jesus with the cry, “Have mercy on me!”

Why “Have mercy on me” and not on “my daughter”? Because she knew that it was not her daughter’s doing that had caused this. Mercy is withholding of punishment that is rightfully due to someone. Mercy is not giving someone the punishment which they do deserve.

“Have mercy on me,” is a cry for mercy to be shown to the mother who recognized that she had messed up her daughter’s life. “O Lord,” she cried, “O God, have mercy on me and deliver my daughter.”

She had probably never read Exodus 34, but she had heard enough about Jesus and in her investigations she had heard enough about God that she recognized what God said about himself to the Israelites in the wilderness as they travelled to the Promised Land. Exodus 34:6-7

Exodus 34:6–7 KJV 1900

6 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

This woman approached Jesus as the Lord that visited the iniquity, the sins of the parents upon their children. I believe she knew it was her doing that invited the presence of this spirit. And as she no doubt looked to the hundreds of false gods for help and couldn’t find it, one day, she heard of a man who could help. A man who had successfully delivered others permanently from their demons.

Maybe at first it was just a look at Jesus as an exorcist, but somewhere as she began to investigate, she realized Jesus was so much more than an exorcist - He is God in the flesh. God who hates sin. God who visits the sins of the parent, her sins, upon their children, her child. But He is also a God of mercy. Full of mercy. Mercy for thousands. He is forgiving.

So she cried out, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David!”

Reactions

So how did Jesus respond? How did the disciples respond?

At first, Jesus does not respond. Matthew 15:23a

Matthew 15:23 KJV 1900

23 But he answered her not a word...

This woman has declared her faith, but Jesus does not answer her. Not a single word. And I like what J.W. McGarvey says about this:

“God’s unanswering silence is a severe test of our faith.”

-J.W. McGarvey

She could have given up. She could have heard the silence and turned away. But she was so convinced of His deity and His character that she continued to cry after Jesus.

Read with me once again Mark 7:26

Mark 7:26 KJV 1900

26 The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.

The word besought is a word that means beg, beseech. This is not a single request. This is not a one time ask and move on. She continued and continue and continued to ask, and it wasn’t just a, “Excuse me. Excuse me, Jesus? Could you help my daughter, please?” It was loud and it was persistent.

But Jesus says nothing. However, the disciples do have something to say. Back to Matthew 15:23

Matthew 15:23 KJV 1900

23 But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.

Notice that the disciples viewed her as a nuisance. They probably supposed that since Jesus wasn’t responding, that He thought she was a bother also. So, boldly they speak up and say, “Jesus, would you just send her away? She’s coming after us. We are in the house and she’s still outside yelling the same thing, over and over. Some people just can’t take a hint...”

Not only that, but her volume was probably attracting the kind of attention that Jesus and the disciples had gone there to avoid.

So finally, Jesus speaks, but not to the woman, to the disciples, and this is important. Matthew 15:24

Matthew 15:24 KJV 1900

24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

We will come back to this and expand a little more on it, but here Jesus is communicating His primary mission to the Disciples. It is possible that the disciples now thought that Jesus had shifted his ministry focus to the Gentiles since He was wanted both in Galilee and in Judea. So Jesus, who as always, speaks to the heart, tells the disciples that His primary focus is still the house of Israel.

And maybe with this phrase, the disciples thought, “Good, that means Jesus can finally get rid of this person.” But look at what happens next. Matthew 15:25

Matthew 15:25 KJV 1900

25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.

it seems as if she just goes ahead and comes into the house. Either that or Jesus has left the house and is making His way out somewhere else. Either way, she puts herself at Jesus’ feet, and now, she worships him. For years, all her life, she had been rendering this worship to gods who could offer nothing but vexation. Now, she worships Jesus and after her worship, asks one more time, “Lord, help me.”

And now, Jesus and the woman have a short conversation.

Matthew 15:26–27 KJV 1900

26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. 27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.

This, at first, may seem rude. We have heard and studied that the Jews often referred to the Gentiles and even the Samaritans as dogs. In doing so, they were referring to them as unclean and untamed animals. These beasts were a nuisance and were pests that were destructive. They attacked cattle, they bit people, and nobody would think about sparing food for these creatures.

But that is not what Jesus does. He does not call this woman an untamed, filthy animal. Jesus uses the diminutive form for dog. Kind of like saying “doggy” / ”puppy.” This would have been the term used to refer to dogs that were household pets. These were beloved creatures that were kept for various reasons - work (cattle herding dogs), guard dogs, or simply pets. They were loved by the household and they in turn loved the members of the house. Now, this was something that did not happen in Israel. Dogs were considered unclean and were not kept as pets. Domesticate dog ownership came much later for the Jews than it did for their neighbors. And here, we remember, Jesus is not talking to a Jew, but a Syrophoenician woman.

And He tells her, it is not meet, not proper to give the pets the food that is intended for the children. That would be irresponsible and horrible. Jesus, the bread of life, had come to give life and healing and forgiveness to the Jews.

And the woman’s response is dripping with humility. She doesn’t get offended. She doesn’t even negate that she has no legitimate place at the table where the bread is being served. She knows that Jesus has come to His own. But she also knows this - that crumbs often fall from the table and it is the pets that eat them up, and no one denies the pets the crumbs. In fact, one of the main features of owning a dog is that you don’t have to bend over and clean up food that you dropped on the floor!

And because of this response, do you know what Jesus sees? If you are cheating and already reading verse 28, you know it’s faith, but think about what has transpired over the course of the last month or so in Jesus’ ministry.

Jesus has feed the 5,000 (more like 15K), and he healed many that were sick among them

they, in turn, wanted to make Jesus their king. “Yes, you are our Messiah; be our king!” It isn’t Jesus’ time to be king so He dismisses them and leaves to go pray. That same night, he crosses the Sea of Galilee on foot, delivering His disciples from the storm.

But the same crowd that was fed by Jesus goes back to look for Him so that they can have some breakfast. Not finding Jesus in that desert place, they make their way to Capernaum, where they find Jesus preaching in the synagogue.

They begin to ask Jesus how He got there so fast, and Jesus shuts them down and points out that they are only seeking Him for another meal. They have no real interest in who He really is or what He has come for.

He then tells them that He is the bread of life and that they need to partake of that bread (to believe in Him, and in His death) to have that spiritual hunger sated forever.

From that day, many that had once called themselves disciples stopped following Jesus.

Then, the Pharisees come and complain about how Jesus’ disciples are eating with unwashed hands. They have come to seek Jesus, but not to learn of Him, not to worship Him, but to find fault with Him.

And now, this woman seeks Jesus. She calls Him Lord, but does she mean it? She asks for deliverance for her daughter, but does she herself want forgiveness from her sins? She is persistent, that much is obvious, but is she proud or is she humble? Will she be like the rich young ruler that came looking for eternal life, only to leave without it, too proud and to entitled to let go of his idols - the much wealth and possessions he had.

So Jesus says, “I am the bread of life, sent by the Father for the children of Israel. It would not be right for the bread intended for the children to be given to the pets.” And this woman does not turn away sad, she does get offended, she does not get discouraged. She acknowledges her place, a Gentile, outside of the chosen people of God. She has no sense of entitlement. She acknowledges also that the power and authority of the Messiah is so great, that the healing of her daughter and the forgiveness shown to her would be but a simple crumb in comparison to who Jesus is.

In essence, she is saying, “Jesus, you have such big blessings and plans for the Jews, the people from whom you chose to reveal yourself to the world. I don’t expect to be numbered among them, and I definitely don’t deserve to. But it would be nothing for you to have mercy on me and to deliver my daughter because you are the Lord.”

And this proves to the disciples and anyone else that is watching this interaction that Jesus has chosen to respond to fervent, humble faith from anyone. Notice Mark 7:29-30

Mark 7:29–30 KJV 1900

29 And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. 30 And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.

But Matthew records something additional. Matthew records a compliment from Jesus so rare that He is only recorded as having said it twice. Matthew 15:28

Matthew 15:28 KJV 1900

28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

Did y’all catch it?

Matthew 15:28 KJV 1900

28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

Great is your faith. This woman’s faith was huge. Absolutely tremendous. This faith dwarfed the so-called faith of the Jewish multitude who had eaten bread and had been healed weeks past. It was greater than the disciples’ faith when they were in a boat crossing the Sea of Galilee with Jesus in the boat with them. And of course, it was no comparison to the total absence of faith that the Pharisees had in Jesus.

The only other person of which Jesus says, “You have great faith,” is to a Roman centurion who seeks Jesus to heal a servant of his. This man demonstrates the faith that he has in Jesus by telling Jesus that he is aware that Jesus can simply say the word and the child will be healed. To which Jesus answers, “In all of Israel I have not encountered such great faith.”

So this woman goes back home and there finds her daughter, no longer tormented, no longer vexed and agonizing, but laying peacefully on her bed. Resting, for once, in who-knows-how-long.

Application

So what is the application for us? The application is two-fold.

Remember how I said that when Jesus finally spoke up after the disciples asked Him to send the woman away, what He said was important? This is why it is important - Jesus communicated His mission to the disciples - to come to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But then, when He responds to the woman and ultimately heals her daughter, He also communicates a few other things.

He still chooses to respond to faith. Jesus doesn’t respond to familial or ethnic ties. He doesn’t respond to cultural ties or even religious ties. He responds to those who have humble faith in Him. This is our practical application as we approach God in prayer - We must know that He cares deeply for us and does hear our prayers. Why then, does it seem like Jesus does not hear our prayers? I cannot pretend to know every reason God does not answer every prayer exactly when we pray, but Richard Sibbes, a Puritan theologian of the late 1500s and early 1600s had this to say about the subject.

“God doth always hear, though he seemeth not to hear sometimes, to increase our importunity. Christ heard the woman of Canaan at first; but yet, to increase her importunity, he gave her the repulse and denial, and with the same, inward strength to wrestle with him.” -Richard Sibbes

The word importunity means persistence, especially to the point of annoyance.

James 5:16 KJV 1900

16 ...The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Sometimes, God does this to prove our sincerity, our dedication, our humility, or surrender to Him, and our faith and faithfulness. In time, regardless of His answer, whether it is a yes, a no, or a not now, will give us peace if we are surrendered to Him and humbly trust Him.

Do you have a request for the Lord? Pray until peace comes. Peace may come in the positive answer to that prayer. But peace often comes in the denial of the request if we are truly submitted and surrendered to God’s will being done.

2. This was a real presentation of how the world would benefit from God’s blessing to Abraham. God told Abraham that in Him all nations would be blessed. Jesus tells the woman that at the moment, He, as the bread of life, is primarily set for the children of Israel. But He indicates to her and to the disciples and to us now as we read it that it is His plan for the bread of life to be delivered to the rest of the world. In Mark 7:27 Jesus clearly says “27 …Let the children first be filled:" indicating that the bread would go to the pets and to other households as well. And this it did when Jesus commissioned the church to go to all nations and preach the Gospel.

It communicated the level of His grace toward people. The woman had no legitimate claim to an expectation of Jesus’ help. And when this was pointed out to her, she acknowledged that she never even belonged at the table. She didn’t say, “Well that was rude, and I demand to be considered as, if not a child, at least a guest who deserves a place at the table.” No, instead she acknowledged her place - a dog under the table. A dog who gets fed by the crumbs that fall from the table. A dog who is not wild or feral. No, this is a beloved dog. This is the household pet, loved by the owner and the children and taken care of, and in turn, loves the family.

No earthly illustration of spiritual principles is without its drawbacks and shortcomings, but this woman responded in the way that Jesus had set forth back in the Sermon on the Mount for those that would be happy. “Blessed are the meek, blessed are they that mourn, blessed are the poor in spirit.”

So we, the children that have partaken of the bread, must now be deliverers of that bread. It is God’s stated plan that we as Christians take the Gospel to the world. It is not the angels job, it is not the job of the Holy Spirit to give dreams and visions to the lost so that they can be saved. No, it is our job to take that gospel to others.

That is the evangelical application.

There is one more application, and this application is for those who are without Christ. If you are hear and you have never placed your faith solely in Jesus Christ and His work for your salvation and asked Him to save you and forgive you of your sins, then you are unsaved. There is a hunger in you that can only be satisfied by Jesus. Chasing women, or men, drugs, alcohol, entertainment, or any other thing will leave you still hungry. But today, Jesus is the bread of life for the whole world. Today, He is the bread of life for you.

Invitation