Miss Manners Would Have Been Shocked (Jesus and the Canaanite Woman)
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 suffering terribly from demon-possession.”
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.”
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 their dogs.”
“Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
"I thank you, God that I am neither a woman, a Samaritan nor a Gentile dog.” This prayer was uttered frequently by pious Jews, especially those associated with the sect of the Pharisees. Both Gentiles and women were a source of ritual contamination to the Jews. Consequently, the disciples of our Lord, being Jewish, were scrupulous in keeping themselves aloof from Gentiles, Samaritans and women. However, their consternation knew no bounds at the actions of the Master who reached out both to women, to Samaritans and to Gentiles.
Without apology I aver that the Christian Faith is an inclusive religion; especially is the Faith of Christ a Gentile religion and a woman’s religion. Here, within the Faith, all peoples are equal before the Lord. Each believer has been redeemed by infinite grace. Each Christian has received infinite mercy. Each individual is placed within the Body of Christ to be received with gratitude to the Lord who redeems and each is to be accorded respect befitting such precious individuals.
The Christian Faith has become the home of the Gentiles, fulfilling the prophecy of Noah when he said:
May God extend the territory of Japheth;
may Japheth live in the tents of Shem
[Genesis 9:27].
We Gentiles have our religious home in the tents of Shem, for the Faith we have received has Jewish roots. Our Lord has opened the door and all are welcomed to come that each might receive grace and mercy, the forgiveness of sin and life everlasting. Though having Jewish roots, we who are not Jews by birth are welcomed before the Father in Christ the Lord. This is explicitly stated throughout the pages of the New Testament.
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise [Galatians 3:26-29].
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)— remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit [Ephesians 2:11-22].
Achieving this standing of equality in the Faith was not easy. It was not that God was reluctant to accept all mankind; but it was the disciples of our Lord who first sought to erect barriers to maintain their cultural purity. They were biased against Gentiles and prejudiced against women because they had unconsciously exalted culture over Christ. Though God calls all peoples to Himself and though God reaches out to every gender, the old traditions died hard. The disciples of our Lord struggled with these issues, and not always successfully. When Paul rebuked Peter for treating Gentiles as spiritual inferiors, he was but iterating a lesson Peter had already learned years before from the Master. Explore the text with me to discover a time when Jesus’ actions must have surely shocked the sensibilities of the disciples. He spoke to a woman! He spoke to a Gentile! He commended her for her great faith, and gave her what she requested. Miss Manners would have been shocked because He violated custom to honour God.
Culture Contra Christ– One of the more difficult tasks assigned to us as Christians is the requirement to distinguish between culture and Christ. Culture is but the expression of the collective agreement of a given society dictating the manner in which people will conduct daily activities. Culture is the sum of the traditions with which we are comfortable and familiar. Culture varies on a national, and even on a regional scale. Thus culture is fluid, always adapting to changes marking social transitions.
One hundred years ago, western culture dictated that men grow beards and wear hats. Gradually customs changed and men were clean-shaven and eventually even hats disappeared. By the time I was a young man, beards were again in style among the young. The churches within which I first ministered were adamantly opposed to beards. In their eyes such hirsute fashion spoke of rebellion. Today, facial hair is a non-issue. Youth are even prone to shave their heads. Hats are again common … but it is usually baseball caps instead of Panama hats or Stetsons. In the recent past, culture dictated that girls did not phone boys. If the experience in my house was any indication, that custom has changed dramatically. Girls are much more aggressive in letting boys know they are interested in them. Dress, food, courtesies … all alike are subject to constant change.
Likewise, attitudes and actions dictated by attitudes marking a given culture are subject to change. As a young man living in the southwestern United States, black people were not readily welcomed in white churches. We supported missionaries to carry the message of life to Africa, but we were frequently reminded that American blacks really wanted to worship with their own kind. My first ministry was in a prison farm where a disproportionate segment of the population were blacks. As men responded to the Gospel message and confessed Christ, I suddenly was faced with the dilemma of helping them find a church where they could worship. The church with which I fellowshipped assured me that they really wanted to attend a black church. When I visited the pastor of a nearby black congregation to explain my dilemma, he told me quite bluntly, “My little white brother, if you fish in my pond, keep what you catch.”
For the first time after becoming a Christian I was confronted with the conflict between Christ and culture. In deepest humility and with great trepidation, I stood against my own church and with Christ who teaches that all are welcomed into the Faith. I was soon excluded from the church in which I came to faith and within which I first served the Lord, yet I knew the issue was simply that Christ must prevail over culture.
The pastor of my home church called me in to speak with him. He pleaded with me to change my mind, quoting several verses which he assumed proved his point. At last I said to him, “Brother Ed, if I have any steel in my backbone, you put it there. I cannot transgress the Word of God. I will take my stand with Christ.”
He then told me that he had phoned every church with which we had fellowship, informing them that I had become a troublemaker who was stirring up racial unrest. “You will never preach again,” he solemnly intoned.
“Pastor,” I responded, “if you can close that door, God doesn’t want me to go through it. If He wants it open, you can’t close it.”
I watched that good man drop his head to his hands and sob uncontrollably. “I knew you would say that,” he lamented. “I know you are right, but if I took your stand I would lose my church,” he wept.
“Brother Ed, if you don’t take my stand, you will lose a whole lot more than your church,” I shot back. With that I stood and left his office, never to return to that church.
Don’t think that such a conflict between Christ and culture is confined to the churches of the American South. I have met every bit as much prejudice in Vancouver from British immigrants offended at the immigration of Chinese and Indian peoples. Likewise, I met considerable prejudice expressed by Chinese believers against Caucasians. In every instance, culture was elevated to a position above Christ. I said to one Chinese congregation, “I stood opposed to my own people excluding other races. You may be assured that I oppose your efforts to exclude my people from hearing the message of grace.”
Jesus and His disciples ate without washing their hands [cf. Matthew 15:1-11]. Lynda and I were guests at a banquet given to promote understanding between the Evangelical and Jewish communities in Vancouver. Before eating, the orthodox Jews were invited to wash. They poured water from a ewer over their hands and in a ceremony older than the New Testament rubbed their hands to insure ritual cleanliness. What was interesting as we observed this act was that physical cleanliness was not the issue, but ritual purity was the point of the exercise. It is the tradition of the elders, but it is not a command of God to wash before eating. Therefore, Jesus’ disciples ignored the custom.
Jesus permitted His disciples to pick heads of grain and eat them on the Sabbath [Matthew 12:1-8]. The Law prohibited work on the Sabbath, and with the passage of years the rabbis ever more precisely dictated what was and what was not work. Jewish culture was tightly regulated by the dicta of the rabbinical writings. One could not kill a flea on the Sabbath since that would involve hunting the pesky critter. One could lift livestock out of the ditch, but ploughing a field was prohibited. They were not to prepare a meal on the Sabbath. Yet Jesus’ disciples plucked heads of grain and ate them on the Sabbath, all in violation of the cultural mandate of the Jewish religion.
In the same vein, Jesus healed on the Sabbath which was anathema to the culture [Matthew 12:11-14; Luke 13:10-17 and John 5:1-15]. The Jews were quite specific about the reason for their anger toward Jesus – He did not keep the Sabbath according to their rules [John 5:18; 9:16]. You error if you draw the conclusion that Jesus was an iconoclast; He was not. He perfectly kept the Law which had been given at Sinai. The religious leaders kept their silence before Jesus’ searching question, Can any of you prove me guilty of sin [John 8:46]? They knew that He had kept the very letter of the law as well as the Spirit of the Law. He could not be faulted on that count.
This is not to say that all traditions or all customs are wrong. Clearly, the Bible accepts, and perhaps even commends some cultural practises. The priest serving to burn incense before God was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood [Luke 1:8-10]. As an infant, Jesus was presented in the Temple courts according to the custom of the Law [Luke 2:27]. Jesus’ family observed the feasts of Israel according to the custom [Luke 2:42]. Jesus Himself was customarily found in the synagogue on the Sabbath [Luke 4:16]. The key to deciding which practises are honouring to God and which dishonour His Name is to see the impact of the custom on people of differing cultures. If a given custom excludes others on the basis of race or culture or hinders those coming to the Faith of our God, it cannot be pleasing to God. Those traditions which are neutral toward others, or which invite others to faith in our God, receive His commendation.
Let’s admit the truth that our own cultural backgrounds quickly contaminate our perception of and practise of the Faith, if we are unaware of the subtle contamination. What we are, the actions with which we are comfortable, the attitudes we accept as necessary for social intercourse, all are determined to an unprecedented degree by our own cultural views. We determine what is acceptable and what is unacceptable to an amazing degree by virtue of the culture within which we gained maturity. That which we consider to be good manners is in great degree determined by our cultural background.
It is easy to speak of the “ugly American” because there is an uncomfortable degree of truth to the charge. Too many American missionaries are noted more for their efforts to impose American culture than for their evangelisation of the peoples they serve. It is equally easy to speak of the “nice” Canadian who does little to upset people and consequently achieves little toward advance of the Faith. There is a great deal of truth to this statement. Too many Canadian saints will choose silence for the sake of momentary peace rather than resist error. Likewise, it is an axiom of anthropology to speak of the xenophobia of the Chinese peoples because this condition is too frequently seen within Chinese culture. Even within a Chinese congregation I previously pastored I observed instances of subtle resistance against welcoming other races because such an action was deemed offensive. In each instance named, culture is in conflict with Christ because the culture from which we each have come exercises such incredible influence over us.
What has all this to do with the text? The Jewish culture with which the disciples were familiar pointedly excluded all Gentiles, and was especially demeaning to women. The woman pleading with the Lord was a Canaanite … and a woman. She persistently cried out to the Lord Jesus for mercy. Because He ignored her, His disciples were just as persistent in urging Him to quickly grant her request and get rid of her. They were embarrassed that a Gentile woman was even pleading with Him in their presence. Their cultural conditioning excluded contact with all such people. If ever our Lord had opportunity to elevate culture to a position of respect within the Faith, this was it.
Christ is Greater Than Culture – Jesus’ initial answer to this pleading woman seems demeaning at first glance. It does, however, state a great truth. Though He was to be a light for revelation to the Gentiles [Luke 2:32], the Messiah was sent to the lost sheep of Israel. He first offered Himself to the Jewish nation as the promised Messiah. Our Lord wept at the thought that the Jewish nation chose culture over salvation. That sad cry recorded in Matthew 23:37-39 speaks of His sorrow. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
If His first answer appeared to attack this woman’s heritage, our Lord’s second answer seems positively cruel: It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs. The words pierce our hearts; we recoil from them as from a slap in the face. Is it possible that our Lord was biased? How could He speak in such a crass manner? Surely He knew that such words would sting and hurt? After all, He here referred to Gentiles as “dogs” and seems to have indicated that they were of less value in the eyes of God than Jews.
Our Lord was not needlessly cruel. The answer to this dilemma is found in the approach this woman made to Jesus. She addressed the Master as Lord, Son of David. This is a messianic address. In other words, though a Gentile, she approached the Master as the Jewish Messiah. If that was all He was, then she must realise that His ministry was to the Jews and not to Gentiles such as herself. Jesus responded in kind. Through such means she was brought to the point of desperation which led her to move beyond a mere national Saviour to One with power over all creation.
Seemingly rebuked by the Master because she was of the wrong culture, she turned the rebuke to her advantage through her persistent response. Kneeling before the Lord she pleaded yet once more. Yes, Lord. With these words she acknowledged that as Messiah of Israel He was responsible first to the chosen nation. The words which follow were the turning point for receiving what she sought, for she reminded the Master that even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table. There is great humility in this answer. Could we, culturally conditioned as we are, have humbled ourselves as much?
I was born and raised in the United States. Unconsciously, I imbibed deeply of the thought that the culture in which I was raised was superior to all other cultures, and if any conflict arose between my country and another, then that country was in error and needed but to see the light of our superior practises. When I felt our nation was insulted, I rushed to wear the uniform of a United States Marine. Had I been challenged to humble myself to a Jewish Messiah, I am not certain that I would have possessed sufficient humility to receive Jesus as such. Likewise, you no doubt bristle inwardly at the thought that salvation is from the Jews [John 4:22].
It is amazing how much of culture seeps into the church to be uncritically adopted as truth. Because the United States is a great democracy, I accepted without question the idea that the church is a democracy. Likewise, churches throughout Canada are of the opinion that fifty percent plus one makes an action right. However, the Word cautions us, do not follow the crowd in doing wrong [Exodus 23:2]. A majority does not make an action right. As Christians, our concept of right and wrong is fixed by the Word of God and not by a majority in a vote. We must ever submit to the Word if we will please God, and avoid uncritically accepting that the majority is correct. Vox populi, vox dieu is not necessarily … not even usually … correct.
An example of serious cultural prejudice among the churches of this day is a disturbing bias against the Jewish people. We Christians need to be cautious. Paul reminds those of us who are Gentiles that it is because of Jewish intransigence that we are redeemed. Had there been no obstinacy in the Jewish response to our Lord, we could not have received grace to believe. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree [Romans 11:17-24]!
Though blinded through sin and prejudice, the Jewish people were nevertheless God’s special people chosen to bring blessing to the world. We must hold ourselves apart from the urge to castigate these ancient people for their blindness toward the Messiah whom God sent. We must be humble before the sovereign choice of our God and rejoice in the knowledge that He yet reaches out to us.
I rejoice in my heritage as an American. I rejoice in my privilege of being accepted as a Canadian. However, these privileges are transient; the only heritage which extends beyond this moment called now is the heritage of those known by God. We do well to humble ourselves before Him, challenging each practise in our lives and in our worship to insure that it is pleasing to Him. We must seek to please God and avoid acting solely out of our own cultural bias presuming that this is pleasing to Him.
Christ Seeks Faith – Jesus was always impressed by great faith. What is interesting is that He found such faith among Gentiles in either of the instance recorded in the Gospels! Our Lord marvelled at the faith of the Centurion whose servant was grievously ill [Matthew 8:10]; and in our text He registered His pleasure at the great faith of this Canaanite woman [Matthew 15:28]. Twice did Jesus take special note of the faith of people He encountered, and each time it was a Gentile He noticed. I am encouraged by this knowledge. If the only two individuals to receive the commendation of Christ for their faith were Gentiles, then though a Gentile, I also can receive the commendation of Christ the Lord.
What would suffice to please the Lord? What would be necessary to merit His commendation? Faith which refuses to be discouraged would please the Saviour. Surely this woman had reason to become discouraged. When she approached the Saviour, He ignored her. He answered not a word. His silence was so long that at last His disciples intervened, begging Him to give her what she wanted so that she would cease pestering the tiny band. When at last He spoke, the Master was blunt in His refusal toward her request. Yet she persisted, refusing to be discouraged. His discouragement served only to bring her to a point of worshipful pleading and even that resulted in more discouraging words to her. When He tacitly refused her yet again, she responded with faith.
Do you recall the parable the Saviour told to encourage His disciples to pray? Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’”
And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” [Luke 18:1-8].
Well might the Lord wonder if He shall find faith on the earth at His return! Have you prayed and it seemed as though no one in heaven heard your cry? George Mueller was a marvellous man of prayer. He was a contemporary of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great nineteenth century Baptist preacher in the city of London. Mueller built a series of orphanages in England which provided for hundreds of children. He had a conviction that he should not make his needs known except to God. So all the supply for daily needs for the hundreds of children was dependent upon prayer to the Lord God of Heaven.
Mueller wrote in his journal that many times food arrived precisely as the meals were being prepared and the children were always fed. Moneys arrived precisely as the need was most pressing. His journals are a source of richest encouragement because he refused to be discouraged even when the need seemed most urgent and the future appeared most bleak and it seemed that God was on holiday.
After his death it was noted that every prayer listed in his journal had been answered, except for two. Two men for whom Mueller had prayed were yet unsaved. In either case his prayers for their salvation had ascended to Heaven for decades. One of those men was converted to Christ as result of Mueller’s funeral. Hearing the funeral messages presented, that man surrendered his life to Christ and was gloriously converted. The other man persisted in his unbelief for some years, and near the end of his own earthly days he received Christ as Lord and was converted. The prayers of that great man of God were answered because he refused to become discouraged.
We read in the Word the encouragement of the Son of God: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you fill find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened [Luke 11:9,10]. Faith will lead us to ask repeatedly, seek diligently, knock persistently, thus pleasing the Lord.
Faith which dares believe despite every obstacle would be pleasing before the Lord. If my faith would please the Lord, it must see every obstacle as a road sign to success. The saint found pleasing before the Lord is that one which sees each obstacle as an opportunity to reveal the greatness of the Lord.
This woman’s daughter was demonised, and the possession was of a particularly malignant sort. We are not given the particular manifestations, but the language this woman used revealed the terrible plight of the child: My daughter is cruelly demonised (hJ qugavthr mou kakw'" daimonivzetai.)! The obstacles erected served only to drive this mother to greater efforts. The mark of greatness is seen in what it takes to stop the man or woman of God.
There are some within this church who are growing weary. You have laboured long in this town and you wonder if anything can change. The majority of the people here have come to escape the past; the last thing they want to hear is the message calling them to faith in Christ. They are curt in dismissing your witness and you have begun to wonder if anything can change. If God wants a witness in this town, then let this be the church which provides that witness. If God wills to touch this town to the praise of His glory, then let us be the people which He uses. Don’t permit the callused hearts of wounded people put you off from living a godly life or from witnessing with renewed vigour. Pray, asking that the Lord be glorified here. Ask that He give us precious souls for our labour. Seek His power on each service. Knock at the door of heaven that we may receive the great blessings promised – a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over [Luke 6:38].
Faith which seeks His honour would please the Master. There is no question but that mother love impelled this woman to approach the Master. By the same token, she sought His honour. He had power over demons and in thus exercising that power to set the captive free He would be honoured. Perhaps you recall the words of Jesus recorded in John 14:13,14? I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. What a glorious promise! The Master will do whatever we ask! The condition is that we ask in His Name, seeking to bring glory to the Father.
As we set aside our own self-interest and seek the glory of the Son of God, we will receive what we ask. James cautions us, You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures [James 4:3,4]. Faith which pleases the Master asks of Him what it will, but it always asks that He might be glorified.
Faith focused on Him will be pleasing in His sight. This Canaanite woman focused on the Lord. We, also, as we focus on the Lord will walk in truth and in light refusing to do evil. Too often our heart is in the world even as we attempt to walk with the Lord. It cannot be done, any more than Lot’s wife would leave her heart in Sodom and escape its judgement. We dare not compromise with error for the sake of supposed peace. We are called to peace, but it is the peace of souls won to faith in Christ through struggle against sin. Did you never hear Christ warn: Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword [Matthew 10:34]? Are you a Christian? You are engaged in a war – a war against evertthing that would hinder your progress toward the goal of the high calling in Christ. Our Lord does bring peace, but it is not as force of compromise with evil, but of conquest over wrong. Peace comes through war!
In popular Christianity a religion is preached which is little less than sanctified paganism. If demands nothing of the adherent, yet gives all the benefits of heaven itself. In the popular concept of discipleship is inherent the thought of peace in the sense of harmony and an undisturbed condition. If Christ had not come, the earth would have gone on undisturbed in sin and guilt to doom. At the coming of Christ to remove sin and guilt, war at once resulted since men in their perversion cling to sin and guilt. Better the war and division, saving as many as possible and urging believers to live lives worthy of His Name than to let all perish in their sin or to let the church continue in her lethargy. Focus on Him that you may receive His commendation.
The delivery of the message is concluded. The message itself is not yet finished. What impact it will have remains to be seen as you and I live out the precepts we have received. Are we Christians? Then let us critically review our attitudes and our actions that we might reject all that is displeasing in His eyes. If we will please Him we must become men and women of faith, refusing to permit our culture to dictate to us how we shall live.
For any who are yet unsaved, the message serves as a call to faith in Christ as Lord. The Word of God declares: if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” [Romans 10:9-13]. Be saved today. Amen.
