A Dog and the Master.

Opening:

Introduction of the Text:

Reading of the Text:

Matthew 15:21-28

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.

The Word of God, let’s pray.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you today and thank you for who you are. Lord, we are not worthy to come before you. May we come before you with trembling and fear. May we recognize that you are God. The Maker of all, the Judge of all, the Lord of all. Dear Lord, may we not flippantly come before you. May we in reverence approach your throne. Lord, we are not worthy of the grace you have given us. We are not worthy of the wonders you have bestowed upon us.

Lord, please forgive us for how we treat you so often. Forgive us for our flippancy in coming before you. May you humble us as we are gathered here. May we kneel before you and worship you as the Canaanite woman did. May we worship you well. We long to worship you as you deserve. Help us to bring others into worshipping you. Help us to invite others. Help us to share the hope of the gospel and the purpose of worshipping you with those around us.

Lord, I ask that you would be with me. Help me to approach the office you have placed me in with fear and trembling. Please help me to lead your Church well. Guard my mouth. Please do not let me speak anything against you or your word. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen.

Opening Illustration:

In C.S. Lewis’s masterpiece series “The Chronicles of Narnia,” he gives us beautiful pictures of who Christ is. Lewis describes Christ as Aslan the Lion. Aslan is the King of the whole world, the Son of the Emperor across the sea. This is one of the greatest contributions to literature to ever grace a page of paper. When reading of Aslan one can see beautiful word pictures shaped with the skill of master artist describing our Lord. These pictures are not perfect but are incredibly helpful to us.

In his first in the series, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” we read of three of the Pevensie children meeting Aslan for the first time. Not to spoil any of the story but the four Pevensie children find themselves in the magical country of Narnia. Being a different world than our own they encounter many grave and beautiful things. However, three of them are taken to see Aslan, the King, who has just recently come into the country.

As they approach the meeting of Aslan, Lewis records this beautiful description. “Aslan stood in the center of a crowd of creatures who had grouped themselves round him in the shape of a half-moon. There were Tree-Women there and Well-Women (Dryads and Naiads as they used to be called in our world) who had stringed instruments; it was they who had made the music. There were four great centaurs. The horse part of them was like huge English farm horses, and the man part was like stern but beautiful giants. There was also a unicorn, and a bull with the head of a man, and a pelican, and an eagle, and a great Dog. And next to Aslan stood two leopards of whom one carried his crown and the other his standard.

But as for Aslan himself, the Beavers and the children didn’t know what to do or say when they saw him. People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at Aslan’s face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and then they found they couldn’t look at him and went all trembly.”

The phrase that stands out so clearly to me in this short quote is “People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now.” I think that this is such a beautiful description.

Transition:

As we open this text, we are confronted with an account that is on the surface a strange interaction between Jesus and a Canaanite woman. One of the things I have loved so much about Matthew’s gospel is his propensity to challenge our preconceived notions about who Christ is. I am sure that this was not one of Matthew’s intentions while writing, but when one sets out to give an accurate view of who Christ is, it is inevitable that this will challenge any misconceptions held about Christ.

We must remember that Jesus is a real person. He is really God. He is really Lord of all. He is who He is and Matthew is giving us the true picture. This is beauty of Sacred Scripture. We have the true account of our Lord. This account happened. Our Lord is as He is recorded. He is beautiful and wonderful and good and terrible. He is gracious and frightening. He is good and unsafe.

Let us look at what is perfectly and sufficiently recorded in Scripture about our Lord. Let us look at the account of Jesus and the Canaanite Woman.

Explanation:

Jesus and the Canaanite Woman.

As we open this account, Matthew tells us that Jesus went away from Gennesaret to the region of Tyre and Sidon. While Jesus did not actually go to the cities of Tyre and Sidon, He went into the general area. While He was there, a Canaanite woman comes to Him and begs Him to heal her daughter who is oppressed by a demon. The woman comes to Jesus and Matthew says that she is “Crying” out. What is her plea? “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” One can sense the urgency in this woman’s cry. It is the cry of a mother. “Save my daughter!” Any parent would do the same. It is a parent’s prerogative to seek help for their suffering children.

It is also of great note that this woman refers to Jesus as “Lord” and “Son of David.” We can recall the centurion who begged Christ heal his slave referred to Jesus as “Lord.” We also can recall the two blind men who called Jesus “Son of David.” Both of these terms were clear confessions of the Lord’s true identity. But here we have a unique encounter. This Gentile woman refers to Jesus as both “Lord” and “Son of David.” This on it’s own is incredible, let alone the context of the rest of this encounter.

The woman acknowledges clearly who Jesus is and begs for His help. Our Lord however is silent. He answers her not a word. Then we have the disciples come and beg Jesus to send her away. She has followed them and was crying after them. This is the first display of her persistence. The disciples have no pity on this woman. They beg the Lord to send her away. They simply want her gone. Jesus then speaks. He answers the disciples. Jesus says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” This was the extent of His mission. The dividing wall had not been torn down yet. Jesus’ ministry was to the Jews. The gospel was not gone out to the gentiles yet. Christ is fulfilling the promises to the patriarchs. As Romans 15:8 says, “8 For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs...” Jesus is not going to the Gentiles. The gospel will come to us, but it is not yet. Christ’s initial silence is the first rejection. This is the second rejection.

And here comes the most wonderful part of this account. She is not dismade at this. She walks in front of Christ and bows down. This is no mere kneeling. Here the woman confirms her earlier confession of who Christ is. She here worships Christ. The King James puts it this way, “25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.” Her faith is strong. She comes humbly and bows to the King, begging for help. One can hear the pious tone in her voice. Her actions and her statement of “Lord” reveal her heart.

Jesus answers the woman now. Our Lord tells her, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Here is the third rejection. Jesus uses the familiar term of “dog” in reference to the woman’s gentile nature. He had come to the house of Israel. The gospel would go out to all nations but it is not now. One expects the woman to e dejected and leave. The Lord has seemingly spurned her request. But the faith of this woman is to be marveled at. She is not offended. She is not dejected. She replies to the Lord. Her reply moves me. She responds to the Lord, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

Her commitment to Lord is great! She still refers to Him in great reverence. “Yea Lord, I am but a dog waiting the gracious crumbs to fall to me from my master’s hands.” This is a moving statement. Our beloved Lord replies with passion! “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And Matthew records that the woman’s daughter was healed instantly.

This account is incredible. It is beautiful and challenging and wonderful. Many have sought to add meaning into it, but I am content to simply marvel at it. There is beauty in this passage enough to satisfy the most hungry Christian. There is challenge enough to help all of us grow.

Transition:

There are three main players in this passage. Let us look at them.

Jesus.

Here our Lord is recounted. We see Matthew record what Jesus did and said. Perhaps He acts differently than we expect Him to. Our Lord is displayed as more cold in this passage. He is largely silent. Though He is the key person Matthew wants us to come to know, this account is more akin to a dance between Him and our other main character in this passage.

Our Lord is mostly silent and when He speaks, He speaks hard. Not inappropriately, but hard. He is accurate but His words are pointed. So often we hear the honey in our Lord’s words, but here it is seemingly absent until the end. He is factual about His mission. He echos the fact that He has come to the lost sheep not of the world, but of the house of Israel.

Transition:

Next we have the disciples.

The Disciples.

Not much is recorded of the disciples. We have but one thing recorded from them and it is cold. They show no mercy nor compassion on this gentile woman who has come to their party. By all indications, her persistence annoys them. The one thing they express in this passage is their desire for their Master to send her away. This is not a very kind thing for them to speak. They apparently had no desire to help the woman but a desire to see her gone.

Transition:

Next we have the partner in this dance. The faithful Canaanite woman.

The Faithful Canaanite Woman.

This woman is arguably the central character in this account. It is centered on the interaction between her and Her Lord. She is a suffering mother who longs for the freedom of her daughter. I call her the faithful Canaanite woman for two reasons. First she is a faithful mother. Oh that all parents would seek the Lord for their children the way that she did. Secondly she is also faithful to the Lord. She approaches the Lord in faith and in humility. Her plea’s are to the “Lord, the Son of David. She knows who He is and she comes again and again.

She knows who He is and she knows who she is. She is not offended but faithful. Though we know not what she looked like, this woman was beautiful. Her faith is her defining trait.

Argumentation:

But why did this encounter go the way it did? Why was there rejection from Jesus? Let’s look at the rejection from Jesus.

The Rejection from Jesus.

There is something we must establish about our Lord first. This story becomes so much more clear when we understand what Matthew has already established about Christ. Matthew has made it clear on a couple different occasions that Jesus is God. He is all knowing. Jesus knew the thoughts and hearts of the pharisees when He forgave the sins of the paralytic in chapter 9. Jesus knows the thoughts and hearts of men. When we understand this, this account becomes so much more clear.

Jesus knew the heart of this woman. He knew her faith. He knew what she would say and do. This encounter is part of God’s sovereign plan. This was no chance encounter. Set before time began, the woman was to meet Christ. These two were to encounter at this time and in this way. One can be sure that Christ was there for this reason. One can be sure that this was all of God’s doing.

So why did Christ respond in this way? He was testing this woman’s great faith. This is not an unheard of thing. The Lord tested Abraham in Genesis 22 with Isaac. This was not because of a lack of knowledge but as a test of faith. In the same way, the Lord is testing her. And she persists. We may rest assured that the Lord knows what He is doing. Christ, eternal God, Second member of the Holy Trinity, is perfectly executing the divine plan.

Transition:

In this divine plan, there are things about this amazing woman that are elevated and commended. We see the faith of the Canaanite woman.

The Faith of the Canaanite Woman.

This is truly a marvel. The woman has great faith as our Lord commends her. She calls the Lord, “Lord.” She also calls Him “Son of David.” The mere fact that a Gentile refers to Christ in this way should astonish us. She must have had familiarity with the Law and the Prophets enough to know who Christ was. The very people of Israel did not see this, but this Canaanite woman saw is clearly. She knows our Lord as her very own Lord.

So sound in this knowledge is she that she is not deterred by the seeming rejections. She continues on in her plea. She comes again and again. She worships and begs at the feat of Jesus. She displays her faith again and again. She is persistent and consistent. Her faith is seemingly unshaken by anything. In her is found and echo of Job’s words, “15 Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.” Job 13:15

Transition:

Her faith is to be marveled at and commended. But that is not all. We also see the humility of the Canaanite woman.

The Humility of the Canaanite Woman.

She is not shaken, but she remains humble beyond words. She does not object at the rejections. She embraces her place of great humility. One could almost expect some words of defence on her part. “Why do you reject me this way?” One may even expect her to leave in self pity and anger. “Perhaps this man is not the Lord, for why would the Lord reject me this way?” But no, she does not do this. She is great humility accepts her place. She knows that she is not of the house of Israel. She is not descended of the blood of Abraham.

Even upon being called a dog she embraces this. She openly accepts her place under the table of her master. This woman has no Idea in her of deserving anything. She feels no sense of entitlement. She is clearly accepting of her standing as a Gentile. But still she comes. She comes with humble persistence to beg at the feel of the Master. She only seeks the crumbs that may fall from the table. She is not approaching for a seat at the table. She seeks to wait patiently for a morsel to fall to her waiting need. She shows no pride of sense of demanding. She approaches her Lord with open hands to receive what she will be given. Undeserving she longs for a crumb.

She receives with great joy what the Lord gives her. Her open hands are rewarded and she leaves in great joy that the master would bestow love upon someone as undeserving as her.

Transition:

We have much to learn from this blessed faithful woman! Let us look at our standing before Christ.

Application:

Our Standing Before Christ.

We are blessed! We live long removed on this side of the dividing wall being removed. The gospel has gone out to us, Gentiles! Now we have a share in the great joy of the gospel! We have been grafted in as children of the promise. We are co-heirs. We are equals now in Christ. This is a great gift! We can boldly come to the throne of grace. However, I fear that we so seldom do this boldly. Often I think we do this arrogantly. We often approach Christ with arrogance.

The Arrogance we Often Approach Christ with.

One of the key points of this woman’s story is the humility that she came with. She knew she deserved nothing. I fear that often we approach Christ with an arrogance to feel as though we deserve what He gives us. “I am forgiven and a co-heir, give me my desires!” The open hand we should have is so often replaced with a clenched fist of entitlement. We feel as though we have some claim to the gift of grace we have received.

Who among us would so kindly receive the correct rebukes of our Savior? Were we so denied, we would likely rise of with claims of injustice and unfair treatment. We come to Christ not with requests but with demands. We seek what we want and are angry when God says no. This is condemning fact. “Give me mine, Lord.” We are so blessed that the Lord does not give us what we deserve. It is a strange fact that those saved by the gospel of grace are so quick to forget it.

If I could speak on a personal note, I am shocked by the regularity in which I have to come before the Lord and repent of my own self focus. I admit that this is a personal struggle I have. I want to publicly apologize if I have been self focused or arrogant in my interactions with any of you. I do promise it is not my intent but I recognize my weaknesses and am constantly seeking to make amends for any failings I may have.

I do see the growth of the Spirit within me in this area. I am revealed that none of you knew me as a teenager. I was very self focused. But thankfully through the work of the Spirit I have seen great victory! However with that said, true repentance is consistently bringing our sins before the Savior and mortifying them. We put our sin to death and move on. There are times where something will happen and I will feel offended. “That’s not fair!” I say to myself. I will feel mistreated. Sometimes by other people and sometimes I will wrestle with feeling mistreated by the Lord. When this happens I recognize that I am not believing the truth.

What is the gospel? The gospel is that we deserve nothing. All of us should justly be sent to hell. I am not fundamentally entitled to some higher treatment. I think James 1:16-18 is a perfect encapsulation of this. “16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” You see, it was not of my own will that I was saved. God saved me. And beyond this, James does not just say salvation is God’s gift. No, he says every good thing is a gift from God.

This should crush every arrogant sense we have. I know that it crushes my arrogance. Not only am I saved by grace alone, but every good gift I have was given to me by the Lord. This is so encouraging and so humbling! See, continuing on in my own personal example, let’s say that I begin to be discouraged in the process of church planting and growth. I am frustrated that God hasn’t blown us up to 200 plus members who make us fully self sufficient. This is a facetious example of course. I understand the difficulties behind and ahead of us. But if I were to get upset by this, I would become blind.

Think about it, Likely I would only see the problems and ask God why He’s doing this. I would be blind to the people who are part of this church. I would take for granted all of you here who have blessed me and held me up. You who have helped me grow and challenged me You who have put up with me, this new pastor who attempting to honor God the best way possible. I know this can lead to some strangeness, but I am thankful for you. Your gifts and love and support and challenges have grown me so much in the short time we have met together.

I want to see this community grow, I would love to see 200 plus people meeting with us to worship God, but arrogance is like a blind fold. The only thing you can see is the problem. And even then, you aren’t seeing the real problem, you are seeing a warped view of things. All of sudden I forget how wonderful and how much I love all of you sinners who worship God together. I forget the amazing blessing that my wife is. Seriously, she is the greatest blessing I have recieved outside of my salvation. And my next greatest blessing is currently developing in her womb.

Transition:

And this brings me to my central point of application. The humility we so desperately need.

The Humility we so Desperately Need.

Now, I do not want to say that everyone struggling with every sin. There are people who are more disposed to arrogance than others. This is not an unforgivable or un-killable sin. We can have victory over this sin. However, there are sins that are more natural among sinful man. Take idolatry. The sin nature is naturally disposed to idolatry. This does not mean we cannot put it to death through the power of the Spirit, but it is a common crutch for sinful mankind. I think arrogance is the same way. I think we naturally struggle with forms of pride and arrogance. We naturally think highly of ourselves. We naturally are very concerned with ourselves.

And this is why I long for all of us here to take a note from the Canaanite woman’s book. I pray we exemplify the humility in her interaction with Christ. She knew she didn’t deserve anything. The knowledge of her sinfulness and the savior’s holiness was clearly displayed in this interaction. I would that we all would willingly commit to this type of humbleness. Rest assured, we will be humbled, either willingly or God will humble us. I had that happen to me this week. Found myself relying on God, unable to leave the house or go to work. I was pushed into a place of humility and I am incredible grateful for it. I would that we would all choose humility over being forced to see that we don’t deserve anything.

None of us have an inherent right to happiness, fulfilment, joy, family, or even life. These are all gifts. And it is when we see them as gifts, that we can truly enjoy them as gifts. In humility we receive the real thing, in arrogance we only get the shadow, because we are blinded. As we go from here I pray that you would seek God. Ask Him to reveal to you if you are arrogant and how you may humble yourself. I pray that we as a church all become more like this amazing woman. I pray that we may all be humble and believe that we deserve nothing.

Transition:

I also pray that we may have a humble view of Christ.

A Humble View of Christ.

The humble woman also had such a great view of Christ. She did not come with a view that she deserved healing for her daughter. She knew who Christ is. He is Lord. So she came humbly and appealed to mercy. If we are not careful, we can treat God as our genie in a bottle who gives us what we wish. God is not our own personal little genie who we rub to get our wishes. He is king over all. He is the one who can destroy both body and soul. There is a holy feat we must approach the king. I pray we realize that He is frightening and terrifying. I pray we are in awe that He would save us. I pray we would be less concerned with what we want from God and more concerned with kneeling at His feet worshipping Him, weather He gives us our desires or not. I pray we would have an accurate view of who God is. Like C.S. Lewis said, “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

Prayer: