Great is Thy Faith

“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…But He answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  Matthew 15:22,24 

This is one of those passages in scripture that has always been difficult for me to understand and be able to explain it to someone else.  With that being said, I will attempt to see what truths we can discover in Jesus’ encounter with this woman of Canaan.

Jesus traveled to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon located in the country of Syro-Phoenicia, part of the land of Canaan.  This area had been conquered by Alexander the Great several hundred years before the time of Christ and was still under Greek influence making it populated with mostly Gentiles.  Earlier, Jesus had used these two cities as examples to compare their positive reception of Him to the lack of response to Him by the Jews (Matthew 11:21), an indication that this Canaanite woman had a heart that was more in tune to the realities of the Messiah than many of the Jews among whom Jesus spent many hours.  In fact, when she heard that He was in the area, she searched out for Him because she believed He had the power to help her daughter who was demon-possessed.

When the woman found Jesus, she cried out with the voice of a mother in anguish, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.”  We do not use the term “vex” in our day; we would more likely say “tormented”.  We are not given the age of the daughter, but I think she was likely a teenager or young adult.  The mother was begging for compassion.  She identified Jesus correctly and intentionally as the Messiah–“O Lord, the Son of David”.  She apparently was familiar with the writings of the prophets concerning God’s promise of a Deliverer, and was already exhibiting her faith by publicly recognizing Jesus as God’s Son.

Here is where this account takes a turn and becomes one of the “hard sayings” of the Bible.  After she desperately cried out to Jesus, He did not respond.  With what we know about Jesus and His usual responses to those who call on Him, don’t we expect Him to do something for this poor, sincere woman, especially since she approached Him with the honor and reverence that He deserved?  It seems so out-of-character for Him, unlike His usual expressions of compassion.  However, Jesus had His reason for turning a deaf ear to her, as His reasons and methods are always consistent with His mission and ministry.  The disciples wanted Him to send her away because her crying was getting on their nerves.  Jesus had only healed one Gentile heretofore, the Roman centurion’s servant (Matthew 8:5-13).  Jesus did not listen to the disciples, but spoke up to her and said, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  It is not that God loved the Jews more than the Gentiles.  The Jews were the ones that God chose to represent Him before the world.  It was always God’s plan to include Gentiles in His kingdom, it’s just that the Jews were first.  In any endeavor or plan, someone has to be first, and it was God’s prerogative that Israel was first.  That is not so hard to understand because among all the families of the earth, we put our own families first.

Jesus then said after she had worshipped Him, “It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.”  He was saying to her that it was not proper or fitting for Him to apply His grace and His miracles that were designated for His people, the Jews, and to give it to those who were not of the house of Israel.  He used the term “dogs”, not to put down the woman, but because it was a familiar term used by the Jews to designate those who were Gentiles.  Her reply:  “Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master’s table”.  In effect, she was saying that Jesus was the Master of the Gentile “dogs” as well as the Jews.  Had she not had the faith that she did, she probably would have walked away, very angry and also very discouraged, but instead, she agreed with Jesus that the Gentiles had no right to that which was set aside for the Jews.  The “dogs” in her statement were implied to be more like “pets” who are also owned by the Master and thus are allowed under the table to eat of the portion that falls from the table around which are gathered the children of the Master.  Her intention was to acknowledge God as so great and so good and so powerful that she knew He would have some grace left over for her and her daughter.

This woman’s approach is like that of a sinner bowing before the Lord owning up to the sinner’s unworthiness of any mercy or favor from the Lord, but, at the same time, being so desperate for relief from his burden and guilt of sin that he won’t take “no” for an answer.  That is saving faith.  Jesus was so pleased at her faith that He healed her daughter that very hour.  Her faith so surpassed that of any other believer that Jesus took note of it, saying, “O woman, great is thy faith”.  How strong is your faith?