(Text and Audio)
Title: Three Rebukes
I know it seems like I say this every week, but today we look at an especially interesting passage in the Gospel of Matthew. In today’s text, we will examine a conversation between Jesus and a Gentile woman who is asking Jesus to heal her daughter. Now, this is not the first time a Gentile has approached Jesus, nor is it a the first time that Jesus ultimately responds favorably to make a point, but the way that Jesus chooses to interact with this woman is very telling.
The reason this passage is so interesting is because there a few different ways to read Jesus’s reaction to her request, and even the great scholars of our day are not all in agreement as to why Jesus reacts to her quite the way he does. I want to offer a couple of explanations and share my own convictions this morning in hopes that the Holy Spirit will be our guide and open our minds and hearts to the truth of the matter.
(read/pray)
- Tyre/Sidon/Canaan
The first thing that we need to establish to properly put this story into context is that Matthew all but tells us directly that this woman was not a Jew. The regions of Tyre and Sidon were predominantly Roman and Canaan was as well.
So this woman, not a Jew, comes begging Jesus for a miracle, by saying:
“Have mercy on me, o Lord” (Acknowledging his authority and Lordship in her life)
“Son of David” (A title that shouldn’t mean anything to a Gentile, but suggests that she knows and/or believes that Jesus is the Messiah to the Jewish people)
“My daughter is severely demon-possessed.” (This demonstrates the hope and faith that the woman has that Jesus is able to heal her daughter.)
In other words: She believes Jesus is ABLE, she petitioning him to see if he’s WILLING.
- Jesus says nothing.
As we will see, Jesus responds with a series of three discouraging responses to the woman. The first is absolute silence, seemingly ignoring the woman altogether.
Why so you think he doesn’t even acknowledge her? (Take answers)
Possible Answers:
1. He wants to see how persistent her faith is. (When we pray we usually get one of three answers: Yes, No, Keep Praying)
- He wants wants to see what humiliation she’ll risk.
- He want to see if she’ll still call him “Lord” even if he doesn’t heal her daughter?
- “Send her away…”
At this point, the disciples become annoyed with this woman’s persistence and ask Jesus to send her away.
- Perhaps the disciples have concluded that Jesus will not heal her.
- Perhaps they are annoyed at the arrogance of this Gentile woman and see her as an opportunist and not a true believer.
- Perhaps they are disgusted that a Gentile would even make such a request of a Jewish Rabbi. (To many of the Jews, the Gentile world was full of people that would respect your culture, but only inasmuch as it served them…the wolves in sheep’s clothing.)
- Perhaps the fact that she is a Canaanite is enough to disgust the disciples. The Jews of Jesus day had a particular dislike for the Canaanites and had a common saying among them: Cursed be Canaan.
- “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
This is the first time Jesus speaks, and the second discouraging response he gives the woman.
He tells her that HIS mission is to the house of Israel. His mission is to the “lost sheep” of that house.
In essence, he tells her that she is not qualified to receive such a blessing. She may be one of the “lost sheep” (she certainly is) but she just as certainly IS NOT of the house of Israel.
(Important Historical/Theological Note: While many instances of Jesus’ ministry-the Samaritan woman at the well, the Roman Centurion’s servant being healed-foreshadowed the fact that the Gospel would be made available to all, including the Gentiles, that event really doesn’t go into full effect during the life of Jesus. Jesus’s ministry was almost exclusively an attempt to gather the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Does anyone know when the full green light is given to “Operation Gentile?” Acts chapter 11: Peter’s Vision and the conversion of the Roman solider Corneillius combined with Paul’s Conversion and calling to the Gentiles)
So Jesus is asking her: Would you have me betray my mission for you? It’s a very effective deterring question, but it doesn’t stop this woman, she keeps going.
- “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”
Now, to be sure, this third, and final rebuke of this woman’s request is the most cutting, but probably not quite in the way that you are thinking.
The context of the Greek here suggests that a house pet “dog” and not a stray or wild animal “dog” is what Jesus was inferring.
Jesus isn’t insulting the woman as a dog, as much as he’s reminding her of her place in the pecking order.
How many of our families today have pets?
And how many of those pets sit with the family, at the table, have a plate made up, and are treated as equals?
Would ANY of you EVER feed your dog before feeding you children?
Why not?
The child is more important!
We will feed the dog, but what do we feed the dog? Either what is undesirable, or what is left over, from abundance.
The masters of the house eat before the pets do, that’s what Jesus was saying to this woman.
Now, theologically, this fits a theme in the New Testament: Paul reminds us in Romans 1:16 that these promises are “first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”
So perhaps Jesus isn’t saying the woman won’t eat, but rather that she won’t eat before the Jews have had their chance.
But I want to argue this morning that there is some lesson even bigger going on at this moment. Jesus wants to see what this woman thinks of herself. Is she expecting a miracle? Does she think she somehow deserves Jesus’ attention? Is she proud, or humble?
Her response is quite telling:
- “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
Wow. She gets it. Jonathan Edwards nails it in his Matthew commentary when he says:
We must first see ourselves to be as dogs, less than the least of all God’s mercies, before we are fit to be dignified and privileged with them. (Edwards)
She had no misguidings about her place in the world. She was desperately in need of Jesus, and equally aware she had no right to receive anything from him.
- “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire!”
This is not the first time that Jesus has commended the faith of a Gentile. Remember in Matthew 8:10 when Jesus responds to the faith of that same Roman Centurion by saying “I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!”
Think about what this woman went through for a moment. She petitions Jesus and is met with three separate, distinct rejections, yet she persists.
- Jesus ignores her.
- Jesus reminds her that she was not his mission.
- Jesus reminds her that she was not worthy of Him.
Yet she is so desperate for Him that none of these things stop her. I openly wonder if I am that desperate for Jesus. I wonder about how quickly I give up on things, how easily my faith is shaken, how quickly my mood goes from good to sour when things don’t go exactly as I’d like.
Perhaps most importantly, when I seek something, and God doesn’t say “Yes” and He doesn’t say “No” do I give up, or do I keep praying?
What painful, humiliating, humbling lessons am I willing to endure to sit at the master’s feet?
I fear this woman’s faith puts mine to shame.