A Canaanite Woman

Matthew 15:21-28

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 master’s table.”

Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request has been granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

A Confusing Passage

In church, I have only heard this passage from time to time. I never really liked it. For one thing, the story was confusing to me; I thought when Jesus said, “It is not right to feed the children’s bread to the dogs,” He was demonstrating knowledge of the Canaanite woman outside of the moment, like He did with the woman at the well. I thought He was telling the woman that she wasn’t treating her kids properly at home. This interpretation didn’t help my understanding of the rest of the passage.

In addition, I thought that in saying He was “sent only to the lost sheep of Israel”, Jesus excluded salvation from anyone who wasn’t a Jew, which didn’t correspond with the rest of the New Testament. Acts 10:28 says, “… You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.”

However, I read this passage in my devotion time a few days ago, and I had a sudden revelation about it. Here is my contemporary translation of the passage.

Jesus and His disciples were walking through the region of Tyre and Sidon when a Canaanite woman came upon them. The Canaanites were not among God’s chosen people, and had many times been at war with them. So when the Canaanite woman called out to Jesus, “Lord, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering violently from demon-possession,” it did not surprise the disciples that Jesus did not answer her.

But when the Canaanite persisted to follow Jesus and the twelve through the streets, calling after them, the disciples became annoyed and encouraged Jesus to shoo her away. “Send her away,” they said. “She’s just going to keep crying out after us.”

Jesus only offered a cryptic response—“I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” (The disciples did not answer Him, because this had been their point. Jesus was the Son of God, sent to save God’s children. To them, this meant God’s chosen people.)

Then the Canaanite woman caught up to them, and threw herself at the feet of Jesus, desperate to help her daughter. “Lord!” she cried. “Help me!”

So Jesus finally acknowledged her. He said, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” He spoke in a parable, because as He had told the disciples before, He spoke in parables to reach those whose ears and eyes had been opened. Even the disciples, however, sometimes did not understand the parables Jesus told.

But the woman knew exactly what Jesus meant. “But Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

Jesus was pleased by her understanding. “Woman, you have great faith!” he said, astonishing the disciples. The disciples watched closely, and would later record this triumphant moment in the Holy Book. The Canaanites were the “dogs” of Israel, but this one—this “dog,” a far cry from one of the chosen—had great faith?

Jesus told the woman that her request had been granted. And indeed from that very hour, the woman’s daughter was freed of her demon.

The Meaning

Like the story of the Good Samaritan, this story holds redemption for even the lowliest of people (by earthly standards). God’s chosen people may only be a select few—a particular race or family line into which His Son was born—but since all the world is God’s (Psalm 24:1) and since God is sovereign over all of it (Colossians 1:17), then all the people of the world are God’s, and God can do for and with them what He pleases.

The Canaanite woman may not have been part of the direct lineage of Jesus, but she was still God’s child. She had the humility to acknowledge God, even if the Israelites claimed Jesus as their private Savior. When she told Jesus, “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table,” she in effect said, “I may not be one of God’s chosen people, but I am His, because all things are His. Anything I enjoy comes from His power. Some of His grace falls on even me.”

And she was right. The disciples failed to acknowledge her as God’s child when they urged Jesus to shoo her away rather than show her mercy or compassion. Jesus used the Canaanite’s faith as an example for the disciples, and for many others, too, since the story is recorded in the gospels. He used her to demonstrate that He came for all God’s children—Jew or Gentile. And her faith—a model for all—was what saved her and healed her daughter.

Application

After I read this passage in my devotions, I was driving home from work and on Air1 I heard a story from Jeff Klein, who keeps a video blog at walktheway.net. He talked about a woman named Amy whose family had been through some rough obstacles during the course of this last year—loss of jobs, change of living arrangements; a lot of the things that other families across the U.S. have experienced since the shift in our economy last fall.

Amy’s family had made the fairly weighty decision to take an evening and go for a treat—ice cream at Dairy Queen. This was a big deal because of the financial stress her family had been under for months. But, for one reason or another, the family decided that they would take an evening for themselves—for the kids.

When Amy went to the ATM to pick up the cash to get ice cream, she noticed another family on the street that appeared to be homeless. She stopped to hear their story, and was moved to tears. Having been through so much herself in the last year, she recognized how easy it can be for anyone to fall off the ladder of success in this world, how easy to lose comfort and stability in the drop of a hat.

She decided that this family—this homeless family—needed the small amount of money she’d just withdrawn more than her family did. So she gave it to them.

When Jeff Klein told the story, the point was to ask, “Who have you cried over? Who have you wept over?” So the story ended there.

But when I heard the story, I remembered the story of the Canaanite woman, and how Jesus gave her something that by anyone else’s standards didn’t belong to her. In the same way, Amy gave something to this family in need that I’m sure her own family thought more rightly belonged to them. After all, they had decided to go for ice cream that night. The plan for that money had already been set.

But Amy didn’t let that stop her from doing what Jesus probably would have done. By all previous understanding, that money belonged to her children. But her children already had what they needed, and would probably get to enjoy ice cream another time, while this family did not have everything they needed, and would probably put the money to better use. She didn’t look at this family and say, “Oh, the riffraff of this city!” She looked upon them with understanding and compassion.

I think one of the morals of the story—the story of Jesus and the Canaanite woman—is that, when we’re under God’s control (which ironically is always) we have to put away our prejudices and preconceived notions. This is the only way to have faith like a child.

Further Thoughts

Sometimes it is easy to justify doing one thing over another when either way seems acceptable but one is immediately preferable. A good rule of thumb, though, is that if you have to justify it, you might want to check yourself. Amy could have said, “My family expects this money; I can’t return home without it.” She could have said, “My family hasn’t enjoyed much of anything this last year. Our family needs this time, too.” She could have justified keeping the money, but instead, she listened when the Lord prompted her, and gave it away.

Another example of this is a predicament my father shared with me this morning. He’s a carpenter; he spends a lot of time building houses and shimmying along rooftops. Having suffered a foot injury earlier this year, though, he was “out of commission” for almost three months. He has a roof repair job coming up now that his cast is off and he’s got some flexibility in his leg back, but he has faced a tough decision:

My dad gave the family for whom he’s doing the repair a rough quote of what he thought the parts and labor should cost. Later, it occurred to him that under the right conditions the problem with the roof might be fixable a different way. This way could cost as little as half—less than half—the original quote.

He could easily justify going about the repair the harder way, since the family has already had time to mentally prep for paying the original quote; and this would benefit him since he’s been out of work for several months and he’s got bills to pay, too. But since my dad is a good man, he knows the right thing to do is to look at the damage and determine whether he can repair the roof the easier, cheaper way first. Then he’ll be serving his customer instead of serving himself. Granted, the repair may still have to happen the more complicated and expensive way, but he is willing to give the other way a shot.

You might be scratching your head right now, wondering how this pertains to the original passage of Scripture I was basing this entry around. My dad mentioned that Jesus told the Canaanite woman, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” He has to do right by his family, too.

But the story of the Canaanite woman doesn’t end with Jesus telling her, “I’m here to serve God’s family.” It ends with her great testimony of faith and the healing of her daughter.

Faith means doing the right things even when we don’t see how the outcome can bring anything but difficulty. Plenty of people in the New Testament—many of them the apostles—continue to proclaim Jesus even when they know the consequence is death. They have faith in things hoped for, certainty of what is not immediately apparent to them in the moment. And my dad, who does not know where the money will come from to pay his bills, has been promised by God that he’ll be provided for. So he just has to trust that even if this job comes to less than half what he originally expected to earn, God will provide for him.

Just to Close

I like this passage a lot more now. There are many layers to the onion. I hope this entry has inspired you to read deeper into the passage for more of its significance.