And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
Matthew 15:26
As I was reading through Matthew 15, I had trouble understanding the encounter Jesus had with a Canaanite Woman. Why didn’t Jesus instantly answer the poor woman’s cries and heal her possessed daughter? Why was Jesus so harsh with this seemingly innocent woman? Naturally as a loving mother, she was deeply concerned for the well being of her daughter and only wanted her to be restored.
No doubt, this account baffles many Christians and sceptics alike. Jesus could have simply said a few words and the demon would have left the poor girl. But why did He delay? Why was He so reluctant to answer this Canaanite woman’s plea? Behind all these questions is an exceptional example of an extraordinary faith from an unlikely person.
The Background
Let us first understand the background of this story. We are told in Matthew 15 that this peculiar woman was a Canaanite and in Mark 7 that she was of the Syrophoenician race. These descriptions of her are not at all contradictory, instead they provide a more complete description of her. We can conclude that she was of Canaanite descent, a native of Syria which formed part of Phoenicia.
This woman, therefore was a Gentile, as the Jews disdainfully called people of other nations. Being a native of a heathen nation, she had not been instructed of the law, was not anticipating a Messiah and knew little about true religion. We know that the reason for her pursuit of Jesus was to beg for the healing of her daughter who was cruelly possessed by demons.
It is crucial to also understand the reason for Christ’s reaction to her pleas. Jesus did not normally venture into Gentile territory during His earthly ministry. In Matthew 10, Jesus commanded His disciples to do likewise. He tells them rather to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Does this mean Jesus showed partiality in His ministry and taught His disciples to avoid Gentile contact? The answer is yes and no.
John MacArthur clarifies it succinctly. Yes, salvation was from the Jews (John 4:22) in the sense that the whole Old Testament, which taught about salvation, was from the Jewish people and the Messiah Himself came from the Jews. God chose to minister through the Jewish nation after the promises made to Abraham. (Galatians 3:8-9) The middle wall of partition, as Calvin called it, was not thrown down till after Christ’s resurrection that He might proclaim peace to the nations which were aliens from the kingdom of God. (Ephesians 2:14)
The Plea
With this comprehension, we must now applaud the initiative this woman thus had to take to search for Christ herself. No doubt the fame and reputation of the ministry of Jesus had reached far and wide. Having heard of this great miracle worker and being informed that He was near she ventured to find Him. Then once she has found Him, she cries out “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David”
In her first plea, this Gentile woman makes a confession that most Jews of the chosen race would never make. She affirms His deity, His ministry and His authority. Though she did not belong to the Lord’s flock by birth, as John Gill describes it, yet she had acquired some taste of piety.
“My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” Being in great distress and agony, she explains to Jesus her daughter’s deplorable circumstances. She did not ask Christ if He was able to heal, but she completely trusted in His divine power and that with a simple utterance, the demon would flee from the girl. This miracle would not be of great significance, she must have thought, but little did she know that the answer to her request would not come by easily.
The Response
But he did not answer a word. This apathetic reaction from Jesus is what many find extremely difficult to comprehend. Why could He have not relieved this woman’s family of their burden with a simple terse statement? John Calvin, the great theologian remarked that though Jesus withheld at that time the words of his mouth, yet he spoke within to the mind of the woman, and so this secret inspiration was a substitute for the outward preaching.
The design of Christ’s silence was not to extinguish the woman’s faith, but rather to whet her zeal and inflame her ardor.
Has this not been the case for many of us at some point in our lives? Though we pray earnestly and wholeheartedly to God to grant us our requests, we are left with what we feel as a void response. We may firmly believe that our requests are reasonable, that they would be pleasing to God and that we have only the best intentions in mind. Yet God does not immediately reply to our wishes for His thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are His ways like our ways. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
The Persistence
What are we to do then? Are we to give up praying, feel remorse for ourselves and be dejected? Far be it from us! Let us rather follow in the persistence of the Canaanite woman. Instead of despairing, let us beseech the Lord as the woman did continually, so much so that the disciples had to implore Him to send her away (Matthew 15:23).
Rather than questioning God, let us worship Him as the woman did when she bowed down before Jesus with beautiful shamelessness as Chrysostom calls it. Before we accept our fate, let us cry once more as the woman did with such brevity and pithiness. “Lord, help me!” The more intense the feeling, the fewer the words. She does not explain the situation again, but flings herself in desperation on His pity (MacLaren Exposition).
We will later see how effectual, fervent, and importunate prayer, the prayer of faith availeth much with God. (James 5:16)
The Remark
Now follows the remarkable discourse between Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman. The woman’s amazing reply to Jesus’ scathing response. “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Jesus reiterates and reaffirms His call and command of the Father. Due to the present circumstances, the Son must oversee the development of the kingdom in the ordained order.
As a Saviour and Redeemer, He was sent to make satisfaction and atonement for the sins of all God’s elect, whether Jews or Gentiles; but as a prophet, He was sent by His Father only to the Jews as the “minister of the circumcision”(Gill’s Exposition). The term “dogs” used to describe Gentiles was not so jeering as we would think it to be. In fact, it was common dialect. Jewish doctors used to say that the idolatrous Gentiles are not called men, that they are comparable to the beasts of the field.
However, it is worthy to note that the exact word Jesus used here in Greek, was kunarion, signifying domestic pets rather than the foul untamed dogs of the streets. Hence the analogy implies that these dogs were allowed in the house even during meals.
The Faith
“Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
John Gill preached in the same church as C. H. Spurgeon a hundred years earlier. He expresses this statement better than any other commentator I’ve read from. This woman does not refute Jesus and has no objection to Him satisfying the children, but suggests that though the Gentiles were but dogs, and she one of them; yet their common Lord and Master had a propriety in them, and they in him; and were to be maintained and fed, and ought to live, even if not in such fullness of favours and blessings. She desires not their affluence, but only that a crumb of mercy might be given her.
In this outstanding reply, as Luther says, she catches Him in His own words. She takes her place beside the centurion, also a Gentile, as the two recipients of commendation from Him for the greatness of their faith. When it had seemed as if He would give nothing, He ends with giving all.
Putting the key of the storehouse, as MacLaren called it, into her hand, and bidding her take, not a crumb, but ‘as she wished’. Her daughter is healed at once, by His power working at a distance, but that was not, we may be very sure, the last nor the best of the blessings which she took from this life-changing encounter.
Christ indeed came for the lost sheep. He came for the helpless, the needy, the sick. The gospel promised before to the patriarchs in the Old Testament, foreshadowed by sacrifices and fulfilled in God’s only begotten Son (Romans 15:8) is the only power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16)
Praise be to God that the wall of partition has been thrown down, the distinction has been removed and the discrimination abolished. (Ephesians 2:14)
We, who were formerly aliens to the covenant are now partakers of it. (Hebrews 3:1) We who are depraved, utterly sinful and hopeless, befitting to be called dogs, are now adopted into God’s family through the reconciling, righteousness imputing, wrath satisfying death and complete atonement of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!
Dear reader, Christ is standing at the door and knocking. Not for us to accept Him as Lord and Saviour but to begin or continue and maintain a genuine steadfast relationship with Him. For if anyone hears His voice and opens the door, He will come in to Him and eat with him. (Revelations 3:20)
Like the Canaanite woman, long to pursue Him resolutely, long to worship Him unashamedly, long to trust Him steadfastly, long to cry out to Him boldly, long to depend on Him completely and long to live for Him devoutly.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Romans 11:33-36