A Picture of Great Faith

Matthew 15:21-28

In Matthew 15, we are in a section of Matthew where Jesus, having given evidence that He is the Son of God, the Messiah-King, and having taught His disciples about the Kingdom of God, He is now training His disciples in kingdom ministry. The lessons Jesus teaches them in these narratives are about faith—faith in Him.

In the story of the feeding of the 5000, Jesus gave them a lesson in trusting Him and depending on Him to work through them (Matt. 14:13-21). Then, we saw Peter who had “little faith,” yet was able to do the impossible–walk on water to be with Jesus (Matt. 14:22-33). We saw the multitudes bringing their sick to Jesus and believing He would heal them (Matt. 14:34-36). Then we saw the flawed faith of the scribes and Pharisees who trusted in their traditions rather than Jesus and the word of God (Matt. 15:1-20).

These are faith lessons, training us to trust Jesus Christ and His word. They are lessons about saving faith and also about serving faith. We must believe in Jesus to enter His kingdom, and we must believe in Jesus to do kingdom ministry. As Paul writes in Romans 1, our salvation is “from faith to faith” (Rom. 1:17)—that is, it is by faith from beginning to end.

So, today we get another lesson in faith, but not just any faith—this lesson is about “great faith.” It is “great”, not in the sense that it is large in size, but because it was remarkable and exceptional. Today we see the extraordinary faith of a gentile woman, an outsider, not one of the lost sheep of Israel. And we will find it is the kind of saving faith that characterizes all who truly trust in Christ.

Let’s look at this woman’s example of great faith. First, we see…

1. Faith’s Petition (Matt. 15:21-22)

Matthew 15:21 says, “Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon.” Tyre and Sidon were on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in what is now Lebanon. Tyre is about fifty miles south of modern Beirut, and Sidon was halfway between the two. In Jesus’ time, as now, the cities were outside the Jewish area of Israel. They were largely Gentile cities. Now this is unusual for Jesus. He spent most of His time ministering in the Israeli areas of Galilee and Judea.

If you remember the last couple of chapters in Matthew, Jesus tried to withdraw from the crowds to spend time alone with His disciples, but the multitudes kept following and finding Him. He is also fresh off a confrontation with the scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem, perhaps He wanted to let the conflict settle a bit because it was not yet time for that conflict to result in His death. So, He has gone to a territory where the Jews would not normally be looking for Him. In his account of this episode, Mark records that Jesus “entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden” (Mark 7:24). Even in this place, we find those who are seeking Jesus.

Matthew introduces the seeker in Matthew 15:22, “And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.’” The first thing Matthew tells us about her is that she is “a woman of Canaan.” Mark gives the detail that she “was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth” (Mark 7:26). She is not in the land of Israel, and she is not a Jewish woman. The religious history of Canaan consisted of the worship of idols and false gods. In the Old Testament, the Canaanites worshipped Baal, Asherah, and other deities, though by Jesus’ time, many of those gods would have been replaced by the Greek and Roman pantheon. She most likely had a heritage of paganism.

This woman’s daughter was “severely demon-possessed.” Some evil spiritual force had taken ruthless dominion over her. What could she do? Where could she go? How could she hope to set her daughter free from something so beyond the help of men or idols? Imagine worshipping gods who do not hear and have no power to help. No wonder she came to Jesus, the miracle-working prophet from Nazareth.

How would she have known about Jesus? We saw in Matthew 4:24 that Jesus’ “fame went throughout all Syria” and that “they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them.” As she heard these stories, perhaps a conviction began to grow in her that this Man could help her daughter. And now that He was in her neck of the woods, rumors began to be spread around that Jesus was in a house not far away.

So, in desperation, she came to Jesus. She came, crying out, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David!” Notice, she called Jesus “Lord” three times in this passage. To call Him “Lord” can, of course, mean that she simply spoke respectfully to Him, as if to call Him “Sir”. But clearly, the context shows that she regarded Jesus in a much higher way than that. She obviously had heard the stories about Him, and was coming to Him for a miracle for her daughter. And so, calling Him “Lord” was her way of recognizing His divine authority and power.

Then she called Him “Son of David.” This is a loaded term. Matthew has shown us from the very beginning of his Gospel that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah. He is the prophesied “Son of David,” the King who inherits the throne of Israel. Two blind men in Matthew 9 had cried out something similar, “Son of David, have mercy on us!” (Matt. 9:27). And after Jesus healed a demon-possessed blind and mute man in Matthew 12, the amazed crowd asked, “Could this be the Son of David?” (Matt. 12:23). But what a remarkable thing for this Gentile woman to say! Here is a non-Jewish woman, coming to a Jewish miracle worker, calling Him Lord, recognizing Him as the Jewish Messiah-King, and begging Him to free her daughter from demon possession. Although she probably does not understand the full meaning of His lordship or messiahship, she comes with a sense of awe and wonder at His power and goodness. What a contrast between her and the scribes and Pharisees who refused to recognize who Jesus was! By faith, she saw what the blind religious leaders could not see.

And she says, “Have mercy on me.” She did not come demanding something of Jesus, she just came pleading for mercy because her daughter was in a desperate state. She saw Jesus as her only hope.

So in her, we see faith’s petition. Next we see…

2. Faith’s Persistence (Matt. 15:23-27)

So far, this story is not particularly unique. Many desperate people came to Jesus and begged for His mercy and healing power for their loved ones. But at this point, this story goes in a totally unexpected direction, because rather than immediately helping her, Jesus proves her faith with a series of barriers. These obstacles will prove the quality of her faith. She had a faith that persevered through the …

A. Obstacles of Faith

First, she faces the obstacle of Jesus’ silence. Matthew 15:23 says, “But He answered her not a word.” She came to Jesus crying out for mercy, and He didn’t even acknowledge her. This seems so uncharacteristic of Jesus. Jesus usually welcomed needy people; He picked up little children; He ate with outcasts; and He touched the unclean lepers. But here, He seemed to ignore her cries. He didn’t say a word to her.  What is going on?

What we have to remember in this story is that Jesus does nothing without a divine purpose. And Jesus does nothing unloving. He is proving this woman’s faith. He puts up these barriers, not to drive her away, but to draw her closer.

I suspect that there may be someone here today who desperately needs the encouragement of this woman’s faith. Perhaps you have a deep need. You have cried out to the Lord, but you feel as if the Lord is not answering. This woman’s encounter with Jesus can teach us much about the mercy of the Lord and the faith that lays hold of it. This woman endures the obstacle of silence.

Next, she faces the obstacle of Jesus’ followers. Matthew 15:23 goes on to say, “And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.” To the disciples, she was just a bother, a nuisance, someone to get rid of. The phrase “send her away” means to relieve or release. Perhaps they were urging Jesus to give her what she wanted so she would leave them alone. They weren’t exactly driven by the highest and most noble of motives. The disciples are not so unlike us, are they? How many of us get annoyed with problem people? Like the disciples, perhaps we wish that Jesus would just fix their problem so they will stop being a bother. But remember, Jesus is also teaching them a lesson in faith. He wants them to see the difference between superficial belief and genuine faith. The disciples’ attitude was an obstacle.

Then, the woman faced an even bigger obstacle. Jesus says, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” (Matt. 15:24). Jesus says that His mission is to the lost sheep of Israel. This reminds us of what Jesus had said to His disciples when He sent them out to preach the Kingdom. He told them in Matthew 10, “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matt. 10:5-6). Jesus emphasizes that His mission, while He was on the earth, was to the lost sheep of Israel.

We that this was not an absolute rule. There were exceptions. Already in Matthew 8, we saw Jesus respond to the faith of a Roman centurion and heal his servant (Matt. 8:5-13). In John 4 and Luke 17, Jesus also reaches out to Samaritans. We also know from the rest of the New Testament that this was only a temporary limit on Jesus’ mission. After His death and resurrection Jesus will send His apostles out to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:18-20). It has to do with timing and priority. As John writes in His Gospel about Jesus, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him,” (John 1:11). Paul wrote in Romans 1:16 that “the gospel of Christ… is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” Jesus came to the Jews first, in order to fulfill God’s plan of salvation for all people from all nations everywhere.

Look at the phrase, “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” This does not mean there were a just few lost sheep in Israel, but that all Israel was lost. Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” All Israel, in fact, all people need a Savior who dies for their sins. All people need Jesus.

But as Jesus says this in answer to her request, it’s an obstacleIt looks like Jesus is rejecting her. He seems to be refusing this woman because she is not Jewish. We might look at this and think Jesus doesn’t care. But that’s not how the woman looked at it. Matthew 15:25 says, “Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, ‘Lord, help me!’” She was not put off by Jesus’ silence, the disciples’ annoyance, or the Lord’s seeming denial. Despite the obstacles, despite the fact that Jesus’ mission is to lost Israelites and she is a Canaanite, she doesn’t react with bitterness or resentment because she still believes that Jesus is her only hope. Rather than turn away dejected or bitter, she came to Jesus. She bowed down before Him in worship. She saw Jesus for who He was: a gracious and compassionate Savior, who was able (and hopefully willing) to extend mercy to her, and to her daughter.[i]

Amazingly, yet again, Jesus puts up another obstacle. But even what appeared to be our Lord’s harshest words do not put her off. In Matthew 15:26 Jesus answered her saying, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” It is obvious from this statement that Jesus is connecting the house of Israel with the children and this Gentile woman with the dogs. Why is He calling her a dog? It appears to be a great insult. The woman undoubtedly had heard Jews insult Gentiles by calling dogs before. But why would Jesus, who we know to be kind and compassionate, speak this way?

Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 7:6? “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.” One thing you might not have noticed is that Jesus did not use the same term for dogs in talking to this woman that He did in this teaching from the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 7:6, the word used for “dogs” refers to dogs in a negative sense, like a vicious wild dog. Figuratively, the word is used in the New Testament to describe evil men and workers of iniquity (Phi. 3:2; 2 Pet. 2:22; Rev. 22:15). But in Matthew 15:26 (and the parallels in Mark and Luke), Jesus uses a different word that means “little dogs,” puppies, or pet dogs.

The woman listened well to Jesus, even to His choice of words. Did Jesus refer to her as a “little dog,” a household pet? Good! She seized on this word, and made this the basis for her appeal. She answered in Matthew, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Far from being offended by Jesus, she was inspired by Him to ask for what she desired. She was, in truth, a little dog, not worthy to sit at the masters or eat the children’s food. So, she asked for the crumbs that a dog might reasonably expect from its master.

Every time she faced obstacles to faith, she turned them into …

B. Opportunities of Faith

No matter what, she would not take “no” for an answer. She would not be put off. Like Jacob, wrestling with the Lord at Peniel (Gen. 32:26), she would not let Him go until He blessed her. She passed every test the Lord had placed on her faith. And when it was all over, she still looked to Him to answer. She persevered in faith. She saw the obstacles as opportunities from God. She believed that Jesus is the Son of David, the Jewish Messiah, sent to save His people from their sins. But she still believed that Jesus was her Savior as well.

She had proven herself to have great faith in Him. She kept asking until she received, kept seeking until she found, and kept knocking until it was opened to her (Matt. 7:7). Of course, Jesus knew she would pass the test, as God knew Abraham would pass the test when God commanded him to offer his son Isaac on an altar (Gen. 22). So, what may at first seem cruel on the surface in both accounts is actually compassionate and wise and loving. God used tests not to destroy them but to validate and cultivate their deep and abiding faith.

So, we have seen faith’s petition and faith’s persistence. Finally we see …

3. Faith’s Prize (Matt. 15:28)

Matthew 15:28 says, “Then Jesus answered and said to her, ‘O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.’ And her daughter was healed from that very hour.” How she must have delighted in our Lord’s response! Jesus commended her faith in a way that no Jew was ever commended. Why does Jesus commend her? Because she showed remarkable understanding of Jesus’ mission, remarkable faith in Jesus’ power, remarkable trust in Jesus’ compassion, and remarkable perseverance to keep asking Jesus in the face of obstacles.

When Peter sank after walking on the water, Jesus said he had “little faith,” but this woman had great faith. Only two people in the Gospels are told by Jesus that they have great faith—and they are both Gentiles. The first was the centurion in Matthew 8 of whom Jesus said, “I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” (Matt. 8:10). The second is this woman of Canaan. Jesus said to her, “‘O woman, great is your faith!”

She had great faith because her faith had the right object. She had faith in Jesus, the Messiah-King and Savior of all. She had great faith because her faith was humble. She knew she didn’t deserve anything, so she begged for mercy. Her faith was reverent. She called Jesus Lord and worshipped Him. And her faith was persistent—it withstood the test and clung to Jesus. What a picture of true faith!

This is the faith that saves and the faith that serves. We come into the kingdom of God by faith in Jesus and we do kingdom ministry by faith in Jesus. Do you have great faith in the great Savior?

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[i] Bob Deffinbaugh, https://bible.org/seriespage/23-lesson-hermeneutics-matthew-1521-39