"21 Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed." 23 But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, "Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us." 24 But He answered and said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." 25 But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, "Lord, help me!" 26 And He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs." 27 But she said, "Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table." 28 Then Jesus said to her, "O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed at once."
I am grateful for the great women of faith in my life, I am convinced that God heard their fervent prayers for their children. My life and character have been profoundly enriched by these extraordinary women who inspired me to believe that I could achieve anything that I was called to. Thanks to my grandmother, I learned what it means to be a strong, obedient, and faithful servant of God. My aunt who loved to sing the praises of the Lord. And mother, who loved the Lord and served as powerful source of guidance, unconditional love and encouragement and gave me strength during the most difficult times in my life. She compassionately listened, while teaching me to be strong. I believe that the bond between a mother and child is one of the most powerful forces that God created. Caring
for my aging mother has been one of the difficult, yet most rewarding thing I've ever done.
To the single mothers
who are carry the burden and exhaustion of filling the role of both parents, to those whose
mothers may be battling illness or aging not so gracefully, and those who the gravity of grief that lays
upon your heart after losing their mother, God sees you graciously place her needs above your own. He sees your brokenness as you
reminisce and grieve the memories of the past. And, He lovingly He bears your sorrow.
"You have taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?" Psalm 56:8.
Let us pray
In Christ's name we ask and pray
Amen
Today's Message: A Mother's Faith
Just when you think your life is settled and secure, something comes along and shakes our lives down to the foundation, things we didn’t expect. Many people come to Christ, thinking life will be free of difficulties, I have found the exact opposite to be true. There are times when we are confronted with God’s love and compassion, and other times we are confronted with sovereignty and infinite power, reminded that He is in control of all things. He promises to protect us, and yet we can not deny that when we experience tragedy, loss, pain, and heartbreak, we can not understand what He is doing. It's in those times, when the only thing we have left is our faith and we wrestle with our faith. We often look at God through the filter of what we are going through, rather than to see Him for Who He is. The God Whose essence and character are absolutely perfect holy and trustworthy, Who promises to never leave us nor forsake us. Never did He promise our journey would be easy.
In fact in John 16:32-33, He said the opposite is true. "Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."
As we face the difficult situations in our lives, we must remember to fix our eyes on Christ, Who willingly laid down His life on the cross for all who would believe and come to Him in faith. God knows the end from the beginning, and instructs us to pray in faith believing. He promises to answer our prayers yet sometimes, because He does not clearly reveal His will to us, He seems not to answer them when we think that we need them the most. I believe the way we understand this passage, will teach us a valuable lesson about saving faith.
The Bible speaks of dead faith, little faith, steadfast faith, working faith and many other kinds of faith. But on several occasions, two times already in Matthew, Jesus speaks about great faith. It is interesting to note, that both of them were gentiles and on both occasions our Lord honors it. What is the nature of great faith? Or "megalē" faith, meaning exceedingly strong. Great faith marks those outside the covenant the kind of faith that apprehend or grasps, the truth of God in Christ.
As we come to out text today, the pressure was really building. It was being applied to Him from several different angles. First, there were the multitudes, the crowds who wanted to take Him by force, force Him to be a king, and have Him overthrow the Romans.Then, there was political pressure, the jealous hatred of Herod that resulted in the murder of John the Baptist, and had He exposed Himself to that, would have resulted in the murder of Jesus. Then, there was the religious pressure, stemming from the scribes and the Pharisees, who confronted Him and undermining their religious stature and authority, He exposed the false nature and character of their teaching and tradition, which was in direct opposition to the truth of God, who were devising a plot against Him to take His life. So, there was all this pressure that was being applied to Him that drove Him to seek a time of rest in seclusion.
Let's look at verse 21, "Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon."
Here we find Him again seeking the rest and seclusion He had tried earlier when He went into Gennesaret, to get away from the frenzy that surrounded Him, anticipating the cross only a year away. So, He went beyond the political and religious jurisdiction of the leaders of Israel, to the region of Tyre and Sidon, which would be the cool southern mountains of Lebanon today. The term for regions is sometimes translated coasts or borders, but the proper term is parts. He did not just stop on the edge, He went into Phoenicia. In the parallel account in Mark 7:31, he says He went out from the region of Tyre and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis. This was a deliberate withdrawal, He did not go there to minister, this was a time to be alone with His disciples, to prepare them what lies ahead, in preparing them for the cross. This was not out of fear, as some have suggested, He needed this time.
Verse 22, "And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed." According to chapter 7 of Mark’s gospel, He did minister to the people in that area to some open hearts. Here is a woman of Canaan, who had no access to the covenant promises, crying out to the Lord for mercy because she was absolutely helpless with no claim to come to Christ. The Canaanites were the original occupants of the Promised Land, until God brought His people in. These were a vile, idolatrous, sinful people, who years earlier, God commanded to be obliterated.
Through the people of Israel, they were set for divine extinction. The only reason this woman was even alive is because Israel was disobedient. Being outside the covenant, she has no worthiness to ask our Lord for anything. She must have seen or heard enough to be convinced, to believe that He can meet her need. Because she had so little on which to build, this was great faith, she believed in Jesus.There is a lot wrapped up in her crying out "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David." Son of David is a highly Jewish term, she's a pagan. In spite of the fact that she didn’t deserve anything, even though she knows He doesn't owe her mercy, she cries out "Have mercy on me." I believe there is an element of repentance here. Repentance has been rightly described as a heart broken for sin.
Look at verse 23, "But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, "Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us." There are times when even the Lord Jesus surprises us, that He would extend compassion to all people, like the Samaritan woman at the well, and the woman who had hemorrhaged for twelve years. This must have been refreshing for Him, after His encounter with the scribes and Pharisees. She treats Him with great dignity, notice the beginning in verse, He appears to dismiss this woman. She has to struggle through the barriers to get through to Christ. She pours her heart out, and He says not a single word. But He had enough of superficiality, so He put up barriers through which she must persist to show true faith.
Jesus said in Luke 13:24, "Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able." I believe we had ought to be thinking seriously about that. The narrow door, that's the only way in.
By the way, seeking mercy is antithetical of what we often hear today, the "Name it and Claim it" theology. We do not need to ask God for anything, we simply need to remind Him of His promises and tell Him what we deserve. This is the antithesis of what Scripture teaches. Allow me to remind you of what you deserve, you deserve Hell. What you need, is mercy. The word mercy, which is the word "eleéō,"is found some 500 times in Scripture. It is deeply saddening that so many Christians today treat God with such irreverence, where is the sense of His Lordship, His power and His Holiness? Secular society largely uses His name profanely, as a curse word. He's not "The Big Guy in the sky," "Big Papa" or "The Man upstairs," and His middle initial is "H." He is the Creator of the universe, He is Almighty God, the Great I AM, and our Heavenly Father.
The write of Hebrews 1:3 says "And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."
His silence must have extended over a period of time, at the end of the verse it says "His disciples came and implored Him, saying, "Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us." She must have kept following them around screaming and crying. I imagine the disciples thought to themselves, "Why doesn't He just heal her and send her away?" In verse 24, Jesus breaks His silence. "But He answered and said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." In other words, "I'm sorry woman, you’re not a Jew." What a strange statement for Him to make. After all, He healed a centurion’s servant, He extended grace to the Samaritan woman. By the way, in spite of Israel's hostility and hatred toward Him, He still had not turned His back on them. He's still calling them to repentance. God's plan was to send the Messiah to Israel, and then through Israel, in order that they would reach the rest of the world. He wants them to know that that’s still the plan.
Verse 25, "But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, "Lord, help me!" It's important to note, that didn’t deter her, she persisted. How often when we pray and He doesn't appear to respond, do we just give up? She didn't give up, not only did she persist, not only was she humble, she bowed down and worshiped Him. As a footnote, notice she omitted the Jewish title "Son of David," she just called Him Lord. True worship is always accepted by the Lord. He put up one barrier of silence, then He put another up of purpose, she persisted and broke through them. She says, "Lord, help me!" He accepted that. When we come to the Lord, with a broken and a contrite heart, meekly, seeking Him, without arrogance and pride, but in humility and worship, even the Lord Himself cannot hold back, He accepts it and responds. I believe this is a great lesson for all of us today. When we come to the Lord with our need, when we come with a Beatitude attitude, He accepts it and responds. We'll get to that, first let's look at verse 26.
"And He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs." First He ignores her, then He tells her she doesn't meet the criteria, she's a pagan not part of the covenant, now He compares her to a dog. What He’s actually saying is you don’t take the food intended for your children and give it to the dog, no matter how much he begs. What kind of parent would do that? As much as we love our pets, even though they're part of the family, we don't take food from our children and give it them. We feed our children first. However, when they give us those sad eyes and keep begging, we give in and give them something. Eventually, we give in to their constant begging. That’s what He’s doing with this woman. Notice, that didn’t stop her, either. I believe He’s drawing out her faith.
I love her response. This woman just doesn't give up, instead she humbles herself, verse 27; "But she said, Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table." While Jesus was feeding the children of Israel, there were the crumbs dropping to the gentiles. We see this all through the gospel.
Look at His response in verse 28, "Then Jesus said to her, "O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed at once." I believe that was a day of salvation for this woman. She came to to the Lord, in meekness and humility, desperately seeking, and she received the blessing! She didn't give up, she was persistent. She didn't get upset, she humbled herself. And the Lord responded in a marvelous way. That’s what great faith is, humbling ourselves before the Lord, desperately seeking What a great Truth. Our faith is strengthened by testing.
In Closing..
We live in a generation of very shallow faith! When we come to the Lord wanting something, we want Him to give it to us now. I believe that Christ is bringing us to the point of utter shattering and breaking. We
will only have the joy, peace, and contentment of the Christian life as
you participate in this. We have been promised everything in glory and that alone, is more than we deserve. Yet, we believe nothing should be withheld from us here. We are tempted to demand God to do something.
We need to understand we are not here for us, we are not the first inline. We're here for Him. We need to come to the place in our Christian life where we realize that we do not deserve anything. God does not owe us anything. We need to realize that when we do receive something from God, it's not because we deserve it, it's because of His grace. We need to learn how to deal with silence, fear, and rejection. When He is silent, when He appears not hear, we don’t upset, we persist, humbly seeking with our whole heart, faithfully asking, worshipping and praising Him, patiently waiting on the Lord to answer.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen