Faith of the Canaanite Woman (Matthew 15:21-31)

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The Canaanite Woman

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Well, good morning. My name is Chad. I'm one of the pastors here at Mil City Church of Casey and excited to see y'all this morning. We gather on Sundays because we believe that Jesus is better than everything else. We gather together to remember that to celebrate that, to remind one another of that, to to sing and to praise Jesus, to put him first at the first part of our week so that we might remember as we go throughout the rest of the week that he is primary and that he is good.

We also, as we seek to apply that reality that he is better than everything else, we want to be a Gospel- centered community on mission. The primary way that we carry that out is through our community groups where we would be people who are changed radically by the reality of the Gospel that Jesus Christ saves sinners and that we would apply that truth to all of life in our relationships with one another. that we would exist as people who have been made into a new eternal family and that we would try as best we can as broken sinners to practice that here to practice what it looks like for us to have uh reconciliation to God and to each other through the cross to have the ability to walk forward in life together here and that we would be good missionaries to our city because there are so many without hope without forgiveness. We live in a culture right now where forgiveness is uh not working its way throughout the world. It's not running rampant in the streets.

And so we operate as people who believe that we can be the worst of sinners and we can be redeemed by Christ and that there is hope in him and forgiveness in him and life in him. And so we're sent to be missionaries where we are. This morning in a few ways is a little different. and in all the ways that matter. Isn't that different at all?

Um, thanks. If you'll notice, we handed out sheets of paper with words on them. The the internet went out this morning and our computer went out this morning. One of the the uh things that's been levied at the the new way of operating as a Church is that you could get together and if you didn't have electricity, you wouldn't know how to operate. But if the Holy Spirit didn't show up, you wouldn't even notice.

and we don't want to operate that way. So, we don't have the internet this morning. We're not going to be able to live stream. I can fall off the stage right now. No one will ever get to see it or remember.

Uh, and we did uh something that we just came up with. No one's ever thought of this. We printed up the words and put them on a sheet of paper, put them in your chair with you. Uh, so that we can sing together, that we can celebrate Jesus together, that we can worship together. So, we won't have some of the things we usually have, but we'll have all the things we need.

Um, each other, the Holy Spirit at work amongst his people and hearts set free by the Gospel and changed by the work of Jesus that we might worship him in spirit and in truth. So, let's pray as we begin this morning together. God, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for the redemption that we have in Christ and Christ alone. And we pray that as we come together as your people set free from sin that we would even as we come together in the midst of difficulty, even as we groan together with our world longing for you to redeem and to reveal yourself fully.

We come together to worship and to magnify your name. And we pray that you would help us to see our sin and repent. That we might stand fully in the grace of Jesus. That we might trust that you care for us in the midst of our suffering. And that we are not outside of your hand.

That you watch over us and love us. And so we pray that we would no matter where we come in this morning in the midst of joy, in the midst of suffering, in the midst of difficulty, in the midst of doubt, that we would grow in faith and love for you and one another. in Jesus name. Amen. If you would just go ahead and grab your sheets and stand up with us.

We're going to sing together. There is a fountain. Let's sing together. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's face and sinners punched beneath that flood. Lose all their guilty stains.

Lose all their guilty stains. lose all their guilty states and sinners plunge beneath that flood. lose all their guilty state. The dying thief rejoice to see thin in his day. And there have I vowed that has he wash all my sins away.

Wash all my sins away. And there have I go vile as he wash all my sins away. Oh, thank you God. Sing together. Ever since by faith I saw the stream my flowing wound.

Redeeming love redeeing love has been my thing and shall be till I die. This shall be till I shall be till my redeeing love pass and shall be till I die. Bless you Lord. Lord, oh my soul, oh my soul, I worship his holy name. Sing like never before.

Oh my soul, I worship your holy name. The sun comes up. It's a new day. Don't me. It's time to sing your song again.

Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me, let me be seen in the evening. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Oh my soul, I worship your holy name. You sing like never before. Oh my soul, how much it is for me.

You're rich in love and you're slow to anger. Your name is great and your heart is kind for all your goodness I will keep on singing. 10,000 reasons for my heart to find. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord, oh my soul.

Oh my soul, I worship his holy name. Sing like never before. Oh my soul, I'll worship your holy name. And on that day when my strength is failing, the end draws near and my time has come. Still my soul will sing your praise unending.

10,000 years forever Lord. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Oh my soul, I worship his holy name. Sing like never before. Oh my soul, I worship your holy name.

I worship your holy name. Oh God, I worship your If you would have a seat for just a second. We're going to have a Scripture reading. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.

All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the Church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled his in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the Gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven. That's the reason that we get to celebrate this morning. So we have a good and holy and transcendent God who stepped down who came and lived a perfect life on our behalf. Died on the cross for our sin and rose from the grave so that we could have new life in him.

new eternal resurrection life that has started now and will continue into eternity. Let's stand and sing this song together. Alone in my sorrow and dead in my sin. Lost without hope, no place to begin. Your love made a way to let mercy come in.

When death was arrested, my life began. Ash was redeemed. Only beauty remains. My orphan heart was given. My mourning grew quiet.

My feet rose to dance. When death was arrested, my life be. Sing together. Oh, your grace so free, washes over me. You have made me new.

Now life begins with you. is your endless love pouring down on us. You have made us new. Now life begins with you. Release from my chains.

I'm a prisoner no more. My shame was a ransom. faithfully born. He cancelled my death and he called me his friend. When death was arrested, my life began.

Sing it out. Oh, your grace so free washes over me. You have made me new. Now life begins with you. Oh, it's your love.

It's your endless love pouring down on us. You have made us new. Now life begins with you. Oh, our savior displayed on a criminal's cross. Darkness rejoiced as though heaven had lost.

But then Jesus arose with our freedom in him. That's when death was arrested and my life began. That's when death was arrested and my life began. Oh, your grace. Oh, your grace so free washes over me.

You have made me new. Now life begins with you. It's your endless love pouring down on us. You have made us new. Life begins with you.

Sing we're free. Oh, we're free. Free forever. We're free. Come join the song of all the redeemed.

Yes, we're free. Free forever. Amen. When death was arrested, my life began. Oh, we're free.

Free forever. We're free. Come join the song of all the redeemed. Yes, we're free. Free forever.

When death was arrested in my life. That's when tether was arrested and my life began. God, what good news that is worth celebrating and lifting our voices and lifting all that we are to praise you, God, starting now and and and continuing for eternity in good times and in bad times when we're hurting and when we're doubting and when we're walking with you and in seasons of joy and celebration. This truth, this is the truth that we can hold on to. This is an everlasting hope that keeps us grounded and keeps our eyes up.

And we thank you for that, God. And we ask that you would pull our eyes to you as we open your word, God. That we would see your character. We would see who you are clearly. And that we might respond, that your spirit might lead us to respond in repentance where that's needed.

Your spirit might help us grow in faith. Your spirit might lead us into seasons of obedience. God, we praise you. We love you. It's in Jesus name we pray.

Amen. You guys can have a seat. Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here.

We're going to be in Matthew 15 verses 21- 28. So, uh, we will not have text on the screen. So, if you have a Bible, I'd encourage you to pull out and follow along with us. If you have been with us long enough, you know we have two main preaching pastors, right?

So, that Chad and I share about half and half the preaching load. And uh and we're different. We got different preaching styles. We got different backgrounds and upbringings, which regularly shows up in our sermons. We have different interests.

We have different personalities. We like different things. I'd argue though what makes us different makes us a good team. Uh there if you took vin diagrams of us there's a little bit of overlap. All right.

So we both love watching the gamecocks break our hearts. We both love uh standup comedy. Uh but there's a whole lot of just in those vin diagrams. It's very very different. It shows up a lot in our appreciation of the arts.

Uh so a few years ago I found out that that Chad likes musicals. And since I'm married to my wife who uh who loves musicals over the time of our marriage I've grown to really love and appreciate them. years back. I said, "Man, I want to show you a musical that's going to change your world." Uh, and I only had the audio version because it wasn't out on video yet, but I let him listen to Hamilton. And about a song and a half in, he was like, "Yeah, I don't is are they going to rap the whole time?" I was like, "Yeah, it's a hip-hop Broadway." He's like, "Oh, okay." Wasn't his cup of tea at the time.

And then he said, "Why don't you watch Fiddler on the Roof?" So, I watched Fiddler on the Roof and about 30 minutes in, it just didn't land. I was like, "Sorry, bro." I will say he finally because it's now on Disney Plus, he finally got to watch it and we won him over. He actually likes Hamilton. But there's a lot of differences in in movies that we like. I mean, it's it's every time I get excited about a movie, and he'll regularly make fun of this in his sermons.

I'll get excited about a movie and I'll say, "Man, I want you to watch this movie." He'll go, "Oh, is it sad? Is it uncomfortable? Is it one of your indie films? Does a does a child lose his parents and then ends up being a child soldier and then eventually he gets a ticket to America and then falls uh prey to the opioid crisis. Is that how your movie goes?

I'll say no. He never made it to America. It's just but it's like not everything can be oh look how Thor and Kylo Ren team up to to defeat Voldemort at Mordor. It's just like everything's not adventure land yet. I like adventure movies.

I like adventure tales but sometimes things are real. All right. Sometimes things are are uncomfortable. Sometimes I I love stories that explore reality and how it is messy and how it's uncomfortable. I appreciate uh stories that bring that out.

And this story from the life of Jesus today has all of that. That is why when we were charting out the Gospel of Matthew and and we were looking at who would preach what, I wrote my name beside this one. Um because this story is very uncomfortable. one of the most uncomfortable stories in the New Testament. Uh, and we're going to walk through this story today.

Uh, it has some subtle hints that that touch on different themes that run through the Bible in just eight verses. Uh, Matthew is going to take an uncomfortable story from the life of Jesus and the ministry of Jesus. And he's going to show us really a picture of the salvation plan of God. All right.

So, there's a lot going on here. So, we're going to have to dive a little bit deeper this morning. uh we're going to have to really zoom in on some spots. We're spend a lot of time in one verse and then see three different things from it and then move to the next verse. I mean it is you got to dive deep to understand this.

But when we do this, the deeper we get, we can pan out a little bit and see the bigger picture of what Jesus is doing in this story and why is is a really good story for us and seeing the plan of God play out. So let me pray and then we'll jump into this story. Father, we thank you that you've given us stories like this, that you in your plan set this up in a way that would help show what you were doing in a powerful way. God, I pray that you would help us receive this this morning. I pray that you would help us not uh get defensive, but would listen and let the text go to work on our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We pray this all in the name of Jesus. Amen. All right. So verse 21, chapter 15. And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Ty and Sadome.

All right. So here's the setting. Jesus withdraws. All right.

That's an intentional use of that word. He could have said he went. He could have said he he he was going to. No, he withdrew, which implies he is leaving Galilee for a reason. He might be escaping uh the work of ministry for a bit.

He might be uh just looking to rest for a change of scenery to maybe be a little bit more anonymous because he's a celebrity in Galilee which is a Jewish district. Tyron Sedon is a gentile district. So he's not going to be as big as well known. There's not going to be the same crowds there are in Galilee. So it's important to know the context here.

They are Jewish. They show up in Tyra and Sedon. are going to stand out because there are cultural tensions between Jews and Gentiles. Jews look down upon Gentiles. They thought they were unclean.

Gentiles knew this. There's a lot of separation. So when he enters uh into Ty and Sedon with his disciples, he's going to stand out. But still, even though he's not quite the celebrity that he is amongst Jews, he does not remain anonymous. Somebody recognizes him.

And that's where it picks up in verse 22. It says, "And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, have mercy on me, oh Lord, son of David. My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon." So, this woman recognizes him. And it's important to to sit in this and picture the text. It doesn't say that she uh asked him, doesn't say that she even called out to him.

It says that she cried out to him. She cried out. This is shrieking. This is loud. This is uncomfortable.

I want you to imagine if you go to to a restaurant uh in downtown Columbia, you leave the restaurant, all of a sudden someone cries out and screams and gets in front of you. It's it's an uncomfortable scene. And she is crying out to Jesus and she says, "Lord," which doesn't always mean she believes he's Lord like we call him Lord. Sometimes that's just a term of respect. But then she adds on to that.

She says,"Lord, son of David. And especially coming from a from a gentile woman, that that says a lot because son of David is a is a messianic title. It's it's it's it's Messiah language. She says, "You're the son of David. You have power that this the the the hype that has extended beyond uh the the Jews into our land.

You are the son of David." She's trying to get him to pay attention. Lord, son of David. And then she says, "My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon." So she wants, like many people have come to Jesus, to be healed, for her daughter to be healed. So how does Jesus respond?

Verse 23. But he did not answer her a word. Didn't answer her a word. Now that is where the story starts to get uncomfortable because I want you to picture this. She's crying out.

Desperation. Tears can be flowing from her face. Maybe it's snot is coming from her nose. She's crying out to Jesus and he keeps walking. He doesn't answer her a word.

He ignores her. Now, this this is a story that doesn't show up in my kids story book Jesus Bible. It's just not a very popular story. I had I wanted to show you. I was going to say that they're uh they don't make coloring sheets for stories like this.

And I was going to put one on the screen because I finally found one. And it's it's when you see the picture of just Jesus looking away and she's just holding on to him. It's it's like what is happening here? What is Jesus doing in this story?

This doesn't seem like the Jesus that we read about in other stories. So it continues and it says his disciples came and begged him saying send her away for she is crying out after us. So crying out after us. This implies this is continually happening. She's continuing to cry out over and over and over again.

And Jesus is ignoring her. And I want you to see something. The disciples didn't say, "Jesus, won't you heal her? Can we, she's crying out, can you go ahead and heal her?" No, they said, "Won't you send her away?" And that shows the understanding here that she is a gentile woman. She is not Jewish.

Don't you don't need to heal her. Just send her away. Why is this happening? Why is this unfolding like this?

Why is Jesus doing this? It continues verse 24. He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." And now this starts to get even more uncomfortable because what he just acknowledged is to her, you are not Jewish. I was sent to the Jews. And that's uncomfortable.

But in this story, in this time, that is exactly true because at this point in the salvation plan of God, Jesus is ministering to the Jews. That's why he's mostly in Galilee and Jerusalem. He's ministering primarily to the Jews because in the order of salvation, it is to the Jews first, then the Gentiles. I mean, Paul makes that abundantly clear in Romans 1:16. He says, "For I'm not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also the Greek.

To the Jew first, then the Gentile." That is the order of salvation in the Scriptures. And that can rub people the wrong way. People look at something and say, "That is that really fair? Is it fair that God chooses one ethnic group first?" Some people will push this even further and say, "Oh, this is this is your God of the Bible being racist." Now, I would argue that's quite a lazy reading of the Bible, but we don't just dismiss arguments like this.

As Christians, we're called to be apologetic and defending uh why the Bible says what it says and how it says it. So, let let's sit in that. Why does God choose the Jews? First, we're going to sit in this and look at this in three different ways. Uh firstly, the simplest answer is that God can save in any way that he chooses to save because he's God.

He is the God of the universe and and we are a rebellious creation. The fact that he redeems anyone is an act of grace. God chooses to save in the way that he chooses because he is God is the argument Romans nine. We are pots. What have we to say to the potter?

But what if we say to God in telling and dictating how he should save? This is how God has chosen it and God is sovereign and we are not. That is the first thing to understand in this. The second, why does God choose the Jews first?

Through rejection comes global redemption. All right? Through the rejection, God is going to bring about global redemption. So let me walk us through this.

uh God chooses to bring redemption through people. All right? This is it's not just top down force. He is he is using people. He's using creation.

He's using humanity to bring about his redemption. So in order to do that to get creation involved, he has to choose to use somebody. And Abraham is the guy. He chooses Abraham. And Abraham has an ethnos.

develops the that ethnicity, the the Jews out of the out of Abraham. So he chooses a people to bring about redemption. And I'd argue there's nothing intrinsically more valuable, more awesome about Abraham. Abraham's value is that God chooses to use him. In the same way, there's nothing intrinsically invaluable about the Jewish people.

Their value comes from their covenant Lord. Their value comes from God who claimed them. So God chooses to use a people and then he gives them a place, the promised land in the Old Testament. And that land and those people, they are uh meant to reflect the glory of God to the surrounding nations. That is their calling.

And as we see in the Old Testament, they fail miserably. They fall and they worship other gods. And in spite of their failures, still God chooses to bring redemption through this people. He chooses to send Jesus through this line. And ultimately it is prophesied that he is going to send Jesus through this line through the Jewish people and ultimately they are going to reject him.

His own people will will reject their own God. This shows up all over the place in the Old Testament. shows up in Psalm 118:22 says the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Jesus is rejected and through his rejection he becomes the cornerstone for a faith much bigger than the Jewish people. It brings a global redemption plan into play.

That's the second reason why I would argue that God chooses the Jews first. Let me give you a third one. The third one is I would argue historically timely. Now, this is gonna it's a little more conjecture.

This is not chapter and verse. I can't just walk you through this while the Bible teaches this. I just want you to look at this historically. Take a step back and watch the plan play out. God chooses a people in the cradle of civilization.

All right? So, the Mesopotamia right there, Israel, it's in the cradle of civilization. He chooses a people and a place. All right?

The land of Israel is very strategic in that side of the world. It is a land bridge that connects three continents. All right? You have Africa that's connected to Asia and Europe through this land bridge. And people traveled all through this land over and over again.

That's the reason why so many nations fought over this piece of land. Now, fast forward, God chooses to send Jesus at the right time. It just so happens the right time is when the Roman Empire conquers most of that side of the world. And they uni they're unified by a common government. They're unified by a common language.

You see they took Greek as the language that everyone spoke. So everyone spoke a common language at this time for the first time in history. And then also there are trade routes that are developed. There are road systems the Roman road systems that are developed. At the right time, Jesus comes and the Gospel spreads in the midst of all of that through the rejection of the Jewish people in this place.

It spreads in a common language all across that side of the world. We see that very practically in the book of Acts when they stone Steven and the Church spreads from there. The Church spreads all the way across Europe and Asia. It is very historically timely that God chose this people for this moment at this time. So there's just some some apologetics for why God chooses the Jews first.

We need to understand that as we walk through the rest of this story because it's going to get a little more uncomfortable. Starting in verse 25 says, "But she came and knelt before him saying,"Lord, help me." And he answered, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." And now this gets even more uncomfortable because picture it. She is kneeling before him, crying out to him that she she's before him in tears, saying, "Help me, Lord." And he says, "It's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." And if you haven't read the story before, you might be thinking, "Is this really a story from the Gospels? Is this really a story of the Jesus that we just sang about?

This seems cold. What is happening? What is Jesus doing here?" Now, to understand this, you got to spend some more time and dive deeper here. The first thing you got to understand is history. Uh this woman is a cienician woman.

All right. We know this from the Gospel of Mark. Gospel of Mark has this story and he accurately calls her the term for the day. She is serenician. Siro meaning Syrian uh background.

Phoenician meaning Phoenician background that the Lebanese people look at as Phoenician. I have to say that very accurately because there's a woman in the back of the room that I've messed that up. She will come at me. Be very careful in how I said this. She is serro Phoenician.

But Matthew calls her a Canaanite woman. Why? Why does Matthew call her a Canaanite woman from the start? Canaanite is a term that hasn't been used in a thousand years. And yet he calls her a Canaanite woman.

Because what he is doing is he's bringing to mind the Jewish ear that hears this. As soon as he calls her a Canaanite woman, it's going to picture all of this. The Canaanite people from a thousand years ago were a brutal, ruthless people who waged war against the people of God. I mean, they were brutal. They did things like child sacrifice.

They uh sacrificed children to their false God, Mollik. They would literally take their children, put them on an altar, roll them down the altar, and burn them alive. They were a very pagan evil people and they waged war against the people of God for a long time. And the ones who did survive, the ones who did remain, their practices rubbed off on the people of God. So much so that one of the kings of Israel sacrifices his child.

So there's a lot of history built into calling her a Canaanite. It would be very similar to, though not one to one, it'd be similar to if I had a German exchange student over and I brought her here and I introduced her and say, "Here, here's my uh here's our Nazi exchange student that we have for the fall." It would cause everyone to take a step back and say, "Why are you bringing up the worst part of our history?" It'd be similar to you, but not one to one. If I had someone who was Mexican, I brought them aside and said, "This is my Aztec friend." You would be wondering, "Why are you bringing up that they have been called Aztecs for 500,000 years? What are you doing there?" That is exactly what Matthew is doing here in calling our Canaanite. He is bringing in thousand years of history and also some historical baggage to help explain this story and this context.

So you need to understand that out the gate. That's why he calls her a Canonite woman. The second thing you need to understand here is the term dog. Why does Jesus call her a dog?

So this term uh there's a few different Greek words for dog that he could have used. He uses one that means little dog. Now this is house dog. This would be a dog that would be around your house, around your kids, around your table. Now he could have used a different word, the Greek word for wild dog.

Now that is a term that Jews threw at Gentiles. It was an insult because the wild dogs were almost like coyotes. They were they were wild dogs. They traveled in packs. They they they were they were scavengers.

They were considered very unclean. And Jews would use that term to call Gentiles uh dogs because they could call them unclean. It was an insult. So Jesus doesn't use the term wild dog. And I've and I I've read some some theologians and some commentators who look at this with very good hearts who are much much wiser and smarter than me and they look and they say, "See that Jesus uses little dog.

This is a term of endearment." If he wanted to use an insult, he would have used wild dog. But because he uses the term for little dog, this is a term of endearment. And the more I've looked at this and I've read on this and I've studied this and listened to other arguments from the context, I don't think Jesus is being insulting because he doesn't use wild he does not use the term wild dog. But I do not think that he's using it as a term of endearment. Because when you look at her response in a moment, she didn't take it as a compliment.

So what is Jesus doing here? Is he hurling something that has has racial tension built into it? No. I would argue that Jesus is doing two things here. He is first showing salvation order and second he is testing her faith.

So let's tackle that first part. Salvation order. Here's the here's the picture. It's a little dog. This is a domestic dog.

This is a dog that you have in your house. Many of us have dogs. All right? And the order of who eats in the house is children first, then the dogs. That's the order.

All right. I know some of you are like, "No, my dog has a seat at the table. He or she here or she might." All right, but in most households, that's not the case. That's not the norm. That's not what's expected.

I don't make I don't see I don't come home and spend a hour making a meal and then I bring it to my kids with their excited faces and go. Dogs eat first, you get second. That's not That's not the picture here. The picture here is that children eat first, then the dogs. So that that's the picture as uncomfortable as it may feel with modern ears.

That is what's being explained here. There's nothing intrinsically more valuable about about the Jews as we've argued before. But the what you need to understand is is there is an order. The Jews have a seat at the table first then the Gentiles as we see the rest of this story play out because we know how it ends because most of us are not Jewish and we're in this room worshiping Jesus. So he's showing salvation order.

But the second thing he's doing here is he is testing her faith. You have to understand what is happening here. Jesus knows our hearts. He in the story in these stories we've walked through in the Gospel of Matthew so far, he knows hearts. He knows the heart of the Pharisees and their evil thoughts.

He knows the heart of his disciples and what they're thinking. He knows hearts. and he travels to this region and a woman comes up to him and says, "Lord, son of David." Now, a lot of people have come to Jesus saying things, wanting his power, Jesus has healed thousands of people at this point. But when he goes to the cross and when he rises, there aren't thousands of people that are there to follow him. There's a lot of people that come to Jesus that want his power, that want to experience his power, that want miracles, they want healings, but they don't actually end up following Jesus.

And Jesus knows this woman's heart. And she says, "Son of David," and I would argue he is bringing something out of her. He wants to hear something further. He is testing her. So, how does she respond in this testing?

Verse 27, it says, "She said, yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table." Then Jesus answered her, "Oh, woman, great is your faith. Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly. Y'all, she could have responded in a lot of different ways. She could have just walked away in tears. She could have argued with them.

She could have responded a lot of ways. But look at how she responds. Yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs eat the crumbs from the master's tables. She believes the hype.

The hype that this is the Messiah, the son of David. She might not be a descendant of Abraham. She might not be a descendant of of of David. She may not be a part of the covenant people, but she knows who this is. And if she can just get a crumb, if she can just get a shred of his of his power, then her daughter will be healed.

She absolutely believes who Jesus is. And she will do whatever it takes to gain his attention, to gain his favor. Just a moment of his power. And as soon as this comes out on full display before his disciples, he says, "Oh woman," and don't hear that with modern ears. It's not an insult.

And their time, oh woman, is a term of endearment. Oh woman, great is your faith. Now, this is where it starts to come together. At this point in the Gospel of Matthew, only twice, only twice has Jesus pedestal the faith of someone who came to be healed. Only twice.

The first time was a gentile. The first time was a centurion, a centurion soldier who comes to Jesus and and he shows great humility. He says, "No, no, no. You don't need you don't need to come all this way. You don't need to come all this way.

Just just say the word and it'll be done." And he says, "I haven't seen faith like this in all of Israel. I haven't seen faith like this." And then we get to the second story right here. And he says, "Great is your faith." You see, the story is starting to tip its hand. And Jesus is starting to show where this is going. And Matthew is helping us clue into this because this is a story within a story.

There was a there's a movie a few years back uh an might Shyamalan movie uh Split. And when you get to the end of the movie, there's just one scene at the end of the movie. And when you see it, if you've seen his other movies, you realize this is not just a standalone movie. This is a film within a film. It goes back to a film he made 15 years ago.

This is a story within the story that Matthew is trying to help us see. You have to remember where we were last week. Jesus is is uh with the Pharisees combating over clean and unclean laws. And in that story, as we saw last week, he's tipping his hand that the the the ceremonial cleans cleaning laws about what is clean and unclean food that is going out the door. That argument happens.

Jesus leaves there, goes to Tyra and Sedon, and then a woman who is considered to be an unclean outsider comes and her faith is pedestalled like this. Not a coincidence. No, God knows exactly what he was doing this. And Matthew goes out of his way to show her rebellious past. And then Jesus comes in and says, "Oh woman, great is your faith." Because Jesus has gone out of his way to show this is exactly who I am coming for right now is of the Jews.

But when this story ends, he is going to the cross where his blood is going to be spilled for all peoples. He's going to resurrect. And when he resurrects, he tells his disciples, "Go to a mount on Galilee." And when they go to that mount, as we're going to see at the end of Matthew, he says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, all ethnos, all people, including women just like this. God is coming for everybody. If you are an outsider, if you have a Canaanite past, an Ammonite past, an Ishelite past, any past outside of the Jewish people, you're welcome to the table." That is how this story ends.

Outsiders get a seat at the table. It is uncomfortable to walk through, but when you dive deeper and you look at it, you see the salvation plan of God and what he is doing. So, as we close out the story, I just want us to see three very clear things before we close out. First, God comes for outsiders. God is the God of outsiders.

He rescues and redeems those who are far off. It does not matter what your past is. Doesn't matter what your history is. Doesn't matter where you come from. Doesn't matter what you have done.

God comes for outsiders. He goes to the cross so that you can have a seat at the table. She wasn't just getting crumbs. She was getting us here at the table. And that offering is for everyone who feels like they're on the outside.

Maybe you've been on the outside of Church for years. Maybe you'd feel uncomfortable around Church people around all of this. I don't know your story, but if you feel like an outsider very clearly from this story, hear the call. You have a place at the table. And how do you get a place at the table?

Faith. That's the second thing we need to see from this. You need faith. And this woman's faith is remarkable. I mean, she believes the hype.

Her faith is persistent. And we say Jesus is better than everything else. We say that all the time. We believe that. That hype is real.

We experience who Christ is. He is so good, so glorious, so holy. He's worth your faith. He's worth your life. And she gets this.

Her faith is on full display. And for those of us who follow Jesus, note this. Her faith is persistent. She didn't stop. What if our prayers looked like her?

Please, persistent. Jesus, Lord, it be your will over I over and over again. Her faith is deep, persistent. May we mirror a faith like that. Lastly, we need humility.

We need a humility like this woman. Sometimes people approach Jesus in all the wrong ways. We we sometimes have a transactional understanding of of Jesus of God. God, if you'll do this, I I'll do this. God, will you please just do this?

It's it's like we're bartering as if we could do that as if we're on his level. As opposed to a on yourrface humility that says, "Lord, just give me a crumb. Just give me a shred of your power. That'll be enough." My fear is is that for most of our culture, because we are a very prideful culture, that if Jesus came and there was interactions like this, that most people in our culture would say, "How dare you, don't speak to me like this. You need to operate in this way.

You need to reveal yourself in this way." God should go about doing things in this manner instead of this deep on your face humility. I don't deserve it, but if you give me a crumb, that's enough. That's the humility that God calls of his people. That's why in James 4, it says God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. And we have a brilliant, beautiful example of humility in this woman.

May we see that, emulate that, incorporate that into a rhythm of worship and our approach to the Lord. The band's going to come up. We're going to close out and I want us to just sit and reflect for a moment. This story is not just a story that points a thousand years backwards and a thousand plus forward. It is a humbling picture of faith that we should aspire to attain to.

It is a uh a a a example of a woman that we should strive to mirror in her humility. And it is a reminder that no matter how much of an outsider that you think you are, you have a seat at the table through faith in Christ. And man, I wish we could take the Lord's supper this morning. Man, I wish that we could, but we're what we're going to do right now is just sit for a moment. If you are not a Christian, if you've not ever followed Jesus, if you never had faith like this, hear the calling.

Outsiders get a seat at the table. Doesn't matter what you've done. It doesn't matter where you've come from. It doesn't matter the things that you've done. You have a seat at the table.

This is the God who redeems outsiders. May we have faith to respond as Christians. May we have faith to repent where we've not believed. May we have faith to repent where we've displayed pride and not humility. Let's sit in this for a moment and then respond in worship.

Father, we thank you for a story like this that shows exactly who you come for. You came for us, the outsiders, and through your blood, through the cross, through the empty tomb, we get a seat at the table. God, I pray if there's anyone here that doesn't have that seat right now, they respond in faith and they believe. And those of us that struggle with doubt, for those of us that struggle with pride, may you break us of it. May you build in us faith and humility like this woman.

May we continue to believe. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Would you stand?

Let's sing and respond together. Are you hurting and broken within? Overwhelmed by the weight of your sin, Jesus is calling. Have you come to the end of yourself?

Do you thirst for a dream from the well? Jesus is calling. Oh, come to the altar. The Father's arms are open wide. Forgiveness was born with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

Oh, leave behind your regrets and mistakes. Come today, there's no reason to waste. Jesus is calling. Bring your sorrows and trade them for joy. From the ashes a new life is born.

Jesus is calling. Oh come. Oh come to the altar. The father's arms are open wide. forgiveness was born with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

Oh, what a savior. Is it your sing hallelujah? Christ is ris. Oh, lift your voice. Bow down before him.

Lord of all, sing hallelujah. Christ is ris. Oh, what a savior. Is it wonderful?

Sing hallelujah. Christ is ris. Bow down before him for he is Lord of all. Sing hallelujah. Christ is ris.

Oh, come to the altar. The father's arms are open wide. forgiveness was born with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Bear your cross as you wait for the crown. Tell the world of the treasure you found.

Oh, Jesus is calling. Amen. You may be seated. All right, I got a few quick announcements for us um as we close out today.

If you are a Christian, um but have not yet joined a community group, we have something we'd like for you to do. Join a community group. Uh usually we have a QR code here that you can scan with your phone because there's a pandemic and people also uh I know we're trying to get you to join a group so you can be around people, but also sometimes being around people stresses people out. So, we let you scan a thing, fill out something online, and then show up and be around people.

But today, we're going to need you to talk to a human. And so, I'll be right down the hall down here by our connect wall and would love to talk to you about community groups. Um, we are meant to exist as a body in relationship with one another. We're not meant to go do this alone as believers. We're not gifted to do this alone as believers, but we're meant to uh edify the body, walk with the body, grow with the body, and be in Church family.

As difficult and frustrating as that can be, uh that actually helps us grow because we get to forgive and we get to repent and we get to try to walk together through difficult and painful seasons. And so, we'd love for you to join a community group. If you are not a believer, not a Christian, you're just hanging out, you're trying to figure out this whole Jesus thing, maybe you're just trying to find some people uh to be around, we have a suggestion for you. It's a little bit different than what we ask of Christians. We'd like for you to join a community group.

Uh the reason being is we walk out our faith in normal life. And the best place to do that is in a community group for you to investigate what it looks like for people who love Jesus to try to follow him together. Uh and hopefully you will find a group of people who are uh just as messed up as you are, but redeemed by grace so that there's some freedom and some forgiveness and some joy that maybe you hadn't found yet. And so we'd love for you to walk in a community group to see what that looks like.

And the least you'll meet some people who are told they're supposed to be nice to you and eat some free meals as soon as we start that back up because of pandemic stuff. That's a little different right now. But hopefully at some point we'll get to where we're eating together again in our groups and walking through life together. Um I'm going to read from 1 Thessalonians 3:es uh 11 through13 and then we'll be dismissed. Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you.

And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all as we do for you. So that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. You have a good week.