Matthew 15:21-28
Based on the sermon of the same name by Rev. Richard J. Fairchild.
She had no business being there. I knew it, and the rest of us knew it. We were simply sitting and having our supper when she burst in.
The dogs jumped up at once from their place under the table and began to bark. When the woman came in and stared wildly around the room, one of the children started to cry. I was shocked, and I stood up immediately. I could feel myself starting to get angry as I looked at this ragged, filthy woman. James and John, who were sitting closer to the door, had leapt up at the same moment I did, and they were already standing in her way to keep her from getting near the table, when her eyes fell on the Master. “Lord, Son of David!” she cried out the very moment they stepped in front of her. “Have mercy on me! My daughter is sick. She is suffering terribly. She is possessed by a demon…”
The Master must have heard her, in spite of the racket from the two dogs and the child, but He did not say a word. He did not even lift His eyes from His plate. By this time not only James and John, but I and three others of us had surrounded the woman and had begun to push her out toward the door. She was interrupting not only our supper, but also the time Jesus had set aside especially to teach us about the kingdom He was going to establish. We had no intention of letting her get in the way of all that.
The woman tried to resist, but she simply had no chance. Hauling in nets makes a man quite strong, and in numbers we outmatched her many times over. We got her outside faster than bouncers throwing a drunk out of a tavern.
But let me tell you, even after she had been shoved outside, she went on causing just as much trouble as any drunk. She spoke loudly and insistently. She tried to squeeze between us and get back inside. She kept repeating to us that she had to see the miracle-worker, that her daughter was in a very grave condition, that she needed help… She grabbed us by the wrists and clung to every one of us as she begged and pressed us. I tell you, she was a real menace.
All I wanted was to get back inside and go on with my supper. James tried to explain to her. “Look,” he said, “you have no right to be here. You have no right to bother the Master. You are a foreigner, you believe in nothing that we believe, your people are pagan, and by your behavior you show that you are a pagan too. There is no way the Master will help you, so please, go away!” “I have to see Him, whatever it takes,” she said. “I know He can help me. He has helped so many people.” “That may be so,” said James, “but He will do nothing for you. You are not only a woman, you are also a Canaanite. You do not go to synagogue. You do not obey the Law of Moses. You are unclean. You eat forbidden food. And worse still… you have no manners at all. You do not show a shred of respect. Jesus is trying to eat. He is a guest in another man’s house, and this is supposed to be a special time for all of us. And you just barge in like this and start demanding help. Listen! Please! Go away! You will get no help here.”
And do you know what she did? That awful woman simply shook her head and said, “I know He will help me. He has to help me!” John broke in. “Look,” he said, “go away. We have told you that you are not welcome here. We have told you that Jesus will have nothing to do with people like you. So why don’t you just be on your way and leave?”
I tell you, this woman was out of her mind. She certainly did not know her place. The more we talked to her, the louder and more insistent she became. She wept, she pleaded, she screamed. There was no reasoning with her.
After a while of all this, the thought crossed my mind to ask Jesus to send her away. I figured that if He said something to her, she would finally get the message and stop her infernal racket. I mentioned my idea to two of the others, and they agreed that this was the only thing we could do if we wanted any peace and quiet.
The moment I opened the door to go in, the dogs barked again. Someone scolded them into silence, and I made my way over to Jesus. He was sitting with the little child who had cried earlier, eating and talking with our host. The man whose guests we were looked a little embarrassed. He was pretending nothing was wrong. But the woman was standing right in front of the open door, where two of my companions were waiting to hear what the Master would say, and the commotion was far from small. “Excuse me,” I said to the Master, “but would You send this woman on her way? She has really worn us out with all her wailing and the disgraceful scene she is making.” Jesus looked toward our host, then at me, and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
I tell you, at times Jesus was truly frustrating. He never gave a straight answer, even to the simplest question. But this time, at least, He was backing us up. It seemed He had heard everything we had said to the woman, so I turned to tell her that the Master had said for her to leave. But the very moment I started toward her, she slipped between the men at the door, ran inside, stood right beside the Lord, and fell on her knees at His feet. “Lord, help me!” she said.
I did nothing. I was tired. I figured that after everything He had said, Jesus would handle the situation just fine.
And He did. Jesus looked at her. She bowed her head and stared at the ground. Then He looked around the room for a moment.
The little child beside Him was busy eating a piece of bread, as if nothing unpleasant were happening. The dogs were sniffing the ground under the table, and our host was staring at Jesus, no doubt wondering what He would do to get rid of this tiresome problem. By now James, John, and the rest had come back inside. They were still standing, waiting to see whether they would be needed again. As the Master looked around the room, it suddenly grew very quiet. The only sounds to be heard were the flies and the smacking of the child eating.
Then Jesus looked down at the woman and said to her, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
Two of the disciples smirked. I have to admit, I grinned too. It was so clever. It was the kind of line only Jesus could come up with. It made the point well. If you ask me, it definitely finished off both her and everyone of her sort. I caught James glancing at me, and I nodded my head toward him in approval. As I did, the woman lifted her head to Jesus and looked Him in the eye. “Yes it is, Lord,” she said in that incredibly calm and clear voice—and I swear to you, she had a little smile on her face—“yes it is, Lord; but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
I was stunned. The woman had really gone too far. Loud-mouthed, coarse, repulsive, unclean, ill-mannered—I could go on! Anyway, do you know what Jesus did? He smiled at her, as if this were some great contest of wits, and said to her, “Woman, great is your faith; because of your answer, let it be done for you as you desire. Go home; your daughter is healed.”
I simply could not understand it. I mean, why on earth did Jesus do that?
She had no business being there. She was not one of us. She was nothing but a Canaanite. Jesus knew it, I knew it, and the rest of us knew it.
Sometimes I just do not understand Jesus. I just do not understand Him…