Studying Jesus’ words.  Read Matthew 15. 

Before you read Matthew 15, ask God to speak to you, to give you wisdom from the Holy Spirit-inspired words of Matthew and our Lord.  Click to read:  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+15&version=NIV&interface=print

Jesus is not predictable.  In fact, that is one of the things that is quite lovely about him.

Jesus was not typical in any way either—neither Jesus’ teaching nor his behavior was typical of a first-century rabbi. 

Folks want to paint Christianity as sexist, but Jesus shattered the mores of his day in how he related to women.  Jesus loved women.

We see these things in Matthew fifteen.

Reading a full chapter is valuable in understanding scope, setting, and circumstances in Jesus’ life and ministry.  In our reading we see the tension mounting as Jesus poses a greater and greater threat to the religious establishment; he is calling out the Pharisees for their hypocrisy.  We also see that Jesus is saying to those he has touched, ‘go and tell no one,’ endeavoring to slip quietly in and out of places, fully aware that the crescendo toward the cross is building.  Just as Jesus was born ‘in the fullness of time’¹, so too it was the fullness of God’s time that ordered Jesus’ footsteps to Jerusalem, his arrest and crucifixion.  Jesus is beginning to prepare the disciples for what is to come. 

Matthew writes about how Jesus was moved to meet the needs of a mass of people in Matthew 15, and then, he heals an individual; moved by the hunger of 4,000 and the plea of a single Canaanite woman.  Let’s zoom in and look at his encounter with this desperate mother.

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”

Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

“Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.² 

What is going on in this passage?  ‘Seems Jesus is mean-spirited to the woman, but that could not be true.  So what is at play here that we may understand? 

It is such an interesting encounter between Jesus and the woman, also recorded in Mark’s gospel.³  Jesus withdrew from the Pharisees and their intense pressure, to the region of Tyre and Sidon, between 35 and 50 miles away—this region is Gentile territory. But it seems there was a distinct purpose in Jesus meeting the Canaanite woman—Jesus was intended to talk with her.  Note: while Jesus comes first to the Jewish people, revealing himself as the Messiah, fulfilling many Old Testament prophecies, others recognized that Jesus was the One of whom they had heard.  While it would be much more likely for one who knew the prophecies to recognize Jesus, it is this ‘unlikely’ woman’s faith that truly moved Jesus. 

How often we grow weary of waiting for God to answer our prayers, oft giving up, I’m afraid.

Yet our persistent prayer moves Jesus. 

We live in the day of no waiting.  Truly, if we want to know what year a movie debuted, or a sports team won, or a famous person died, all we have to do is search on our cellular phones, and voila—the answer!  Few homes are without microwaves, so that we can speed the heating of our food.  Store managers broadcast on the public address systems, “No waiting on aisle 3.”  But God is not bound to our timing, nor does he answer prayers according to our impatience.  He hears, he answers—his timing, not ours.  You and I, dear God followers, must wait and trust.  As the psalmist said,    I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.⁵  You and I must have faith and exercise it because ‘without faith it is impossible to please God’.⁶

Back to the scene of Jesus and the Gentile (Canaanite) woman.  I love that Jesus went out of his way to have a meaningful encounter with an unlikely person—an unbeliever and a woman at that, who a rabbi would never address! But we would not know just how unpredictable Jesus behaved without exploring something of the cultural setting in which Jesus took on flesh.  And so, we read, we study, we dig to understand Jesus’ words and the riches of the Word of God. 

1 – Galatians 4.4

2 - Matthew 15.21-28

3 – Mark 7.24-30

4 - http://www.brooklyntabernacle.org/media/sermons, choose “Wait for It” by

      Todd Crews13-14

5 – Psalm 27.13-14

6 – Hebrews 11.6