A Signal for the Nations

Matthew 15:21-39

Immanuel – 9/8/24

          Last week we saw Jesus upend the traditions of the elders: they were traditions and teachings that were not a part of God’s law, were a burden for the people, and yet had become a part of the Jewish identity. But not only was Jesus upending the traditions of the elders, He was also transforming the way Jews understood the law of God.

          For instance, the law of God prohibited the Jews from eating certain foods. But Jesus had declared that “it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth.” Thus, there is nothing unclean about what people eat and drink. It was an absolutely revolutionary idea, and it immediately began to break down the superficial barriers that separated Jews from Gentiles, and Gentiles from Jews.

          Indeed, Jesus was breaking down barriers and flinging wide the doors to heaven. The chosen people of God would no longer be confined to bloodlines, but people would come from every tribe and tongue and nation, and all would be welcomed in the kingdom of God.

          Indeed, Jesus had come to do exactly what God’s word had foretold. He was the Messiah, the promised Son of David! (Remember, David’s father was Jesse.)

          There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse…and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him…and His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what His eyes see, or decide disputed by what His ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall kill the wicked.

          The wolf shall lie down with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together, and a little child shall lead them…the nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

          In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples – of Him shall the nations inquire, and His resting place shall be glorious…He will raise a signal for the nations.                                          -Isaiah 11:1-2,3-4,6,8-9,10,12

          Purpose

1.      Jesus is a signal for the nations, bringing together Jew and Gentile.

2.      The Canaanite woman is a brilliant example of great faith.

          Read vs 21

          Gentile Lands

          In the English Standard Version, the translation we read from here at Immanuel, verse 21 says two phrases indicating a departure: “went away” and “withdrew.” “Went away” means that Jesus was exiting the region of Galilee. “Withdrew” indicates that Jesus was leaving Jewish lands.

          Jesus departed for the Phoenician coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon. Though Tyre and Sidon were the principal cities of the Roman province of Syria, they were much more ancient than Rome. They are referenced many places in the Old Testament, particularly for being enemies of Israel. In fact, Tyre and Sidon were embedded in the Jewish psyche as being signals of godless arrogance.

          Also, you may remember Tyre and Sidon from back in chapter 11. This is what Jesus said in response to Jewish unrepentance in Galilean cities:

          “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.”                                                      -Matthew 11:21-22

          Though the Messiah has come to the Jews of Galilee, they would not repent. Numbers of them rejected Jesus with great hostility. It was so bad for Jesus that it was no longer safe for Him to be in Galilee; not that Jesus was afraid of the danger, it just wasn’t yet time for that danger to take hold of Him.

          So when Jesus goes to Tyre and Sidon, it is primarily to withdraw from the Jews and from Galilee. Though it did not begin as a mission to the Gentiles, the mighty works of the Messiah were traveling to the Gentiles of Tyre and Sidon.

          Read vs 22

          It appears that as Jesus and the disciples are still walking, still journeying to wherever they were going in that region, a woman comes out of the countryside and begins following them. Likely she trails behind, crying out, shouting at them for the sake of her daughter.

Mark writes his gospel primarily to non-Jews, and he calls this woman a Syrophoenician. But Matthew, who writes this gospel primarily to Jews, calls her a Canaanite. Can you guess why? Canaanites were among the most ancient and persistent of Israel’s enemies. Matthew cannot let his Jewish readers miss this woman’s racial connection with the enemies of Israel and Israel’s God.

Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite. These geographical and racial features would unquestionably jump off the page for every Jewish reader that knows the Scriptures. She was unclean; and her unclean daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit. Did not Jesus just address issues related to what makes a person clean or unclean?

          But even more startling, this woman – who should be an enemy of God – calls Jesus “Lord” and “Son of David.” Though the word “lord” can simply be a polite way to address a superior in that culture, Matthew surely wants us to see more in the word. “Son of David” can only mean one thing, she is calling Jesus the Messiah – the Jewish Messiah.

          This means two things. First, she had heard about Jesus before He came to her region. This accords with what we read all the way back in chapter 4.

          So [Jesus’] fame spread throughout Syria, and they brought him all the sick…[and] those oppressed by demons…and He healed them. And great crowds followed Him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.                                                                -Matthew 4:24-25

          One way or another, the Canaanite woman had heard about Jesus’ power, His willingness to heal, and was able to identify Him along the road.

Second, calling Jesus the Son of David means this woman somehow, counterintuitively, had a profound knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures. So much so that she was able to see what few of the Jews could see. Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of David, His works and teachings proved it, and the Canaanite woman understood enough to come to Him for mercy and healing for her pitiable daughter.

There is a lot I don’t understand about this woman, but one thing I do understand is her obvious love for her daughter. I have four daughters, and if any of them were suffering I would do everything in my power to bring that suffering to an end, even if it meant throwing away my dignity and groveling. Any halfway-decent parent would do the same. And this Canaanite woman was relentless, desperate to see her little girl restored.

But Jesus ignored her.

Read vs 23

We have never seen anything like this. A woman comes to Jesus, in all desperation and earnestness, and Jesus ignores her. So many times we have read how, back in Galilee, He had compassion and healed all the sick that were brought to Him.

But such things happened in Jewish lands. Now we are in Gentile territory. Jesus is doing what anyone would expect from a Jewish religious leader. Most would never associate with unclean Gentiles, especially when that unclean Gentile was a woman. In fact, it was fairly common for Jewish religious leaders to hurl verbal abuse at people like this. Though Jesus doesn’t belittle her, He does ignore her.

In Mark we read that Jesus enters a house somewhere in the large region of Tyre and Sidon, and He is trying to keep a low profile. He doesn’t want anyone to know where He is. But this woman follows Him all the way to the house, continuing to cry out. Putting the pieces together, I think it is at this point that the disciples address Jesus, Send her away, for she is crying out after us. And based on how Jesus answers them, I believe what the disciples really mean is, “Give her what she wants so she will leave us alone.”

There is no question in the disciples’ mind that Jesus can grant her request. But in their mind, they want the request to be granted because they are annoyed, because she is loud and risks exposing them. It is not about compassion. It’s about the inconvenience. It’s about pragmatism.  And the disciples’ pragmatism punctuates the fact that Jesus’ apparent indifference is part of Jewish tradition and culture.

Read vs 24

It clearly seems that Jesus understands the disciples to have asked for Him to heal the Canaanite woman’s daughter. But Jesus effectively says, “I did not come for Gentiles like her. I came for the Jews.”

This should not surprise us. We saw Jesus send the disciples to preach and to heal, but only to the Jews. Remember this?

          These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

                                                                             -Matthew 10:5-6

Jesus is acting like any other Jewish religious leader would. He is being consistent, as He did not allow the disciples to minister to the Gentiles, neither is He.

And yet we all know this is not consistent with Jesus’ character. As I have already said, He has dispensed healings so generously, even to Gentiles. He healed the centurion’s servant – both the centurion and the servant were Gentiles. He healed the two Gentile demoniacs in the Gentile region of the Decapolis.

          Time and again we have seen the depth of Jesus’ compassion. And we have already seen that compassion crosses racial divides. With the benefit of knowing more of the story than the disciples did in the moment, we know Jesus must be up to something.

Indeed, as we shall soon see, Jesus is bringing something to the surface which cannot be otherwise seen.

Read vs 25

The woman now throws herself at the feet of Jesus. Again she calls Him “Lord” – undoubtedly she sees in Jesus something beyond seeing. “Help me!” Her plea is stripped down, desperate. Where else in all the earth could she possibly go? Where else can any of us go with our desperation but to the feet of Jesus? Even if convention, culture, and the responses she has been getting would tell her they are against her, she is convinced she is exactly where she needs to be.

Read vs 26

          Jesus’ words sound so harsh on the surface; but remember, He is drawing out something that would otherwise not be seen. Additionally, words on a page cannot convey Jesus’ tone and facial expression. What can look harsh on the page could be said in such a way that strips it of its bitterness.

          But, however icy or warm the delivery, Jesus is pressing an exposed nerve. He calls the Jews the children. The children have priority and the privilege, it is their right to receive first. But Jesus refers to the Gentiles as dogs. Dogs were among the unclean animals. And the racial slur that the Jews had adopted for Gentiles? Dogs.

          Recall what Jesus has already said about dogs:

          “Do not give to dogs what is holy.”                   -Matthew 7:6

          Whether warm or cold, Jesus is pressing on a racial nerve, dramatically increasing the tension of the encounter.

          Read vs 27

          What a powerful response to Jesus! There is no presumption in her words, she knows her unworthiness. She does not deserve a position at the table, she does not deserve to receive from Jesus. He is, after all, Israel’s Messiah; and she knew it. But her claim is essentially this: “Though it is not right for me to eat with the children, it is still right that I eat.”

In this moment, whether she realizes it or not, her response brings to the forefront God’s plan for Israel’s Messiah.

          “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you a light for the nations, that my salvation shall reach to the ends of the earth.”                       -Isaiah 49:6

          Indeed, it is right for her to be fed by Israel’s Messiah. For not only has He come for the lost sheep of Israel, He has also come to be a light unto the nations, a signal for the nations. The Canaanite saw the light of this signal and she knew Jesus’ indifference was not characteristic of the Messiah.  He is more!

This whole story has been building to the next and climactic statement.

          Read vs 28

          There are so many episodes where Jewish religious leaders try to defeat Jesus in an argument, but they never can. But this Canaanite woman has done just that; though I believe Jesus wanted it this way from the beginning. For she is the only person in the entirety of Matthew’s gospel to which Jesus ascribes “great faith.” (He has repeatedly told the disciples that they have little faith).  This whole time, Jesus had been exposing the greatness of the woman’s faith.

          The Canaanite woman followed Jesus, threw herself at His feet in desperation, knew His identity, understood His heart and purpose, and pressed in even in the face of resistance. As of yet, there has been no greater demonstration of faith, even among the chosen people of God. How remarkable coming from an unclean Gentile woman!

          And just as the woman believed Jesus could, He did. Immediately her little girl was healed, freed from bondage, restored to her mother.

Jesus’ hard responses to her were not to be harsh or cruel, but to draw out the significance of her faith. And not only was her faith exposed to the disciples, but it is exposed to every reader of Matthew’s gospel – literally billions of people. What a gift Jesus has given her!

          The vast majority of those that have benefited from the story of the Canaanite woman are Gentiles. She was a foreshadowing of things to come, when God the Father would raise His Son upon the cross as a signal for the nations. And when a person is pierced by the cross, and finds life in the tomb, every racial divide is dissolved. For access to the kingdom of God is by the blood of Christ and through the bloodline of faith. By faith in His blood shed on your behalf, Jesus makes you – the unclean – clean.

          As we come to the next section, we see this same theme continue.

          Read vs 29-31

          In Mark we learn that Jesus travels to the eastern shore of Galilee, to the region known as the Decapolis – another Gentile region.

          It takes just a couple of paragraphs, but the journey described took a number of weeks or possibly a couple of months. As you know, Matthew does not arrange his gospel chronologically. In the next chapter we will see Jesus and the disciples travel to Caesarea Philippi. But they likely traveled there between the trip to Tyre and Sidon and when they arrived on the eastern shores of Galilee.

          But if Jesus went secretly to Tyre and Sidon, all attempts at a low profile are long gone. Crowds of people now follow Him, and Jesus is no longer holding back. All the works of the Messiah, He now openly does for the Gentiles.

          The end of verse 31 is incredibly significant. And they glorified the God of Israel. This is not something Matthew would note about Jews. No need to specify that the Jews glorified the God of Israel. But what a powerful statement to make about non-Jewish people. Jesus was healing every possible ailment among these pagans, and they could not help but worship the true and living God – the God of Israel.

          In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples – of Him shall the nations inquire.                                                       -Isaiah 11:10

          The same power and provision given to the Jews, Jesus now lavishes upon the Gentiles that come to Him.

          Read vs 32-38

          This account is so similar to the feeding of the 5,000 in the last chapter that I will not spend too much time on this. None-the-less, there are some significant differences that need to be pointed out. I’ll use these differences to step us through the section.

          Difference: Size. This is a smaller crowd, 4,000 instead of 5,000. Of course, this is the count of the men. Accounting for women and children, it is likely that the crowd was twice the given amount.

          Difference: Duration. The last time Jesus fed the crowds, they were chasing Him down. This time they have been following Jesus for some time. By the time of the feeding, they had been with Him three days.

          And during the three days, the crowd of people exhausted their food supply. They would have a gnawing in their stomach, but still they would not leave. This deeply moves Jesus – as verse 32 says. Christ’s compassion overflows and He gives to them their daily bread.  This helps us clearly see that Jesus’ indifference to the Canaanite woman was a ploy.  He cannot remain indifferent. 

          Notice how bread links this episode with the Canaanite woman. This is not breadcrumbs falling from the table. As we understood through the Canaanite woman, we now see Jesus demonstrating: the Gentiles have a full share in the Messianic banquet. And it is a banquet that more than satisfies, for there are abounding leftovers.

          Difference: Leftovers. For the 5,000 there were 12 baskets left over. But seven baskets are collected after the 4,000 have eaten. Interestingly, the Bible uses the number 12 to represent the people of God and the number 7 to represent completeness. Do the leftovers suggest that these two crowds – one Gentile and one Jewish – represent the completeness of the people of God?

          Difference: Dismissal. There is no hurried rush. Jesus does not quickly usher the disciples away. There is no spontaneous and chaotic coronation attempt. This time Jesus and the disciples leave together on a boat.

          Together they row to the other side of Galilee and back to Jewish lands. Matthew tells us that Jesus and the disciples land in Magadan. No one knows exactly where this is, there are only guesses. Some scholars think Magadan might be a variant of the town also known as Magdala, the hometown of Mary Magdalene; but there is no way to really know.

But wherever it is, it is Jewish territory. The Gentile mission is over and soon the Galilean mission will come to an end too.

Through this short mission to the Gentiles, Jesus once again upends what defines clean and unclean. It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth. It is not your bloodline (or race) that makes a person clean, but faith in Jesus Christ.

Racism, though, is unclean. It is disgusting. For on that cross Jesus gave His life to be a signal for the nations, to gather people from every tribe, tongue, and language. And disciples of great faith give their lives to help bring in that diverse number.

Let me press on this nerve a little.  DEI, (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), for some is a joke, and for others is a religious doctrine. 

Diversity – Jesus is determined, died for, a diversity of people. 

Equity – From lowest to highest, by faith all are given to the right to become sons and daughters of God. 

Inclusion – Regardless of any exterior factor, Jesus includes all those who believe at His Messianic Banquet.

The Kingdom of God is the only place where DEI can truly be implemented for the good of all.  Our society gets it wrong; both in our rejection of DEI and in our implementation.  This is because the most critical factor in meaningful DEI is faith in Jesus Christ!

Matthew presents the Canaanite woman as an example for all of Jesus’ disciples to follow. She threw herself at His feet in desperation. She unashamedly knew and proclaimed Jesus’ identity. She understood His heart and purpose. She pressed in even in the face of resistance. According to Jesus, these are the marks of great faith. Is your life marked by the same sort of faith?