21 And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” 23 But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 15:21–24 (ESV)
Following the Jewish leaders refusal to hear Him (Matthew 15:1-20), Jesus went to the pagan territories of Tyre and Sidon. It was there that He met a Canaanite woman. She confessed Christ as the “Lord” and the “Son of David.” Both were titles for God and the Messianic expectations of God’s people. Ironically, it was a Gentile who recognized Jesus as Lord even though Israel’s leaders did not.
The Gospel of Mark reveals further information concerning the woman. Mark 7:24-26 says, “24 And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. 25 But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.”
The title Syrophoenician means that the woman was a native of either Tyre, Sidon or Syria. While Jesus immediately answered the religious leaders (Matt. 15:3), Matthew records that Jesus did not answer the Canaanite woman. He did not even speak to her. Neither did the disciples.
However, while the disciples did not speak to the woman (see John 4:1-9), they did speak to Jesus about her. They said, ““Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” The disciples were commanding Jesus to dismiss and reject the woman. The reason they gave was that she was screaming after them. In reality, she was crying out only to Jesus for mercy and help for her daughter. The disciples showed a callous lack of sympathy and compassion to someone in desperate need.
Initially, Jesus appeared to be just as unsympathetic. He said to her, ““I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
“Jesus rejects her pleas to heal her daughter at first, telling her, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (vv. 23–24). These words are not to be taken as a rejection. True, Jesus was sent to preach the Gospel of the kingdom first to the Jews, but He did not ignore Gentiles. In fact, He healed some men outside of the covenant community before meeting this woman (Matt. 8:28–34). Jesus is testing her to determine whether she will cling to Him steadfastly,” explains Dr. R. C. Sproul.
Have you ever been interrupted by someone who needs something from you immediately? How do you react in that circumstance and situation? Do you feel pressured to comply with their request when you haven’t had time to consider their request?
What principles can we glean from this portion of Scripture? We’ll soon see when we resume out study in Matthew’s Gospel when next we meet.
Soli deo Gloria!
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