The Story
One of the obstacles with the church format is summarizing major stories into a half-hour to one-hour sermon. Often the teacher at that moment must pick a “theme” to discuss and leave out a lot of history. Many times, the story of the Canaanite woman will be left as an example of when Jesus helped a Gentile. In fact, even in this story, Jesus alludes to the purpose of his arrival being for that of the Jewish people, and some time later he will address everyone else. I’ve seen this story used as an example of how a mother will fight for her children. However, this story can also be used to show the generosity and kindness of the Father in that, if you have faith and you ask, it will be done.
Any of the themes mentioned above are all correct, and I challenge anyone one looking for a sermon idea or theme to meditate on any of those and run with them. There is an amazing message from God that someone needs to hear in all of those examples.
However, this story also goes to show how unified the entirety of the Bible really is. It is a much deeper story than what we read literally. In as quick and simple and literal an explanation of the story as I can give, essentially a Canaanite woman seeks Jesus to help her with an issue with her daughter. Matt 15:21-28 Let me repeat part of that. A Canaanite woman. This story tells us about a gentile (non-Judean Jewish) woman who challenges Jesus. He tells her that he is here for a reason (the Jewish people) and not here for the dogs (a nickname for Gentiles). To this, the woman says that she understands, but even dogs eat the food that falls from the tables of children. In this, Jesus sees the woman’s faith and heals her daughter.
Observations
Now, at face value, what do we see here?
- Jesus came for a reason, and it was, not at that very moment to help Gentile’s, yet. Got it.
- Jesus still has compassion for suffering, no matter who they are, and rewards the faithful. Got it.
- Jesus will test our faith to see if we still seek him and truly believe in him. Got it.
You can add many more revelations here.
Now let’s dive a little deeper into this story. It was repeated that this was a Canaanite woman. What absolutely cannot ever be lost in this story is the fact that this was a descendant of the Canaanite bloodline. A bloodline of people, who at one point in history, God wanted to be wiped off the face of the Earth. He didn’t just want a few people held accountable. He wanted essentially a time of Noah-like flood to happen here. God wanted EVERY Canaanite gone from existence. This is what Joshua was tasked with doing after the death of Moses. Joshua was the first prophet in the Bible after Moses in the post-Torah timeline. In this story, we see an example of hyperbole used by Joshua when he fails to kill every Canaanite but claims he destroyed them (a bigger story not meant for this theme). We know he doesn’t kill everyone because there are numerous examples in many generations of Canaanite people involved in events throughout the history leading to Jesus.
One of the hang-ups we as Christians can be led into is reading a story literally because we don’t know the history behind it. This is one of those great examples. The woman isn’t just asking for table scraps of help from the person she realizes is Messiah. She brings a generation’s worth of history to the table. At face value, many of us might have said Jesus should have walked away. This is a person the Father despised. She shouldn’t even exist if humans followed God’s word.
The story is short and doesn’t get into details, but one has to imagine that she knew how big this ask was going to be. If she told anyone beforehand what she was planning to do, we could imagine they told her she was crazy. They may have told her she shouldn’t waste her time because the Jewish God hated their kind. She may have wanted to go sooner and told herself the same things. We can only speculate, but in this story we see God’s grace far deeper than the literal event we read about now.
God set aside generations of issues for one person who had the faith to know and realize who God really was. Jesus was there to work through the Jewish people for the promise made to the rest of humanity, and yet he took that moment to live up to the heart that he truly has for all of us.
Questions:
Are you afraid to go to God, or at least learn about him, because of your history, your family history, or things other people have told you about God?
Are you willing to at least have the faith that God will help you, even if you or your past was against him at one time?
In this story the woman doesn’t ask for herself but rather for her daughter. In other words, her future generation. Are you willing to change so that your future generations can be changed too?
Repentance is defined simply in English, but the best way to explain and define it is when we turn away from our sinful nature and return to God. Sometimes there is a ton of baggage that we need to leave behind when we repent, and this story shows that. In her case she had generations of sin sitting on her shoulders but she had faith in the one true Father. In a sense, had Jesus turned her away she would have been in the same situation she was already in. She had nothing to lose and everything to gain, however it was her faith that Jesus picked up on. Do you have the faith to leave the past behind and put all your trust and faith in God?
Below are a few places to research the history of Canaan. I warn you that it is disturbing stuff; however, it shows why God will intercede even when humans fail to work with him and turn against those who hate him.
Moral Corruption – Leviticus 18 (Major perversions stemming from Canaan)
Child sacrifice – Deut. 12:29-31
Deut. 7 – Destroy is not literal. At this moment, he simply wants his chosen to stay pure.
Joshua 10:36-39 says all were destroyed, but 15:13-15 says towns are still populated. (All who were there Jos 10:10)
Deut. 20 shows peace with other nations was always the goal.