Jeremiah 51-52
Hebrews 9
“Jesus did not answer a word.” Matthew 15:23
A Canaanite woman came in desperation to Jesus, pleading and begging Him to have mercy on her for her daughter, who was demon-possessed and suffering terribly, but Jesus did not give her an answer. Did we notice the redundancy in Matthew’s writing when he described what Jesus did? He did not simply say Jesus remained silent; he emphasized Jesus’s intentional deliberate unresponsiveness—“Jesus did not answer a word.” What kind of unresponsiveness was this? What kind of silence? Did Jesus turn His face away?
Some of us may wonder, what is going on? This is not the Jesus we often encounter in Scripture when a person humbles their heart before Him. As Jesus’s disciples urged Him to send the woman away, He said to the woman, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). In other words, “I am not for you. You don’t have a seat at the table. There is no setting for you. You are an outsider. You are not one of us. You are not eligible.” It is interesting that Jesus would say He came only for Israel because He was the One who went to a Gentile territory—to Tyre and Sidon.
To Jesus’s statement, the woman knelt before Him and cried, “Lord, help me!” (Matthew 5:25). When the woman asked for Jesus to have mercy on her (Matthew 15:22), it was an appeal to His heart attitude. Now, her plea was for Him to help her, an appeal for action. Jesus replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs” (Matthew 15:26). In this statement, Jesus made a clear distinction: there are children and there are dogs. Children have rights and privileges because they are family, but dogs were considered unclean so Israel did not keep them as pets. (Although in the present day, we have dogs as pets and they are considered family; this was not the case during Jesus’s time.) Dogs were a derogatory term used by Jews to refer to Gentiles.
Despite Jesus’s silence and negative response, as well as the disciples’ rejection, the woman was not deterred. She kept pressing in. She said, “Yes it is, Lord, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their Master’s table” (Matthew 15:27). This was a bold statement. The woman acknowledged that she was a dog, undeserving of bread, but she also made a point that the dog has a Master—that she belonged to the same Master as the children.
It is true that the Canaanite woman did not belong to the “chosen” people of Israel, but she recognized who the true Master of her life was. Who is the Master of our lives?
Gracious Lord Jesus, You are the Master of my life. Even in the silence and the push backs that I have experienced, help me to remain faithful to You. Thank You, Lord.
Hebrews 9
“Jesus did not answer a word.” Matthew 15:23
A Canaanite woman came in desperation to Jesus, pleading and begging Him to have mercy on her for her daughter, who was demon-possessed and suffering terribly, but Jesus did not give her an answer. Did we notice the redundancy in Matthew’s writing when he described what Jesus did? He did not simply say Jesus remained silent; he emphasized Jesus’s intentional deliberate unresponsiveness—“Jesus did not answer a word.” What kind of unresponsiveness was this? What kind of silence? Did Jesus turn His face away?
Some of us may wonder, what is going on? This is not the Jesus we often encounter in Scripture when a person humbles their heart before Him. As Jesus’s disciples urged Him to send the woman away, He said to the woman, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). In other words, “I am not for you. You don’t have a seat at the table. There is no setting for you. You are an outsider. You are not one of us. You are not eligible.” It is interesting that Jesus would say He came only for Israel because He was the One who went to a Gentile territory—to Tyre and Sidon.
To Jesus’s statement, the woman knelt before Him and cried, “Lord, help me!” (Matthew 5:25). When the woman asked for Jesus to have mercy on her (Matthew 15:22), it was an appeal to His heart attitude. Now, her plea was for Him to help her, an appeal for action. Jesus replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs” (Matthew 15:26). In this statement, Jesus made a clear distinction: there are children and there are dogs. Children have rights and privileges because they are family, but dogs were considered unclean so Israel did not keep them as pets. (Although in the present day, we have dogs as pets and they are considered family; this was not the case during Jesus’s time.) Dogs were a derogatory term used by Jews to refer to Gentiles.
Despite Jesus’s silence and negative response, as well as the disciples’ rejection, the woman was not deterred. She kept pressing in. She said, “Yes it is, Lord, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their Master’s table” (Matthew 15:27). This was a bold statement. The woman acknowledged that she was a dog, undeserving of bread, but she also made a point that the dog has a Master—that she belonged to the same Master as the children.
It is true that the Canaanite woman did not belong to the “chosen” people of Israel, but she recognized who the true Master of her life was. Who is the Master of our lives?
Gracious Lord Jesus, You are the Master of my life. Even in the silence and the push backs that I have experienced, help me to remain faithful to You. Thank You, Lord.
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