It looks like the Spirit’s leading us on a quest to help us grow in our faith as Jesus continues to go toward Jerusalem, the cross, and the empty tomb. Just like he needed to be absolutely sure his disciples would have faith enough to endure all that was to come then, Jesus needs to make 100% sure our faith is strong and ready for anything life throws in our way until the day he comes again to help us claim our final victory in the eternal home he’s prepared for us all in the kingdom of God.
As we’ve seen, whether people are on board with Jesus or not in his homeland, he just can’t seem to go anywhere without being bombarded by a crowd. Although that can be a good thing because it gives Jesus many chances to teach the people about the kingdom of God, proclaim his gospel of love and salvation, and do all sorts of miracles and healings that show he is God’s promised Messiah, it doesn’t give him a lot of time to really work with the disciples and make sure they’re ready to carry on his ministry once he’s resurrected from the dead and ascended into heaven.
So, he gathers up the 12 for a field trip into Gentile country where he’s less sought after for an intense learning adventure. It’s interesting to note, before we get into the message from our reading today, in Matt. 15:1-20, Jesus stressed the importance of inner purity. Why? Because he’s taking his disciples into a land known for its evil behaviors and materialistic lifestyle, and he needed to prepare them ahead of time to keep them from falling into temptation.
But they hardly cross the border and lo and behold, before school could start, a Canaanite woman (Mark said she was Syro-Phoenician, or Greek) came begging for his help for her demon-possessed daughter. Regardless of her ethnicity, she was a foreigner to them, and Jesus’ boys wanted him to get rid of this nuisance.
Nuisance or not, consider this lady. She’s not from the Promised Land nor one of the “chosen children of Israel.” She’s a mother who loves her daughter and wants the best for her. Her daughter’s suffering and this mom’s done all she can, but none of the medical experts or treatments helped her little girl. As mom’s can be, she was desperate, willing to give her life if it freed her daughter’s pain.
She lived in a foreign pagan land. Still, bits and pieces of news got around. Maybe she’d heard some “crumbs” of info about Jesus and the signs and wonders he was doing in the land just south of hers. We don’t know anything about her or her faith (if any), but in her huge desire for her daughter to be healed and made whole again, she could’ve hoped, even prayed, that somehow, someway she’d encounter this Jesus to see if he could heal her precious child. “Maybe, just maybe…!”
What good news it had to be when she heard Jesus was in her town! Remember – this isn’t 2026 USA. She’s a woman, about to approach a strange and foreign man in public when doing so was totally unacceptable. She risked her very life for the sake of her daughter. Still, she had to try…
I not only admire her courage and resilience, but also her humility. She offers Jesus no credentials or anything of value for his possible service. She came before him and cried out, begging for him to heal her daughter of demon possession. Her persistence annoyed the disciples but note how she addressed Jesus: “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!” She named Jesus for who he was and is, something many of his own people didn’t yet do or recognize. Then she humbly fell before him in reverence. Yes, she’d gotten some good crumbs that were starting to feed her faith!
I’m not sure if Jesus was messing with her, the disciples, or both; maybe a little with us coz we all have our prejudices and pre-judgments. Yes, mess with us sometimes, Jesus, to help us see the light and keep us on track. He says in vs. 24: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” and then vs. 26 as she persisted: “It’s not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
Whoa! This doesn’t sound much like the Jesus of love, compassion, and grace, does it? And it would leave us out! But what about the Great Commission from Matt. 28:19-20 to “go and make disciples of allnations…”? Hey, you better practice what you preach, Jesus!
But his first goal, like the prophets before him, was to try to touch and turn the hearts of God’s chosen children of Israel; get them on board to fulfill the covenant promise God made with Abraham, and assure those who were faithful of their inheritance in the kingdom of God.
But, alas!, most of them were “lost sheep,” floundering around, missing the blessing right under their noses. They were the ones who had ears, but refused to hear; the ones who had eyes, but refused to see; the ones who’d been told time and time again, but refused to understand. (Isa. 6:9-10 & Matt. 15:8-9) Now, as it was with the woman at the well in John 4, the Samaritan leper who came back to thank Jesus, the Roman military officer with the paralyzed servant, Jesus is branching out, living out his call, and offering his gifts of healing and salvation beyond Israel.
Then there’s Jesus’ comment about the dogs. It sounds harsh, doesn’t it? We might think in those times it applied to wild dogs, scrounging in the rubbish heap for a nourishing morsel or two. But no, this is gentle Jesus; kind, loving, meek, and mild. I picture him with a little smile in his voice and twinkle in his eye as he says what he does. And the same for the woman as she responds. After all, she’s a Greek – sharp, witty, with a heart open to learn and grow.
And learn and grow in faith she does! She hears Jesus’ word for dogs, and it’s not the wild stray dogs, but the little house dogs; the type like ours who’d love your whole plate of food, but are still just as happy to devour the crumbs that fall from your table or the morsels you toss to them.
And do you hear the note of hopeful happiness in her return remark, knowing by faith that Jesus is warming up to her, about to grant her request? With bold confidence she replied: “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table” She’s obviously been paying attention to those “crumbs” that have fallen around her about Jesus and she had faith that when no one else could heal her daughter, Jesus could and would.
Jesus had to be amazed and thankful for her response! I bet he thought “Hallelujah! Praise God! This lady gets it!” He said: “Great is your faith! Let it be done as you wish!” And in that moment, Jesus worked a miracle, and her daughter was healed.
The Holy Spirit’s dropping crumbs from the Master’s table all around us still today, hoping we’ll eat them up and grow our faith in Jesus. They might be in things said or read, in words preached, in songs sung, in prayers prayed, in actions or mannerisms done. Are your tastebuds ready to taste and see how good God is? Is your heart open to all the wonders of God and ready to grow more faith in you so you not only receive the love of Jesus into your soul, but go and share it with all others?
I pray it is so for each and every one of us. We want Jesus to be with us, love us, and take care of us. But sometimes we’re like the disciples or the Pharisees and think the blessings of God are for us and no one else, esp. those who are different than us. Sometimes it’s our ears that don’t really hear, our eyes that don’t really see, and our hearts that are closed to all the goodness of God. We think these precious crumbs are just for us; for our betterment and we shoo the “different” dogs away.
But that’s not what Jesus wants and ti’s not why God uniquely created each of us. The plan is for the Spirit to plant crumbs of faith in us that hopefully grow us to put our trust in God, believe in Jesus, as our Savior, but also as the One who can do the impossible when no one else can, as we love like God first loved us, loving God, ourselves, and all those around us with all we have and are.
Outside of New York City is a harbor and in the harbor’s a statue, gifted to the US by France in 1884. Emma Lazarus wrote a poem to raise money for the pedestal on which The Statue of Liberty now stands. The poem ends with these words: 'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'"
In such a vast land with so many diverse people, we need all the crumbs from the Master’s table possible, nourish our faith and trust in God. We do it first for us, so we can live like Jesus calls us to live. Then we can bless others in our faithful example and by the faith crumbs we share. Jesus met and blessed a woman nourished by those crumbs. She discovered what Paul said in Romans 12:2. Her daughter was healed and this lady surely won her victory of salvation and eternal life.
Don’t we want that same blessing and victory for ourselves, our loved ones, and those around us? Hear this from ministrymatters.com. “In this day and time, we are called to reach out in compassion to our brothers and sisters around the globe. We’re drawn in this life-thing together. God is God! God’s love is poured down on each one of us; it’s not portioned out according to our race, ethnicity, religion, gender, political leanings, church buildings or even worship practices. Come together in God’s love, dear friends. Come and work together in the witness of Christ and all those through whom God has spoken.” Let’s keep sharing those crumbs as we grow in our faith and trust in God, so we all find the answers to our prayers and receive our victory in Jesus, now and forever! “Bind us together, Lord, bind us together in cords that cannot be broken!” (FWS 2226) AMEN.