An Interpretation
Here’s my interpretation of Jesus’ interaction with the Canaanite woman. She is clearly desperate. Her daughter is demon possessed. She knows she has no right to ask anything of Jesus. She is not a Jew. She is not a disciple. She offers no money for the ministry. She makes no promises to devote herself to missionary service. You get the impression that she knows as well as anybody that Jesus doesn’t owe her anything, and she is asking Him for everything.
Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised. — Job 1:21
But that doesn’t slow her down. She persists in her plea. “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!” — Matthew 15:22 NCV
Matthew notes that Jesus says nothing at first. Nothing. He doesn’t open his mouth. Why? To test her? Most commentators suggest this.
Jesus did not answer a word. — Matthew 15:23
Maybe, they say, He is waiting to see how serious she is about her plea. My dad used to make me wait a week from the day I asked him for something to the day he gave me his answer. Most of the time, I forgot that I ever made the request. Time has a way of separating whims from needs. Is Jesus doing that?
I have another opinion. I think that He was admiring her. I think that it did His heart good to see some spunky faith for a change. I think that it refreshed Him to see someone asking Him to do the very thing He came to do — give great gifts to unworthy children.
How strange that we don’t allow Him to do it more often for us.
Perhaps the most amazing response to God’s gift is our reluctance to accept it. We want it. But on our terms. For some odd reason, we feel better if we earn it. So we create religious hoops and hop through them — making God a trainer, us his pets, and religion a circus.
The Canaanite woman knew better. She had no résumé. She claimed no heritage. She had no earned degrees. She knew only two things: Her daughter was weak, and Jesus was strong.
1. Read Matthew 15:1–9. In these verses leading up to this scene with the Canaanite woman, what was the Pharisees’ issue with Jesus?
Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?” — Matthew 15:1–2
2. How did Jesus describe the Pharisees? What did Jesus mean when He said they nullified the word of God for the sake of their tradition?
You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when He prophesied about you: “These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.” — Matthew 15:7–9
3. The Pharisees were the religious leaders of the people, yet Jesus said they were acting as “blind guides” (verse 14). Given this recent interaction, why do you think Jesus would have been impressed with the Canaanite woman’s simple faith in Him?
[Jesus] replied, “Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit”. — verses 13–14
4. The Pharisees were creating religious hoops to hop through — “making God a trainer, us his pets, and religion a circus.” In your relationship with God, how do you tend to create religious hoops in order to “earn” God’s grace?
God has always been, and will always be, a God of grace. From the beginning, He only asked that His people have faith in Him. Even the laws He created for His children were so they could find grace. Sadly, people always look for a way to destroy that grace — much like the Pharisees did when they added to God’s law and twisted His intent. But Jesus made it clear that all we need to do to receive God’s grace is believe. This is what the Canaanite woman did. She knew she had nothing to offer. She didn’t rely on her heritage, her race, her clout, her Torah skills — only on Christ. If only we could do the same! If only we could put down our knowledge, our good works, our religious “hoops.”
Christ was enough, and so our faith in Him is enough.
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. — Romans 10:9
