Matthew 15:28, commentary and pictures

Jesus answered the pleading Canaanite mother by commending her great faith, granting her request as she willed, and healing her demon-possessed daughter in that very hour. Her faith was great because with humble, persistent, implicit trust she acknowledged Him as Saviour and would not be driven away though treated as an outsider, asking even for crumbs from His table. He delayed and tested her not from coldness but to make her faith manifest and to expose Jewish exclusiveness, teaching His disciples the compassion they must show when He was no longer with them. That mercy to a despised Gentile broke down national barriers and showed that His salvation and their coming mission extended beyond Israel to all who believe. The case stands on record to assure that no soul who asks in persevering faith will be left to perish, and that He still hears the earnest prayers of afflicted mothers for their children.

Setting and Background

After confronting the Pharisees and exposing the hollowness and unscripturalness of their piety, Jesus withdrew from Capernaum across Galilee to the hill country on the borders of Phenicia overlooking Tyre and Sidon and the Mediterranean. He often withdrew from the multitude to avoid an outbreak of hostility, and He came to this region hoping for the retirement He had failed to secure at Bethsaida and to prepare His disciples for their mission. He took the journey for another purpose besides retirement, for the time for carrying the gospel across the sea to the centers of the world empire had not yet come.

There He entered a house and would have no man know it, not proclaiming His own merits nor entering into controversy or strife. Yet He could not be hid because His Godlike character made Him the observed of all observers. His wise, gracious words and His deeds of mercy revealed a power far above the power of priests and rulers, a wonderful power working among the people that spoke to hearts and minds.

The meeting took place in a Phoenician hillside town of clustered stone buildings, where a veiled woman in flowing robes came to Jesus and reached toward Him. The woman was a Canaanite, a Syrophoenician woman, whose daughter was grievously afflicted, vexed and possessed by a demon. She had heard that Jesus healed diseases and performed miracles of mercy, and she made it her determined purpose to bring her child to Him. She resolved to appeal to Him to relieve her daughter as her only hope, though she well knew that Jews had no dealings with Canaanites and refused even to speak to them.

The healing of her daughter was the only miracle Jesus performed on that journey to Tyre and Sidon, and He went there to perform it. He made a long journey to relieve her anxious heart and her suffering.

Meaning of Great Faith

Her faith was perfect, implicit trust in His power to do exactly what she asked. It was a confiding trust that refreshed Him. Though she belonged to a despised people not favored with the light of God's word, she yielded to Him. She acknowledged Him as Redeemer and Saviour and left happy and thankful that her prayer had been answered. She trusted without national or religious prejudice or pride.

Her faith was humble and persistent. Though treated as an outsider, apparently refused, met with seeming indifference, and misunderstood even by the disciples, she would not be driven away but persisted until her request was granted. She was willing to receive even the smallest share of His blessings, asking only the crumbs that fall from the master's table, and she did not go away empty and discouraged.

He had tested her confidence so that her faith would be made manifest, and He was satisfied. His declaration that her faith is great marks that she who was regarded as an outcast from Israel and an alien is no longer an alien but a child in God's household, with a child's privilege to share in the Father's gifts. It was a faith greater than He had found in Israel. Spoken with pity and love, His granting of her request as she willed finished His lesson, and she departed happy and thankful that her prayer had been answered, acknowledging Him as her Saviour.

Healing in That Hour

In answer to earnest, humble supplication Jesus commended great faith, spoke the word be it even as willed, and granted the request. The daughter was made whole, healed from that very hour, and the demon troubled her no more.

He met the weary, pale, almost despairing mother who pressed perseveringly through the crowd to come within reach of His notice. He noticed her distress and met her with tender pity and love for both the mother and the suffering child. He welcomed the humble suppliant without frown or rejection and invited her confidence. He took the child from her arms, and by His touch and word caused disease to flee and life and strength to flow again. Thus He brought the child back from the pallor of death to life and strength, and spoke comfort and peace to the mother.

The healing reveals Him as the mighty Healer of spiritual and physical disease who longs to pardon the sin-polluted soul and break Satan's delusion. It reveals Him also as the great Medical Missionary whose whole life was a representation of God. His unwearied, self-denying traversing of the country scattering blessings could not be hedged up by priests and rulers who charged that He healed by the power of the enemy, for He was determined not to fail or become discouraged. Humble, trusting faith is in this way connected with Christ's healing power and with the manifestation of God's power and gifts.

Lesson for Disciples

Jesus held back His answer to give His disciples a lesson they urgently needed, for a time acting out the exclusive ideas and sentiments that controlled many who followed Him. Though pitying tenderness moved Him and He longed to assure her at once that her prayer was heard and her request fulfilled, He delayed and seemed to share His disciples' feelings, treating her as the Pharisees taught the people to treat heathen, even repulsing her. He let her persistence and humility come fully into view so that her faith would be made manifest and His disciples would learn from it. When she answered that she asked only the crumbs falling from the master's table, she was not sent away empty and discouraged but received what she sought, for He declared her faith great, greater than He had found in Israel, granted her request even as she willed, and her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

He did this with full knowledge of her heart, the sorrow pressing on her soul, and her settled determination not to be driven away until her request was granted. His first reception of her thus exposed the coldness with which the Jews would treat such a case. By contrast His final compassion showed the disciples how they were to respond to people in distress, especially after He would no longer be with them to advise them.

He had arranged the encounter so they could see the needs of people beyond Judea and learn how such people should be treated. The blessings given to Israel and the promises made to them were meant to make the Jews a blessing to other nations. Yet pride and self-sufficiency had led them to neglect those around them.

Gospel Beyond Israel

In answering a foreign, Gentile woman, barriers were broken down by an act of mercy toward a despised people. The meeting took place in a Phoenician hillside town of clustered stone buildings, where a veiled woman in flowing robes came to Jesus and reached toward Him, and her daughter was made whole from that very hour. She trusted His power without national or religious prejudice or pride, acknowledged Him as Redeemer, and departed happy and thankful that her prayer had been answered. The healing also completed His lesson for the disciples, showing mercy to one from a despised people and preparing them to work beyond their own nation.

The miracle was an example meant to turn the disciples from Jewish exclusiveness to look beyond Jewish custom and nationality. It showed that His mercy and their work extended beyond their own nation to people outside Israel, including Gentiles they had been taught to despise. Those Gentiles, though less favored, also longed for help and for the truth. This was the only miracle He performed on that journey to Tyre and Sidon, and He went there to perform it, both to relieve her suffering and to teach them.

It prepared them for a gospel mission among the Gentiles unrestricted by custom or nationality. That lesson helped direct their later labor after His death broke down the division between Jews and Gentiles. Christ was working directly beyond the acknowledged people of Israel, and the Syrophoenician woman's conversion was an instance of His effort to lead the Jews out of exclusiveness. It was a sign foreshadowing the later, active and continued gathering of Gentile communities who would receive the gospel gladly and glorify God for the light of faith.

It made plain that people outside Israel could receive His saving help. Among those regarded as unworthy of salvation were people longing for the light of truth, and God's kingdom has no national or social boundaries. Jewish unbelief does not defeat God's purpose, for Gentiles are grafted into the people of God as a new Israel joined to the old olive tree. His words taught that He came to save all who are ready to believe in Him, not only Israel, and that whoever seeks Him in faith belongs among the lost sheep He came to gather.

People of other nations coming to Jesus to be healed or to ask help for relatives and friends stand for the great human family who do not know God or the truth but feel a soul-longing for something they do not have. As they come and listen they are deeply impressed by the word of truth. In speaking words of hope to weary unsatisfied souls and healing the sick, Jesus sets an example to be followed from one end of the world to the other, speaking and acting for humanity at large.

Prayer and Present Help

This encounter was preserved as a record of what happens when needs are pressed perseveringly upon the Hearer of prayer. The granting words, be it unto thee according to thy word, stand as assurance that persistent, trustful prayer will be answered by Christ when the answer brings glory to God. The delay in answering did not mean refusal, but served to make manifest a faith that would not be driven away.

No soul that asks Christ for help in faith will be left to perish. Even the weakest and most struggling soul may live and find in God hope and sufficiency. Such faith recognizes Christ and rests implicitly upon the promises because God Himself stands behind them, finding peace and rest in surrender to His keeping and ordering.

Jesus made a long journey to relieve the anxious heart of the Canaanite mother whose daughter was possessed, and that care shows He is touched by a mother's sorrow and gives comfort and help in every grief and need. He hears the earnest prayers of afflicted mothers today and will bless their children. He does not turn away the humble mother but notices her distress, meets her need, and speaks healing that restores the child from the pallor of death to life and strength. His help extends to mothers in their burdens and sorrows now as then.

His great love for suffering people, shown in healing the daughter in answer to earnest, humble supplication, stands as the pattern for caring for the afflicted and discouraged.