A Mother’s Faith

Introduction

Well, what do y’all expect me to do? You know what I’m going to do. Because so much of life is predictable, isn’t it? The sun rising in the east and setting in the west. Central Florida daily afternoon showers. The traffic on I-4. So much of life is just so predictable. And that includes the people of our lives. For the most part, we can predict human behavior. Especially if it’s someone that you know well. You’ve been around that person and witnessed their behavior under different circumstances, and you can almost predict how they’re going to react or what they’re going to say. Except when you can’t.

She’s in Missouri visiting her mother for Mother’s Day. And so I’ll throw her under the bus with this illustration. A couple years ago we were at Disney, and we were standing in line, because that’s what you do at Disney. And the breeze was blowing, the sun was hitting her just right, and I looked at her, feeling particularly romantic, and exclaimed, You’re beautiful. To which she turned and looked up at me and replied, You’re tall. That’s not what I was expecting. Teach me to fish for a compliment. We’re taken back when people don’t say what we expect them to say, and don’t do what we expect them to do. And that certainly takes us back when it’s God. When God says something different than we expect him to say, when God reacts differently than what we expect him to do.

Will you turn in your New Testament to the book of Matthew, chapter 15? In Matthew chapter 15, we have a story of a mother’s faith. And this story stands out to us for a few reasons. Number one is, as we’re going to see, the faith of this unpredictable woman. But what really shocks us about this story is not that this gentile woman is full of faith in God. But what shocks us is how Jesus reacts to her. In fact, we’re taken so aback by this story that so many times we just don’t want to talk about it. But let’s do that this morning. Look at Matthew chapter 15, and let’s begin reading at this surprising story in verse 21. Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

And behold, a woman of Canaan came to him from that region and cried out to him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David. My daughter is severely demon-possessed. What will Jesus do? We know what he will do. This God of heaven is so compassionate that he is predictable. He’ll heal this woman’s daughter. And in so doing, have kind and compassionate words to say to this grieving mother. But that’s not what he does. Have mercy on me, she said. O Lord, son of David, my daughter is severely demon possessed. Verse 23 continues, but he answered her not a word.

He doesn’t do what we expect. We didn’t see him ignoring this pleading, begging, crying mother. His disciples came and urged him, saying, Send her away, for she cries out to us. But he answered and said, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then she came and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me. We know what’s going to happen. But we don’t. Because he answered, verse 26, and said, It’s not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs. And she said, Yes, Lord. Yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master’s table. Then Jesus answered and said to her, O woman, great is your faith. Let it be as you desire. And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

There are a few stories in the life of Christ that just, if we’re honest, just trouble us. And they’re the unpredictable ones. The story of Jesus seemingly needing two times to heal a blind man troubles us because that’s not what we expected. Jesus’ reaction to this pitiful woman shocks us because it’s not what we expect. But I don’t want to focus so much upon Jesus and his interaction with this woman as I do want to focus on the woman. In a lot of ways, she’s the main character of this story. Because of her, Jesus says, Great is your faith. Jesus would only two times make a statement such as that. And interestingly, both times it was to Gentiles. But let’s look at this woman’s faith, this mother’s faith, and what stands out to us about her faith, what stood out to Jesus about her faith, and maybe more importantly in the end, what we can learn to help our faith be as great as this Syrophoenician woman’s faith was.

1. She Reacted in Faith to Jesus’ Silence

The first thing that stands out to us is how that she reacted in faith to Jesus’ silence. We could not have predicted it. But she comes to Jesus pleading for her daughter who is severely afflicted with a demon. And Jesus is just silent. He doesn’t say anything. But that doesn’t deter this woman of faith, does it? The story doesn’t end there. She doesn’t walk away disappointed, and she doesn’t walk away angry that the Son of God wouldn’t answer her. Do you ever feel like that? You’re hurting. Maybe hurting for something that’s happening in your own life. Striving to come up with some kind of rational explanation of why this is happening to me. Or maybe, like this woman, you’re hurting because of what’s happening in someone else’s life, someone close to you, and it hurts you to see them hurt, and you cry out to God only to hear silence.

But he doesn’t answer.

Hold your finger here in the New Testament and go to another story in the old testament in the book of Job. Job is another one who cried out to God. Cried out to God because of his affliction that he thought came as a direct result of God afflicting him. And for chapter after chapter after chapter, God is silent. Now God will speak to him in the end, but really doesn’t give him the answer that he wants. But day after day he cries out to God, and God is silent. How does Job react? Look with me. This is rather an extended reading, but but I think it’ll suit us well. Look in Job chapter 19. Job chapter 19, and let’s begin in verse 7. Job has been afflicted beyond affliction.

His three, can we call them friends? Come and try to help, but end up making it worse. And Job cries out in Job 19, verse 7 If I cry out concerning wrong, I’m not heard. If I cry aloud, there’s no justice.

He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone. My hope he has uprooted like a tree.

They encamp all around my tent.

And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. My relatives have failed, and my close friends have forgotten me. Those who dwell in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger. I’m an alien in their sight. I call my servant, but he gives no answer. I beg him with my mouth. My breath is offensive to my wife, and I’m repulsive to the children of my own body. Even young children despise me. I arise and they speak out against me. All my close friends abhor me, and those whom I love have turned against me. My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. Have pity on me. Have pity on me, O you my friends.

For the hand of God has struck me. Why do you persecute me as God does and are not satisfied with flesh? Oh, that my words were written, oh, that they were inscribed in a book, that they were engraved on stone with an iron pen and lead forever. Job says, God, why won’t you answer me? Just tell me why. And God is silent. God remove this affliction from me. And God is silent. What’s Job to do? Walk away angry at God. Notice Job’s maybe unpredictable response. Job 19, verse 25. For I know that my Redeemer lives, and he shall stand at last on the earth. After my skin is destroyed, this I know that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another, how my heart yearns within me.

2. She Didn’t Allow the Opposition to Defeat Her

Job says, God has forsaken me. He will not answer, but I know that my Redeemer lives. When life was inexplicable to Job, when he couldn’t understand God’s silence, he still said, But I believe in you, God. And that’s what this mother did. She reacted in faith to Jesus’ silence. And this is one of the reasons I would contend, one of the reasons that Jesus will later commend her for her great faith, because she did not forsake God when she could not understand God and his ways. She didn’t allow the opposition to defeat her. Jesus’ disciples will say, Jesus, send this woman away. She’s bothering us. She didn’t go away. And then at Jesus, what has to be perceived as an insult?

You remember his reply to the disciples and to her second pleading with Jesus? Am I to give bread to the little dogs? This Gentile woman knew who this Jewish man was talking about when he said, Shall I give bread to the little dogs? Now, scholars have tried to understand what Jesus meant by that statement and really tried to soften it. Some have even said, Well, he doesn’t use the usual word for dogs. He talks about little dogs, and so think about that cute little fluffy ball of fur that you love to come sit on your lap when you watch TV. And so that’s what he meant. It was a compliment. No. That’s not the way they viewed dogs in the first century. And that’s not the way Jews use the term dogs, certainly to refer to Gentiles.

And so what did he mean? Did he say it with a little smile that is lost in our reading? Did he just quote what the Jews had said about the Gentiles that she surely had been familiar with? Or was he just testing her faith? We don’t really know.

But the disciples’ attempt to send her away, Jesus silence at her pleas, and then what easily could have been perceived as a slight to her doesn’t deter her? How about you? How do you stand up to opposition to your faith? When the world loudly, loudly tells you that you’re an absolute fool for believing in God and clinging to these outdated morals of the scriptures. How will you respond to that opposition? But many times the opposition that we face and that hurts us the most doesn’t come from without.

3. Christ and Christ Alone Could Supply What She Needed

How will you respond when the elders make a decision that you strongly disagree with? How will you respond when the preacher or the Bible class teacher says something that offends you? Will you really let someone steal heaven from you? Or will you push through the opposition? Barrel through the resistance like this mother did to achieve your goal. Will you have the strong faith that nothing is going to keep you from your goal of heaven? Nothing, no one, no slight, no offense. Another lesson that we see from this mother is that she was able to do these things, react in faith to Jesus’ silence, to not let opposition defeat her from what she needed because she recognized that Christ and Christ alone could supply what she needed.

She had a daughter afflicted with a demon. And there was one person on the planet who could help her. Do you see now why she didn’t let Jesus’ silence discourage her? Even though she may not have understood. Do you see why the perceived insults of the disciples saying, Jesus, send her away. She’s annoying. Or if even Jesus’ statement, should I give bread from the master’s table to the little dog? None of that was going to scare her or send her away. Because she had a great need. And there was only one who could supply what she needed. And nothing was going to stop that mother and her faith. I pray to God that I have some of that faith in me. That no matter what might discourage me or deter me from my objective and my goal, no matter what might offend me and otherwise send me away, that I’ll keep my eyes on the prize.

4. The Pharisees Were Easily Offended

And nothing’s going to keep me from him. Would you go back to our text in Matthew chapter 15? I believe the story that we’re talking about this morning of the Canaanite mother’s faith is set in juxtaposition to an earlier story. Both Matthew and Mark, who record these events, both put these two events right next to each other, I think, for a reason. Think about the story that we’ve just seen of this Canaanite woman not being offended by Jesus and pushing forward because of her faith. And contrast that with what happens earlier in Matthew chapter 15. Jesus has an interaction with the Pharisees. The Pharisees who were offended because the disciples didn’t wash their hands properly according to their tradition, not the law, but their tradition. And so Jesus makes a statement about that.

He says, verse 11 of Matthew 15, not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth defiles a man. Then his disciples came, verse 12, and said to him, Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying? You see, the Pharisees were offended, easily offended. And they went away. But then we have the story of this Gentile who might otherwise have been offended. But her faith would not allow her.

And there was one and only one who could supply that need. This mother’s faith teaches us this. That she, and we can follow her example, she overcame all of the obstacles that were in front of her to receive this blessing of God. Her dogged determination to see her daughter healed. She overcame her social status. She overcame the disciples’ hostility. She overcame her Lord’s silence and perceived insult to receive a blessing. She wouldn’t let anything stand in her way. She was content to receive the crumbs that would fall from her master’s table. And because of that, Jesus said, Great is your faith. Maybe he made what sounded to us as a harsh statement to test her faith. Maybe he made what sounds to us like a harsh statement to contrast her with the Pharisees who were so easily offended.

Conclusion

And maybe he said these things to her because he knew her great faith would not be deterred. Let’s start today to build our faith. To do what we need to do, to exercise our faith, to get deeper into the Word of God, to get deeper into our relationship with God so that our faith might be made stronger. So that whatever might come, that we would be like this mother, and not let anything or anybody stand between us and the blessing that we can receive from God. She had a need. And she wasn’t going to let anything stand in her way until she received the blessing from the only one she could receive it from.

From my blessing. And I won’t let anything that I perceive as a slight or an insult from you or from God Himself keep me from receiving my blessing. Do you want heaven this morning? Do you want heaven as much as she wanted the blessing of her daughter’s healing? All of the questions, all of the doubts, all of the slights will seem as small. When the Lord declares to you, oh great is your faith, and you receive the blessing that you want more than anything. Would you come to Christ this morning undeterred, unstoppable to receive the blessing that the Lord and the Lord alone can give you? Would you come to Him and render obedience this morning? Can we help you in any way? Come, as together we stand in.