Great Is the Prayer of the Faithful :: Matthew 15:21-28

[Introduction]

During this Lenten season, we’ve been walking through the wilderness with our Lord. Last week, we heard how he walked out of the waters of his baptism that fulfilled all righteousness and was immediately led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After resisting Satan’s accusations, he went to Galilee to begin his ministry ... preaching, teaching, cleansing, healing, forgiving, saving the lost sheep of Israel. Today, that journey has once again taken our Lord somewhere you never thought he’d go ... to the cursed land of Canaan, the land of Jezebel and the worship of Baal and Asherah, the land of child sacrifice and sexual immorality, the land of voodoo dolls and horoscopes ... the land of Tyre and Sidon ... a pagan wilderness. 

4.

Behold, when a Canaanite woman from that region came out, she began to cry, saying, Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David: My daughter is badly demonized (v 22).

This is remarkable. 

For more than two millennia, the Canaanites and God’s people had been at odds to say the least. That’s because the Canaanites were cursed. In Genesis chapter 9 Noah cursed his grandson, Canaan (9:25). That curse was carried to Canaan’s son Sidon and the daughter named Jezebel. By the time God led the Israelites out of the wilderness into the Promised Land ... the Canaanites were completely godless, cursed to the third and fourth generation of those who hate the Lord. 

Yet now we have a Canaanite woman approaching Jesus singing our song: Lord, have mercy ... Christ, have mercy ... Lord, have mercy ... while pleading for the intercession of her daughter. 

How on earth did she come to faith? Is she the great, great, great, great, great granddaughter of the widow of Zarephath, a city that belongs to Sidon (1 Kgs 17)?

Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David, she cried. My daughter is badly demonized. But [Jesus] didn’t (say) a word to her (v 23a).

3. 

Do you ever feel like Jesus doesn’t hear your prayers? 

You should know: God does not listen to every prayer. As the Gospels, the Psalms, and the Prophets teach us ... God does not listen to sinners ... which is to say unbelievers (Jn 9:31). In fact, any time we cherish iniquity in our heart, the Lord does not listen (Ps 66:18). Our sins prompt God to hide his face from us so that he does not hear (Isa 59:2). 

Though he didn’t answer the Canaanite woman on her first plea, that doesn’t mean he wasn’t listening to her. You need to know ... God DOES listen to those who believe in Jesus ... that is, those who have faith that Jesus is True God and True Man ... that Jesus is the Christ, the one who humbled himself and became one with us, and one of us, and one for us ... living and dying and rising from the dead on your behalf. 

Call to me, and I will answer you, God told us in Jeremiah 33:3. ... Do not worry, but in everything, in prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, Paul teaches us in Philippians 4:6. ... When you pray, Jesus said during the Sermon on the Mount, your Father will reward you (Mt 6:6). 

And so it came to pass with the Canaanite woman. 

Though Jesus didn’t initially say a word to her, here we find his disciples intervening with intercession on our behalf. Matthew writes, they urged (Jesus), saying: Release her because she cries after us (v 23b). 

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I think it might be a mistake to say the disciples were simply trying to get rid of this woman. They had never before seen Jesus deny anyone pleading for help. The Gospels record at least seven instances of this truth among the blind, the lepers, the disciples, the Gentiles, and the people (Mt 8:2, 8, 25; 9:27; 20:30; 21:9; Mk 10:47). Sometimes those who ask simply address Jesus as Lord. Sometimes they simply call him the Son of David. But they all do it in faith. 

In today’s reading, the Canaanite woman addressed Jesus as both Lord and Son of David. By calling him Lord, she is confessing that Jesus is God Incarnate. But identifying him as the Son of David, she knows he is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and that he is our savior. She is confessing that she has true faith even before Peter.

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Which is exactly what Jesus acknowledges, when the disciples intercede with intercession on her behalf. I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, he told them (v 24). 

And this is probably why Jesus has come to Tyre and Sidon. He is not just a wandering miracle worker. Jesus has come to find her. She is one of the lost, and she is one of only two people in the Gospels who are credited as having great faith. The first was a Centurion, who interceded for his servant, saying, Lord ... just say the word (Mt 8:8). And now we meet a woman who basically is praying the same thing. When she came (to him), she worshiped him, saying, Lord, Help me! (v 25)

I can think of no finer prayer than this. This prayer ... Lord, help me! ... sounds forth in our most desperate moments. This is the prayer we say when we don’t know what else to pray. This is a prayer that reflects childlike trust and sincere heart. 

And our Lord hears it ... and he draws near. As Paul teaches us in Romans 8[:26], the Spirit likewise [helps] us in our weakness for we do not pray as we know it’s necessary, but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. 

That’s when Jesus answered the woman and said, It is not virtuous to take the bread of the children and to cast it to the dogs (v 26).

In scripture, the dogs are not man’s best friend. The Psalms and Gospels and epistles all warn us about the dogs. Jesus said, Don’t give dogs what is holy (Mt 7:6). Paul said, Look out for the dogs ... the evildoers ... those who mutilate (Pp 3:2). ... And the Psalmist declares that the dogs are those who surround Jesus on Good Friday (Psa 22:16). They are the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood (Rv 22:15). They are unrepentant sinners.

And the woman couldn’t agree more, as evidenced by her repentant response. 

Yes, Lord, she said, for even the dogs eat from the crumbs that fall from the table of their Lord (v 27). 

If only we were all so wise. This poor woman recognized her own sin and unworthiness. She recognized her need for forgiveness. She recognized where the good gifts of our Lord are found ... on his table. She recognized who Jesus is, and what he gives, the bread of life. 

So she worshiped him. She felt no shame or humiliation in doing so because she knew where the forgiveness of sins comes from ... Jesus alone. 

That’s when Jesus said to her, O Woman, Great is your faith. Let it be to you as you desire. And her daughter was healed from that hour (v 28).

Brothers and sisters in Christ, dare we emulate her example of faith? 

GREAT IS THE PRAYER OF THE FAITHFUL

[Conclusion]

It’s hard living in the wilderness. But we have been justified by faith. As Paul says in Romans, He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 

Our God has gone and continues to go where we would never dream of ... into the wilderness with us. He intercedes for us. He has and continues to rescue us from every peril of body and soul, possessions and reputation. Jesus has lived for you, died for you, and risen from the dead for you. He intervenes for you. And now he gives you eternal life and teaches us ... just like the disciples ... to pray for those who are lost in the wilderness. He has sanctified you and prepared a feast for you. And we know that even the crumbs from that table are enough to sustain and nourish us. 

There may indeed be times when you think our Lord doesn’t hear your prayer. But keep praying. There may indeed be times he’s quiet. But boldly let your requests be made known. He will hear you. He will grant it to you according to his will ... in Jesus’ name.