Beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, this is going to be a long introduction, for I want us to understand the setting of this miracle of Jesus. Our text says that Jesus went out from there, and that means He left Galilee. From there He went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. We might ask why did He do that? The parallel passage in Mark gives us a clue. Mark 7:24 says, “He went away into the region of Tyre. When He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know of it.” He, as it were, hid Himself from the multitudes.

Jesus left the normal scene of His ministry because, it would seem, He wanted to have a time of rest for Himself and for His disciples away from the crowds, away from His intense schedule of preaching, teaching, and healing.

There were also some strong political and religious pressures that He would escape. Matthew 14 records Jesus feeding the 5000. John 6 in a parallel account, tells us in verse 15 that Jesus saw that they were about to come and to take Him by force to make Him king. That was some of the political pressure, the Jews wanting to use Him to achieve their own political aims, to free themselves from Rome and gain independence. Matthew 14 also records the hatred of Herod who has just recently beheaded John the Baptist. This event too, exerted some pressure on Jesus.

There was also the religious pressure of the scribes and Pharisees. Just one example is found in Matthew 12, where, when Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath, we read, “then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him.” His own town of Nazareth, a city in Galilee, rejected Him, and following His preaching from Isaiah 61 had tried to throw Him off a cliff.

There was more. And that more was simply the failure of the Jews of Galilee to repent. Listen to Jesus speak in Matthew 11:20, “Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. “But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. “And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. “But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.” “ (Mt. 11:20-24 NKJV)

But from what could they repent? Were they not Jews? Was not Abraham their father? What is the problem that Jesus talks about in their failure to repent? Hadn’t they heard the Sermon on the Mount? Didn’t Jesus teaching convict them of their failure to keep the law of God?

Just after that He said, “”Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”” (Mt. 11:28-30 NKJV)

“You who labor and are heavy laden?” What is He talking about? He’s not talking about us. “Find rest for your souls?” We have our own rest. Here was the gracious invitation, but so few in Galilee were interested. Hadn’t they heard Jesus say, ”Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Mt. 7:7-8 NKJV)

But, what if they thought, “Well, what shall we ask for? Do we lack anything? Not really.” So again, so many of the Jews of Galilee declined the wonderful promises Jesus made to them. Now Jesus was leaving Galilee. He went to the region of Tyre and Sidon, a region of the Gentiles, a region just to the northwest of Galilee. These were the people of whom He said earlier, “For if the mighty deeds which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.”

He is leaving then, the sons of the kingdom, for those outside the kingdom. He is leaving the region of cold and indifferent hearts, to a region where hearts were more receptive, more open to the grace of God.

And, let me pause here and ask, what about these United States of America. In this land lives the new Israel of God. Oh, not this country, but the church in this land. And unless we are totally blind, we have seen, over our history here, the stupendous, the mighty acts of Jesus Christ. The expansion of this land, the taming of the wilderness, the turning of deserts into gardens, the great cities stacked high into the sky, the astounding productivity of our farms and factories, 35 tons of potatoes per acre, 120 bushels of wheat, 180 bushels of corn, who ever heard of such a thing? The wonderful advances in medicine, the clean and healing hospitals, the peace and security, all these things, great and mighty wonders through the reign of Jesus Christ. This has all been the great goodness of God, which, said Paul in Romans 2, leads men to repentance. Repentance? What’s that? Have we repented? Have we turned away from our greed, our lying and cheating, our murder of innocents, our groveling at the feet of the god of money, our mad pursuit of sex and fun?

Well, it’s no wonder that anyone who wants to be a missionary would rather travel to the jungles of New Guinea, where miserable, poor, superstition-ridden, filthy natives know they have need, and realize so soon they need to repent than to the nice, decent, unrepentant, independent people of this land.

Jesus went into the region of Tyre and Sidon, and there met Him a Canaanite woman. A Canaanite woman; and perhaps we forget what that meant. Palestine was the land of Canaan. The land of Canaan was the land God promised to Abraham. The Canaanites were children of Canaan, the son of Ham, and it was Canaan who lay under the curse of Noah.

By the time Joshua led Israel into the land of Canaan, the Canaanites were so debased, such an obscene cancer on the body of humanity, so filthy in their sexual immorality that God said they had to be annihilated, everyone of them put to death. They were doomed to extinction.

Yet Israel had failed to wipe them out. This woman is identified as belonging to that race. A Canaanite. It is to this woman, then, that Jesus says, “O woman, great is your faith.” “Great is your faith.” We get the word “mega” from the word Jesus used here. She had mega faith. The Bible speaks of little faith, strong faith, abiding faith, continuing faith, bold faith, rich in faith, obedient faith, steadfast faith, dead faith, precious faith, common faith, unfeigned faith, and working faith. But this time He speaks of great faith.

This is the second time Matthew records Jesus talking about great faith. The first time was of the centurion who came to have his servant healed. Jesus said of him, “I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel.” Both of these times Jesus talked about great faith, He was talking about Gentiles, those outside the covenant, outside of Israel.

“O, woman, great is your faith.” It’s almost as if Jesus is standing before a wonder, a rare and awesome sight, such a sight as to make Him break out with that exclamation. So we have finally gotten to the theme of this sermon, and that is to learn what Jesus is teaching us about faith from His encounter with this Canaanite woman.

He teaches us that great faith is characterized by five qualities:

Great faith: Has Jesus as its object. Is repentant, reverent, persistent, and humble. Great faith has an objective, great faith has something on which to place full confidence, complete trust. This woman came to Jesus, and it was upon Him that she placed her trust. She was confident that He could heal her daughter. She was so confident that she didn’t even bring her daughter with her, but believed that even at a distance, Jesus could bring salvation, could make her daughter whole again.

Sometimes faith is characterized as a leap in the dark. They say that faith jumps into the dark void and expects to find a rock to land on. Is that faith? Is faith jumping from an airplane without a parachute? If you have a parachute you have something to believe in. If you don’t, jumping into the empty sky in not an act of faith, but an act of stupidity. What do you believe in? Some people believe in love. Or they believe in democracy. Or they believe in Reformed doctrine. Or they believe in believing. They believe in faith. Or they believe in prayer. Many believe in time. Many believe that in time it will all work out. Or they believe in goodness over evil. They believe that the good will finally triumph.

But all of that is a faith without content, it has no object really, only abstractions and shadows. Faith has a person as its object, and the only person worthy of faith is Jesus Christ. In Him alone all these other things have meaning. Prayer, like this woman made, is to Jesus. He alone is good. He alone will triumph over evil. He is the master of time. He is the content of Reformed doctrine. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last.

“And behold a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to him—cried out to Jesus— “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David. My daughter is severely demon-possessed.” She believed in Jesus. She believed He was Lord, He was Master, that He was sovereign, that He had power and authority even over the demons. She called Him the Son of David. She believed that He was the promised Messiah, the Redeemer. Her faith had content, her faith had Jesus Christ, the promised one of God, as her object.

How did she become aware of Jesus? How did she come to a saving knowledge of Him? First, we remember that Mark records that early on in Jesus’ ministry many had come from the region of Tyre and Sidon to see and hear Him. “and Jerusalem and Idumea and beyond the Jordan; and those from Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they heard how many things He was doing, came to Him.” (Mr 3:8 NKJV) So she was aware, either from first hand observation, or from reports from her fellow Canaanites, that Jesus performed mighty works.

Second, we see from the way that she addressed Jesus that she was aware of the words of the prophets, for she called Him Lord, and she identified Him as the Son of David. It was the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah who gave God’s promise of the coming of the Son of David to bring redemption.

Did she also know that the prophets promised that redemption would also come to the Gentiles, to the Canaanites as well as to Israel? Could it be that the heathen would be aware of the mighty acts and promises of God? Yes, the Bible tells us that even the heathen had long memories. You recall how in the time of Samuel the Israelites brought the ark of the Covenant into battle against the Philistines. Now listen to the Philistines as the ark arrives in the camp of Israel: “So the Philistines were afraid, for they said, “God has come into the camp!” And they said, “Woe to us! For such a thing has never happened before. “Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These [are] the gods who struck the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness.” (1Sa 4:7-8 NKJV)

After nearly 400 years, the memory of God’s great redemption of Israel from Egypt was still vivid in the minds of the Philistines. So it is very possible that this woman knew of the prophecy of Isaiah who said, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,” (Isa 61:1-2 NKJV)

Yes, this was something for her. Her daughter was captive and the Son of David was the only one to release her. Was this for the Gentiles as well? Hadn’t Isaiah said, “The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.” (Isa 60:3 NKJV) “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David.” Her faith had Jesus as its object. Her faith was a faith of knowledge, of knowing who Jesus was because she had, as little as it might have been, knowledge of the Word of God, and because she knew the words of the Old Testament prophets, she knew Jesus, she came to Jesus, she believed in Jesus.

Great faith has an object, and that object is the person of Jesus Christ, the sovereign Lord, the Son of David, the promised redeemer, the great Messiah. Is this Jesus the object of your faith? Do you know Him as your Lord and Master? Do you know Him the great Son of David, the Redeemer and Savior?

Great faith is repentant. Did this woman repent? We may clearly infer that from our passage. She came from the region of Tyre and Sidon. As a Canaanite she came from a culture and country that served Baals and Molechs, the filthy, horrible gods of Canaan.

Do you remember Jezebel? Most of us would. She was the wife of Ahab who introduced Baal worship as the religion of the state into Israel. Do know the name of her father? His name was Ethbaal, and he was the king of Sidon. Tyre and Sidon were cities in a region sometimes known as Phoenicia, and the Phoenicians were great businessmen, great traders whose ships sailed the seas. They established the great city of Cathage in Libya. Even in the time of Hannibal the people of Carthage worshiped Molech, burning their children to that loathsome god. Archeological studies in Carthage have uncovered huge mounds of the bones of little children and babies, all burned to this god. These Baals and Molechs were the gods of sex, sex without children, sex that brought death and not life, sex that was perverted into homosexuality and bestiality.

From these gods of death, this woman turned to the Prince of Life. “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me.” Great faith is marked by repentance. And it is from the gods of this world that Paul called the Athenians to turn, called the Thessalonians to turn. And he would later say to the Thessalonians, “how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” (1 Thess. 1:9)

Great faith is repentant. This is the first call of the gospel, isn’t it? John the Baptist, Jesus, and the apostles all cried, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Turn away from the gods of the self-righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, from the gods of the power of the Romans, from the gods of the wisdom of the Greeks, from the filthy gods of Canaan to serve the living God, and to place your faith in his Son Jesus Christ.

Great faith is repentant. Great faith is reverent. Reverence sees the great chasm that exists between a lost sinner and a holy God. She asked for mercy. “Have mercy on me,” she said. Lord, don’t give me what I deserve, don’t give me what is due me, don’t give me what I merit, but I’m here in spite of the fact that I don’t deserve anything. I have no plea but your mercy.”

Great faith is reverent. It is the essence of the right approach to God. For God Himself proclaims Himself to be the God of mercy. Jesus Himself said, “I will have mercy and not judgment.”

Throughout this narrative, throughout her relation with Jesus her attitude was always one of reverence. “Lord, Son of David.” What a contrast to the irreverence of the Jews, who instead of calling Jesus Lord and Son of David, called Him a drunk, a friend of publicans and sinners, one who was in league with Beelzebub, the prince of the demons.

Great faith is reverent, great faith has always an attitude of respect and awe for Christ, and for those sent by Christ. “He who receives you, receives me,” said Jesus to his apostles, “and he who receives me, receives Him who sent me.” How is our reverence towards Christ shown today? Do you and I have the posture of this woman? A posture of reverence?

Great faith is reverent. Great faith is persistent. And this perhaps is the characteristic that stands out in this encounter. After she had made her plea, we read, “But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.” Jesus met her prayer with silence. We may think this is terrible, but we need to understand that through this silence Jesus would not break down, but strengthen her faith. “He answered her not a word.” She made her prayer, Jesus heard her prayer, and Jesus chose to remain silent.

And so it seems is the case with many of our prayers, does it not? Has God heard? Yes, He had heard. Well? Well, God has chosen to remain silent, not to shut us off, but to build our faith, to bring us to be more persistent in prayer. For faith is the thing above all else that God treasures in his people. Faith is the essence of our relationship with Him. And our faith, which the apostles later describe as more precious than gold, faith, which our God wishes to display before the world on the great day of Christ’s return, is something God through Christ carefully cultivates.

“She cries out after us.” She would not be silent. She kept on so loudly that the disciples got really annoyed. “Send her away.” But Jesus answered, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” And yes, of course, this was true. Salvation is and was for the Jews. The promises, all the great promises of God, from Genesis 12 through Malachi 4 were for the chosen people of God, they were for Israel. The Messiah would be born of Israel, the Messiah was announced as the one who would save His people from their sins. And who were His people? The Jews of course. It’s as though Jesus said, “Well, you’re not a member of this church. What do you expect?”

Not exactly seeker-friendly, was He? You know that term, “seeker-friendly?” Some churches use that term as a guide to the structure of their worship. They want unbelievers, the world, to find the church accommodating to them, friendly. For the church is the house of God in Jesus Christ.

No, Jesus wouldn’t fit the mold here. “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of Israel.” Yet, this woman, by her faith, by her repentance, by her reverence, by her pleading on the basis of nothing but mercy, showed herself to be a true daughter of Abraham. For Abraham was the father of believers.

“Then she came and worshiped him, saying, “Lord, help me.” Great faith is persistent. No demands, no arrogance, no arguments, only a plea for help. “But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” Again, Jesus completely breaks the mold of the seeker-friendly God. “It is not good to take the children’s bread, and throw it to the little dogs.”

Jesus inferred that this Canaanite woman was a dog. Oh, the Jews would agree. What would you do? Are we surprised that this woman didn’t just leave? Perhaps we leave, we give up on God when He meets our prayers with silence, as Jesus did earlier to this woman. He called her a dog. Yet, although the Jews held dogs to be some of the lowest forms of life, the Greeks would often take little dogs as household pets. For that is the term Jesus used here, “little dogs,” puppies. It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the puppies, the household pets.”

Yes, the bread did belong to the children, to the Israel of God. But, as we see later in the epistles, God drew the Gentiles into the people of God. They became one with the people of God. The bread of life, Jesus Himself, always belonged to the Israel of God, but the great work of God through the gospel, as Paul says so plainly in Ephesians, was to break down the middle wall of partition, and make them both one.

Did she know this? Perhaps not, but she knew Jesus, and she knew her need of mercy, and she knew that God was abounding in mercy, that He delighted to show mercy. This was the foundation for her persistence. And this must always be the foundation for our persistence, for if we are to have great faith, we must have persistent faith.

“And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master’s table.” She was persistent. Some people have to struggle through their own doubts, but she had to struggle through the obstacles Jesus put in her way. People may say that it’s easy to be a Christian, but it wasn’t for her. “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master’s table.” She didn’t argue with Jesus. She didn’t deny that the bread did belong to Israel. She accepts Jesus’ analogy. She doesn’t ask for a place at the table.

She pleads that her gain would not mean a loss for the children. She’s only asking for the crumbs that fall from the table. She’s not asking that bread be taken from the children and thrown to her, no, but only whatever accidentally falls from the table and onto the floor. Out of Jesus’ very words she weaves her plea. Yes, Lord, I am one of the dogs, I am one of the little dogs, the puppies. But then I am not really an alien, but I belong to the household, you yourself have implied that I am a household pet.

She catches Jesus’ in his own words, as Luther commented. Here is Jesus on Gentile soil, here is a short visit to the Gentile world, here is a little bit of Jesus, the bread of life. May she not eat of that crumb? Was her claim valid? Did Jesus reward her persistence. He did more than that, didn’t He? For His answer is really astounding, for, as I mentioned at the beginning, this is one of two times where Jesus referred to someone’s faith as great.

“Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is our faith. Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.” Again, it is as though Jesus stood back and marveled. It is as though someone took Jesus before one of the wonders of the ancient world. It is as though Jesus Himself stood in awe at such faith, great faith, always characterized by persistence.

Finally, great faith is characterized, has the quality of humility. Of course, every word this woman said gave evidence of her humility. Her willingness to accept Jesus’ analogy comparing her to a dog gave evidence of her humility. Great faith is humble. “I am a worm, and no man,” said David. “I am not worthy to untie Jesus’ shoes,” said John the Baptist. “Depart from me, Lord, said Peter, for I am a sinful man.” Humility is the recognition of the unbridgeable distance that lies between a sinner and a holy God. Humility expresses it self by silence in self-defense, and yet is always articulate, always speaks of the mercy and promises of God. Humility never speaks of our own actions but only of God’s acts. Humility is not only a characteristic of the heart, and not only is evident in words, but also expresses itself in action.

Our text says of this woman that in the middle of her conversation with Jesus, “Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me.” She came and worshiped Him. What does that mean? Well, what do you mean when you say that you have come here to worship the Triune God through Jesus Christ? We worship Christ, for those who honor the Son, honor the Father. But what would you say if someone from the world asked what you meant? You would probably say, “Well, we come to church, we sing praises to God, we give offerings to God, and we listen to his Word. That’s worship.” And you would be right.

But it’s good for us to recognize that the Hebrew idea which is here expressed in a Greek word is not abstract, it is not an idea really, it is an action. For the word “worship” here literally means to fall on one’s knees before someone else and place your forehead on the ground. So here then is the picture.

“Then she came to Jesus, and worshiped Him, she came to Jesus, went down on her knees before His feet, and placed her forehead on the ground before Him. And it was from that place, with her head on the ground, right where the little puppies ran around, that she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master’s table.” And it is to that woman, kneeling on the ground, with her head pressed to the earth, that Jesus said, “O woman, great is your faith. Let it be to you as you desire.”

Now beloved, I hope and trust that through this encounter Jesus has filled you with the longing that some day Jesus will say to you, “O woman, O man, great is your faith.” That means, doesn’t it, that when you come to church, you come with a desire, with a longing, with a need for mercy. That you come with a great need, that you know of your great need, that you know where you are going to make your prayer, your plead. That means that the object of your faith is the Jesus, revealed through the holy prophets and the record of the apostles. That means that you know this Jesus to be sovereign Lord, and the Son of David who was promised to show mercy to the poor, to give compassion to the broken-hearted.

Great faith knows the barrenness of its own soul, and the fullness of Christ’s power and provision. Great faith is repentant, that you have turned away from the world and all the gods it offers, all its pleasures and follies, and that you recognize that life and joy are only found in Jesus Christ. Great faith is reverent, and you know and show, especially when you encounter Jesus Christ in this time in his Father’s house, that you know the great distance that separates you, yet, because Jesus Himself has bridged the gap and come down to earth, come down to you, you are persistent. Your faith is persistent in the face of the silence of God to your prayers, for you know Him, you know that He delights in showing mercy. And great faith is humble, that even the crumbs of grace that fall from the table of the Lord, are worth more than all the glory and riches this world can offer.

It is to this table that you as children of Israel are invited. Not to receive crumbs, but to receive, as we may say this woman did, the power, the glory, the mercy all bound up in the person of Christ Himself. For if the holy Supper proclaims anything at all, it proclaims that our faith rests and is fed only and alone in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Amen.