A sermon on Matthew 15:21-28 for the Second Sunday in Lent. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz.

One of the riskiest moves in modern communications is the double text. When you send someone a text, thanks to read receipts, you can see when they’ve opened it. And that’s miserable. But when you’ve been left on read, you have two options. The first is you just admit defeat. The other person doesn’t care, they’re not getting back to you, it is what it is. But there’s also another option: the double text. To send someone another text when they’ve ignored the first one is risky. They might just ignore you again. And to be left on read a second time opens this world of embarrassment. But there’s a glimmer of hope with the double text. Maybe they opened it and were meaning to get back to you but had something else to do and it slipped their mind. Maybe they’ve just been pondering how to properly respond for a while and that second notification will be a call to action. Maybe with the second text, you’ll get a response.

All this to say, being persistent is risky business. If you’ve been ignored before, it’s very likely that being persistent will just increase your embarrassment. But there’s a chance. Just maybe that persistence will be rewarded. But you never know. In the account of the Canaanite woman, we see how God blesses persistent faith. Even though at times it seems like faith is ignored, in the end, faith is rewarded.

I. Faith Ignored

This account is really kinda difficult and, because of that, has been prone to some misinterpretation, because this isn’t how we think Jesus should act. And these difficulties are only made greater when we see how laudable this woman’s cry for mercy is. She really is a perfect example.

Sure, she’s a Canaanite, so she’s not Jewish, but Jesus is in her neck of the woods in Tyre and Sidon, He’s the one who’s out of place here. And even though she’s a Gentile, she knows the Scripture and has a clear confession of Christ.

“Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David!” That’s perfect! You can’t get much better than that. Even most of the Jews who liked Jesus probably didn’t have that deep of an understanding at this time. She recognizes Him as the Son of David, this is a Messianic title, more than just “Master,” or “Teacher!”

And the content of her request is likewise flawless. “My daughter is severely demon-possessed.” She’s not just here for a physical need, it’s not that she’s sick, but this is a spiritual need. She knows that Jesus as the Messiah has spiritual power and can cast out demons. And she’s not even asking for herself, she’s asking for someone else. This has to be the purest, richest, most selfless request Jesus has received. Kudos to her. Flying marks.

But Jesus ignores her. Just keeps on walking. When He finally addresses the situation, He’s speaking to His disciples, not to her, and they just think she’s a nuisance. And when He does address her, He insults her, pushes her away, that’s even worse than being ignored. Why is Jesus acting like this? How is this okay? Why is this woman taking it?

As foreign as Jesus acting like this seems to us, we live in the same space as this woman and, fundamentally, we share in her struggle. This woman knows her Scriptures. She knows what Jesus is supposed to do. And so do we. We have all these wonderful promises for us in the Bible that we can turn to. But so often, our lived experience doesn’t seem to line up. That’s the struggle of the Canaanite woman. She knows who the Messiah is and what He’s supposed to do, but He’s not doing it. How do you reconcile that?

What do we do when God’s promises seem unfulfilled? “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov 22:6). Many of you have children and grandchildren who are still in the church, God be praised, but sadly, many are not. God’s promises seem unfulfilled.

Paul says that God “will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able” (1 Cor 10:13), but so often, temptation seems to be more than we can bear. What’s the deal? “[A]ll things work together for good to those who love God” (Rom 8:28). Sounds nice. Hard to trust when tragedy strikes.

So what do we do when we know God’s Word but it doesn’t seem like He’s doing what He’s supposed to do? What do we do when our prayers seem to fall on deaf ears? When God doesn’t help like He said He would?

The persistence of the Canaanite woman puts us to shame. She presses on, undeterred. She keeps asking, keeps pushing. Her faith is strong enough to endure these setbacks. How often do we grow discouraged? Give up praying? Surrender all hope? That’s certainly not where God is trying to lead us, but we crumble under pressure instead of rising to the occasion. Do we really trust God’s Word if we give up so easily?

II. Faith Praised

If the Canaanite woman’s first request was flawless, how she continues is even better. And we see with how she interacts with Jesus that she is clinging to God’s Word.

When He ignores her, she doesn’t give up. She knows God’s Word, she knows what He came to do. She holds God to His promises. So she repeats her cry. Yes, Jesus came for “the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” sure, she’s not the primary audience, but that’s not going to stop her.

And even when Jesus rebukes her, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs,” she still clings to His word. She doesn’t say, “That’s not fair, I’m a child of God.” No, she says, “Yes, Lord,” agrees with Him and then holds Him to it. She takes that picture a step further, “yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” She owns her lowliness. Accepts the rebuke. But still begs for His mercy and grace. And Jesus does what she knew He would. He casts out the demon. Gives spiritual freedom. Accomplishes the promises that she was clinging to all along.

When it seems like God’s promises are not being kept, even when we give up on them and stop holding God to them, He still keeps them. He still accomplishes His Word.

Jesus did everything that He came to do. He came to expel the forces of evil from this world, and we see Him cast out demons. He came to give liberty to those in bondage, and He has freed you from the chains of sin. He came to defeat death, which He endured Himself and triumphed over by His resurrection.

All God’s promises are true in Christ. He has taken your sin and forgiven it. He has taken the death we must face and conquered it. He has taken the curse of mankind and given you the blessings of the resurrection.

So why did Jesus put on this facade if He was going to cast out the demon anyway? What was He trying to do by pushing her away? And how does this map on to our experience?

Certainly this woman had great faith, Jesus praises her for it. But He also wanted to place her in a situation where that would be drawn out, where her faith would have the opportunity to be exercised in this way. Her faith comes out the other side even stronger because she knows that she can hold God to His Word even if her experience doesn’t seem to match that for a time.

And maybe this is reading too much into this, but I think we can also see something in how her language shifts. Right, she starts with this perfect, rich, crafted request for the spiritual benefit of someone else. But when she’s pushed, she gets more honest. “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed” turns to “Lord, help me!”

This is where Jesus wants you to be. To move past the verbose and the crafted to the heartfelt plea. And now she’s being more honest. First, she submits this request on behalf of her daughter, but at its core, it’s “Lord, help me.” So often when we pray for others, we’re really praying for ourselves. And it’s not wrong to be honest with that. God wants us to lay our hearts bare before Him, to be stripped of our pride, down to that simple plea of faith. “Lord, help me!”

From this, we are taught that God will fulfill His Word. We can trust His promises. His Word is more truthful than our lived experiences. When they don’t seem to match, we must cling to the former and discard the latter. God’s Word is true. His promises are assured. We might not be able to see out of the test that we are currently in, but we must cling to Christ, even when He seems to be against us. And we may not see the fulfillment of every one of His promises in this life. So many we will only experience on the other side of glory. But God’s Word is sure. He keeps His promises. We cling to them with persistent faith because we know that no matter what we must face God is gracious and merciful and loving and forgiving. Amen.