The Canaanite
At one point in His ministry, Jesus withdrew to the regions of Tyre and Sidon. He had to, in a sense, get out of town because things were getting tense with the leaders. In this Gentile territory He entered a house but did not want anyone to know it (Mark 7:24). Yet a Canaanite woman soon found Him.
Read Matthew 15:21-28 and answer the following questions:
1. Why did the woman call Jesus by a Messianic name, "Son of David"? What did that imply concerning her knowledge of Jesus?
2. How did His disciples react to her, and why was that typical of them?
3. What kind of appeal did she make? How helpless is she?
4. What things happened that should have discouraged her but did not?
Despite coming from a despised nation that had a long history of enmity with Israel, despite being ignored at first by Jesus, despite the attitude of the disciples, even despite Christ's own words to her at first, she knew that Jesus was her only hope. Perhaps it was a tenacity born out of desperation. Who knows? But in the end, we are all just as dependent upon Christ, whether we acknowledge it or not.
Jesus also has a powerful lesson for His own disciples. Christ's purpose was to teach them about the need to work for non-Jews, and this He did by acting out the contrast between the usual attitudes and His own. These twelve had a lot to learn about what it meant to be disciples.
Look again at this woman. What can we learn from her attitudes, actions, words, and faith that can make us better disciples?
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