Big Healing Book - Matthew 15:22-28

Matthew 15:22-28:

And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us.
But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.
And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.
Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

Notes on Matthew 15:22-28:

There was a reason for the disciples’ apparent rudeness. They were correct that the woman did not have the right to get healing for her daughter because she wasn’t a Jew. In a way, she was being rude, but she was desperate to get what she saw Jesus giving out to the Jews. That is why the disciples were sending her away. (They did not send anyone in the multitudes of Jews away, except for small children, and Jesus rebuked them for forbidding the children to come.) Jesus made sure that the woman understood this.

Here healing is referred to as the “children’s bread.” If you are a child of God, it belongs to you. It is part of your sustenance that you should expect to receive from God. You need to understand that as a Christian under God’s new covenant, you are not one of the dogs waiting for their masters’ crumbs. You are one of the ones seated at the table!

Jesus did not call the woman a dog. He made an analogy to a family with dogs. You don’t take the children’s food and give it to the dogs. The children here were strictly Israelites, not Gentiles. Jesus was saying, “It isn’t right for the Gentiles to get the Jews’ blessings.” This was legally true, yet because of her great faith, God made an exception for her. She got a blessing that she didn’t even qualify for due to her dogged persistence in pursuing what she needed.