Jesus heals a Gentile woman's demon-possessed daughter
Mt 15:21-28 21 Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed." 23 But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, "Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us." 24 But He answered and said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." 25 But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, "Lord, help me!" 26 And He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." 27 But she said, "Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." 28 Then Jesus said to her, "O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed at once.
Mk 7:24-30 24 Jesus got up and went away from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know of it; yet He could not escape notice. 25 But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of the Syrophoenician race. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And He was saying to her, "Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." 28 But she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children's crumbs." 29 And He said to her, "Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter." 30 And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left.
What do you do when you have a problem that you cannot solve? What do you do when you hear about someone who might be able to solve your problem?
The above passages tell the story of a woman who had a problem whose solution was beyond her – her little daughter was demon possessed. She desperately wanted it solved, but she hadn’t the slightest idea how to solve it. But she heard about Jesus, a Jew, who was healing all kinds of sicknesses and diseases, and who was casting out demons.
However, she was a Canaanite, of the Syrophoenician race, and lived in Phoenicia (which was in the region near Tyre and Sidon). It would not be safe to go to Galilee, Bethany, Nazareth, Bethsaida – the places 30-40 miles southeast of there, to where Jesus typically went.
So she waited – till she heard that Jesus was in the area of Tyre and Sidon. When she heard that He was in the region of Tyre and Sidon, she left a daughter and hastened to meet Jesus.
It would have been difficult for her to bring her daughter for the demon in the daughter would have made the daughter difficult to control. However, to come without her daughter, she would have to believe that Jesus would be able to heal her daughter from afar. She believed, and she went alone.
When she was near Jesus, she began shouting her request. This was not the time to be timid. There was a job to get done.
She knew that Jews despise and look down on Gentiles like her. That didn’t stop her. On hearing her shouts, Jesus ignored her. That didn’t stop her. The disciples implored Jesus to send her away. No one wanted her there. That didn’t stop her. Jesus told her that His powers of healing were not meant for her because she wasn’t a Jew. That didn’t stop her. Jesus then insulted her publicly, calling her a dog. That didn’t stop her either. Instead, she boldly countered, explaining why even a dog deserves to get a little something of what the children get. It was because of that answer that her daughter was healed.
Not only that – Jesus also commended her for her great faith, and her story is now immortalized in the gospels.
In giving her such a hard time, was Jesus mean to the woman? I don’t see it that way at all. He saw in her a greatness and excellence, and he wanted to bring that out and put it on display so that others may learn from her faith and determination. Remember Job? God allowed Satan to give him such a hard time – not because God was mean, but because God wanted to showcase His best man to Satan. When God takes you through a lot of hardship, don’t despair; He is very likely trying to showcase your faith, or is trying to teach you something important, or both.
Demon possession is a picture of addiction. You lose control of yourself. You are driven out of your mind. You want out, but you are trapped. A demon possessed person is a picture of a child of God who is addicted to sin. One moral of this story is that God can help you overcome your addiction to sin.
The other moral of this story is that we should imitate the faith of the woman. Her child was addicted. Rather than moan about her fate, and grumble and complain, she went to Jesus for help. Nothing stopped her!
If you are addicted to sin, or someone dear to you is, go to Jesus. Let nothing stop you. Ask, and you shall receive. It doesn’t matter if it is not meant for you. It doesn’t matter if there is no precedent – before this, she didn’t know whether any Syrophoenician woman was ever healed by Jesus. That was irrelevant to her.
‘What will people say if they know about my sin (or my dear one’s sin)?’ Will such a thought stop you? Public humiliation can be a show-stopper to many, but don’t let it be a show-stopper to you. Jesus sometimes uses public humiliation to bring us to a point where we become ready to serve Him in a grand way.
If you’re not like this woman, you are missing out on a lot of spiritual wealth. You need to adjust yourself so that you become like her.
This miracle was recorded so that you and I can learn from people of great faith, and become like them.
Let nothing stop you.
There is another important thing to ponder on here: why does God allow parents to suffer so much in seeing their children in such a terrible state of demon possession or addiction?
First, understand that God doesn’t do things or allow things for no reason at all. If he has allowed your child to fall into an addiction, it is because He is trying to send you or your child, or both, an important message, and you have to figure out what that message is.
Second, since God has placed before you a problem that is beyond your capability to solve, what’s your strategy for solving it? You can’t solve it yourself, so what do you do? Do you go to your pastor, or to some godly man, seeking a solution? If there is some pastor or friend or godly man in your life, who is your ‘go-to person’ for such things, that is a big issue with God. He doesn’t want any intermediate person between you and Him. He wants you to go to Him first. Consider 1 Cor 11:3, Jas 1:5 and Mt 11:28…
1 Cor 11:3 But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.
Jas 1:5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
Mt 11:28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. "
Christ is the head of every man (note the word ‘every’). God wants us to come to Him. He wants to be our head. He wants us to have a personal relationship with Him, not with Him through some other man. If you don’t do that, then He will put an impossible problem before you – a problem that neither you, nor your ‘go-to person’ can solve, to show you that you need to go to Him.
In the Old Testament, during the exodus, God led the people to the Red Sea, and then allowed Pharaoh’s army to go after them. Have you ever wondered why? Didn’t God anticipate what Pharaoh would do? Why then would He allow His people to get trapped? It was so that they would turn to Him, and He would solve their problem, and they would trust Him and learn to depend on Him.
It’s the same today – God puts impossible problems in our lives to get us to turn to Him and to trust Him to solve our problems. He wants to be our God.
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