Editor’s note: March is Women's History Month so we are celebrating female authors, female stories, and female characters! Enjoy this excerpt from Ten Women in the Bible about the Canaanite Woman whose moxie-filled faith impressed Jesus Himself.
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Spunky Faith
We don’t know a thing about her. We don’t know her name... her background... her looks... her hometown. She came from nowhere and went nowhere. She disappeared the same way that she appeared, like a puff of smoke.
But what a delightful puff she was.
Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to Him. — Matthew 15:21
The disciples, during two years of training, hadn’t done what she did in a few moments of conversing. She impressed God with her faith.
The disciples’ hearts may have been good. Their desire may have been sincere. But their faith didn’t turn God’s head.
Hers did. For all we don’t know about her, we do know one remarkable truth:
She impressed God with her faith.
After that, anything else she ever did was insignificant.
“Woman, you have great faith!” Jesus stated. — Matthew 15:28 NCV
Some statement. Especially when you consider God said it. The God who can put a handful of galaxies into His palm. The One who creates mountain peaks as a hobby. The One who paints rainbows without a canvas. The One who can measure the thickness of mosquito wings with one hand and level a mountain with the other.
In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him. The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land. — Psalm 95:4–5
One would think that the Creator would not be easily impressed. But something about this woman brought a sparkle to His eyes and... most likely... a smile to His face.
Matthew called her a “Canaanite woman,” and, in doing so, called strikes one and two. Strike one? A Canaanite. An outsider. A foreigner. An apple in a family tree of oranges. Strike two? A woman. Might as well have been a junkyard dog. She lived in a culture that had little respect for women outside the bedroom and kitchen.
But she met the Teacher, who had plenty of respect for her.
Oh, it doesn’t appear that way. In fact, the dialogue between the two seems harsh. It’s not an easy passage to understand unless you’re willing to concede that Jesus knew how to smile. If you have trouble with the sketch of the smiling Jesus hanging in my office, you’ll have trouble with this story. But if you don’t, if the thought of God smiling brings you a bit of relief, then you’ll like what comes next.
1. Read Matthew 15:21–22. What are your initial observations about the Canaanite woman? What was her request?
2. How would the fact she was a woman and a Canaanite represent two strikes against her in the culture of Jesus’ day?
3. Turn to Deuteronomy 7:3–4 and Leviticus 19:33–34. How did God tell His people to treat the Gentile nations? In what ways were the people to be cautious, yet compassionate, toward them?
Do not intermarry with them. — Deuteronomy 7:3
Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners. — Leviticus 19:33
4. Read Matthew 23:13–15. During Jesus’ time, many of the Jewish religious leaders had twisted the heart behind God’s law. Instead of being cautious yet welcoming to Gentiles, they self-righteously refused all interaction with them.
What did Jesus say about the condition of the religious leaders’ hearts? Why did He call the religious leaders hypocrites?
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. — Matthew 23:13
An Interpretation
Here’s my interpretation of Jesus’ interaction with the Canaanite woman. She is clearly desperate. Her daughter is demon possessed. She knows she has no right to ask anything of Jesus. She is not a Jew. She is not a disciple. She offers no money for the ministry. She makes no promises to devote herself to missionary service. You get the impression that she knows as well as anybody that Jesus doesn’t owe her anything, and she is asking Him for everything.
Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised. — Job 1:21
But that doesn’t slow her down. She persists in her plea. “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!” — Matthew 15:22 NCV
Matthew notes that Jesus says nothing at first. Nothing. He doesn’t open his mouth. Why? To test her? Most commentators suggest this.
Jesus did not answer a word. — Matthew 15:23
Maybe, they say, He is waiting to see how serious she is about her plea. My dad used to make me wait a week from the day I asked him for something to the day he gave me his answer. Most of the time, I forgot that I ever made the request. Time has a way of separating whims from needs. Is Jesus doing that?
I have another opinion.
- I think that He was admiring her.
I think that it did His heart good to see some spunky faith for a change. I think that it refreshed Him to see someone asking Him to do the very thing He came to do — give great gifts to unworthy children.
How strange that we don’t allow Him to do it more often for us.
Perhaps the most amazing response to God’s gift is our reluctance to accept it. We want it. But on our terms. For some odd reason, we feel better if we earn it. So we create religious hoops and hop through them — making God a trainer, us his pets, and religion a circus.
The Canaanite woman knew better. She had no résumé. She claimed no heritage. She had no earned degrees. She knew only two things: Her daughter was weak, and Jesus was strong.
1. Read Matthew 15:1–9. In these verses leading up to this scene with the Canaanite woman, what was the Pharisees’ issue with Jesus?
Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?” — Matthew 15:1–2
2. How did Jesus describe the Pharisees? What did Jesus mean when He said they nullified the word of God for the sake of their tradition?
You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when He prophesied about you: “These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.” — Matthew 15:7–9
3. The Pharisees were the religious leaders of the people, yet Jesus said they were acting as “blind guides” (verse 14). Given this recent interaction, why do you think Jesus would have been impressed with the Canaanite woman’s simple faith in Him?
[Jesus] replied, “Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit”. — verses 13–14
4. The Pharisees were creating religious hoops to hop through — “making God a trainer, us his pets, and religion a circus.” In your relationship with God, how do you tend to create religious hoops in order to “earn” God’s grace?
God has always been, and will always be, a God of grace. From the beginning, He only asked that His people have faith in Him. Even the laws He created for His children were so they could find grace. Sadly, people always look for a way to destroy that grace — much like the Pharisees did when they added to God’s law and twisted His intent. But Jesus made it clear that all we need to do to receive God’s grace is believe. This is what the Canaanite woman did. She knew she had nothing to offer. She didn’t rely on her heritage, her race, her clout, her Torah skills — only on Christ. If only we could do the same! If only we could put down our knowledge, our good works, our religious “hoops.”
Christ was enough, and so our faith in Him is enough.
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. — Romans 10:9
Points to Remember
Jesus is delighted when we ask Him to do what He came to do: give great gifts to us, His unworthy children.
When we know we are weak and Jesus is strong, we can see our needs and ask in faith for God to meet those needs.
A simple faith is the object of God’s grace.
Prayer for the Day
Lord, give us faith like the Canaanite woman. Help us to realize that because we have nothing to offer You — no rights before You — we must rely completely on You and not on ourselves. Help us to simply receive your free gift of grace today and believe that You will provide for us.
We love you, Lord. Amen.
The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. — Romans 6:23
Excerpted with permission from Ten Women of the Bible by Max Lucado, copyright Max Lucado.
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Your Turn
Do you have spunky faith? Would Jesus be surprised and delighted by your faith? Let’s pray today that the Holy Spirit would fire up our faith in Jesus so we can believe bigger and broader than we ever have before! ~ Devotionals Daily