Bottom line up front: The Complete Context Is Crucial 

Intro: In preparing to teach upon Matthew 15:21-28, one discovers that premature assessments can and do lead to horrendous theology and belief; but when one understands the complete picture, the truth is embraced. 

Context: It’s 1st century Israel. The nation is occupied by the Roman Empire. There is great diversity among distinct cultural groups within the nation proper. Amidst that diversity, there is bias, both cultural and personal. And yet God the Son has stepped into history as the logos incarnate. People from every tribe, language, ethnos, and nation are being reached by the truth. 

Text: And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly (Mt 15:21-28, ESV). 

Don’t Miss This: A superficial familiarity with this passage could be misinterpreted as fideism, a false teaching that says “Just believe,” but does not anchor that belief in truth. Another superficial familiarity with this passage could be used to claim that Christ discriminated unfairly against the Canaanite woman, implying she was less than others. But those misinterpretations would lead you into error. Why? Because the complete picture is necessary. There’s more going on here of which many are unaware. 

Encouragement/takeaway: Christ’s ministry to her was part of his use of distinguishing genuine truth-seekers from false pretenders. This woman begged Christ to heal her daughter of demon oppression. Jesus was not being harsh when he said that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (v. 24). His point was for sinners to recognize their state of lostness and utter dependence upon God; it was not on ethnicity or cultural identity. If anything, it demonstrated that God was grafting in all sorts of sinners–from every tribe, language, people, and nation. 

Christ ultimately commended the faith of the Canaanite woman because she recognized her utter dependence upon Christ as God incarnate to heal her daughter, to redeem, to put her in her right mind, and to thwart the powers of hell. 

The complete picture is called for, in other words. If we don’t have that, we can prematurely come away with half-baked ideas and theology. And as a man thinks, so is he. May we labor to have the full picture.