Matthew 15:21-28: Those that help us to speak
Imagine this foreigner daring to approach this Jewish Messiah (Matthew 15:21-28). How do we explain the broad spectrum of people that dared—facing one obstacle or another—to approach and speak to Jesus? A commander in the conqueror’s army. A woman in public, part of a hostile people and religion a member of the Jewish Supreme Court or this Sidonian woman with a severely troubled child. All of them experiencing great turmoil and trouble and yet all believing they could speak to him. There was some rivalry between the disciples of John and Jesus and yet when John is killed his disciples “go and tell Jesus.” What was it about him that led the high and low to feel they could speak to him?
It’s said of Albert DΓΌrer that he sharpened the wit and talent of all he met. He brought the best out in them. You’ve met people I hope who made you feel you had something worth saying, an opinion worthy of a hearing or an insight that added something to the matter under consideration. Don’t you love such people? The way they carry themselves, the way they treat people; the very way they look at people as they listen to them—all of that makes us dare to speak to them. They bring it out of us in part because they build no walls of self-importance around themselves. They bring it out of us because they seem to make themselves available to us, as though they leaned over to us in a crowd and asked us, "And what do you think about all that?" And then they listened with sincere interest.
Though I never had the privilege of being around him much I always experienced that sense of things in the company of Everett Ferguson, a noted Church Historian. Though he is truly light years ahead of the rest of us, being a profoundly learned scholar, I always believed he listened to us as though he believed our opinions were worth expressing and worth hearing. There was no pretense on his part, no feigned humility; just a gracious openness to others. There’s something immensely liberating in that and we thank God for such people.
This Sidonian-Greek woman had heard of
“And what made you so daring that you just kept following and calling over and over again? Why would you not be intimidated into desperate silence?” Someone that didn’t really know Jesus might have asked her that. She probably would have said. “It was the stories I heard about him. They all had a number of things in common and one of them was that he really liked people like me and wanted to help them.”
God’s blessing on those that help to free us from crushing shyness or a crippling sense of unworthiness. God bless all those that make us believe our concerns matter to them or that our words are welcome even if we know we aren’t in their league or that we don’t have a lot to offer.
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.
Matthew 15:21-28 (WEB)
21 Jesus went out from there, and withdrew into the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 Behold, a Canaanite woman came out from those borders, and cried, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, you son of David! My daughter is severely possessed by a demon!”
23 But he answered her not a word.
His disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away; for she cries after us.”
24 But he answered, “I wasn’t sent to anyone but the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
25 But she came and worshiped him, saying, “Lord, help me.”
26 But he answered, “It is not appropriate to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
27 But she said, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”
28 Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Be it done to you even as you desire.”And her daughter was healed from that hour.
23 But he answered her not a word.
His disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away; for she cries after us.”
24 But he answered, “I wasn’t sent to anyone but the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
25 But she came and worshiped him, saying, “Lord, help me.”
26 But he answered, “It is not appropriate to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
27 But she said, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”
28 Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Be it done to you even as you desire.”And her daughter was healed from that hour.