How to Support the Rob Skinner Podcast.  If you would like to help support my mission to multiply disciples, leaders and churches, click here:  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/robskinner    Matthew Series Matthew 15:21-39 Introduction Jesus had just dealt with the topic of what was clean and what was unclean.  Jesus said our heart and the words that come from out heart are what defile us, not what we eat or touch or our external environment.  I hope you’ve had a good week digging a little deeper, paying attention to your words, the thoughts of your heart.  Jesus goes on from that powerful parable or proverb and in the next two stories illustrates in real time the implications of that teaching.  1.    You Have Great Faith! Matthew 15:21-28 21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” 23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” 25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. 26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” 27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” 28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment. This story is also recounted in Mark 7:24-30.  Jesus has withdrawn to a Gentile area, not for preaching but to avoid the growing hostility of the Jews and to get ready for the next stage of his ministry.  This puts him in direct contact with Gentiles and these two stories provide a preview and a foreshadowing of Jesus’ ultimate plans for the gentiles.  A woman comes to him.  The word used is “Canaanite.”  This is probably an archaic term at this point.  It’s meant to point back to the arch-enemies of God’s people back in the time of Moses and Joshua.  She comes out to Jesus begging for help.  How does Jesus respond? ·       Ignores her, 23 ·       Rejects her, 24 ·       Insults her, 26 The disciples are really stuck because she keeps on making a ruckus and Jesus apparently won’t deal with the issue.  They want Jesus to solve her problem and make her go away, so there’s tension building.  Jesus continues to ignore her.  Then he repeats his mission.  His mission is to reach the Jews and fulfill the promises given to them first.  After these first two rejections, Jesus goes into a house and the woman enters and gets down and begs him.  Then Jesus drops a bomb.  He calls her a “dog.”  The word used is diminuative.  But the word was used by Jews to describe Gentiles.  Dogs weren’t viewed the same way as today.  He’s not saying “puppy.”  He’s testing her.  He’s using the same language she would hear from Jewish neighbors.  Jesus is not coming across very “Christ-like” in this interaction.  Like the story we read in chapter 8 about the Centurion, there are racial issues coming up right here.  Jews considered the gentiles dirty and unclean.  They were to be avoided.  What we can’t see is the tone or body language being used by Jesus.  Our reading is two-dimensional but the situation was three-dimensional.  It seems clear that Jesus was testing this woman to bring out her faith and highlight it.  If we only focus on individual sentences rather than the entire interaction we will get a wrong view of Jesus, his attitudes and purposes.  Three times he tested her and in the end her faith gave her everything she wanted from Jesus.  What can we learn from this woman?  We better learn something, because her behavior