Chapter BY Chapter

We can see that Tyre and Sidon are North of Israel on the Mediterranean Sea. We can see Magadan inland from there, which Jesus goes to at the end of this passage.  We can also see that there are 10 cities denoted by red dots.  These are the cities of the Decapolis, 10 Greek cities.  They extend from significantly East of Jericho and Northward, all the way to Damascus. 

In the previous section, Jesus was in Genesaret, which was a little bit North of Magadan.  The people recognize Jesus and they send out for everyone to come and see him.  They beg Jesus to let them touch the fringe of his cloak.  He lets them and everyone that touches his fringe is healed. 

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Well, it seems that by now we have learned that Jesus can’t have a healing party anymore without the Pharisees coming and trying to find fault.  So, the Pharisees send their Seal Team 6 of Pharisees and Scribes up to Genesaret to see what kind of legalistic criticism they can dish out.  They accuse Jesus of not requiring his disciples to wash their hands before eating according to Jewish tradition. 

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In response, Jesus points out that the Pharisees break the very commandments of God using one of their traditions. 

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Now Jesus leaves that region and comes to the district of Trye and Sidon. 

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Verses 21-28,

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“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.”

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Now before we get to the significance of this passage, there is a side issue to deal with.  Jesus says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  Some people use this to claim that Jesus did not have a ministry to the Gentiles, but only to Israel.  Therefore, they claim that the gospel message that went out to the Gentiles and all the world is invalid. 

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First of all, we notice that where it says, “And his disciples came and begged him,” it is in past tense and should read, “having come and begged him.”  So the disciples were trying to keep this woman away from Jesus.  Perhaps they wanted Jesus all to themselves at this time.  Jesus responds to their wishes by saying something to the woman to discourage her.  When we look at Jesus’ response in the Greek, the word “only” is not there.  The sentence uses a double negative for emphasis.  Literally it says, “Not I was sent, if not to the lost house of Israel.”  In simpler terms, today we would say, “If anything, I was sent to the lost house of Israel.”  So Jesus is not excluding Gentiles in his mission, but rather emphasizing that his main mission is to Israel.  Furthermore, Jesus does grant her plea and heals her daughter.  On top of that, Jesus is in Tyre and Sidon, a Gentile region.  If his ministry was to Israel only, he wouldn’t have even gone there. 

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Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus gave other indications that His power and compassion reached to all people.

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He healed a Roman centurion’s servant (Luke 7:1–10).

He traveled through the Gentile region of the Gerasenes (Mark 5:1).

He ministered in a Samaritan city (John 4).

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Jesus came to save everybody (1 John 2:2).

Jesus Christ is God Himself (John 1:1).

Jesus died on the cross as the payment for all our sins, and He rose from death in resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:3–4).

Jesus said He was the Good Shepherd, and He predicted that His flock would be greatly expanded: “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd” (John 10:16).

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It took a while for the early church to recognize that salvation was available to the Gentiles. The Jewish Christians who fled the persecution in Jerusalem went into the Gentile regions of Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, but they were “spreading the word only among Jews” (Acts 11:19). Peter was hesitant to bring the gospel to a Gentile household, but God made it plain that Cornelius was also one of the elect (Acts 10).

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“Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too” (Romans 3:29). Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, but He had come to offer salvation to everybody. The Messiah was to be a “light for the Gentiles” (Isaiah 42:6). So call on Jesus, because “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21).

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Very Early in his ministry, large crowds followed him from Decapolis, a group of ten Greek cities.

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​Matthew 4:25,

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“Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.”

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Decapolis – that is the 10 Greek cities that I showed you on the map.

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In John Chapter 3:14-16, Jesus teaches Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council and emphasizes that His mission is for everyone, for the whole world.

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“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

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“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

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Jesus maintained from his early ministry and all throughout it that he came to minister to the whole world.

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Now, back to the Canaanite woman.  It says here that she came and knelt before him.  The Greek word for knelt here is proskelunei, the word for prostrating oneself, which is usually equated with and translated as “worship.”  Jesus still discourages her by saying it is not right to take the children’s bread and give it to the dogs, but she persists by saying that even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the table. 

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Jesus then commends the woman for her great faith and says, “Be it so as you desire.”  Her daughter was healed that very hour. 

So, was Jesus un-compassionate to this woman?

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Certainly not.  Jesus only seeks to meet the needs of the house of Israel first.  The disciples act selfishly for his attention, but perhaps they have a reason.  It is possible that Jesus came here with his disciples to get away from the crowds so that he could concentrate on teaching his disciples. 

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However, the news of Jesus has already spread to this region.  This is a Canaanite woman, so she is identified as not being a Jew.  Yet she calls Jesus, “Lord, son of David.”  Not only does she recognize him and know of his healing power, but she has heard that he is the Messiah, and she addresses him as such and worships him as such.  This is why she has such great faith, not just because she believes that Jesus will heal her daughter, but because she believes in Jesus as the Messiah.

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So, her daughter is healed and they return to the Sea of Galilee.  Let’s see what happens in Gallilee.

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Verses 29-13,

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“Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there.  And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.”

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So what happened when Jesus returned to the Sea of Galilee?

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1. Jesus healed all the sick that the people brought to him.

2. The people wondered.The Greek word for wonderedhere is “thaumasai,” which is usually translated as marveled, amazed, astonished.

3. After they were amazed, they glorified God.

 

Now how did these people glorify God?  We see that in the next paragraph.

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Verses 32-39,

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“Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”  And the disciples said to him, “Where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?”  And Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.”  And directing the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish, and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.  And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces left over.  Those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.  And after sending away the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.”

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Do you see it there?  Do you see how the crowd glorified God?

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1. Hint: They were with Jesus for three days.

2. They glorified God by spending time with him, and listening to the teachings of Jesus.

 

Once again, there is a hungry crowd, four thousand men plus women and children.  All they have is seven loaves and a few small fish, but they give it to Jesus and he multiplies it.  It feeds this crowd and they have seven baskets of scraps left over. 

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When I was in Seminary, living in the married students’ housing, there was a farm next to us.  The farmer that owned the land there donated a little strip of land that was next to these apartments for the Seminarian students to grow their own gardens.  Every year, dozens of students filled that plot with gardens and that donation that seemed so small to that farmer went so far.  The farmer doesn’t even know how many people he helped get through Seminary and catapult their careers to preach the gospel and bring countless others into God’s family. 

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What about Jesus are you amazed at today?

How would you like to glorify God today?

Does it glorify God to ask for his compassion?

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Song: Everyone Needs Compassion