I thought I had written on this before but couldnt find it with a search. So, here it is, maybe again. :-) Matthew 15 begins by considering what makes a person unclean. Besides food, the Jews, including Jesus disciples, believed that Gentiles could make them unclean, especially Canaanites who were among those nations that God had said to utterly destroy. Jesus concludes Listen and understand. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” THEN Jesus immediately goes to a Gentile region where he encounters the Canaanite woman. hmm? Why are we going to a Gentile region, Jesus? The Canaanite woman is driving the disciples nuts with her petition. They finally bring her to Jesus. Question? Why wouldnt they help her? In the Jewish cities they had brought all kinds of needy people to Jesus for him to help. Why did they wait so long to bring this Canaanite woman? And then, ONLY because she was driving them nuts? So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” Here is Jesus CURIOUS response: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” This response is CURIOUS because it is likely the VERY REASON why the disciples DID NOT IMMEDIATELY HELP the Canaanite woman. It is ALSO CURIOUS because Jesus DOES help her. Jesus basically tells the woman that there is not enough bread. He says it is not right to give the childrens bread to the dogs. This suggests that there is a limited supply of bread. If there were unlimited bread, then there would be no reason to withhold the bread from the dogs. So, Jesus tells her there is not enough bread. The woman accepts the story but corrects Jesus by saying that there is enough bread for some crumbs to fall from the table to the dogs. This is amazing faith. That the woman believes that Jesus can solve her problem with just a mere crumb from his table! But what we need to realize is that there is PLENTY OF BREAD! There is NO SHORTAGE OF BREAD. Jesus has EVERY INTENTION of helping this woman. Would he really deny the childrens bread to a Canaanite woman in the VERY AREA where Elijah was given the last of the childrens bread by the widow of Zarephath? Not a chance. And we ALSO need to notice that after GIVING THE CHILDRENS bread to this Canaanite, Jesus goes and heals multitudes in the Gentile cities! He is giving the Childrens bread out to everyone! We should ALSO notice that this is followed by the miracle of the SEVEN LOAVES where Jesus supplies PLENTY OF BREAD for EVERYONE and has SEVEN baskets full left over. SEVEN. HMM. There were SEVEN Gentile nations (including Canaanites) that the Jews were told to utterly destroy and NOT HELP. Deuteronomy 7:1-2 1When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. The POINT of Matthew 15 is that JESUS CAME FOR EVERYONE and that there is plenty of bread for all. His disciples didnt realize this yet, and when Jesus says I have been sent ONLY to the lost sheep of Israel he is TESTING his disciples by giving them the very reason why THEY have refused to help this Canaanite woman. BUT we know that JESUS doesnt believe this because HE VIOLATES IT by HELPING the Canaanite woman AND by HEALING all of those Gentiles and by FEEDING them with a miracle that turned SEVEN LOAVES into SEVEN BASKETS of leftovers after ALL those GENTILES HAD EATEN. So, YES, JESUS CAME FOR ALL and NO, HE was NOT sent ONLY to the lost sheep of Israel.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 07:41:25 +0000
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