I preached this sermon on Sunday, August 16, 2026, at Christ Presbyterian Church in Milford, Ohio.
The lectionary text is Matthew 15:21-28, The Canaanite Woman’s Faith.
My father-in-law taught English for decades. His students loved being in his class.
Sometimes he would ask a student a question that sounded completely wrong. Or he’d defend a position he didn’t even believe. The student would begin arguing with him. She would present evidence, she would cite sources. He kept asking questions, steering the student where he wanted her to go. You know the method. They talked through what he was trying to get her to understand. In the end, she understood it better than if he’d simply given her the answer.
He wasn’t just teaching that student. He was also trying to reach the others in the class through this student.
· I wonder if that’s what’s happening in today’s gospel message.//
· I don’t think Jesus was really debating with the woman.
· I think He was trying to reach the disciples.
· I think Jesus was using this encounter to challenge what the disciples thought they knew about faith.
They spent years watching Jesus. They had seen miracles. They had heard His teaching. They thought they knew what great faith looked like—and perhaps more importantly, where they would find it.
Jesus had already set the stage. He brought his disciples miles from Galilee into Gentile territory. Away from the Pharisees who thought they knew where faith could be found. Now He was about to show his disciples what great faith looked like.
Jesus brought his disciples face-to-face with a Canaanite woman whose faith would teach them more than any lecture ever could.
And maybe that’s the lesson Matthew wants us to hear, too: “Where can we find great faith?”
Jesus often finds great faith where his followers least expect it.
Let’s go back to the beginning of this passage in Matthew. It starts out like any other passage he wrote: building on prior lessons. I’ll highlight the prior verses in chapter 15. The Pharisees – the law-followers – travel some 80 miles from Jerusalem to Gennesaret, a predominately Jewish area, to confront Jesus regarding ritual handwashing. They travel roughly 80 miles to talk about how to wash hands?! I think Matthew highlights this effort about a seemingly minor issue on purpose, practically mocking the Pharisees. Of all the commandments and traditions in the Old Testament, this one was deemed worthy to travel 80 miles for?
Jesus then addresses the crowd to give his divine retort. In Matthew 15:11-12, “’It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.’ Then the disciples approached and said to him, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?’” Oh yeah! Another entry in the charges the Pharisees will eventually bring against him. Jesus exits stage right. Off to Tyre and Sidon.
Tyre and Sidon are between 35-50 mountainous miles away from Gennesaret, or a few days of walking. With that terrain, it would probably take me 10-20 hours to run and hike that distance. I tend to break down mileage that way when I read it in the Bible. 35-50 miles? We can make a race out of that! Or perhaps the 80-mile Handwashing Ultramarathon, with the route laid out by the Pharisees! I would start thinking of the logistics for setting up aid stations and marking the trail, maybe with bars of Ivory soap?
But the disciples don’t have the advantage of running this route in Brooks Cascadia trail shoes. They are going much slower, and it will take days to travel the 35-50 miles to this port district, this Gentile region with pockets of Jews. Jesus explains why he is there in verse 24, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
And this is why I mention the long journey. After this long journey, the disciples are invested. They want to see this mission accomplished. They haven’t yet heard the Parable of the Lost Sheep, but they still want to find and minister to the lost sheep of the house of Israel that Jesus spoke of.
Which makes the woman’s interruptions that more troubling to them. They are used to shepherding the crowds of thousands around the hills so they can hear Jesus. They can separate the masses into groups of 50-100 to feed them bread and fish. So when a woman comes shouting at Jesus for help – not for her, but for her demon-possessed daughter – and Jesus is quiet, the disciples take that as their cue and try to move her away.
But she keeps worshiping Jesus and begs for mercy. That’s when Jesus seems to shift from ministering to the lost sheep of Israel to making a lesson out of this Gentile, this Canaanite, the ultimate outsider to the Jewish people.
· As the quote goes, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
· A good educator would call this a “teachable moment.”
· Jesus might call it a “living object lesson” for his disciples.
They were demonstrating their biases and deep-seated prejudices toward this woman. Jesus could be holding up a mirror to them, saying out loud what they were thinking: “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” To the household pets, in this instance.
She replies, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” In recognition of the abundance of grace, she’s only looking for a crumb, and she’d be satisfied.
I can almost see Jesus with the hint of a smile as the Canaanite woman answers Him. Not because she surprises Him, but because his disciples are finally hearing exactly what He wants them to hear.
Last week… Jesus looked at Peter… “You… of little faith.”
This week… He looks at a Canaanite… “Woman… great is your faith.”
Matthew wants us to feel the contrast. He intentionally put these stories back-to-back.
Jesus often finds great faith where his followers least expect it.
And sometimes, we discover the same thing in our own lives.
My favorite aunt, Aunt Carol, passed away about a decade ago. At her viewing, I saw she had a fork placed in her hand. I didn’t get to ask anybody why before the service, but the preacher answered my question during the eulogy. He said he talked with Aunt Carol a couple weeks before she died – it was not unexpected – and he asked her if she had any special requests for her service. She asked to be buried with a fork in her hand. He was puzzled and asked her why?
Aunt Carol replied, “You know how you are at a dinner party and the hostess starts to gather up the plates, but tells you to keep your fork? That tells you that she is going to bring out dessert. You’re keeping your fork because the best is yet to come.
“I want to be buried with a fork, because I know the best is yet to come.”
I went to that service to remember the life of my aunt. Instead, I witnessed her legacy – her great faith – where I least expected it.
That’s exactly what Jesus wants his disciples to see: faith, not pedigree, is what matters in the kingdom. In the Gospels, Jesus explicitly calls only two people’s faith “great”: this Canaanite woman and the Roman centurion. Both Gentiles. Both ask for mercy and healing, not for themselves, but for their children.// And Jesus highlights their faith so that his disciples see and understand what great faith looks like:
· Stop thinking they know what the kingdom is going to look like.
o Start looking for what great faith looks like.
· Stop thinking the kingdom is built on ethnic privilege or closeness to Jesus.
o Start noticing who they overlook.
The disciples thought they were watching Jesus teach a Canaanite woman.
Matthew wants us to realize… Jesus was using a Canaanite woman… to teach the disciples.
And maybe… Matthew is using her to teach us.
Who do we overlook?
Who have we quietly decided couldn’t possibly teach us anything about faith?
· The traveler, sleeping under a pine tree?
· The immigrant learning a new language?
· The mother at the food pantry?
· The lonely widow who prays every day?
· The neighbor whose background isn’t anything like ours?
Not just people who might need our help. People whose faith might have something to teach us.
Week after week, Matthew has been teaching us not to judge too soon.
· Don’t judge the soil before the seed has taken root.
· Don’t judge the field before the harvest.
· Don’t judge what’s left over and discarded.
· Don’t judge the pattern before it’s finished.
· Don’t judge the Fourth Watch.
And today…
· Don’t judge a person’s faith before Jesus does.
My father-in-law knew something about teaching.
Sometimes the lesson wasn’t really for the student answering the question. It was for everyone else in the room.
And sometimes the lesson comes from someone we never expected to be our teacher.
I went to Aunt Carol’s funeral expecting to remember her. Instead, I witnessed her great faith. She kept her fork.
Jesus often finds great faith where his followers least expect it.
Lord, give us eyes to recognize it.
To the Lord our God, Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, be all glory and honor forever.
