Matthew 15:21-28 Mark 7:24-30

Matthew 15:21-28 21 Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.” 23 But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.” 24 But He answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25 But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” 26 And He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 27 But she said, “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” 28 Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once.

Mark 7:24-30 24 Jesus got up and went away from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know of it; yet He could not escape notice. 25 But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of the Syrophoenician race. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And He was saying to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.” 29 And He said to her, “Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.” 30 And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left.

Why do we pray?  One of the best answers I have heard to that question is: “because beggars beg.”  Prayer is not like spinach to Popeye the sailor, making Him stronger.  God does not need for us to pray, we are the ones who need prayer.  We pray because we recognize our weakness and we believe in His strength.  Failure to pray is spiritual pride where we are in effect saying that we don’t need God in our lives.  The Syrophoenician woman gives us wonderful example of prayer in this passage.  Her humility, persistence and faith in the ability of Christ alone so meet her need and the need of her daughter are stellar examples of the attitudes we should have when we pray.

INTERSESSION: This woman cries out for mercy from Jesus.  She does not come to Jesus making demands or question why her daughter is afflicted with the terrible daemon.  She simply pleads with Jesus in desperation for relief and appeals to His mercy.  When we pray, we must not think that we are deserving of answers.  We must not accuse God of unfairness or injustice because He allowed whatever affliction we are facing to come into our lives.  These attitudes stem from spiritual pride which is always a hindrance to our prayer and will usually prevent us from praying all together.  When we suffer, Satan will do all he can to try to make us doubt, question and be bitter towards God.  When that happens, we will not be motivated to pray, instead we will strive in our own strength to solve our problems.  We will turn away from God and our hearts will grow cold towards Him.  This poor gentile woman is focused on the grace and mercy of God.  When we ask God for mercy we are admitting that we deserve all the affliction we are experiencing and more; but we are asking Him to have mercy despite what we deserve.  When we ask God for grace, we are asking Him to favor us with blessings that we don’t deserve.  In short, prayer is humbly interceding for God’s grace and mercy in our lives.

INSISTENCE: The response of Jesus seems harsh and insensitive to us, once again because we are so conditioned by our pride to think that we deserve answers to our prayers right away.  We feel like God is obligated to us when we pray and when the answers don’t come in the way and the timing that we expect, we have a tendency to quit and become angry with God.  This woman has no such pride.  When Jesus does not respond to her plea, she insists with Him.  When the disciples complain about her crying out and try to embarrass her into stop praying, she cries out even louder.  When Jesus responds by saying that His priority was to serve the children of Israel and not care for the Gentiles whom He refers to as dogs, she responds by saying that even dogs get crumbs that fall from the table.  This woman is desperate and determined and believes that Jesus has the power to set her daughter free.  We must not quit or become discouraged in prayer.  There will be many times that God’s answers will be slow in coming and be far different than we expect them to be.  When that happens, we must keep on praying.  In God’s sovereign plan, He may never answer in the way we expect Him to but we should keep praying until He answers or until He changes the desires of our hearts or allow us to see that our prayer is not for His glory.

INTERVENTION: Jesus praises the faith of this gentile woman and sets her daughter free.  God is gracious, merciful and powerful.  When He sees fit, He can resolve any issue we face in our lives.  He is pleased when we trust Him.  He is honored when we call out to Him.  He is glorified when we believe in His strength to provide our every need.  God is able to interrupt the course of history to answer the prayers of His children.  He has done so in the past and continues to do so today.  Entire nations have been brought down by the power of prayer.  God is capable of helping us resolve the small issues that we face like finding something we have misplaced or empower us to reach the nations with the Gospel in response to prayer.  The fact is that because of the sin-cursed world in which we live and the sin filled hearts we all possess; we all desperately need the intervention of God in our lives.  He has commanded us to pray because it brings glory to Him and produces humility in us and those are two very good things.  This woman and her daughter found the grace and mercy of God in response to prayer.  God is at work in this world and in our lives.  We participate in that work through prayer.

APPLICATION: Don’t allow pride or ignorance to keep us from prayer.  Use our understanding of the grace and mercy of God to inspire us to pray.  Trust in God’s goodness and sovereignty no matter how our prayers are answered, no matter how long it takes.  Persist in prayer.  Be humble in prayer.  Be amazed by the power and love of God as He answers prayer.  Be thankful.