Bible Passage: Matthew 15:21-28
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: August 16, 2026

Bulletin – August 16, 2026

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

Our text for today has something for everyone.  If you have ever felt like an outsider in God’s Kingdom, if you have ever felt unworthy of God’s love, if you have ever felt like you are not the “right stuff” for God.   If you are a parent who has prayed for a sick or troubled child, if you have ever felt like God does not hear your prayers, like God is being dismissive with you, like God doesn’t hear you or doesn’t see you, this text is for you!

Our text is the story of a mom and her child.  It is the story of desperation finding mercy.  It is the story of great faith, to be sure. But great faith can only exist where there is a great Savior!  It is the story of a Canaanite woman, and She Just Knew There Were Some Crumbs!

            This event takes place in the region of Tyre and Sidon.  Tyre and Sidon are two cities on the Mediterranean coastline to the north of the land of Israel.  Here Jesus and his disciples would have been among “goiim,” or “Gentiles.”  That’s why it is not at all surprising to hear that a Gentile, a Cannanite, a non-Jew approaches him.  It is a Canaanite woman.  A mom.  She is a desperate mom.  She approaches Jesus and calls, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! A demon is severely tormenting my daughter!” (v. 22)  Seeing their child bullied is heart-breaking to any parent.  Can you imagine if the bully is a demon from hell who is tormenting your little girl?

But this mom does the right thing!  She comes to Jesus!  She cries out for mercy.  She hopes Jesus’ heart will break when he hears her story!  She hopes Jesus will make things better.  She calls Jesus the “Son of David.”  This is significant.  “Son of David” is an “insider” term among Jews.  It is Messianic.  It is the recognition that the coming Messiah will come from the line of great King David.  This Canaanite woman has heard enough about Jesus that she believes Jesus to be the Messianic Son of David!

Wonderful!  This should be quick work.  Jesus will turn and tell her to go home and she will find her daughter all better!  Right?  But he did not answer her a word. (v. 23)  Jesus is silent.  He just keeps walking.  And the woman keeps calling out her request to Jesus.  Finally, the disciples have had it.  Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us. (v. 23)  At this, Jesus breaks his silence:  I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (v. 24)

What is Jesus doing?  Why does he appear to be aloof and uncaring?  Is it possible that our Lord is operating on a higher plane here?  Is it possible he is giving this woman’s faith a work-out?  And a strenuous one at that!  Luke 18 begins with these words, Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. (Luke 18:1)  Do you think maybe Jesus was teaching this woman, “Keep calling!  Keep praying!  Don’t give up!”

And she doesn’t!  [S]he came and knelt in front of him, saying, “Lord, help me. (v. 25)  Now Jesus will have to deal with her.  She is kneeling right in front of him.  He can’t take another step.  If her faith was tested before this, the test is about to get more difficult!  Jesus says to her,  It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to their little dogs. (v. 26)  Some people get very worked up that Jesus calls her a dog.  “Jesus is a racist!”  He is not.  Jesus uses a word for dogs that doesn’t mean the filthy, feral scavenger mutts out in the streets.  Jesus uses the word for “little dogs.”  Pups!  Jesus is simply speaking in metaphor:  “It is not right to take bread from children and give it to the puppies under the table.”

The woman’s answer to this will cause the Lord Jesus to say,  Woman, your faith is great! (v. 27)  Let’s look at her answer carefully.  “Yes, Lord,” she said, “yet their little dogs also eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” (v. 27)  Some say here the woman cleverly matches wits with Jesus and gets the better of him.  Some translations even translate so that she says, “Yes, it is right to take the bread and give it to the pups!”  She does not argue with Jesus!  She agrees with Jesus!  When Jesus says it’s not right to take bread from children and give it to the dogs, she is saying, “100%!”  And here’s why you don’t have to do that.  “For the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.”  She is saying to Jesus, “I am not asking you to deprive the children of a thing!  The priority of your ministry is to the house of Israel.  But right here, right now, a crumb of mercy could fall from my Master’s table and it would not upset the priorities of your ministry one bit.”  That is why Jesus says to her not, “Woman, you have great cleverness!”  Not, “Woman, you have great debate skills!”  But, “Woman, you have great faith!”

The parallels between the woman and us are many!  Was she desperate?  So are we!  Did she know where to turn for mercy?  So do we!  In the text, the woman cries, “Kyrie, elieson.”  There is a part of our worship called the “Kyrie” for short.  Its full name is the Kyrie Elieson.  We sing, we cry, “Lord, have mercy on us!  Christ, have mercy on us! Lord, have mercy on us!”  Does she find crumbs of mercy from Jesus?  So do we!  After our desperate cry for mercy in the Kyrie, we hear this proclamation, “God has been merciful to us and has given his only Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins!”  A crumb of mercy!  But it is everything!  We literally come to the table of our Master!  We come as desperate, mercy-seeking little dogs to Holy Communion and our Master drops merciful morsels to us!  Bread and wine, Jesus’ body and blood, and a promise, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of our sins!”  Was the woman’s daughter delivered from the demon by Jesus’ crumb of mercy?  So are we!  The “crumbs of mercy” we receive work forgiveness of sins, deliver from death and the devil, and give eternal salvation to all who believe.

The woman in our text likely never heard Jesus say, Whoever comes to me I will never drive away.  She may have never heard it, but she believed it!  She just knew that with Jesus there would be mercy! And so do we!  We just know that with Jesus, no matter who we are and what we’ve done, we will find crumbs of mercy!

Amen.