Matthew 15:28

Great indeed was her faith; for the Gentiles, neither trained in the Law, nor educated by the words of the Prophets, straightway on the preaching of the Apostles obeyed with the hearing of the ear, and therefore deserved to obtain salvation.

Therefore the Lord granted her request: then Jesus answering, said to her etc. And he does three things. First, her commendation is presented; second, the granting of her request; third, the effect. When she humbles herself, he says great is your faith. Great, because she …

Now Jesus shows the reason why He put off healing her at the beginning. So that the faith and understanding of the woman might be made manifest, Christ did not immediately give His assent at the beginning and even drove her away. But now when …

Then Jesus answered, and said unto her,.... As one surprised at the strength of her faith, and the clearness and justness of her pious reasoning; and not concealing himself, and the designs of grace, any longer from her, breaks out in great admiration of her, saying, O woman, great is thy faith!

And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. We have here that famous story of Christ's casting the devil out of the woman of Canaan's daughter; it has something in it singular and very surprising, and which looks favourably upon the poor Gentiles, and is an earnest of the mercy which Christ had in store for them.

Fourthly, Thefts, sins against the eighth commandment; cheats, wrongs, rapines, and all injurious contracts; the fountain of all these is in the heart, that is it that is exercised in these covetous practices ( 2 Pet. ii.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

O woman, great is thy faith - The hinderances thrown in this woman’s way only tended to increase her faith. Her faith resembles a river, which becomes enlarged by the dykes opposed to it, till at last it sweeps them entirely away with it. Her daughter was made whole - Persevering faith and prayer are next to omnipotent. No person can thus pray and believe, without receiving all his soul requires. This is one of the finest lessons in the book of God for a penitent, or for a discouraged believer. Look to Jesus!

I mean to dwell Especially upon those words at the end of the verse, "Be it unto you even as you will," but before we consider them, I should like to remind you again, as I did in the reading, that our Lord admired this woman's faith. He said unto her, "O woman, great is your faith." She was humble, she was patient, she was persevering, she was affectionate towards her child, but our Savior did not mention any of these things, for He was most of all struck by her faith.

WE learn from this chapter, dear Friends, that our Master was tired of battling with hypocrites and formalists and, therefore, withdrew Himself from them. They had come to Him with their foolish charges that His disciples did not observe the traditions of the elders and they made a great fuss about meats, drinks, washing of hands and all sorts of trifles. The Savior spoke very effectively to them—what if I say that He fired His great gun once and for all and silenced them?

Another of our Lord’s miracles is recorded in these verses:the circumstances which attend it are peculiarly full of interest; let us take them in order, and see what they are. Every word in these narratives is rich in instruction. We see in the first place, that true faith may sometimes be found where it might have been least expected. A Canaanite woman cries to our Lord for help, on behalf of her daughter. “Have mercy on me, she says O Lord thou son of David!” she says.

Another of our Lord’s miracles is recorded in these verses:the circumstances which attend it are peculiarly full of interest; let us take them in order, and see what they are. Every word in these narratives is rich in instruction. We see in the first place, that true faith may sometimes be found where it might have been least expected. A Canaanite woman cries to our Lord for help, on behalf of her daughter. “Have mercy on me, she says O Lord thou son of David!” she says. Such a prayer would have showed great faith had she lived in Bethany or Jerusalem; but when we find that she came from the “coasts of Tyre and Sidon”, such a prayer may well fill us with surprise. It ought to teach us that it is grace, not place, which makes people believers. We may live in a prophet’s family, like Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, and yet continue impenitent, unbelieving and fond of the world. We may dwell in the midst of superstition and dark idolatry, like the little maid in Naaman’s house, and yet be faithful witnesses for God and his Christ. Let us not despair of anyone’s soul merely because his lot is cast in an unfavorable position. It is possible to dwell in the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, and yet sit down in the kingdom of God. We see in the second place, that affliction sometimes proves a blessing to a person’s soul. The Canaanite mother, no doubt, had been sorely tried. She had seen her darling child vexed with a devil, and been unable to relieve her; but yet that trouble brought her to Christ, and taught her to pray. Without it she might have lived and died in careless ignorance, and never seen Jesus at all. Surely it was good for her that she was afflicted ( Psalm 119:71 ). Let us mark this well. There is nothing which shows our ignorance so much as our impatience under trouble. We forget that every cross is a message from God, and intended to do us good in the end.

I have frequently spoken to you concerning the faith of this Canaanite woman—of the way in which Christ tried it and of the manner in which, at length, He honored it—and granted all that the suppliant sought. The story is so full of meaning that one might turn it this way, that way and the other way, but always see jewels in it. But I am going to use it with only one aim, namely, to encourage those who have faith enough to seek Jesus, but have not yet, to their joy and peace, been quite able to find Him.

I have frequently spoken to you concerning the faith of this Canaanite woman—of the way in which Christ tried it and of the manner in which, at length, He honored it—and granted all that the suppliant sought. The story is so full of meaning that one might turn it this way, that way and the other way, but always see jewels in it. But I am going to use it with only one aim, namely, to encourage those who have faith enough to seek Jesus, but have not yet, to their joy and peace, been quite able to find Him. This woman had come to her last word. I do not see what more she could have said. When Christ had likened her to a dog, she had consented to it and said, "Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." She had come to her last word and now Christ gives her His best word. It is His way, sometimes, to make us wait till we are completely exhausted and can say and do no more—then He comes in with the fullness of His Divine Power and gives to us what we have importunately sought at His hands. Our extremity is His opportunity. I. The first remark which I shall make and enlarge upon is that FAITH ALONE CAN KEEP A SOUL UNDER DISCOURAGEMENT SEEKING AFTER CHRIST. Other causes may send us a certain distance along the road, but only faith will bring us to the goal of assured rest. That which made this woman seek the Savior was, first of all, parental love. She loved her daughter. She longed to have the devil cast out of her, that her daughter might not be so grievously vexed. That started her going and carried her some way towards the blessing—but she would have stopped short of the blessing she desired if she had relied only upon natural love. Her earnestness, also, to a large extent, urged her forward. When she desired healing for her daughter, she meant what she said.

I mean to dwell Especially upon those words at the end of the verse, "Be it unto you even as you will," but before we consider them, I should like to remind you again, as I did in the reading, that our Lord admired this woman's faith. He said unto her, "O woman, great is your faith." She was humble, she was patient, she was persevering, she was affectionate towards her child, but our Savior did not mention any of these things, for He was most of all struck by her faith. What other good things she had sprang out of her faith, so the Lord Jesus went at once to the root of the matter and, as it were, held up His hands in astonishment and exclaimed, "O woman, great is your faith." Her faith really was great, extremely great, when you consider that she was a Gentile and one of a race that had, ages before, been doomed. The Canaanite race was one in whose nature idolatry seemed to be ingrained, yet this woman showed that she had greater faith than many a Jew! There are two cases of extraordinary faith recorded in the early part of Matthew's Gospel—and in both of these instances where our Savior expressed His astonishment at the greatness of the faith, the believers were Gentiles. Of the centurion at Capernaum He said, "Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great a faith, no, not in Israel." It is a wonderful thing when persons who have lived in ignorance and vice exhibit great faith. We are glad when those who have been brought up religiously and morally are led to believe in Christ, but we are often more astonished when the immoral— those who have previously known nothing of true godliness—are enabled by Divine Grace to exercise great faith in Christ. "O woman, great is your faith," said our Lord, for it was great even apart from her being a Gentile, for it had been sorely tried.

WE learn from this chapter, dear Friends, that our Master was tired of battling with hypocrites and formalists and, therefore, withdrew Himself from them. They had come to Him with their foolish charges that His disciples did not observe the traditions of the elders and they made a great fuss about meats, drinks, washing of hands and all sorts of trifles. The Savior spoke very effectively to them—what if I say that He fired His great gun once and for all and silenced them? He told them that the real defilement which rendered men unclean before God was not a matter of externals, but it concerned the heart—and that it was not that which entered into a man by way of meats and drinks which defiled him—but that which came out of him in his words and actions which were the result of the impure desires within his heart. Having thus, as it were, annihilated their flimsy arguments, or scattered them to the four winds of Heaven, the Master went right away from the quibblers. Do you not feel, sometimes, as if you would like to act in the same way? If you are true Believers. If you have learned to worship God in spirit and in truth, do you not get weary with the endless wrangles about rituals, outward ceremonies and the special and particular way in which Divine Worship should be performed? Do you not feel as if there were something better for you to do than to be always fighting about these secondary matters? Besides this, the atmosphere that was round about these hypocrites and formalists was so heavy, so laden with noxious fog, so unfit for a spiritually-minded person to breathe, that the Lord wanted to get right away from it to some quiet place where He might rest and, as it were, recover Himself from the sense of oppression and weariness which had come over Him in such company.