Mercy on Display

Introduction: A Personal Story of Suffering

I want to be transparent with you this morning. A lot of times with preachers and pastors, we like to make it seem like our lives are picture perfect, but I want to push all my chips on the table.

Our second son, Ezra, was born on January 9th, 2024. When he was born, he had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and a true knot in the cord. Only 2% of babies make it out alive in these circumstances. My wife had chosen to give birth at home, but at the 36-hour mark, our son's heart began to decelerate. My heart just dropped. This was not what I expected.

But in the midst of suffering, the Lord directed me to Philippians 4. He said, "Turn to Philippians chapter 4." And it says, "Again, I say, rejoice. With everything with prayer and supplication, make your requests known unto God and the very peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus." Then He said, "Keep reading and think on these things."

And I'm sitting there saying, "But you see my experience." He said, "I KNOW. BUT THINK ON THESE THINGS."

Have you ever had a time where what you expected was going against your experience? That's where we find ourselves in Matthew chapter 15, verses 21 through 28.

The Setting: An Unexpected Encounter

Jesus went away from the region of Galilee, where the Jews resided. Why was He leaving? He was leaving because the Pharisees and Sadducees had been conspiring to kill Him. So in His wisdom, He withdrew to a region called Tyre and Sidon. This was a 41-mile journey into a gentile territory that the Jews considered unclean.

Notice the wisdom of Jesus. He goes into a house, and Mark tells us He did not want anyone to know. But immediately, a Canaanite woman from that region came out crying, "Have mercy on me, oh Lord, son of David. My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon."

Understanding the Canaanite Woman

Matthew calls her a Canaanite woman, while Mark calls her a Syrophoenician woman. They're not in conflict—Matthew is writing to Jews, so he uses a term they would understand as referring to a gentile. Mark is writing to gentiles, so he uses her ethnic designation.

The Canaanites appear in the Old Testament as descendants of Ham, the son of Noah. In Genesis 9, after the flood, Noah cultivates a vineyard and becomes drunk. Ham sees his father uncovered and instead of covering him, he goes and gossips to his brothers. His brothers cover their father. When Noah finds out, he curses the Canaanites, the descendants of Ham.

Matthew uses the term "Canaanite" deliberately—to show you how bad of a people they were considered to be.

A Mother at Her Human Limits

This mom came to the border of what I call her human limits. She recognized that she could not do anything about what her daughter was dealing with. Can I get some parents in here who have ever been in a space where your child is dealing with something and you have gone to your human limits? Where you have no means of helping them? Doesn't it make you feel powerless? Doesn't it make you feel boxed in, like you can't do absolutely nothing about what they're dealing with?

But notice how she approaches Jesus. She says, "Have mercy on me." She doesn't come to Him entitled, as if He owes her something. She recognizes her status in relation to Jesus. She says, "Oh Lord, son of David." She recognizes His authority. She knows who He is. She knows He's the Messiah.

The Test of Faith

But then something unexpected happens. Verse 23: "But he did not answer her a word."

Have you ever had God not answer your prayer? I want to talk to those who seemingly are offended by God because it seemingly He does not respond the way you think He should respond. He's not showing up the way you think He should be showing up.

But notice the text. In verse 22, she professed her faith. In verse 23, He's about to test her faith. There is no good confession if there is no test. When you go to school and have an exam, they are testing knowledge of your previous confession. And often times teachers are silent in the midst of tests.

Have you ever had Jesus be silent on you? You're going through something and you're like, "Lord, I need you to speak." Mute. Nothing. You call your prayer partner. "Fam, you got a word?" No, I ain't got nothing. You go to get prayer. They just pray and say, "God, give them strength," and you're like, what?

The disciples came and begged Him, saying, "Send her away, for she is crying out after us." They wanted Him to answer her request and send her away because she was bringing too much attention to them.

But notice something incredible: The disciples were around Jesus and didn't quite understand His actions. Yet this woman, a gentile, has full revelation of who He is. Just because you have sight doesn't mean you have vision. Just because you see doesn't mean you actually see. You can be around the things of God and still not know Him.

The Hard Truth

In verse 24, Jesus responds: "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

How do you handle when Jesus tells you the truth? How do you handle when God's word bears truth on your soul? Because she's going to have two opportunities to become offended by what He's saying.

Notice He's stalling on her request, but He's actually testing the perseverance of her faith. Is your faith shortsighted? Do you come into God's house and believe, but on Monday you struggle, on Tuesday you struggle, on Wednesday you struggle, on Thursday you struggle, on Friday you struggle, and then you drag yourself back into God's household on Sunday and you can believe again? But you haven't believed God all week.

Humility and Worship

But then look at verse 25. She came and knelt before Him, saying, "Lord, help me."

Watch this. There's something that happens in the life of a believer when your worship is paired with revelation of who Jesus is. When you know who Jesus is, your worship looks differently. Why? Because I don't need anything to get me started. All I need to do is have a memory of who He is.

The Bible says she knelt before Him. She took a lower place as it relates to His authority. One of the worst things you could do in the presence of the Lord is be prideful and think that He owes you something. The very fact that you woke up this morning. The very fact that your heart didn't stop beating while you were sleeping. The very fact that you still have a job. The very fact that your children have a sound mind. These are the things we take for granted.

One of the greatest prayers you could ever pray is not this Elizabethan English to try to get God to think you're more pious than you are. One of the greatest prayers you could ever pray is, "Lord, help me. I found myself in a jam. If I'm a believer, Lord, help me. I can't help myself."

The Difficult Teaching

In verse 26, Jesus answered, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."

Now, watch the text. He literally is saying to her something she would have heard in culture. Most people think Jesus is being disrespectful because he calls her like a dog, but she would have heard this from the Jews—that's how they referred to gentiles. So it wouldn't have been offensive to her because she was used to it.

In that society, dogs were not household pets. They roamed around and got fed by the crumbs that fell from the table. It wasn't intentional—that's just how they got nourishment.

But watch how she responds to truth in verse 27: "Yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table."

What she says is, "I recognize the truth, but I honor your sufficiency." Even if I have a crumb, it's so sufficient in the crumb that the crumb will meet whatever I need.

We have to be careful to get away from a Jesus-plus gospel. We want Jesus and money. Jesus and fame. Jesus and houses. Jesus and cars. But watch this woman. She says, "Man, the crumb is enough."

That's another level of faith because you don't get a chance to determine the outcome. In our immaturity in faith, we want God to do what we say. But when you grow in faith, it's "God, whatever you say, I'm okay with that." Because Romans 8:28 is still true: "All things work together for the good of them that love the Lord and those who are called according to his word." The good, the bad, the ugly—all things work together.

The Commendation

In verse 28, Jesus answered her, "Oh woman, great is your faith."

Now, I had a conversation with my pastor, and I was wrestling with what to say here. He said, "Son, say it." And here's what I'm going to say:

If you have been in Christ for any length of time, you've heard people preach this text and they exalt faith. Jesus exalts faith, right? And you think that Jesus responds because of her faith. But we have to be careful not to decrease the deity of Jesus.

If Jesus is the hypostatic union—which means He's both God and man—then He still has the attributes of God, which means He's all-knowing, all-wise, and all-powerful. Jesus knew what He was going to do before she ever came. So He doesn't respond because of her faith. He actually exercises His authority over her life. He commends her faith, but He exercises authority.

We have to be careful not to exalt our faith above God's character. We walk around in culture with this ungodly idea of manifesting. We think we could create our own world outside of the power of God. But it is His power that enables me. The Bible says it's in Him I live, I move, and have my being.

Away with this manifesting gospel that talks about our faith apart from Jesus.

When your faith is immature, you see Jesus as the vehicle of power. But when your faith is mature, you see Him as the source of power. On the day of Pentecost, He didn't need a vehicle of power. He sent the Holy Spirit that descended on them like a dove and fell on them like tongues of fire. Why? Because He was the source of power.

We can't exalt our faith above God's character because when you do, you idolize your faith. And what happens is you set yourself up for unnecessary disappointment.

I've been there. I remember getting a call that my godmother was about to slip from this life to the next. I remember sitting in Columbus, Ohio, getting so depressed that I stayed in my basement with no windows. I was disappointed because I had deified my faith instead of trusting in the source of power.

What your mind would have you think, and what the enemy would love you to think, is that your faith didn't work. But here's what I want to tell you: Yours is to believe. It's God's responsibility to handle the outcome.

This mom didn't know how Jesus was going to respond. She just trusted in His ability because He had power.

The Display of Mercy

But watch this. He says, "Great is your faith. Be it done to you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly.

Now, this is the part I save for last. In Deuteronomy 7:1-2, the Israelites were commanded to totally obliterate the people group of the Canaanites.

You might say, "Well, how does a Canaanite woman show up in Matthew 15 if they were supposed to totally obliterate them?" They didn't fully obey God. So the woman shows up in Matthew 15.

Why did I call this the display of mercy? Because Jesus is both God and man. He would have known what the Israelites were supposed to do. But because of His mercy, He extends mercy to this woman because she believed in who He was and who He came to be—the Messiah.

Every time you see the working of God's power, it is a display of mercy. Mercy means simply to help one out of distress or misery. This woman wasn't even supposed to exist. But because of His mercy, she exists and her daughter is made well.

I wish I had five people in here that would say, "Man, I'm not even supposed to be here. But it's because of His mercy that everywhere I go, I don't have to be entitled to nothing. I exist because of His mercy."

I wish I had five people that would say, "Man, I don't care what you say about my worship, my praise. I'm going to exalt Jesus. It's because of His mercy."

It's His mercy that I didn't die. It's His mercy that we ain't got AIDS. It's His mercy that I didn't commit suicide. It's His mercy that I'm saved. My son is alive because of His mercy.

We're not entitled to anything. But what He does give is His mercy.

When you go into work on Monday morning, you're mercy on display. When you walk in your house this evening, you're mercy on display. When you go to the restaurant, you're mercy on display. No matter where you go, you're mercy on display.

So we see three things in the text. We see the experience of the mother with her daughter. We see the expectation of what she believed Jesus was going to do. And we see the exception—because Jesus knew He was called to the Jews, but He saw faith in a gentile recognizing who He was.

So the next time you want to complain, the next time you feel ungrateful, the next time you feel entitled, just remember it was because of His mercy. Not your faith. Not your prayer life. It was His mercy.

I've been studying the attributes of God. There are incommunicable attributes—attributes God does not share with humanity. And there are communicable attributes—attributes that God does share with humanity to an extent. Mercy is a communicable attribute of God. But the way in which God shows it, it's beyond our comprehension.

Altar Call

Maybe you're in here and you've heard this Jesus and 2819 is a place where you can belong before you believe, but you don't really know this Christ. Maybe you still have questions. Maybe you're still skeptical. But you can't deny the tugging you feel on your heart right now.

The Bible says that in the day you hear Him, don't harden your heart. I went to a conference one time, and a pastor said, "I get church people saved all the time." He said, "I get people that have gone to church but never got saved. I get people that have been around church but never knew Jesus."

I don't want that to be you. I'm not trying to scare you, but I am trying to say that time is running out. Jesus is returning, and the only thing that divides you from eternal damnation is a relationship with Him.

If you know that today you really, really, really need to surrender your heart to Jesus, slip that hand in the air. Say, "It's me." If you're online, type "it's me." Every eye closed, every head bowed. If I'm talking to you, raise your hand. Stand where you are. If you're raising your hand, stand where you are.

There's no prayer that's going to save you. It's the Holy Spirit that's regenerating your heart. Let's pray.