Inviting people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus requires that we challenge people to follow Jesus in a way that elicits, encourages, and exposes a genuine relationship with Jesus...

This week we are looking at an event from history that is recorded in a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of Matthew. After having a confrontation with the self-righteous religious leaders of the day over His unwillingness to have His disciples follow their man-made rules, which we looked at last week, Jesus and His disciples withdrew into the region of Tyre and Sidon. Upon arriving near these cities, as Jesus and His disciples remained outside of the city, a Canaanite woman approached them to request that Jesus heal their daughter.

As a Canaanite, this would be a woman who was not Jewish ethnically or religiously. Instead, this woman was from an ethnic group who were considered the enemies of the Jewish people and who worshiped false gods instead of the Lord. This was a woman whose descendants the Lord had commanded the Jewish people to conquer and destroy from the land that they had been given by the Lord, which the Jewish people referred to as the Promised Land. In spite of the risks of approaching Jesus and His disciples, took the risk to approach Jesus from a distance and request Jesus to do what she believed He could do to help her daughter.

Matthew explained that Jesus responded to her request with silence. Now for this Canaanite woman, this response would not have been that unusual, based on the history of the ethnic hostility and animosity that existed between the groups. The woman, however, responded by persisting in her request, which would have challenged the social and cultural expectations of the day. While Jesus listened to the woman, the disciples wanted nothing to do with the woman. Instead, they wanted Jesus to drive the woman away. Matthew tells us that Jesus responded to the disciples request by explaining, loud enough that the woman would have been able to hear, that "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

Once again Jesus response would have been what would have been expected by a Jewish person to someone who was viewed as an enemy of a different ethnicity. This response would have challenged this woman as to why she was asking Jesus to do for her what she was asking Him to do. Instead of being on her way and leaving them alone, Matthew explained that this woman came closer to Jesus. And upon approaching Jesus, this woman bowed before Him and proclaimed, “Lord help me!”

Jesus responded to this woman’s request by telling a parable: "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." Now a parable is an earthly story that is designed to reveal a deeper spiritual truth. The point that Jesus wanted to make unmistakably clear in this parable was that the children, i.e. Jewish people, were in a position of right and privilege, which the dogs, i.e. Gentiles like this Canaanite woman, cannot hope to share.

Now I want us to take a minute and imagine ourselves in this event from history as this Canaanite woman. I want us to place ourselves in her shoes. You are this Canaanite woman. You have heard about this Jewish guy named Jesus. You have heard the word on the street that He teaches like no one else teaches. You have heard the word on the street that He can miraculously heal people who are sick or who are possessed by evil spirits.

And your daughter, whom you love, is suffering greatly at the hands of an evil demonic spirit. And you know enough about the Jewish religious system to know that Jesus was doing the very things that their Messiah was predicted to be able to do. So you approach Jesus and place yourself in the most vulnerable position possible, risking verbal abuse and even physical harm, in hopes that Jesus would heal your daughter. And how does Jesus respond to you? Jesus responds to you by refusing to answer your request and then calls you a dog. Jesus ignores you and then calls you an ethnic slur. You are the Canaanite woman. What would you be thinking? How would you be feeling? How would you respond?

Now right about now you are thinking “surely Jesus would not have used an ethnic slur to disrespect this woman. Dave, you cannot be right. Jesus would never speak to someone in such a way.”  If that thought and question is running through your mind, here’s the thing: as much as you may want to sanitize Jesus words here, that is exactly what Jesus said. And we know that is the case because of how this woman responded to Jesus.

Now this begs a second question, which is “Why? Why would Jesus say such a rude and disrespectful thing to this woman?” We discover the answer to these questions in what the woman has to say next, which Matthew records for us in Matthew 15:27:

 But she said, "Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters' table."

Now the woman’s response, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “Well, if we Canaanite Gentiles are dogs, at least the dogs have their due as well. Even Canaanite Gentile dogs like us have a right to be fed, even if all we get is the leftovers.” You see, this woman responded to Jesus ethnic insult with a feisty response. This woman responded to Jesus parable by turning Jesus parable against him.

And whether she realized it or not, this woman’s response revealed the important reality that the Messiah and His mission of rescue, while beginning with the Jewish people, would not end with the Jewish people. This woman, in her response, was reinforcing the reality that the Messiah's activity amongst the Jewish people was designed so that the Jewish people would be a light to all ethnicities and nations, not just the Jewish people.  

You see, by telling this parable that contained an ethnic slur, Jesus was challenging this woman in a way that stretched and humbled her heart. By telling this parable that contained an ethnic slur, Jesus was challenging this woman in a way that would elicit and encourage her faith in such a way that her faith in Him would be exposed for everyone to see. We see Jesus reveal the reality of this woman’s faith in Jesus by His response to the woman’s feisty and witty comeback, which Matthew records for us in verse 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.

Matthew tells us that Jesus responded to this woman’s feisty and witty response to His parable by proclaiming her faith in the presence of His disciples. Jesus recognized the justice of her case and the boldness of her refusal to accept defeat when He ignored or denied her request. As a result of her faithful persistence and humility to continue to engage Jesus, she won the argument and Jesus responded by granting her request. You see, Jesus did not change His mind and mission. Instead, Jesus used this verbal debate to draw out the great faith of this woman who was an enemy of the Jewish people from a different ethnicity.

And it is here that we discover a timeless truth when it comes to inviting people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus. And that timeless truth is this: Inviting people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus requires that we challenge people to follow Jesus in a way that elicits, encourages, and exposes a genuine relationship with Jesus.

Inviting people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus requires that we recognize the reality that, just like the Canaanite woman and her love for her daughter, people may be drawn to Jesus because of the admirable qualities and strengths within them. Inviting people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus requires that we recognize the reality that, just like the Canaanite woman, Jesus did not always make it easy for people to respond.

Instead, Jesus challenged the woman and stretched and humbled her heart, because Jesus desired that there be a response of genuine understanding and deep commitment. And in the same way, inviting people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus requires that we challenge those that we are inviting to follow Jesus and live in relationship with Jesus with a desire that there be a response of genuine understanding and deep commitment.

You see, when we read the accounts of Jesus life that are recorded for us in the Bible, we discover that Jesus never presented the gospel in a way so as to make it as easy as possible by ignoring the challenging or difficult elements of the message of the gospel. The timeless reality is that the message of the gospel contains challenging ideas that are difficult for people to hear, such as the call to turn from their rebellion and turn to a relationship with Jesus that places Him first.

The message of the gospel contains challenging ideas that are difficult for people to hear, such as the call to live a life that is driven by a desire to become like Jesus, and not just receive forgiveness from Jesus. And as followers of Jesus we are called to share the message of the gospel to those in our immediate sphere of influence, to dare to reach out with the message of the gospel to those who are not in our immediate sphere of influence, and to care about the whole world hearing about the message of the gospel.

So here is a question for us to consider: How are you inviting people to follow Jesus? How do you share the message of Jesus with those who do not know Jesus? Are you trying to invite people to follow Jesus by ignoring challenging or difficult elements of what it means to follow Jesus? Are you simply inviting people to receive something from Jesus, or are you inviting people to follow Jesus as they receive something from Jesus? 

Because inviting people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus requires that we challenge people to follow Jesus in a way that elicits, encourages, and exposes a genuine relationship with Jesus...