Sermon – An Exegetical Dot Point Sermon
Matthew 15:21–28
Sermon Preached by The Rev’d Tracey Gracey on Sunday 16 August, 2026
Introduction
Today I’m taking myself out of my comfort zone and I’m going to preach an exegetical sermon on our Gospel reading.
This simply means looking closely at the biblical text to explore what it is saying. Today we’re going to do that by working our way through the passage verse by verse. Lucky for us, there are only eight verses!
But I think it is worth doing because this is probably one of the most controversial stories in the Gospels, and it can leave us feeling a little uncomfortable and unsettled.
This story is told in both Mark and Matthew’s Gospels, but there are some significant differences between the two accounts, which is why I have chosen to stay with today’s text.
As we engage with the passage, I will also draw on the reflections of two theologians: Barbara Brown Taylor and Australian biblical scholar Alan Cadwallader.
Matthew 15:21
“Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon.”
- Tyre and Sidon were in predominantly Gentile territory.
- The geographical movement matters: Jesus has already crossed a boundary before the woman appears.
Matthew 15:22
“Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’”
- Matthew deliberately identifies her as “a Canaanite woman.”
- “Canaanite” was not the usual contemporary geographical description for someone from this region.
- Matthew appears deliberately to reach back into Israel’s history.
- The term carries the long and difficult historical memory of the relationship between Israel and the peoples of Canaan.
- Matthew is making her status as an outsider unmistakable.
- She is separated from Jesus by several boundaries:
- gender;
- ethnicity;
- religious heritage;
- geography;
- social convention.
- Yet Jesus has entered her region. She may be the outsider from Israel’s perspective, but Jesus and the disciples are the visitors.
Important to note
- Alan Cadwallader notes that there are two women at the centre of this story — the mother and the daughter.
- The daughter never appears before Jesus.
- She never speaks.
- She makes no request.
- Yet she is the reason the entire encounter happens.
- The mother has come because someone she loves cannot come and speak for herself.
- The mother becomes her daughter’s voice and advocate.
- Interestingly, the mother doesn’t say:
“Have mercy on my daughter.” - She says: “Have mercy on me.”
- Her daughter’s suffering has become her suffering.
- Her persistence throughout the story is persistence on behalf of someone she loves.
“Lord, Son of David”
- “Son of David” is a strongly Jewish, messianic title.
- There is an extraordinary irony here: the Canaanite outsider recognises something about Jesus that many insiders have struggled to recognise.
Matthew 15:23
“But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’”
- Jesus’ first response is silence.
- Matthew doesn’t tell us why.
- The disciples respond: “Send her away.”
- But Jesus’ silence has not silenced her.
- “She keeps shouting after us” conveys persistence.
- The disciples see a disruptive woman; she sees a daughter who desperately needs help.
- She has effectively become a problem to be dealt with.
Matthew 15:24
“He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’”
- Jesus finally speaks, but his response reinforces the boundary.
- His mission is directed towards Israel.
- This is consistent with Matthew 10, where Jesus sent the disciples to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
- This is bigger than Jesus simply being rude to a woman.
- A much bigger question is emerging:
How wide is Jesus’ mission? - The woman is asking Jesus to act outside the stated boundaries of that mission.
- Barbara Brown Taylor describes it as a line: Israel and the stated mission on one side; this woman and her daughter on the other.
Matthew 15:25
“But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’”
- Jesus’ silence has not stopped her.
- The disciples have not stopped her.
- The boundary Jesus has described has not stopped her.
- Her actions embody her persistence.
- She simply says: “Lord, help me.”
Matthew 15:26
“He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’”
- These are probably the most confronting words in the story.
- Jesus uses a household metaphor:
- children;
- bread;
- dogs.
- The children represent Israel.
- The bread represents what Jesus has come to give.
- The dogs represent those outside Israel — which includes the woman standing before him.
- The distinction is clear:
the children have a place at the table; the dogs do not. - There have been attempts to soften Jesus’ words by saying the Greek means “little dogs” or household pets.
- Cadwallader challenges this. Whatever kind of dog is envisaged, the distinction remains — the children belong at the table and the dogs do not.
What is Jesus doing?
- Is he testing her?
- Is he voicing the accepted boundary between Israel and the Gentiles?
- Or is this a genuine limit in his understanding of his mission at this point?
- Matthew doesn’t tell us.
- Barbara Brown Taylor takes Jesus’ humanity seriously enough to consider whether Jesus can genuinely encounter, listen, learn and change.
Matthew 15:27
“She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’”
- This is one of the very few occasions in the Gospels where someone enters into an argument with Jesus and appears to win.
- The woman doesn’t simply persist in asking for help; she challenges Jesus’ argument using his own metaphor.
- She accepts the image of the children being fed but points out that this doesn’t mean there is nothing for those beyond the table.
- There can be enough — giving something to her daughter doesn’t mean taking something away from Israel.
- She has listened carefully to Jesus, understood his metaphor and constructed a persuasive response from within it.
- Cadwallader points out the irony: the woman who has just been compared with a dog is the one who listens, reasons and produces the persuasive argument.
Matthew 15:28
“Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.”
- Jesus doesn’t argue back or correct her. Instead:
“Woman, great is your faith.” - The woman who entered the story as the Canaanite outsider is now the person Jesus holds up as having great faith.
- Her great faith is not simply persistence — it has listened, engaged, questioned and kept the conversation open.
- Barbara Brown Taylor’s interpretation is that something happens to Jesus in this conversation.
- The woman doesn’t simply receive something from Jesus; Jesus receives something from her.
- Her persistence, insight and faith open something new.
- Taylor sees this encounter contributing to a widening understanding of Jesus’ mission.
- And Matthew brings us back to the second woman:
“Her daughter was healed.” - The daughter has never spoken, yet she has been the reason for everything her mother has said and done.
- The mother has refused to give up on someone she loves who could not speak for herself.
Closing Reflection
The Canaanite woman came to Jesus because she needed something from him. But she also brought something to the encounter.
Are we open to the possibility that an encounter with someone else might challenge us, broaden our thinking, or help us see something differently?
This woman also reminds us that great faith can be found in trusting, persisting, and refusing to give up on those we love.
Where in our lives might we need this kind of faith?