Did Jesus come only for the Jews?

In Matthew 15, a Canaanite woman asks Jesus to heal her daughter, and his response is, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”  Did Jesus come just for the Jews?  What about the rest of us non-Jews?  Did he not come for me?  What’s this all about??

Well, let’s look at this passage in context, starting with the first half of the chapter:

In the beginning of the chapter in verses 1-20, the Pharisees question why Jesus’ disciples do not wash their hands before eating.  Now, they weren’t just talking about table manners.  Instead, they were talking about a Jewish ritual that was expected of all Jews. 

Expectedly, Jesus draws their attention to their hearts.  He contrasts tradition with the commands of God.  He asks in verse 3, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?”  He is addressing that the Pharisees would encourage others to give what should have been used to support their parents financially instead to be “devoted to God” (vs 5).  However, this practice (giving money to religious purposes rather than parents) was breaking the commandment of God to “honor your father and mother” (Matthew 15:4, Exodus 20:12, Deut. 5:16).  In other words, honoring God should not be based on human rules or religion, but on relationship and obedience to our living God.

Jesus takes it a step further when he contrasts food entering the mouth to words exiting the mouth.  In verse 11, he says to the entire crowd, “ What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” (vs 11).  This is very controversial because he is countering the cultural/situational book of the Law to draw their attention to why the book of the Law was put into place: to make people’s hearts right before God.

In verse 12, the disciples are concerned that Jesus has offended the Pharisees.  When they ask if he realizes that he has offended the teachers of the Law, Jesus responds, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots” (vs 13).  He tells his disciples to leave them because they are blind guides who will be uprooted. 

This is our transition into the second half of Matthew 15:

Jesus withdraws to Tyre and Sidon, which were coastal cities that neighbored the Phoenicians (named so for their purple cloth) and their land.  In this area, the people has a history of worshipping other gods, including Baal.  They had a serious history of sin and judgment (Matthew 11:20-22).  As Jesus is walking along the way, a Canaanite woman follows him, calling out to him to have mercy on her possessed daughter—all while Jesus is silent.

Wait.  What?  Jesus ignores her? 

Yes, he continues ignoring her until the disciples finally ask him to send her away because her desperate cries are annoying them.  That’s when Jesus says something interesting:  “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel” (vs 24).  This doesn’t make much sense.  Doesn’t John 3:16 say that God so loved the world?  In Matthew 28:19-20, doesn’t Jesus send out his disciples to make disciples of all nations? 

Well, the woman asks again for Jesus to help her, and Jesus explains that “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs” (vs 26).  She responds that—yes, it is!—even the dogs get scraps from the table. 

Jesus says, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted” (vs 28), and the girl is healed.

Weird.  This passage can be confusing to us—we wonder why Jesus says he has only come to the Jews and why he seems so rude to the Canaanite woman.

Let’s look at the bigger picture.  Man sins.  God sets apart a nation.  He gives them laws to protect them, to show them the seriousness of sin, and to set apart a nation from all others to represent the lineage from which his Son would be born.  He blesses their people, documents their history, and maintains the record. 

Then, Jesus is born as a Jew and he preaches the entire history as being fulfilled in him.  He quotes Isaiah in the tabernacle and says that he is fulfilling the prophecy in Luke 4 to explain that he would be fulfilling Messianic prophecies.  In addition, the entire book of Matthew makes a parallel of the Jewish history to Jesus’ personal life.  In fact, he is constantly taking the Jewish history and identifying with it himself.  He is the sign of Jonah buried in the stomach of a fish for three days and raised to life; he is the Temple destroyed and rebuilt in three days, for example.  Finally, Jesus takes the Law in Matthew 5-7 and provides a deeper teaching of the Law, taking outward actions and teaching about the heart instead. 

Jesus’ whole life is to fulfill the Law and the Prophets (or the Old Testament).  He has come to create a new thing.  In fact, in Matthew 9, Jesus addresses that his new teaching is difficult for people to accept.  He says in Matthew 9:16-17:

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Jesus had come to fulfill the old and make the new.  This is why he was able to teach about the Pharisees that they would be uprooted.  They had never been planted by God in the first place, else their studies would have led them to expect Jesus as the Messiah.  He sees their rotten fruit and says they will uprooted.  They are not truly the people of God.

This is when he creates a new definition of the “people of God.”  He says he has come for the Jews, but when the Canaanite woman provides good fruit—fruit of faith—she receives what she asks, her daughter is healed, and she will not be a plant uprooted.  Instead, we see that she truly has been planted by God because she has recognized Jesus as he is—the Son of God who gives the food from his table to whom he wants.  Because of her fruit, he sees that she is a part of the people of God. 

This is a completely new definition, and agrees with the inspired word written later in Romans 11:17-24.  Discussing the plant of Israel, he explains that the people of God, the Jewish people, are the plant.  However, with this new fulfillment and new way that Jesus has brought, branches will be removed from Israel because of their disbelief.  Likewise, branches will be grafted into spiritual Israel because of their belief: 

If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

Jesus came for the lost sheep of Israel—because he was redefining Israel.  For this, he pushed her to proclaim her faith, identify with him as someone completely dependent on his grace, and then he treated her with more respect and care than he gave to the Pharisees.  He acknowledged her faith as great and brought her healing, and he desires

He wants to do the same thing with each of us.  He wants to see our faith in him to bring us healing—it doesn’t matter who our family is, what we’ve done, what our identities are in!  He has opened a way for all of us; he wants to adopt us into his family, into the nation of Israel to be protected and set apart.  He wants us.

It doesn’t matter who we are.  When we ask for crumbs, Jesus gives us a meal.

To further this fact is a beautiful connection of the Old Testament and New.  Where the Canaanite woman met with Jesus in this story is probably the same geographical location where God sent Elijah when the widow fed him in 1 Kings 17.  He was in Zaraphath, a coastal city between Sidon and Tyre when he lived with the widow and her son, depending on them for food.  God performed a miracle of provision for the widow and even when her son dies, Elijah prays and God brings the son back from the dead.  In the end, the widow proclaims, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth” (vs 24).  This Canaanite woman also accepts God, even before Jesus was made known. 

From the beginning of time, God had the plan to redeem the world, not just the Jews.  When Jesus claims to come for the lost sheep of Israel, he is expecting the woman to call out in faith.  When she does, he is able to redefine the word for the crowds following him.  They see the original Canaanite woman fulfilled in this “second” widow.  They see the vine of Israel including anyone with faith.  They see Pharisees being removed and uprooted from that plant. 

They see a spiritual Israel receiving blessing from God due to their faith.  Jesus fulfills the old and brings in the new, opening a way for all of us to serve the one true God.  Amen.