HOW MUCH GRACE?

What do you make of this?... (Matt 15:29-39)                  

Jesus has returned to Galilee from an arduous trip to the coast. The highlight?... a Canaanitish mother of a demon-possessed girl was met with undeserved divine grace, rather than being shunned as a pathetic puppy dog.                          

Is there any more grace to spare for others?                    

Let’s see!...

Huge crowds of people follow Jesus and fling down their crippled loved-ones at His feet. 

Why?...because they’re tired of carrying them all the way up this hill!                           

Not only does He heal them, He then feeds maybe 10,000 people with just a handful of loaves and a few little fish.

How many loaves? Seven (7)                                     

How many spuris (capacious picnic baskets) FULL of left-overs?                                       

Seven (7)...obviously this prime number is a favourite with God!

No - there’s no limit to divine grace. The sad part is that they glorified the God of Israel, not realizing He was sitting right there in front of them!

What would you have done?

"O WOMAN, GREAT IS THY FAITH"

Why does Jesus now wander off to the Mediterranean coast?                                   

Is He looking for some well-earned R&R? (Matt 15:21-28)                                          
Here comes the highlight of his visit, in fact...                                                            
This is a turning point!....just watch who He meets there...

The mother of a Canaanitish demon-possessed girl.

Who could possibly be more unlikely to benefit from the Messiah’s visit than these females, in an area once settled by Canaan’s descendants who are despised by Jews as cursed!                                                                                                   

They are at the bottom of the barrel – the dregs of human society.

This woman honours Jesus for who He is: “O Lord, thou Son of David”                  

As a Jew, He sees her as nothing but a puppy dog (Gk: kunarion) looking for crumbs off the table and dismisses her with:                                                     


“I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel”

She then does what no Jew had done...           


...came and worshipped Him saying: “Lord, help me”

Would you beg in worship at the feet of this Jew?