Jesus
went out from there, and withdrew into the region of Tyre and Sidon. Behold, a Canaanite woman came out from those borders, and cried, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, you son of David! My daughter is severely possessed by a demon!” But he answered her not a word. His disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away; for she cries after us.”
Matthew 15:21-23
Matthew 15 [16.] So Jesus said, “Do you also still not understand? Don’t you understand that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the belly, and then out of the body? But the things which proceed out of the mouth come out of the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies. These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands doesn’t defile the man.”
Matthew 15 [21.] Jesus went out from there, and withdrew into the region of Tyre and Sidon. Behold, a Canaanite woman came out from those borders, and cried, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, you son of David! My daughter is severely possessed by a demon!”
Matthew 15 [23.] But he answered her not a word.
His disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away; for she cries after us.”
Matthew 15 [24.] But he answered, “I wasn’t sent to anyone but the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Meaning:
Jesus had just taught that what truly defiles a person comes from the heart, not from food or unwashed hands (Matthew 15:10-17; Matthew 15:18-20). Immediately afterwards he went into Gentile territory, where he met a woman whom many Jews would have considered unclean. Her story is one of the most surprising in the Gospels.
- “He withdrew into the region of Tyre and Sidon”
Tyre and Sidon were ancient Phoenician port cities on the Mediterranean coast, north of Galilee, in what is now Lebanon. They were wealthy trading centers with a long history of idolatry. Yet Jesus had said that if his mighty works had been done there, “they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes” (Matthew 11:21). Mark adds that Jesus entered a house and “didn’t want anyone to know it, but he couldn’t escape notice” (Mark 7:24). He was seeking rest from the crowds and the conflict with the Pharisees.
- “A Canaanite woman”
Mark calls her “a Greek, a Syrophoenician by race” (Mark 7:26). Matthew uses an older and more striking word: Canaanite. The Canaanites were the people whom Israel displaced when they entered the promised land, and in Israel’s memory they stood for paganism. Yet Matthew’s own genealogy of Jesus includes Rahab of Jericho, a Canaanite woman of faith (Matthew 1:5). Jesus also reminded his hometown that Elijah was sent “to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow” (Luke 4:26). God’s mercy had reached this region before.
- “Have mercy on me, Lord, you son of David!”
This Gentile woman addressed Jesus with the title of Israel’s Messiah. “Son of David” recalled God’s promise to David: “I will set up your offspring after you, who will proceed out of your body, and I will establish his kingdom” (2 Samuel 7:12). Two blind men in Israel had used the same cry, “Have mercy on us, son of David!” (Matthew 9:27). She did not ask for justice or reward, only mercy. Her request was for her daughter, who was “severely possessed by a demon.” She came as a mother pleading for her child.
- “But he answered her not a word”
This is one of the hardest moments in the Gospels. Jesus, who had compassion on the crowds, said nothing. His silence was not indifference, as the end of the story shows (Matthew 15:28). It drew out and tested her faith, and it exposed the attitude of the disciples.
- “Send her away; for she cries after us”
The disciples were annoyed. She kept crying out behind them, and they wanted peace. Their request may mean “Give her what she wants and send her away”, or simply “Get rid of her.” Either way, they saw her as a nuisance. Jesus answered that he was sent “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24), but the conversation was not over.
The Significance of Matthew 15:21-23
- Mercy for outsiders
A Canaanite woman, outside Israel’s covenant, called Jesus “son of David” and asked for mercy. Her story points ahead to the gospel going to all nations. No one is too far outside to cry out to Jesus.
- When God seems silent
Sometimes prayer meets silence. Jesus taught his disciples “that they must always pray, and not give up” (Luke 18:1). Silence is not the same as refusal.
Cross-References:
Mark 7:26: "Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by race." Mark’s parallel account.
Luke 4:26: "Elijah was sent to none of them, except to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon," God’s mercy to a woman of Sidon.
2 Samuel 7:12: "I will set up your offspring after you," The promise behind the title “son of David.”
Conclusion: Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon, where a Canaanite woman cried out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, you son of David!” and begged him to free her daughter from a demon. He did not answer her, and the disciples urged him to send her away. The passage shows a Gentile mother’s persistent faith in the Messiah of Israel and prepares for the mercy that Jesus would show her.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible