The crowd tried to stone Jesus because of his words and not because of the miracles he performed.
The Canaanite woman
“I have shown you many good works from my Father; for which of these works do you stone me? The Jews answered and said to him, we do not stone you for any good work, but for blasphemy; because, being a man, you become God to yourself” (John 10:32 -33).
“And when Jesus left there, he went to the parts of Tire and Sidon. Moreover, behold, a Canaanite woman, who had left those surroundings, cried out, saying, Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me. That my daughter was miserable demonized. However, he did not answer a word. Moreover, his disciples, coming to him, begged him, saying, Say goodbye, who has been shouting after us. Moreover, he answered and said, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then she came and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me! However, he answered and said: It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the puppies. Moreover, she said, Yes, Lord, but the dogs also eat of the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table. Then Jesus answered and said to her, O woman, great is your faith! Let it be doing for you as you wish. And from that hour her daughter was made well” (Mt 15:21 -28).
A foreign believer
After reproaching the Pharisees for thinking that serving God was tantamount to following the traditions of men (Mark 7:24-30), Jesus and his disciples went to the lands of Tire and Sidon.
Evangelist Lucas makes it clear that, in foreign lands, Jesus entered a house and did not want them to know that he was there; however, it was not possible to hide. A Greek woman, Syro-Phoenician of blood, who had a daughter possessed by an unclean spirit, upon hearing about Jesus, began to beg her to expel the spirit that tormented her from her daughter.
“For a woman, whose daughter had an unclean spirit, hearing of him, went and threw herself at his feet” (Mk 7:25).
Evangelist Matthew described that the woman left the neighborhood and started to cry saying:
– Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me, that my daughter is miserably demonized! However, despite the pleas, Jesus did not seem to hear her.
Unlike many others who heard of Jesus, the Canaanite woman declared a unique truth:
– ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me …’.
The woman did not cry out for a magician, a sorcerer, a healer, a miracle worker, a doctor, etc., but she did cry out for the Son of David. While the children of Israel questioned whether Christ really was the Son of David, the Son of God, the Canaanite woman cried out full of certainty: – ‘Lord, Son of David…’, an odd certainty when compared to the crowd’s speculations “And the whole crowd was amazed and said, ‘Is this not the Son of David?’ (Mt 12:23).
God had promised in the scriptures that the Messiah would be David’s son, and the people of Israel looked forward to his coming. God had promised that a descendant of David, according to the flesh, would build a house for God and the kingdom of Israel would be established above all kingdoms (2 Sam. 7:13, 16). However, the same prophecy made it clear that this descendant would be the Son of God, for God himself would be his Father, and the descendant his Son.
“I will be his father, and he will be my son; and if I come to transgress, I will punish him with a rod of men, and with the stripes of the sons of men” (2 Sam 7:14).
Even though she was born in the house of David, because Mary was a descendant of David, the scribes and Pharisees rejected the Messiah. Although the Scriptures made it very clear that God had a Son, they did not believe in Christ and rejected the possibility that God has a Son “Who went up to heaven and came down? Who closed the winds in your fists? Who tied the waters to clothing? Who established all ends of the earth? What is your name? Moreover, what is your son’s name, if you know it? ” (Pr 30: 3).
Faced with Jesus’ question: “How do they say that Christ is the son of David?” (Lk 20:41), his accusers were unable to answer why David prophetically called his son Lord, if it is up to the children to honor the parents and not the parents to the children (Lk 20:44), however, what that foreign woman heard about Christ was enough to conclude that Christ was the Son of God whom David called Lord.
Now, although a foreigner, the woman heard of Christ, and the information that reached her led her to conclude that Christ was the promised Messiah, the Seed of David “Behold, the days are coming, saith the LORD, when I will raise up a righteous Branch to David; and, being king, he will reign and act wisely, and will practice judgment and justice in the land” (Jer 23: 5).
Because of the woman’s cry, the disciples were troubled, and asked Christ to send her away. That was when Jesus responded to the disciples saying: – I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Despite being in a foreign land, Jesus emphasized what his mission was “He came for his own, and his own did not receive him” (John 1:11); “Lost sheep have been my people, their shepherds have made them wrong, to the mountains they have diverted them; from hill to hill they walked, they forgot their place of rest” (Jer 50: 6).
As the people of Israel forgot about the ‘place of their rest’, God sent their Son, born of a woman, to announce them:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and oppressed, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28);
“About his Son, who was born of the descendants of David according to the flesh” (Rom. 1: 3).
When summoning his people saying: – Come to me, all you who are tired and oppressed, Jesus identifies himself as being the fulfillment of what was prophesied by the mouth of Jeremiah.
The Messiah’s people rejected him, but the Canaanite woman approached Jesus and worshiped him, saying:
– Lord, help me!
Evangelist Matthew makes it clear that because the woman had asked Christ for help, she was worshiping Him. Because he cried out:
– Lord, help me! The woman’s request was to worship the Son of David.
Having heard about Jesus, the woman believed that He was the Son of David and, at the same time, believed that Christ was the Son of God, because she worshiped Him asking for help. The evangelist makes it clear that the act of asking Christ to grant him the gift of freeing his daughter from that terrible evil, something impossible for men, constituted worship.
The woman’s worship apparently had no effect, as Jesus said, It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the puppies. Christ’s response to the woman was a complement to Christ’s response to the disciples.
The record of the evangelist Mark gives the exact meaning of the phrase of Christ: “Let the children first be satisfied; because it is not convenient to take the children’s bread and throw it to the puppies” (Mark 7:27). Jesus was emphasizing that his mission was linked to the house of Israel, and attending to it would be comparable to the act of a family man who takes bread from his children and gives it to the puppies.
The response of the Canaanite woman is surprising, as she did not act pleasurably when compared to dogs, and replies:
– Yes, Lord, but puppies also eat of the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table. She confirms what Jesus told her, however, emphasizes that she was not looking for food for her children, but for the crumbs that belong to the puppies.
For that woman, the crumb from the Son of David’s table was enough to solve her problem. She demonstrated that she did not intend to take bread from the children who had the right to be participants at the table, but the crumb that fell from the table of the Son of David was enough.
That is when Jesus answered him: – O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish. Moreover, from that hour the woman’s daughter was healthy.
It is important to note that the Canaanite woman was attended to because she believed that Christ was the envoy of God, the Son of David, the Lord, and not because Jesus was moved by the condition of a desperate mother.
It is not the despair of a father or mother that makes God come to the aid of men, for Christ, when he read the Scriptures in the prophet Isaiah, who says “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…,” he said: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21).
The Testimony of Scripture
Many who followed Christ had needs similar to that of the Canaanite woman, however, that mother stood out from the crowd for recognizing two essential truths:
- That Christ was the Son of David, and;
- The Son of God, the Lord.
Although Christ was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, announcing the gospel and performing many miracles, the children of Israel considered Jesus Christ to be just another prophet – “Some, John the Baptist; others, Elias; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets” (Mt 16:14).
As the children of Jacob did not recognize Jesus as the envoy of God, the son of man, Christ addressed his disciples: – ‘And you, who do you say I am?’
That was when the apostle Peter made the wonderful confession (admitted) that Christ is the Son of the living God.
As the Jews could not see that Christ was the promised Messiah, even though they had the Scriptures, the true testimony of God about His Son, Jesus instructed his disciples not to declare this truth to anyone.
“Then he commanded his disciples not to tell anyone that he was Jesus the Christ” (Mt 16:20).
Why didn’t Jesus want the disciples to declare that He was the Christ?
Because Jesus wanted men to believe in him according to the Scriptures, because they are the ones who testified of Him. This is because Jesus makes it clear that: he did not accept the testimony of men, and if he testified of himself his testimony would not be true “If I testify of myself, my testimony is not true” (John 5:31), and that the testimony from the Father (from Scripture) was true and sufficient “There is another who testifies of me, and I know that his testimony of me is true” (John 5:32).
Although we understand that John the Baptist testified of Christ, yet his testimony was a testimony of the truth “You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth” (John 5:33), that is, everything that the Baptist said was directly related to the Scriptures, because only the word of God is the truth (John 17:17).
Now, Jesus did not want his disciples to disclose that He was the Christ because he does not receive testimony from men (John 5:34), before He had a greater testimony, the testimony of the Father, and all men must believe in the testimony that God recorded about His Son in the Scriptures “You search the Scriptures, because you think you have eternal life in them, and they testify of me” (John 5:39).
Believing in God does not result from miracles, before the testimony that the prophets announced about the truth (John 4:48). Telling ‘miracles’ is not a testament to the truth. The apostle Peter makes it clear what it is to witness: “But the word of the LORD remains forever. And this is the word that was evangelized among you” (1 Pet. 1:25). To witness is to speak the word of God, to speak what the Scriptures say, announcing to men that Christ is the Son of God.
Nowadays the emphasis of many is on people and miracles performed by them, but the Bible makes it clear that the ministry of the apostles was not based on miracles, but was based on the word. Peter’s first speech exposed the inhabitants of Jerusalem to the testimony of Scripture (Acts 2:14 -36). Even after a lame man healed at the temple door, he rebuked his listeners so that they would not be amazed at the miraculous sign (Ac 3:12), and then expounded the testimony of Scripture (Ac 3:13 -26).
When the Jews stoned Stephen, he was like John the Baptist, testifying about the truth, that is, expounding the testimony that God gave about his Son, announcing the Scriptures to the angry crowd (Ac 7:51 -53).
If Stephen were counting miraculous signs, he would never be stoned, because the rejection of men is in relation to the word of the gospel and not in relation to miraculous signs (John 6:60). The crowd wanted to stone Jesus because of his words, not because of the miracles he performed.
“I have shown you many good works from my Father; for which of these works do you stone me? The Jews answered and said to him, we do not stone you for any good work, but for blasphemy; because, being a man, you become God to yourself” (John 10:32 -33).
Many saw the miracle that Christ performed for the Canaanite woman; however, the crowd that followed him did not confess that Jesus was the Son of David as she did when she heard about the eternal Word, the word of the Lord that remains forever. The people of Israel were given to hear the Scriptures, but they were short of the Canaanite woman who, on hearing about Jesus, gave credit and cried out for the Son of David, and worshiped him.
The woman’s differential lies in the fact that she heard and believed, while the crowd that followed Christ saw the miracles (Mt 11:20 -22), examined the scriptures (John 5:39) and mistakenly concluded that Jesus was only A Prophet. They rejected Christ so that they had no life (John 5:40).
In the Canaanite woman and in the many Gentiles who believed, Isaiah’s announcement is fulfilled:
“I was sought from those who did not ask for me, I was found from those who did not seek me; I said to a nation that was not named after me: Here I am. Here I am” (Is 65: 1).
Now, we know that (faith comes by hearing,) and hearing by the word of God, and what the woman heard was enough to believe “How, then, will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? Moreover, how will they hear, if there is no one to preach? ” (Rom 10:14). Anyone who hears and believes is blessed, for Jesus himself said:
“Jesus said to him, ‘because you saw me, Thomas, you believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).
As the Canaanite woman believed, she saw the glory of God “Jesus said to him, ‘Have I not told you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’ (John 11:40), unlike the people of Israel who expected to see the supernatural so that they could believe “They said to him, ‘What sign, then, do you make that we may see him and believe in you? What are you doing? ” (Jo 6:30).
-“Now, the glory of God was being revealed in the face of Christ and not in miraculous operations”.
“Because God, who said that light shines from darkness, shines in our hearts, for the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ” (2Co 4: 6). What saves is the brightness of the face of the Lord who hid his face from the house of the children of Israel
“And I will wait for the LORD, who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will wait for him” (Is 8:17; Ps 80: 3).
The Canaanite woman was attended to because she believed, not because she put Jesus against the wall, or because she blackmailed him by saying: – If you do not answer me, I will tear up the Scriptures. Before being awarded the release of her daughter, the woman had already believed, unlike many who want a miraculous action to believe.
What did the Canaanite woman hear about Christ? Now, if faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the word of God. What the Canaanite woman heard was not the testimony of miracles or that someone famous had be converted. Hearing that someone has achieved a miracle, or reading a banner saying that he has achieved grace will not make a person openly confess that Christ is the Son of David!
The testimony that produces faith comes from the Scriptures, for they are the testimonies of Christ. To say that an artist was converted, or that someone left drugs, prostitution, etc., is not the law and the sealed testimony among Christ’s disciples. The prophet Isaiah is clear:
“To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Is 8:20).
Testimony is the hallmark of the church, not miraculous signs, for Christ Himself warned that false prophets would work signs, prophesy and cast out demons (Mt 7:22). The fruit that proceeds from the lips, that is, the testimony is the difference between the true and the false prophet, because the false prophet will come disguised as a sheep, so that, by actions and appearance it is impossible to identify them (Mt 7:15 -16).
‘Whoever believes in me according to the Scriptures’ is the condition established by Christ so that there is light in men “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from his womb” (John 7:38), for the words of Christ are Spirit and life (John 6:63), incorruptible seed, and only such a seed germinates a new life that gives right to eternal life (1 Pet. 1:23).
Whoever believes in Christ as the Son of David, the Lord, the Son of the living God, is no longer a foreigner or an outsider. He will not live on the crumbs that fall from his master’s table, but he has become a fellow citizen of the saints. Became a participant in the family of God “As soon as you are no longer foreigners or strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints and the family of God” (Eph 2:19).
Whoever believes in the Son of David believed in the descendant promised to Abraham, therefore he is blessed as the believer Abraham, and participant in all the benefits promised by God through his holy prophets, because everything that the prophets wrote, wrote about the Son (John 5:46 -47; Heb 1: 1-2).
Whoever believes can do all things in God, as it reads:
“Who by faith conquered kingdoms, practiced righteousness, achieved promises, closed the mouths of lions, extinguished the strength of fire, escaped from the edge of the sword, from weakness they drew strength, struggled in battle, put the armies of strangers. Women received their dead by resurrection; some were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, to achieve a better resurrection; and others experienced scorns and scourges, and even chains and prisons. They were stoned, sawn, tried, killed by the sword; they walked dressed in sheep and goatskins, helpless, afflicted and mistreated (Of which the world was unworthy), wandering through deserts, and mountains, and through the pits and caves of the earth. And all these, having had a testimony by faith, did not reach the promise, God providing something better about us, so that they would not be perfected without us ” (Heb 11:33 -40)