Matthew 15:[10-20] 21-28, Romans
Neighborhood Watch programs started as a cooperative relationship between law
enforcement and average citizens. Have you seen the Neighborhood Watch signs? They
show a red circle with a line through it over the dark silhouette of someone wearing a
trench coat and fedora. Who are we watching out for? The Blues Brothers? Is this what
crooks and suspicious characters wear these days?
Today, I would like for us to imagine the kind of Neighborhood Watch program God would
design. What would God tell us to watch out for? Who would God want us to keep an eye
on?
Matthew 15:21-28 is problematic. This story paints a picture of Jesus that is almost
unrecognizable. This is not the Jesus we know and love. In fact, this Jesus is one I don’t
even particularly like. 1
But let me back up for a moment. After walking on the water with
Peter, he and the disciples beached the boat at Gennesaret. The crowds catch wind of his
return. And in the Message it says, “They sent out word through the neighborhood and
rounded up all the sick, who asked for permission to touch the edge of his coat. And
whoever touched him was healed.”2
This is what the neighborhood God is building is going
to look like – personal ministry among those who need healing the most. Here is what it’s
NOT going to look like…
While in Gennesaret, as if on Neighborhood Watch, the Pharisees and scribes arrive from
Jerusalem questioning Jesus about his disciples who ignore the purity codes and “eat their
bread with unwashed hands.” Purity police on patrol.
Jesus gives them something to chew on. In so many words, he calls them hypocrites,
quotes some Isaiah and condemns them for what David Garland calls, performing lip
service but not heart service.3
They make a big show of making sure they say all the right
things, but their heart isn’t in any of it. This is really the opposite of who Jesus’ disciples
are. They often say the wrong things, but their hearts are in the right place. Jesus turns
then to the crowd around him and tries to explain that what goes in your mouth is not the
problem, but what comes out. And what comes out of your mouth (he means your words
and actions) will reveal what’s in your heart. Peter, who is becoming the spokesperson of
the disciples in Matthew’s gospel, wants a better explanation. Jesus tries to explain, but
what happens next…
This Canaanite woman becomes the explanation. She speaks and out of her mouth comes
the overflow of her heart. I can’t help but notice how her request, “Lord, help me,” sounds
so much like Peter’s cry to Jesus when he is about to be swallowed by the waves (“Lord,
save me!”). And what was true about Peter’s cry is true here. In her persistence, in her
confession, “Lord, Son of David,” it’s her faith that is evident. She models, for us (and the
disciples), what it looks like when the contents of one’s heart match what comes out of
their mouth. She doesn’t doubt that Jesus can set her daughter free of her demons. She
knows he can and I think she believes that he will — perhaps even before he does.
There is a lot of speculation about Jesus’ responses to her. First, he ignores her. He doesn’t
dismiss her as the disciples ask, but he doesn’t acknowledge her either. To the disciples
rather than to her, he explains that he has his hands full already with “the lost sheep of
Israel.” This is him refusing her request. He has enough to say grace over with his own
flock.
How many times have we said, or thought the same thing. You’ve got your own family to
take care of, the dog, the office, your boss, your patients, your students, your clients. You
can’t possibly say yes to one more thing. Perhaps we’ve all felt like Jesus at this moment
when the church is asking you to complete a survey saying where would you like to serve
this next year. How could you possibly take on one more thing? Like we do when someone
on the nominating committee calls. I think Jesus is avoiding making personal contact with
her.
Then this woman, who is not a member of the tribe of Israel, but the enemies of God’s
people, the Canaanites, who Israel chased out of the Promised Land – [this woman] came
back to Jesus, got on her knees and begged him to acknowledge her, “Lord! Help me!”
She is there begging for her daughter’s life. Not her own! Begging that she would be
released from the demons that plague her. Begging for crumbs. She believes Jesus’
“leftovers” to be enough to heal her daughter.
But he said a terrible thing to this mother. He said the thing probably everyone around him
was already thinking. He said the thing that revealed his own bias. What he said might
indicate a prejudice he had against the affluence of Tyre and the under-privilege of the
small Jewish enclave living there. Tyre took the “bread” away from Galilee.4
“It’s not right to take bread out of the children’s mouths and throw it to the dogs.”
Peter Hawkins wrote, “A kneeling woman does not have far to fall, and by all rights Jesus’
insult should have floored her on the spot.”5
Sent her away licking her wounds. But she was
ready with her reply – a play on words, “You’re right, Lord, but even the dogs under the
table can gather the scraps that fall to the floor.”
You can imagine that he turned to face her at this. To see her. He does not act humiliated
or angered. He is changed. He makes a 180-degree wholehearted turn. And it’s this
Canaanite woman, the least likely person of all, who leads him to it. All we know is that he
commended her faith, her persistence, and sent her home to find her daughter made
whole.
To be clear it’s not her cleverness, her wit, that outsmarted Jesus and caused him to relent.
It was her argument based in her faith. It was logic formed in her belief: the scraps are not
thrown down to the dogs but fall from the table in the course of the meal and therefore,
do not take food away from the children.6
See what she’s saying? She already believed
that what Jesus had come to bestow on Israel was more than enough, more than any table
could hold, and there would be extra, bounty, that would overflow enough that even the
gentiles would benefit. The children of Israel will be filled AND there will still be baskets
and baskets of leftover mercy and justice and love. God’s love is abundant and can’t be
contained to one group of people. “Great is your faith,” he says. “Let what you ask be done.”
That’s the Jesus, our Gentile ears recognize, right? The Son who eats with sinners, and
outcasts; the Good Shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to find the one lost sheep. The
Canaanite woman “showed Jesus the larger, (wider), world he had come to [help] and to
heal.”7
The woman’s faith overcame the barrier between Jew and Gentile in chapter 15.
Perhaps by advocating for her daughter, many others would come to be saved. By the end
of Matthew’s gospel, the barrier will be removed altogether when Jesus tells his followers
to Go, make disciples of all the nations… (Matthew 28:19)
Last month, one of Steve Hartman’s stories caught my attention. It was about a group of
neighbors who overcame lots of typical barriers to come together for one little boy. A little
4-year old, named Roman put himself on a different kind of neighborhood watch, in
Concord, NC. He started standing out in the front yard, waving to every car that drove by,
saying “Hey” to every walker, dog-walker, bike-rider, every person who passed his house.
His mom noticed that it was the one thing he was excited about doing everyday. His
parents had split up recently and none of their family members lived close by. She realized
he needed connection to fill his loneliness. Now, Roman and his mom don’t look like
everyone else in their neighborhood. Their skin is golden brown. They are young. And
everyone else appears to be caucasian and white-haired. First, it was the man across the
street who started doing activities with Roman, then all these folks knew his name, and
stopped to chat or check on him. His mom said it was a little weird at first. They started
showing up at his baseball games, then his soccer games because he invited them! All his
“seeds of kindness had started to bloom.”8
Today, the refrigerator is blanketed with pictures of all those people Roman holds
so dear. His mother says his inner loneliness is gone.
And his “love thy neighbor” attitude is spreading. Roman has now brought together
about a dozen neighbors who say they would have barely known each other if not
for that little boy, who lived in a neighborhood but needed a village.
Said one neighbor: “Look at what this little kid has built.”
Added another: “If the world was like this child, what an awesome, awesome place
it would be.”
It’s been said that it takes a village to raise a child, but in this case, it took a small child (I
think it’s fair to say the least-likely person you might expect) to bring together a
neighborhood.
True neighbors look for opportunities to bless people and heal communities, ways to
breach the boundaries we’ve blacked between “us” and “them.” In God’s neighborhood, the
Neighborhood Watch looks like a 4 year old, little brown boy named Roman. In building a
true community of neighbors, he saved himself!
Instead of worrying about trench coats and fedoras, let’s keep an eye out o for who needs
connection, and who is threatened by exclusion and prejudice.. Then, don’t be surprised
when the ones who show us the way, who wave us in, are the ones we least expect. 9
The abundance of God’s mercy, justice, and love is limitless! No one should miss out.
1 Lewis, Karoline, Boundless Discipleship, Christian Century commentary, August 2008
2 Peterson, Eugene, The Message, Matthew 14:34-36
3 Garland, David E., Reading Matthew, p. 159
4 Garland
5 Hawkins, Peter S., Dogging Jesus, Christian Century commentary, August 2005
6 Garland ibid
7 Hawkins ibid
8 On the Road with Steve Hartman July 2026 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/roman-butzlaff-loneliness-
north-carolina-community/
9 Garnaas-Holmes, Steve, Neighborhood Watch, https://unfoldinglight.net/2013/07/15/2020/