How many mothers have lain awake at night because your child is in great need? Maybe you’ve travelled many miles and gone from doctor to doctor only to hear the same words, “There is no known treatment for your child,” and yet the need is so great that you cannot just rest with such an answer. What hopelessness we feel!

In order to fully understand why Jesus commends the faith of the Syrophoenician woman, we need to walk for a few minutes as it were “in her shoes.” This woman’s daughter was “vexed with a devil” (Matt. 15:22). Think of the life that she lived from day to day. There is a good chance that this child could rarely be left alone for fear of harm either to herself or others. Undoubtedly, this mother had taken her to every possible doctor, yet no remedy was found.

Having heard of Jesus as the one who performed great miracles, and out of great love for her child, she comes into the house where Christ was hiding. She cries out to Jesus for help only to be ignored by the very One whom she heard was a great healer. The disciples urge Jesus to send her away: “This is our time to rest, not listen to another person’s problems, no less one that is a Gentile woman!”

As she pleads, Jesus seems to crush her hopes by saying that He was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Again, this mother’s love and persistence cause her to cry out, “Lord, help me” (Matt. 15:25). Reading her cry, we would think that surely this would have touched Jesus’ heart, but again He seems to push her away, saying, “It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to the dogs” (Matt. 15:26). Jesus basically calls her a dog, but instead of being devastated, this woman turns these very words of discouragement into greater pleading: “Truth, Lord” (Matt. 15:27). Yes, Lord, I agree, and “yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table” (Matt. 15:27). Her mother’s heart was so full of love and self-denial. Jesus could call her a dog if only He would give her a crumb of His healing power for the sake of her child.

Jesus sees how great her faith is and not only commends her for it but instantly heals her child. “O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt” (Matt. 15:28). What love! What compassion! Imagine this mother’s joy upon arriving back at her house! She was humbled but her child was healed. What lessons can we learn from this wonderful history?

First, Jesus loves to work in humbled, empty hearts. When the children of Israel stood before the land of Canaan, Moses (on behalf of the Lord) warned them against forgetting the Lord and thinking they had by their own power gained the land and its blessings. If our hearts are filled with ourselves, there is no room for the Lord to work; but empty hearts will be filled with Christ.

Second, Jesus commends the great faith of this woman — faith which believed that there was a way possible for Jesus to heal her daughter. Her faith superseded the fact that she was a Gentile as well as a woman. Her faith continued to cry out in the face of Christ’s silence. It persisted in the face of the annoyed disciples. And when called a dog, her faith used the same metaphor to plead on the mercy of Jesus for even just a crumb. “O woman, great is thy faith” (Matt. 15:28).

Third, when pleading for her child, self was lost. What a blessing to plead for others! So often our prayers can be so full of our own needs, but this history shows that the Lord blesses the pleadings and denial of self on behalf of those we love. What an encouragement for us to plead on, especially for those children who cannot or will not plead for themselves. The Lord will hear and answer.

Finally, although on the surface it seems like this mother is asking only for a crumb, we have seen in actuality she was asking great things. “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it” (Ps. 81:18). Press on; plead on.