There are times in life when we all need help. Sometimes, problems can be so big that we can’t see our way through them, or we can’t resolve them by ourselves. These are the times when we can look to someone we trust and who has what’s needed to take care of our problems for us or with us. At other times, however, we can find it difficult to ask for help. Maybe we think we should be able to manage on our own. Maybe what we’re facing can be so overwhelming that we don’t think anyone can help us. We might not have someone we can trust to ask for help. Or we might think that we don’t deserve to be helped.
This week’s Gospel reading, Matthew 15:21-28, tells the story of a woman who came to Jesus asking for help. There are a few reasons why that was really significant. Matthew identifies her as a Canaanite. The Canaanites lived in the region before the Israelites conquered the Promised Land under Joshua roughly 1,400 years earlier and were seen as enemies of the Jews. Secondly, women in that culture were treated as second-class people so she was breaking a social taboo to be talking to a Jewish man. For the Jews of the time, anyone who wasn’t Jewish was regarded as unclean and outside of God’s favour. That’s why Jesus responded to her initial request in a way that sounds particularly harsh. By saying, “It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs” (v26 NLT), Jesus was reflecting his Jewish culture’s contempt for non-Jewish people. The Jews considered themselves to be God’s children. The food Jesus referred to was the good he was giving them from their Father. The dogs represented anyone who was considered unclean and unworthy to receive good things from God. Jesus was testing the woman to find out how much she wanted his help and whether she trusted that he could and would help her.
The Canaanite woman’s reply to Jesus showed how desperately she wanted Jesus’ help and how much she believed that he could help her. She didn’t try to justify herself or argue why she deserved Jesus to help her. Instead, by saying “even dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath their master’s table” (v27 NLT), she acknowledged that she didn’t deserve Jesus’ help but that even a small scrap of his mercy would be enough. Jesus praised her for her faith because she had come to him for help, she trusted that he could help her, and she believed that Jesus would help her. She knew that she had no right to his help or deserved it. She was hoping for his undeserved mercy and kindness. This woman believed that Jesus could and would help her just because she needed it and because of his goodness.
This story tells us that we can always come to Jesus and ask for his help. Trusting in God’s goodness and power in Jesus, the woman’s faith led her to ask for his help, even though she had no right to it and didn’t deserve it. Sometimes we can see asking for help as a sign of weakness. We might think that we can manage on our own, that we should be able to solve problems by ourselves, or that nobody can help us. It’s good for us to learn from this story that asking for help is a sign of faith. Coming to Jesus and asking for his help in our lives like the Canaanite woman shows that we trust him. It shows that we acknowledge that some things in our lives are too big, too hard or too overwhelming for us. It also shows that we believe God’s power, goodness and love are greater than even the biggest and most overwhelming challenges or problems we can face. Asking Jesus for help shows that we trust that he cares about us, that what happens to us matters to him, and that in his love for us he can and will help us.
Like Jesus’ response to the Canaanite woman, sometimes God’s response to our prayers might seem difficult, slow or even non-existent. Like the Canaanite woman, Jesus doesn’t want us to give up and go away. Jesus teaches us in this and other parables that he wants us to be persistent in prayer. He wants us to trust him enough to keep asking for help with everything that we face. When we believe that Jesus has everything we need and wants to help us because of his great love for us, we will keep on asking for his grace and mercy in our lives. When we join the Canaanite woman in acknowledging that we don’t deserve his help, but still hope for his goodness and mercy, Jesus will honour our faith. It might not be when or how we expect, but this and other stories tell us that through Jesus, God helps everyone who asks for it because of his great love for us in the life, death and resurrection of his Son.
We can ask Jesus for help for others, as well as ourselves. In the same way that the Canaanite woman asked for help for her daughter, we can come boldly and confidently to Jesus to ask him to help the people in our lives: our children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or people of any age. We can ask him to help them with their physical needs, emotional needs, or spiritual needs. Whatever people around us might be struggling with or battling against, whatever might be oppressing them or making their lives hard, we can ask Jesus to see them, release them and help them. Faith in Jesus means believing that he can and will help the people in our lives who are facing their own struggles, problems and uncertainties. Jesus’ help isn’t based on whether they are “good enough” (however good that might be) or they somehow deserve his love. Jesus helps all people simply because he has the power to help them and because we have the faith to ask him.
Faith that Jesus can and will help us and others will lead us to spend time asking him for his help in prayer. Sometimes we can assume that God knows we need help, so we don’t need to ask for it. Or we might not ask because we think we should be able to manage on our own. Or sometimes we can just find it hard to trust that God can and will help us. The story of the Canaanite woman is a reminder that faith in Jesus means coming to him, asking for his help and trusting that he can and will help us and the people in our lives because of his undeserving grace and love for us. God’s love and power in Jesus is bigger and stronger than anything we will face in this world. He can and will help us because of his love and grace for us in Jesus. So why wouldn’t we trust him and bring our requests for help to him in prayer?
We all need help in one way or another at some point in our lives. We don’t have to manage on our own or work our way through our problems by ourselves. The Canaanite woman came to Jesus and asked him to help her daughter even though she knew she had no right to it and didn’t deserve his help. Because of her faith, Jesus gave her the help she asked for and he healed her daughter. What help do you or the people in your life need? Whether we find it easy or difficult to ask for help, we can trust Jesus and bring our requests for help to him in the faith that he can and will help us and the people in our lives in all things.
More to think about or discuss:
- Do you tend to find it easy or difficult to ask for help? Why is that?
- How do you think the Canaanite woman’s request for help showed her faith in Jesus? Do you think that would have been easy or hard for her? Why?
- What do you need help with in your life? What is something someone you know needs help with? Will you spend time this week asking Jesus for his help…?
Pastor Eugene Online 
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