March 9, 2026
(Matt Koerber)
Matthew 15:21-16:12 And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” 23But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” 24He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 27She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 28Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
29Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. 30And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, 31so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel. 32Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” 33And the disciples said to him, “Where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?” 34And Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.” 35And directing the crowd to sit down on the ground, 36he took the seven loaves and the fish, and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 37And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces left over. 38Those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. 39And after sending away the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.
16:1 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 2He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 4An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed. 5When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. 6Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” 8But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? 9Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 10Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 11How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
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I broke today’s long reading into three sections. The first is the story of a healing for a Gentile woman. The second is the feeding of 4,000+ people, presumably in a Gentile region. The third is a warning from Jesus about faulty religious leaders. While these three scenes are quite different, each of them has a reference to bread. Let’s consider what Matthew wants us to know about the way Jesus can feed his people.
In the first scene, Jesus “withdrew” to the district of Tyre and Sidon. It is crucial to understand that this is a rare occasion in which Jesus ventured outside of Jewish territory. Previously, he had specified to his disciples that the current scope of the mission was only to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt 10:6). So it is not clear how Jesus will engage with the non-Jewish people that he might encounter. What follows is one of the more confusing and remarkable exchanges that Jesus had with anyone. Notice how the exchange continually references the woman’s status as a religious outsider. She is introduced as a “Canaanite”, one of the ancient enemies of Israel. She addresses him as the “Son of David” and seeks help for her demon oppressed daughter. Jesus responds with what seems like a refusal and grounds this in his mission to the people of Israel. However, the woman persists. And then Jesus makes a remarkable statement of refusal, likening her request to taking a child’s bread – to give it to the dogs. On the surface this is a shocking statement by Jesus, but it doesn’t end there. The woman continues to persist and humbly accepts the analogy, asking only for the crumbs of bread that a dog might eat. To this, Jesus does an apparent 180 degree turn and not only heals her daughter, but praises her for “great faith.”
The details of their exchange can be a little difficult to follow, but the big picture is clear when we stand back and take a look at it. The “great faith” of this Canaanite woman becomes a turning point in the Gospel of Matthew. Her humble persistence in the face of challenge wins the day. She approaches Jesus with complete humility and is rewarded with healing and praise. Recently, a pastor friend compared this woman to the great Old Testament hero Abraham. God called both people to stare at the seeming death of their dreams. And yet both clung tight to God and became examples of resilient faith. If Jesus is indeed walking this woman through her own “Abraham experience”, then we would expect to find God’s grace overflowing in powerful new ways.
This leads us to the second scene. Jesus returns to the Sea of Galilee. While much of his ministry happens in the Jewish region on the Western shores of Galilee, the Gospel of Mark specifies that Jesus returned to the Eastern shore and the Gentile region of the Decapolis (Mark 7:31). Matthew is less clear about the exact location, but when Jesus heals many people, the response of the crowd is something that only makes sense coming from a bunch of Gentiles. “And they glorified the God of Israel” (15:29). It would not really make sense for a crowd of Jewish people to refer to themselves and to their God this way in this setting.
So that would mean that the following miraculous feeding happens among a non-Jewish crowd in a Gentile region. This is the second time that Jesus performed a miraculous feeding for a hungry group of people. The first was found in chapter 14 and clearly occurred among the “lost sheep of Israel.” The 12 baskets which the 12 apostles filled (14:20) correspond to the 12 tribes of ancient Israel. By contrast, this second feeding among the Gentiles results in 7 full baskets. While the number seven doesn’t have a clear point of reverberation, some scholars have noted that the Greek word for basket is different in each chapter and may serve to further confirm the non-Jewish context of this miracle. Again, looking at the big picture we see that the feeding ministry of Jesus has begun to overflow the boundary walls of Israel and is streaming down into the lost children of all humanity. What started in the surprising faith of a single determined Canaanite woman is now cascading far beyond.
However, the final scene uses the language of bread to offer a contrasting warning. When Jesus gets in a boat to sail west to the Jewish region he had previously withdrawn from, he is met by fierce resistance. The Pharisees and Sadducees had very few things that they could agree on. Most often, they took positions on the far extremes of first century Jewish culture wars. However, on this occasion, they find common ground in opposing Jesus. Together, they restate the demand made previously by the Pharisees in Matthew 12:38. They insist that Jesus bend to their wishes and provide a sign on demand. They have positioned themselves as judges and set the terms on which they want Jesus to operate. However, their opposition is so entrenched that Jesus again promises that only his death and resurrection (“the sign of Jonah”) can dislodge their cynical resistance. This is followed by another boat ride and further discussion about bread with the disciples. When the disciples reveal that they again are short on bread, Jesus warns them of the “leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” The context would point to the stubborn refusal of these two groups to see Jesus on his own terms and instead demand he provide them with signs like a puppet dancing on strings. Whether the disciples had “forgotten bread” merely to test Jesus and invite a third miraculous feeding, or whether they had simply failed to learn about his character from his previous work, Jesus again refers to the wonders of bread as a teaching tool. We have seen the grace of the Messiah overflowing to the Gentiles in surprising ways. A Canaanite woman received crumbs from the table, and a crowd of Gentiles were fed in the wilderness. But closer to home, the people of Jesus are more resistant. The religious leaders dig into cynical opposition and threaten to spread their leaven of doubt into the disciples.
Will we be people with eyes to see God’s work among us? Can we seek him in persistent prayer and celebrate his gracious work when it happens? Or, do we sink into doubt, demanding God work in our time and in our way? In what ways does this doubt (“the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees”) threaten to undermine your faith?
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