Scripture Reading: Matthew 15:21-28
Jesus seems to have gone out of His own country into the borders of Tyre and Sidon seeking a little quiet. He needed rest. He entered a house and would not have it known that He was there. But He could not be hidden. A Canaanitish woman somehow heard of His being there and came straightway to Him. Her daughter was in a distressing condition.
This woman was a Gentile, and yet she must have known something of the true God. How she had learned about Jesus we are not told. No doubt the fame of His ministry of healing had reached her. So when she heard that He was in the house of a neighbor, she became instantly determined to see Him.
The world is full of sorrow. Few are the homes in which there is not some grief or affliction. Many are the sad mothers who move about through the world, carrying their heavy burden of pain or grief. No wonder this mother was glad when she heard of Jesus coming to her neighborhood. No wonder she was so persistent in her pleading that He would heal her child.
We may notice here that while the trouble was in the child it was the mother’s heart that carried the burden. Whenever we see a child sick or in any pain or distress, and the mother watching, the mother suffers more than the child. Children never can understand how the hearts of their parents are bound up in them.
Page 1