A Prayer for Everybody
(No. 2597)
A SERMON DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT CHRIST CHURCH, WESTMINSTER BRIDGE ROAD, (during the renovation of
the Tabernacle), ON THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 23, 1883.
"Then came she and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, help me!" Matthew
15:25.
OUR text tells us of a case of real distress and it shows us how a
woman prayed when in agony. It is a good thing, when young people begin
to write, especially if they think of writing for the press, if they
will, before they send away their manuscript, take their pen and strike
out every superfluous word. Even as a general rule, for conversation or
for correspondence, every word that we can do without is better
omitted. As it is difficult to travel if we are encumbered with a great
quantity of luggage, so is it difficult to make our meaning clear when
it is crushed beneath the weight of too many words. Take your pen,
then, young author. Sit down quickly and strike out all the merely
ornamental words that you have written. And when you have got rid of
them, you will probably have some respectable sentences left.
This woman had no need to omit any of her words, for she was not in a
state of mind to utter a sentence that could be pruned of a single
word. She was in such a condition that every word that came out of her
mouth was like hot shot poured out of her heart. I had almost said that
every letter, as well as every syllable and every word she uttered, was
coined in blood. She speaks, at any rate, burning language, at blood
heat, and the words, as they drop into my ears, come with a kind of
overpowering force, so great is their intensity. "Lord, help me!" There
is not a syllable to spare! The words are all short, simple, living,
burning–from the first one to the last.
I like this kind of pleading and I commend it to you who are accustomed
to pain and sufferings, or who have to do with this rough world, as
many of you have. You find that in your time of distress, you have to
throw away a great many merely ornamental things and you only keep what
is real, solid, and substantial. Here is a woman who must deal in
realities, for she has at home a real daughter, really tormented by a
real devil. But she believes that before her there is a real Savior and
she intends not to let Him slip away through any lack of intensity on
her part! She follows Him with clamorous cries! If she is repulsed, she
still pursues Him, and when, at last, He gives her what looks like a
wry word, she will not believe it! But she adores Him, she worships Him
and she cries out of the depths of her soul, "Lord, help me!" I want to
speak especially about her prayer. We have begun with it and we will
end with it. But before I get to the prayer, there are two or three
other things I need to hold up for your admiration.
I. First, let us ADMIRE THIS WOMAN'S IMPORTUNITY.
I do not hesitate to say, although I am speaking in a large assembly,
that there is not one person here who ever did experience such rebuffs
or meet with such difficulties as this woman did. There may be some who
would have a right to stand up, and say, "Ah, Sir, you do not know my
experience–my coming to Christ was very difficult." I do not know your
experience, my dear Friend, but I feel sure of this–your experience
cannotbe compared with hers, for, in her coming to Christ, she had to
surmount greater difficulties than you ever knew–and greater
difficulties than any of you are realizing now, even though you should
be almost driven to despair by the obstacles in your pathway. This poor
woman had three special difficulties.
The first was, that the Lord Jesus Christ did not answer her cries. '
'He answered her not a word." He was, Himself, the Word, and yet He did
not give her the word she needed! Jesus is the blessed Spokesman of the
Eternal, by whom God breaks the infinite silences and speaks to man.
Yet, "He answered her not a word." He was in the habit of answering
prayer, yet He gave her not a single word of response to her petition.
He had never been known to turn away a sincere suppliant without a kind
reply, yet He gave her not one word! But even then, though she had not
a word from Christ to hang her hopes upon–not a promise, not a single
word of invitation or encouragement– she still clung to Christ and
would not let Him go until He blessed her.
There is not one of you, dear Friends, who can say that our Lord Jesus
Christ has not spoken to you, for here is a Book full of His words–a
Book, mark you, not a line of which this poor woman had ever seen! She
lived in a region where the Old Testament was altogether unknown and
the New Testament was not then written. But you have the Words of
Christ in your homes! They lie upon the pew-ledge in front of you. You
can carry them in your pockets where yet you go. A two-penny Testament
can be had by everybody, so it cannot be said that Jesus Christ has not
given you a Word. Then how often have you had good Words from Christ
through the preacher of the Gospel! How often has He let fall handfuls
on purpose for you, poor troubled Soul! You have had sweet Words,
gracious Words–
"Wonderful Words of Life"–
and plenty of them, too. Therefore I say that there is one point in
which this woman's difficulties far exceeded yours! And as she pressed
on until she gained the desire of her heart, will not you do likewise?
Do you not remember how the men of Nineveh hung on to nothing but
this–"Who can tell?" It was a very poor little nail that they clung
to–"Who can tell?" Yet they did cling to it and they found mercy!
There have been some who have found comfort in what God has notsaid–"I
said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek you Me in vain." So will you not
find comfort in what He has said? Especially may you be cheered and
blessed by such words as these–"Come now, and let us reason together,
says the Lord: though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white
as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." "I
will pardon them whom I reserve." "This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners." Now, between "not a Word," and all these Words, what a
difference there is, and so, what a difference there is between you and
this poor woman! How much you have to help you! Come, then, to Jesus,
come even now, pleading the promise, and you shall not go away without
the blessing!
Next, this woman had another great difficulty, and that was that all
the disciples were against her. They said to Jesus, "Send her away, for
she cries after us. She disturbs us; we cannot hear Your exposition. We
cannot be heard, ourselves, which is also very important. 'Send her
away, send her away.' She has such a harsh voice. She does not speak
our language. She talks in the tongue of Tyre or Sidon, and we do not
like it. She is so troublesome! She is first bawling out after John and
next she is calling after Peter–there is no keeping her quiet! 'Send
her away, send her away.'" Now, although this must have been a very
secondary thing compared with Christ's silence, yet it may have bred in
her heart great discouragement and she may have felt in her spirit that
she could not long hold out. Yet she did hold out until the blessing
came!
Now, I venture to say that there is no one here who is seeking the
Savior who has had Christ's disciples against Him.
dear Heart, there are many in this house tonight who are not against
you! They would do anything they could for you, to cheer you and bring
you to the Savior! I know some who, when this service is over, will
very likely waylay you in the aisles! They are always looking out to
find persons who may be under concern of soul, to see whether they can
utter a word of encouragement to them. They will not say, "Send her
away!" They will want you to stay a little while and will talk to you
very earnestly about your soul–and try to point out to you the way
into life and peace. I am sure that you have not the difficulty that
this poor woman had. If you had, I would still exhort you to imitate
her importunity, but, as you have not, let her importunity shame you if
you are in the least degree backward! And come you at once boldly to
the Savior and say, "I must now find the mercy that I need! I cannot go
away until I find it." God grant that many of you may make that good
resolution!
There was, however, a third discouragement which must have been greater
than the other two, and that was that when the Savior did speak, He
said, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel"I t
was as much as saying, "I am not sent to this woman of Tyre and Sidon.
I can do nothing for her within the bounds of My commission." And yet,
when the woman heard that sentence, instead of being daunted by it, she
came to Christ and worshipped Him, and said, "Lord, help me!" I may be
addressing someone who has been thinking over the Doctrine of
Election–a doctrine which ought not to give trouble to anybody, but it
often does. It may be that you have said in your heart, "What if
1 should not be elect? What if the blessed things of the Covenant of
Grace should not be for me?" I beseech you, do not be persuaded by
Satan to stop there, but go to Jesus just as this woman did! She seemed
to say to herself, "Whether this Christ of God is sent to a Tyre and
Sidon woman or not, I shall go and worship Him, and cry, 'Lord, help
me!'" She heard that Christ was not sent to that country, but she
seemed to say, "If You are not sent, Lord, yet I am still here. If You
are not sent to me, perhaps I am sent to You. She felt that there must
be some way of getting over the difficulty. She believed that, by some
kind of ingenuity, even if she could not tell how, the difficulty could
be removed! This glorious, loving Savior, into whose radiant face she
looked, could not repulse her–she felt that He could not!
And, dear Friends, I can no more believe that Christ will repulse a
sinner than I can look up to the sun and believe that it will ever
freeze me! It cannot be–it is too bright, too full of warmth to turn
me into ice–and I cannot look into the Savior's face and believe that
He will ever cast away a poor soul that comes to Him! So, somehow or
other, this poor woman seemed to feel, "I cannot get over the
difficulty, but I will go round it." That is always a wise method. For
my own part, I have often learned what a joy it is to cast anchor under
the lee of a great impassable thing that I cannot understand. I like,
if I am traveling, to see the river open up and to find my boat gliding
gently along between the surrounding hills. But if, all of a sudden, I
find that the channel is entirely blocked up, I am just as comfortable
if the sailor lets down the anchor and we spend the night under the lee
of some big, towering rock! Why not? It is very well to understand
things, but I do not know that we are much the better for understanding
anything! Understanding sometimes puffs us up, but we are always
benefited by believing. So, my Friend, when you come hard and fast
against something which you cannot get over, do not try to get over it,
but just pull up, right there, and say, "If it is so, let it be so,
but, anyway, God is gracious, Christ is merciful and I am going to cast
myself at the crucified Savior's feet and trust in Him."
Now this woman, notwithstanding this terrible discouragement, after
actually hearing the Savior say, "I am not sent to you," yet
nevertheless persevered with her appeal. None of you have ever heard
Him say that you are not among the elect. Why should you not be elect
as well as anybody else? None of you have ever climbed to Heaven and
found that your names were not written in the roll of God's chosen–and
you never will climb there to read it at all! All such things are
hidden from your sight. Your business is to cling to Christ's dear feet
and never let Him go until He grants you the desire of your heart. That
is my first remark–admire this woman's importunity.
II. Now for a few minutes I invite you, dear Friends, to ADMIRE HER
RESORT TO THE LORD HIMSELF. "Then came she and worshipped Him, saying,
Lord, help me!"
She is to be admired, first, because she turned away from the
disciples. I could not help smiling as I read, just now, what the
disciples said, "Send her away, for she cries after us." Poor soul, she
never cried after them–she knew better than to do that! It was their
own self-importance that made them think so. If she had begun to cry
after them, their black looks would soon have stopped her from doing
so. But she did not make such a mistake as that. "Oh, no," she seemed
to say, "it is not after you that I am crying. Neither Peter, nor
James, nor John can give me the help I need." So is it with us–we are
not crying after the saints, as some poor souls are doing, hoping that
saints, long since dead and buried, who have done with this mortal
life, may make intercession for them before the Throne of God! No, we
are not crying after them. If any of you are, I pray you cease that
folly and cry to the Master! And let this be your cry, "Lord, help me!"
Not, "Peter, help me," nor, "Mary, help me," but, "Jesus, help me!"
"Lord, help me!" He can do it, but the saints cannot. They were poor
sinners who had to be saved by Grace like the rest of us–and they are
now singing to the praise of the God of Grace, but they have no Grace
to give to us! Mind, dear Friends, that you never think of going to
them, but go straight to the Master, as this poor woman did! "Then came
she and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, help me!"
She went away, also, from all prescribed paths. The Savior seemed to
say to her that there was no way for her to come. He did but seem to
tell her that the road at present was intended especially for the house
of Israel and He had come to bless them beyond all others. But the
woman seems to say, "If there is not a road open, I must make one. I
will go over hedge and ditch, but I must find my Savior." Her heart was
so strongly resolved upon coming to Christ that whether she came in the
orthodox way or not, she must come! Oh, how I wish that some poor
sinner here might be so stirred up with the same desire that he would
say, "I must somehow find the Lord Jesus. If I have heard one minister
and God has not blessed him to me, I will hear another. And if hearing
the Gospel is not blessed to me, I will sit up at night and read the
Scriptures. And if the Bible is not blessed to me, I will go on my
knees and cry to God for mercy and I will never cease crying to Him
till the mercy comes. For, somehow or somewhere, I must get it! I must
find God in Christ Jesus, that I may obtain the salvation of my soul."
Yet once more, dear Friends, I admire this woman, and I hold her up as
a model for your imitation, because she resorted to Christ. Away from
the disciples and from all prescribed paths, she went to HIM. Yes, that
is the beauty of it! "Then came she and worshipped HIM." She fell at
His feet and her prayer was, "Lord, help me!" She did not prescribe how
she should be helped, for she believed in His wisdom. She did not
dictate to Him what He should do, for she believed in His judgment and
prudence. All she said was, "Lord, help me!" She did not think that her
case was beyond His power, for she believed in His almightiness, so she
prayed, "Lord, help me!" She did not think her case could be beyond His
pity, so she pleaded, "Lord, help me. True, I am only a Gentile dog
but, Lord, help me. I am a Syrophenician woman but, Lord, help me. I
have a poor daughter possessed of a devil but, Lord, help me." She
pleads thus with Christ and it is amazing what such pleading can
accomplish! Do not come here and merely repeat certain prayers! Do not
go home to your closet simply to say prayers as if to nobody or to
everybody, but get absolutely at the feet of Jesus and plead with Him,
saying, "Lord, I will not let You go until You bless me," for that is
the kind of prayer that opens the gates of Heaven, the prayer to which
nothing can be denied!
III. Before I come to the closing portion of my discourse, I ask you to
ADMIRE THIS WOMAN'S APPROPRIATION OF HER DAUGHTER'S CASE TO HERSELF.
I urge you who seek the conversion of others to follow her example.
Notice, she did not pray, "Lord, help my daughter," but, "Lord, help
me!" At first, she pleaded for her daughter and mentioned the
circumstances of her case, but as she grew more intense and fervent in
her supplication, there seemed to be no division between the mother and
the daughter! The mother had absorbed the daughter–the great heart of
the pleading one seemed to contain the one pleaded for with all her
agony–"Lord, help me!" Do you catch the idea? When you are pleading
with God for your Sunday school class, it is not simply, Mary, and
Jane, and Sarah that you pray for, but you have incorporated all those
girls into yourselfand, therefore, you plead, "Lord, help me!" And you,
my Brother, need to get to this point if you are really to prevail for
your scholars, that you will not be asking for John, and Thomas, and
William, alone, but you have so identified yourself with them, that if
they are lost, it almost seems as if you are lost! And if they are
saved, it will be another Heaven to you for each one of them to be in
Heaven!
You know that when Elisha restored the Shunammite's dead son, "he went
up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his
eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched
himself upon the child." Then, as it were, they became one, and then it
was that the new life came through the Prophet into the dead child. And
this is the way to pray for our scholars and our hearers. I am sure
that if a minister wants conversions, he must identify himself with his
people! There are people, nowadays, who make a difficulty about Moses
praying for Israel, "If You will forgive their sin–and if not, blot
me, I pray You, out of Your book which You have written." And they
raise questions about Paul being willing to be separated from Christ
for his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh. Oh, but there is
no difficulty in the matter if you once get to feel such an intense
love for the souls of men that you would, as it were, pawn your own
salvation and count it little if you might but bring the people to the
Savior's feet!
A man who has never felt that willingness does not yet know the true
throb of a pastor's heart–he has not been ordained to be a shepherd if
he would not lay down his life for the flock, if it were necessary.
When you get to that point, then the blessing will come. "Lord, help
me–me,for, in my own proper self, I am one with these people for whom
my prayer is put up."
IV. Now, lastly–yet it is the chief part of the subject–I want YOU TO
ADMIRE THIS WOMAN'S PRAYER, ITSELF.
I began my discourse by pointing out to you its sententiousness, its
freedom from superfluities. Now, again I bid you admire it for the same
reason. Notice that it asks everything in one little phrase–"Lord,
help me!" It seems to me to be a very comprehensive prayer, for
although it uses but one very small verb, that verb means a great deal
more than, at first sight, it appears to mean. When the woman said,
"Lord, help me," she did not mean what we generally mean by help. That
is, "Lord, do something for me and I will do the rest." She could not
do anythingtowards the casting out of the devil from her child so, by
that word, "help," she meant, "Lord, do it all," for that is the kind
of help Christ gives! Have you ever heard of the poor half-witted being
who, nevertheless, had sense enough to understand the Gospel? Someone
said to him, "Well, Johnny, how were you saved?" "Oh," he answered,
"Jesus Christ did His part, and I did all the rest." "And pray tell,
Johnny, what did you do?" "Well," he said, "Jesus Christ saved me and I
did all I could to prevent it."
And that is about all "the rest" that any of us ever do! We do not
really help in the matter of our salvation, for we can-not–it is
Christ's work from first to last–and Divine Grace must have all the
praise for it. Blessed be that Sovereign Grace of God!
But that word, "help," meant just this–"Lord, will You do all that is
needed? I am in a dreadful fix. I cannot cure my poor child and I
cannot pray aright about her. You have almost shut my mouth by that
last word, 'I am not sent,' yet, 'Lord, help me!' Teach me what to ask
for! Teach me how to ask for it! Teach me what to think of next! Teach
me what to do next. Never was a poor creature in such a plight as I am,
Lord. Get me out of it! Save my poor daughter." It was asking
everything in a phrase which did not, at first sight, seem to mean
much–"Lord, help me!"
And, if you notice, the prayer was one which brought Christ and the
poor woman together–"Lord" and "me." And here is the link–"Lord, help
me!" Some of you poor creatures want to get to Christ by doing
something for Him! You have undertaken a very heavy task–you will
never get to Him that way. The only way is for Him to stoop down and do
something for you–then you shall go into partnership and have
fellowship with one another. And if you agree to this arrangement, He
will find everything that is needed and you shall have it all given to
you, gratis! Those must be the terms–that He, from first to last, must
do all, and be all, and have all the glory! If you will agree to that
condition, the company may be started at once–and what a blessed
company it shall be! The Lord and yourself linked together by that
little word, "help"–"Lord, help me!" If you are to succeed as this
woman did, you must imitate her perseverance even in spite of Christ's
apparent refusal to help her.
This is a lesson which is taught us in many other parts of the Word of
God. She that wins her suit with the unjust judge is the importunate
widow who will not be refused. He that gets the loaves at midnight is
the man who continues knocking till his friend awakens himselfand gives
him all he asks. O Beloved, plead thus with God! Plead earnestly, plead
for your salvation as you would for your life! Lift up the cry–
"Gracious Lord, incline Your ear, My requests vouchsafe to hear! Hear
my never-ceasing cry, Give me Christ, or else I die! Wealth and honor I
disdain, Earthly comforts all are vain. These can never satisfy, Give
me Christ, or else I die!" And you shall surely have Christ, for He
never finally refuses to listen to such pleading as that.
Lastly, dear Friends, I commend this prayer to you because it such a
handy prayer. You can use it when you are in a hurry, you can use it
when you are frightened, you can use it when you have not time to bow
your knees. You can use it in the pulpit if you are going to preach,
you can use it when you are opening your shop, you can use it when you
are rising in the morning. It is such a handy prayer that I hardly know
any position in which you could not pray it–"Lord, help me!" Often,
when you are brought to some great emergency, you may use it and feel
as if it were the best prayer that was ever composed. Do you suffer
much? Do you sometimes fall back upon the pillows feeling that you
cannot bear any more? Does it not seem natural, then, for you to pray,
"Lord, help me"? Do you often lie awake at night? Have you counted the
clock round in your seasons of suffering? Oh, then, I know that you
will feel that this is a good prayer to offer in the middle of the
night–"Lord, help me!" Do you wake up in the morning just as weary as
when you went to bed? Are you gradually losing strength? Are you slowly
wasting away? Do they tell you that you will soon be gone? Oh, then, as
the clock ticks, I think it may remind you of this prayer, "Lord, help
me! Lord, help me! Lord, help me!" It is a sick woman's prayer–a sick
child's prayer–a sick man's prayer. It will suit any of you at such
times.
Or are some of you losing a great deal of money just now? Is business
very bad? Are you out of a job? Have you walked up and down the streets
and worn your shoes out, and yet found nothing to do? I think this
prayer will suit you at this moment and all day tomorrow, "Lord, help
me! Lord, help me!"–for He can, you know. The keys of Providence are
not taken out of His hand yet. He knows how to deliver the righteous
out of all their troubles. Go to Him with this prayer, "Lord, help me!"
Are any of you very much tempted from without by surroundings that are
peculiarly dangerous? Are you tempted by Satan? Are any of you exposed,
just now, to some very special trial? Have your feet almost gone? Have
your steps well-near slipped? Now here is a prayer that will hold you
up and keep you from falling–"Lord, help me! Lord, help me!"
"No," says someone, "you have not touched my case yet" Perhaps you are
going to a new job, or you are just undertaking fresh duties and you
wonder how you will be able to fill the sphere which was occupied so
well by the one who went before you? Well, do not enter upon that new
sphere without this prayer, "Lord, help me!" If you pray that prayer
from your heart, you will be encouraged–you shall play the man and do
well for God and for His Truth. Possibly you are already in a situation
where you are under great strain. Where, perhaps, your physical
strength is overtaxed and your mind is depressed by the wear and tear
of a cruel servitude. Well, if you cannot get out of it, pray the Lord
to help you in it, and let this be your constant cry, "Lord, help me!
Lord, help me!" It is wonderful how He can aid and direct His people!
And you, young Brother against the door, you came just inside, hoping
to get a message that will guide you in your present difficulty. Here
is that message! Go home and pray about it. Cry to God about it and you
shall have direction. And let this be your cry, "Lord, help me! Lord,
help me!" And He will help you. Is there a dear little girl here who
wants to find Christ? I give her this short prayer to pray tonight,
"Lord, help me!" Is there a gray-headed man here, leaning upon his
staff, who has not yet found the Savior? Then, as you sit in that
aisle, cry, "Son of David, Jesus Christ the Lord, do help and save me!"
And He will! This prayer will do to live with. This prayer will do to
die with! It is a prayer for those who usually worship in this place.
It is a prayer for the people in the streets all around. It is a prayer
for everybody and a prayer for every place wherever you may be–"Lord,
help me!"
Blessed be His name, the Lord will answer this prayer! He has helped
His people! He is still Israel's Helper! He will be their Helper even
to the end! Therefore put your trust in Him and go forward with
confidence into the future. And may His gracious Presence be with you
forevermore! Amen.
EXPOSITION: MATTHEW 15:10-31.
Verses 10, 11. And He called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear,
and understand: not that which goes into the mouth defiles a man, but
that which comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man. True religion
does not consist in meats and drinks, in feasting or in fasting. It is
not that which goes into us, but that which comes out of us which is
the main matter.
12. Then came His disciples, andsaid unto Him, Know You that the
Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? They thought a
very great deal of the opinion of the Pharisees and they were greatly
concerned because their Master had offended them. These Pharisees set
themselves up as the judges of everything that was correct and proper
in religion! Yet Christ offended them by His plain speaking.
13. But He answered and said, Every plant which My heavenly Father has
not planted, shall be rooted up. The Truth of God is often intended to
root up. I have no doubt that our Lord said many things which had no
other intention than the discovery of these deceitful men to themselves
and others, that their baneful influence might be destroyed. Our Savior
was a true iconoclast, a great image-smasher, and these men, who were
the chief icons or images of the day, had to be broken down. He
therefore put the Truth of God in the very form that would offend them!
14. Let them alone: they are blind leaders of the blind. And if the
blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Our Lord did not
soften or tone down His previous language, but He revealed the true
character of the false guides by whom so many were deluded.
15. Then answered Peter and said unto Him, Explain unto us this
parable. "We do not understand it. What is its meaning?"
16. 17. And Jesus said, Are you also yet without understanding? Do not
you yet understand that whatever enters in at the mouth goes into the
belly, and is eliminated? And so there is an end of it.
18. But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the
heart and they defile the man. The main matter to be considered is the
heart, not the mouth and other parts of the body. Note how our Lord, by
this great Truth, puts the axe to much that looks very fair and good,
and cuts it down as worthless! If we serve God with the heart, there is
the core of true religion! But if not, we may have as many ceremonial
washings as there are hours in the day and days in the year, and we may
be careful to avoid this article of diet and to feed on that, to wear
this garment and not to wear that, and to observe this day and not
that–but all this outward religion will be of no use whatever–if our
heartis not savingly affected by the Grace of God.
19-21. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things
which defile a man: but to eat with unwashed hands defiles not a man.
Then Jesus went from there and departed into the coasts of Tyre and
Sidon. He did not like the Pharisees well enough to stay among them.
His own word concerning them was, "Let them alone," and He did very
severely let them alone–"Jesus went from there and departed into the
coasts of Tyre and Sidon." He must not go into Tyre and Sidon, for His
commission for the present was confined to Palestine, the chosen land.
Do not regret this, dear Friends. To have extended our Savior's work
over a greater area would not have been, really, to increase it. And it
was very important that during the very short active lifetime of our
Savior–a little more than three years–He should confine His
operations to a comparatively small district, so as to produce a
permanent result, there, which would afterwards radiate over the whole
world. So our Savior, who knew what was best for men, confined Himself
within a very narrow sphere.
And, my Brothers and Sisters, I am not sure that we are always wise
when we desire a great sphere. I have myself sometimes envied the man
with about five hundred people to watch over, who could see them all,
know them all, and enter into sympathy with them all–and so could do
his work well. But, with so large a number as I have under my charge,
what can one man do? And you, my Brothers, may increase the quantity of
your acreage, and yet grow no larger crops. You may think that you will
succeed better on a wider scale, but if you do not do so well in the
greater field, it might have been wiser to narrow your boundaries
rather than to widen them. However, if our Lord might not go into Tyre
and Sidon, He went as near to them as He could–"Jesus departed into
the coasts of Tyre and Sidon." And if you, dear Friends, think there is
a limit to your sphere of usefulness, always go as near as you can to
the limit–go up to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon!
22. And, behold. For it is a great wonder that such a person should
have come to Jesus. "And, behold"–
22. 23. A woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts and cried unto
Him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, You Son ofDavid; my daughter is
grievously vexed with a devil. But He answered her not a word. This was
another mar-vel–a silent Savior–silent when it would have been so
natural for Him to speak a kind and gracious word. "He answered her not
a word."
23. AndHis disciples came andsought Him, saying, Sendher away, for she
cries after us. "'She cries after us,' and it is very important that we
should not be troubled." We disciples are apt to think so, especially
if we get a little lifted up, and come to be Apostles. "Send her away,
for she cries after us." She knew better than to cry after the
disciples! It was the Master whose help she needed. Some sinners are a
great nuisance, they make so much noise in seeking Christ, and what a
mercy it is that they do so! Oh, to have such troublesome people about
us all day long and all night long, too! It would be worth while to be
vexed in this style. But the disciples said to Jesus, "Send her away
for she cries after us."
24. But He answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of
the house of Israel.' 'Therefore, I cannot attend to her."
25. 26. Then she came and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, help me! But He
answered and said, It is not meet– ' 'It is not comely, it is not
fit."
26. To take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. The original
means, "the little dogs that play with the children; they lie under the
table, and pick up the crumbs that their masters' (the children's
masters) let fall." The woman caught at that expression at once.
27. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which
fall from their masters' table.' 'I may be only a dog, and these Jews
round about You are Your children, but I have gotten in among them and
I am looking for a crumb or two as it falls from their table." This was
grand faith on her part and it was speedily rewarded!
28-31. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is your
faith: be it unto you even as you will. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. And Jesus departed from there and came near unto
the sea of Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down there.
And great multitudes came unto Him, having with them those that were
lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus
'feet; and He healed them: insomuch that the multitude wondered, when
they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk,
and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel. The Savior
appears to have gone on this journey on purpose to bless this woman and
her daughter and, having worked the miracle, He went where great
multitudes came to Him, bringing their sick folk to be healed. And the
result was, "They glorified the God of Israel." There may be some poor
soul here in as great distress as this woman was. If so, may that one
get a blessing and then may the blessing spread through all the
neighborhood till multitudes are saved!