Let’s begin with a trick question. Tyre and Sidon are:
A) Secret herbs in a new diet pill.
B) NASCAR combatants.
C) Hurricanes brewing in the Atlantic.
D) Twin sons of a groovy Hollywood couple flirting with marriage.
E) Tired and sighing customers gasping at their utility bills.
F) New Age paleontologists seeking grant money to build a feathered, furry, flying T-Rex.
G) Morning disc jockeys on KRAZY.
H) All of the above.
If you chose any of the above, you’re wrong. That’s why it is a trick question. You know you can’t trust me.
Tyre and Sidon are actually famous old Phoenician cities that received a lot of play in the human drama described in the Bible. Trust me on this, but look it up for yourself.
Occasionally, geography lessons are important to understanding the mission of Jesus the Christ, God in the flesh, Savior of the entire world. Because He was born and raised a Jew, we sometimes forget that He cared about the eternal interest of us gentiles as well.
In the millennium preceding God’s physical appearance on the human stage, Tyre and Sidon represented the worst of pagan enterprises. For hundreds of years they were Israel’s worst nightmare. They were idolatrous. They were brutish. They were against prayer in the schools and public displays of the Ten Commandments. They endorsed gay marriage and used their daughters as bargaining chips in unholy alliances. They were mean and nasty. They excelled at raping and plundering.
The dreaded Philistines, Israel’s archenemies, called Phoenicia home for centuries. They were due-paying members of the Tyre and Sidon Chamber of Commerce. An oversized thug by the name of Goliath served as the mascot of the Philistine Army.
The wily seductress Delilah came from Philistine stock. Samson, who it seems had a penchant for bad girls, lost his vision, as well as his innocence, and then his life, in her presence.
Another legendary woman of ill-repute came from the thereabouts of Tyre and Sidon. Jezebel was the daughter of a pagan priest serving false gods in grand temples near Sidon. Ahab picked her up in a deal cut with her dad, and when she showed up at her new husband’s palace, she demanded extra rooms for her entourage. It wasn’t long before she and her merry band of pagan enthusiasts were running the country, much to the chagrin of Elijah.
The list goes on, but I think you get the drift. Nothing good came to Israel from Tyre and Sidon. By the time Jesus began to travel outside Galilee, Tyre and Sidon had earned a reputation similar to Sodom and Gomorrah. They were the sin cities of the ancient world, and odd places for the Jewish Messiah to visit.
Reading the Gospels, one is continually shocked by the unconventional behavior of Jesus. Commentators of the day suggested he had not consulted The Prophets Guide to Safer Living. He constantly surprised his audience. He was unpredictable. He acted in ways that were contrary to expectations. Upwardly mobile rabbis didn’t hang out with social misfits and frequent homes and dance halls occupied by common sinners. Many found him too counter-culture for their liking.
The Gospel accounts unfold on numerous levels. One perspective we need to consider is that of the folks who hoped and prayed Jesus was the real deal, the long-awaited Redeemer. Many of the people introduced on the pages of the Gospels were desperate people in need of a divine fix. And the Nazarene went looking for them.
Jesus must have shocked His followers when He headed west out of Galilee for pagan country. It must have shocked them even more when he led them to Tyre and Sidon to announce the Good News of God’s Kingdom coming to earth. It must have scared them when a wild and crazy pagan woman busted into their closed circle and demanded an audience with the coming King.
Desperate people do desperate things. At times, even demonstrating unusual faith.
The story recorded in Matthew 15:21-30 tells of a “Canaanite woman” (a direct descendent of Canaanite women who caused Israel to sin after the conquest of their turf) who got in Jesus’ grill, and despite repeated efforts to turn her away, wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. Her demon possessed daughter was a project only God could handle, and she was presumptuous enough to believe that God’s compassion extended to all people – even lowly Canaanite women trapped in pagan despair.
Jesus couldn’t resist such great faith. He conceded her perspective was right and true. He healed the girl right there in the ancient capital of Philistine glory. He must have freaked out his traveling companions, along with the local skeptics.
This bizarre adventure is full of irony. Jewish folks back in the Promised Land were generally reluctant to receive Jesus as Lord. Though “He had come first to the lost sheep of Israel” (which I believe constituted all of Israel), His mission was ultimately the salvation of the entire world. We learn from this passage that many unchosen folks exercised saving faith before the chosen folks.
Jesus is an unlikely Savior to many – then and now. Not everyone recognizes Him as the God of Creation who willingly and purposefully took on human flesh to redeem all fallen sinners.
For us gentiles, this story packs a wallop. It teaches us that our faith finds favor with God, and that no other criteria – not race, gender, economic status, nationality, height, weight, body type, or generational pedigree – justifies us before God Almighty. What impresses Jesus is simple great faith.
What does God expect from you, my fellow misguided gentile? Faith.
Remember the words of the Apostle John who said, “These things were written so that you might believe, and believing, might have eternal life.”
No smoke. No mirrors. No tricks. Just faith.