"Lord, Give me the Scraps...I've Been Waiting a Long Time!"

“Give me the Scraps, Lord…I’ve been waiting a long Time.”

By Terry N. Hursh

The season of Advent is a “waiting game.” While our tendency may be to rush into Christmas, Advent teaches us another lesson.

While the Bible offers many examples of those who have put their trust in Christ while waiting, one such story, found in Matthew 15:21-28, has always fascinated me.

Listen to the words:

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.”

He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

 Waiting in Desperation.

Some people are motivated by a desperate situation. A famous paratrooper was speaking to a group of young recruits. When he had finished his prepared talk and called for questions, one young fellow raised his hand and said, "What made you decide to make your first jump?" The paratrooper's answer was quick and to the point. "An airplane at 20,000 with three dead engines."

Here we have the story of a woman who is desperate. A woman seeking help for her sick child. Her daughter was tormented by an unclean spirit, and no healer of her own people had been able to help. In her desperation she looks to Jesus. She has heard about Jesus….and she was waiting to get his help for her daughter.

At some time in our lives all of us have either experienced, or will experience, what it is to be desperate. Desperate in small ways and large… these are moments of total powerlessness… painfully unable to resolve whatever it is that is tearing us apart. And when that happens, we turn to God. We stretch out our hands in protest. We wait for help, for an answer, a quick way out of our hopelessness. We cry out for help… It’s not hard, then, to identify with the suffering of this mother. Helpless to heal her child she turns to Jesus as her last resort.  Certainly… Jesus will help.

But as we read Matthew’s account, we pause. Wait a minute! This can’t be right. We read that Jesus refuses to help. He refuses. He completely ignores her appeal to his mercy. As do Jesus own disciples. In fact, they demand that Jesus send the woman away. And Jesus agrees with them.

“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” He tells the woman.

Jesus, our Jesus, is refusing to help this woman and her daughter because they are foreign. They are not citizens of the house of Israel. They are Canaanite, invisible, and unimportant. Outsiders. A minority. And so …this woman is not to be the subject of his compassion and mercy. Jesus turns her away.

But the woman has been waiting for Jesus and refuses to be sent away. Protesting, she kneels before him, “Lord, help me.” she says. Still Jesus refuses her. “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

In other words: He tells her that it is not fair to take what is intended for His people and give it to those who are inferior. Harsh, harsh words. But the woman is desperate… and in her desperate waiting…speaks the word of truth:

 “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

(Born an outsider and idolator, by nature she would have been considered by the Jewish people to be an enemy of the living God; sin personified.  The rabbis referred to Canaanites as “dogs,” unclean animals, filthy, garbage-picking scavengers.)

But she was desperate. She can wait no longer.

Jesus is all she has left.

This is an uncomfortable story. If Jesus treats a woman like this, what about us? What about us when we are desperate?

Why on earth did Matthew think to put this story in his gospel?

It is the only place in scripture which appears to put Jesus in a bad light… So why has Matthew penned this in his gospel? After all, Jesus doesn’t seem very godly in this story. Where is his famous compassion? Where is his mercy?

Let’s try to unpack this uneasy story a bit. When Jesus responds: “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs, He is not kicking her or giving her the back of His hand. In fact, His use of the Greek κυναρ?οις (“dog”) sets the stage for the level of her elevation within the Kingdom of God, painting a picture for his disciples… and future believers like us.

Jesus uses this as a lesson.

Here Jesus shows His heart for the lost and how we are to esteem each person as a potential recipient of divine grace. In Christ’s Kingdom there are only the baptized and those He desires to be baptized. The gift of faith is the great equalizer within the Kingdom of God, elevating “dogs” to the status of “firstborn sons” who inherit all.

Jesus viewed the Jewish act of circumcision not as an ethnic identifier. Rather, He saw that “circumcision” was is of the heart by the Holy Spirit working through the Word. It is not about ancestral connection or ethnic heritage anymore. The Canaanite woman has heard the word about Jesus. In her waiting this Word has drawn her to Jesus. Now, only a word from the One who is the Word will do.

The Lesson

In this moment, Jesus teaches the disciples: Israel is redefined around Me. True Israel stands in the faith of Abraham before he was circumcised, when he was justified by his confession of faith in the only true and living God. She evidenced herself as an Israelite by her rightful confession of Jesus as “Lord, Son of David,” the only One with power and authority to speak a word which reverses her impossible situation.

Jesus offers grace for the graceless. The disciples should have seen this coming, too. Ethnicity does not defile a person and neither does it vindicate them. 
 

This is a poignant lesson for us today, for when we gaze upon the world with our hearts…we must recognize that sometimes we are wrong in our quick assumptions. We can be too narrow, too opinionated too fixed in our views, too eager to believe we are right.

In Catholic theology, salvation is the process by which we are freed from sin and brought into eternal union with God.  We understand salvation not as a single moment… but as a lifelong journey… that involves God’s grace, human freedom, and the transforming power of love.  Its essence is the belief that Jesus Christ, through His life, death, and resurrection, has opened the way to eternal life for ALL people.

We teach that salvation begins with God’s initiative. No one can turn to God without grace—the undeserved, freely given help that enables people (of every ethnic and cultural background) to respond to Him.

While we hold that we are saved by grace through faith, we also see that authentic faith expresses itself in love. Good works, acts of charity, obedience to God’s commandments, and moral choices, are not attempts to earn salvation but fruits of God’s grace working in the believer. Salvation is thus a cooperative relationship: God acts first, and humans freely respond. Grace was clearly working in this woman’s heart when she sought Jesus’ healing and hope.

When this unnamed Canaanite woman replied to Jesus’ initial “refusal” to help, the woman did not flinch. She understood not insult but challenge—an invitation to reveal the depth of her faith. With humility and courage woven together, she answered, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from their masters’ table.”

Her words hung in the air like a spark of light. Here was a woman outside the covenant, yet she saw more clearly than many within it. She claimed no rights, demanded no privilege; she simply trusted in the overflowing mercy of God. Jesus’ face softened into a smile that dissolved every barrier. “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And at that very moment, her daughter was healed.

The disciples stood silent, absorbing the lesson. Faith, Jesus had shown them, is not confined to borders, ancestry, or custom. It is drawn to humility, perseverance, and trust. Grace was not a rationed supply for a select few but a feast so abundant that even the crumbs carried power enough to save. And in the Canaanite woman’s bold, humble plea, the disciples glimpsed the wideness of God’s mercy—a mercy destined for every people, every nation, every heart that dares to believe.

A Lesson for Us Today

The encounter between Jesus and the Canaanite woman carries a powerful message for our own time. Her faith shows that God’s mercy reaches far beyond the boundaries we humans often draw…boundaries of culture, race, religion, or status. In a world still divided by these lines, the woman reminds us that God listens to every sincere heart and that no one stands outside His desire to heal and restore.

Her persistence…her desperate waiting… also speaks directly to the struggles we face today.

She teaches us that prayer is not defeated by delay. When God seems silent or when life feels unresponsive to our cries, her example encourages us not to give up. True faith does not walk away when the answer is slow or difficult; it presses in with humility and trust. Her perseverance transforms what looks like refusal into revelation.

The woman’s humility is yet another lesson for our time. She does not approach Jesus with entitlement but with openness and honesty. In a culture that often measures worth by wealth, success, achievement, or popularity, she shows that God responds not to pride but to the heart that knows it needs Him. Her humility opens the door to grace.

Finally, Jesus’ response reminds us that God delights in faith wherever He finds it. If we are honest, we might expect God’s favor to fall only on those who “belong” or who meet certain criteria. Instead, Jesus reveals a mercy not limited by our assumptions. He celebrates the woman’s faith and, in doing so, invites us to expand our own vision of who is welcome in God’s family.

As we wait in Advent, this story challenges us to trust more deeply, to pray more boldly, to judge less quickly, and to believe in a mercy that overflows every boundary.