Matthew 15:21-39
2 The Lord Jesus pays a visit to the regions of Tyre and Sidon. These heathen villages, He had declared, were less guilty than those of Galilee where He had performed most of His miracles (Matthew 11:21-22). But they had no part in the blessings of "the Son of David" (v. 22); they were strangers from the covenants of promise (Ephesians 2:12). The Lord, in seemingly severe words, begins by stressing that fact to the poor Canaanitish woman who supplicates Him for her daughter. And this woman confesses her complete unworthiness. When we take our proper place before God, grace can shine out in all its brightness. In fact, if on man’s side there was the slightest right or the least merit, it would no longer be a question of grace but of something due by right (Romans 4:4). To measure still better the immensity of this grace toward us, let us never forget our miserable state and unworthiness before God.
Then the Lord turns again towards His people. In accordance with Psalms 132:15, He blesses abundantly her provision and satisfies her poor with bread. And what impels Him to act, in this second miracle as in the first, is the compassion by which His heart is constrained for the multitudes (v. 32; Matthew 14:14).