Mother's Day 2026: Lessons on Faith from a Mother

Mother’s Day 2026

Lessons on Faith from a Mother

Matthew 15:21-28

 Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms here today. If we are honest I think we have to admit that there are a few secular traditions that have crept into the church over the years. The celebration of Mother’s Day is one that would be included in that. Mother’s Day isn’t a religious holiday. While I tend to cringe a little at most things of a secular nature that influence the church, I am not so concerned with a day of the year in which we recognize and celebrate our mothers. We should honor mothers. They are among God’s greatest blessings to us. This morning we are going to learn from a mother who teaches us something consistent with what we have been studying in our current series.

Since we are looking at the foundational aspects of the gospel and salvation, and since we are on the subject of the role of faith in the work of salvation, it wasn’t hard to pick a passage about a mother who teaches a great deal about faith. There are several examples in Scripture of mothers who were women of faith. But the mother we are going to look at today teaches about great faith. We have spent the last two weeks looking at faith. We looked at what faith is in the first message. We looked at what faith does in the second message. Today we look at the example of a mother who demonstrates both lessons admirably.

So turn to Matthew 15 with me and let’s read about one moms encounter with our Lord Jesus Christ. This mother came to Jesus on behalf of her daughter who was cruelly demon possessed. Read Matt 15:21-28.

When you think of a mother’s roles in the lives of her children there are many aspects of her roles that come to mind. A mother is a protector, provider, care giver, nurturer, referee, coach, encourager, disciplinarian, mentor, friend, taxi driver and nurse. There are many other roles a mother plays. In the case of this woman, she is in the role of an intercessor. She is interceding with Jesus on behalf of her daughter. She needed the help of Jesus to take care of a problem that no one else could do anything about.

But I don’t want us to focus on this woman’s role as an intercessor. That would be a great Mother’s Day message. An important thing a mother does is pray for her children. Rather, today, I want us to think about the role of a mother as a teacher. Today we are going to let a mother teach us something. And as is often the case, the lessons we learn from this mother we learn mostly from her example. We are going to learn simply by examining this account of her actions and her words. Her actions aren’t directed at us. Her words are not spoken to us. But we are going to learn something very important from this mother. We are going to learn about faith from this mother because this mother had great faith. She had literally “mega-faith.”

Are there really any more important lessons a mother can teach than lessons on faith. All other lessons are of secondary importance. Mothers and fathers both should be making teaching faith their top priority with their children. We can teach about anything and everything, but if we don’t teach our children about faith, we have failed our children. A mother’s role is critical in the process of teaching about faith. As parents, and I mean both mom and dad, we teach our children about faith either by design or by default.

Listen to these words of wisdom not found in the Bible. “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” Let that sink in for a moment. Consider what it is telling you. Apply it to our roles as parents and grandparents. If we are not aiming, if we are not intentional and focused on what we want to teach our children and grandchildren, we won’t be shooting at any specific target. We will be leaving the results to chance. The outcomes will come, but they may not be the outcomes we were hoping for. We want to teach our children and grandchildren the truth about biblical saving faith because we want them to have a faith that saves. We want to make sure we are aiming at that specific target so that is what we focus our efforts at achieving.

Whether we understand it or not, whether we like it or not, we are teaching our children about faith. We might be teaching them the wrong things about faith, but we are teaching them. They are watching us. They are learning from our examples, whether good or bad. I have chosen this woman today to teach us some important lessons on faith because this woman is teaching it right. She is modeling what Jesus described as “mega-faith.” Her faith was great faith.

You may be thinking that if it is your job to be teaching anyone about faith, you don’t see yourself as qualified. We need to understand just how unlikely it would have been for this woman to have been qualified to teach anyone anything about faith. Verse 22 tells us that this woman was a Canaanite. If you are familiar with your Old Testament history you know that the Canaanites were a cursed race. They were among the grossly immoral pagans who inhabited the land that God gave to the Israelites under Joshua. God’s instructions in Deuteronomy 7:1-6 was that these people were to be destroyed. God’s time of judgment had come. The only reason this woman was alive was because the Israelites did not fully obey God’s instructions when they conquered the Promised Land. Being a Canaanite was one reason she would not be qualified to teach anything about faith to anyone.

Mark tells us she was also Syrophoenician. We know from our passage she was living in the region of Tyre and Sidon. What does all this indicate? Phoenicia was the name of the country. Under the Roman general Ptolemy Syria and Phoenicia were annexed and became one. This is where Syrophonecia comes from. Being Syrophonecian identified her with the Romans. She had exposure to the polytheistic practices of that culture. She was from the region of Tyre and Sidon. Tyre was where the wicked queen Jezebel was from. Jezebel was famous for pushing the worship of Baal onto the Jewish people. This area is where the worship of Baal originated.

Her geographical background tells us something of the cultural influences she had been living under. Spiritual darkness characterized the culture. Demons flourished in this environment. This explains why her daughter was cruelly demon possessed. And the false gods of the Romans offered no solutions. This woman had likely tried everything and found help from none of the false deities.

This woman is a Gentile, an outcast, a reject, especially in the minds of the Jews. She is a member of a race of people who had centuries before been condemned by God for their grossly immoral practices. For this woman to come to Jesus, and for Him to allow such a woman into His presence, would cause Jesus to be discredited as a spiritual leader among the Jews. But Jesus had a habit of allowing these kinds of women into His presence. Based on what we know of this woman we would never have suspected that she would be qualified to teach us anything about faith, let alone great faith.

Now that we know her background, let’s examine her words because it is in her words that we learn some very important things about great faith. All I have told you so far indicates how unworthy this woman was to receive the help she do desperately wanted. The amazing thing is that she realized how undeserving she was. Her first words to Jesus indicate her understanding of how undeserving and unworthy she was. The first thing she said to Jesus was, “Have mercy on me…” What are we asking for when we ask for mercy? We are asking that God would not give us what we deserve. Salvation starts for us when we understand how spiritually bankrupt we are and we cry out to God for mercy. The birth place of faith in the heart of an unbeliever is at that point of an overwhelming sense of one’s unworthiness before God. This woman knows she is unworthy. She knows she is completely undeserving. She must have mercy from God or she and her daughter are both in deep trouble.

Yes, this mother is coming to ask for something. She is coming to ask Jesus to heal her daughter who is demon possessed. But she isn’t asking for something that she thinks she deserves. She is asking even though she knows she is totally undeserving. She is unworthy. In our series on the gospel and the work of salvation, we began by spending weeks understanding just how unworthy we are because of the problem sin has caused for each one of us. Our sin separates us from God. We are unworthy of any good, any mercy, any favorable thing from God. This is the heart soil into which the seeds of faith are sown and those seeds can sprout and grow to produce much fruit.

Great faith starts with an understanding of one’s unworthiness. The second characteristic of great faith is found in the next words of this woman. She said, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David…” This indicates amazing insight on the part of this woman from such a dark, pagan background. She properly identified Jesus as Lord. She didn’t call Him “teacher.” He was a great Teacher but she saw Him and understood Him to be much more than just a great teacher. She understood Him to be “Lord.” She recognized Him as Sovereign Deity. She also called Him “Son of David.” This was His messianic title. She recognized Him as the promised Messiah and Savior. She knows He has supernatural power and having such power means He must be God. Since He is God He will have power over the spirits of darkness that oppress her daughter.

This woman’s faith was not only in Jesus as God, her faith was based on a proper understanding of who Jesus was as God. It is amazing that she would come to this understanding coming out of her pagan culture. How did this happen? It happened because the Holy Spirit opened her eyes to the truth. She is one of those who had eyes to see and ears to hear. She is one who was dead in her trespasses and sins, but God made her alive and she received the gift of faith.

This mother’s faith saw herself for what she really was. She was unworthy. Her faith also saw God for who He really was. He was the Sovereign, omnipotent Ruler of all creation. She came believing He had the power over darkness and Satan. She knew the false pagan gods could not help her. Whatever the extent of her understanding, her confidence in Jesus is astounding. Her statement is “my daughter is cruelly demon possessed.” In the Greek it says literally, “my daughter is badly demonized.” 

The next thing we learn about faith from this mother is that her faith is not only coming from an understanding of her unworthiness, and it is rightly directed toward Jesus, whom she correctly understands to possess divine power and authority, but this mother’s faith is a very persistent faith. In fact, that is the most striking thing about this woman’s faith is it not? Look at what happens. The first thing we see in verse 23 is that Jesus did not answer her. He didn’t say a word. How many of you are struggling with that? Here is a woman with a need and Jesus isn’t responding. When Jesus does respond, if we are honest, we really don’t like the way His response sounds. You are wondering what is going on. You should be. Let’s talk about what is not going on.

Is Jesus keeping silent because He doesn’t care? We know the answer to that, don’t we? Jesus always cares. Is Jesus ignoring this woman because He doesn’t want to do anything about this little girl’s condition? Jesus never turned His back on a need because He didn’t care, or because He lacked the power to take care of the problem. Maybe Jesus didn’t want to heal this woman’s daughter because she was a Gentile woman and Jesus really didn’t want to take His ministry to the Gentiles yet? That seems to be the excuse He gives her doesn’t it. That is what He said in verse 24. “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

This woman didn’t take that answer from Jesus and walk away. She bowed down, verse 25 tells us and said, “Lord, help Me!” This bowing down is important. It is the position of a worshiper. In response to her worship Jesus said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Jesus wasn’t calling this woman a dog. He wasn’t being insensitive to the woman. He wasn’t being rude. He was using a common word picture to illustrate something. There are two Greek words for “dog.” One describes the mangy, vicious, mongrels that roamed the streets. The other described the small lap dogs that people had as personal household pets. This is the word used here.

You know how these pets are. If you are eating and there is a dog in the house, that dog is right under the table begging and watching carefully for scraps to hit the floor. Jesus is describing that situation. He said it was not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dog. With this word picture Jesus is defending His reluctance based on His overall ministry plan. Salvation is to the Jew first, then the Gentile. Jesus did begin His ministry to the Jews and His focus was still on the Jews.

But Jesus knew all along He was going to heal this woman’s daughter. He knew all things. Even though His ministry was first to the Jews, He had already healed the centurion’s servant. That account is found back in Matthew 8. He was a Gentile. He had shared the gospel with a Samaritan woman by this time in His ministry. Jesus wasn’t hesitating because He had a problem with helping a Gentile woman. There are other things going on.

I believe there are two things happening here. First, Jesus is teaching the disciples a lesson about great faith. What are the disciples doing in response to this woman? They have been listening to her relentless pleas and they have been after Jesus to get rid of her. There in verse 23 they are imploring Jesus to send her away. I think their plea is this, “Lord, it won’t be a big deal to just give her what she is asking for. Just do it and send her on her way. She is driving us crazy shouting at us.” The disciples were looking at this woman like she was a bother. Jesus was looking at this woman and seeing her as an opportunity to teach His disciples what real faith looks like.

Did the disciples need a lesson on faith? Did they ever! Even the closest disciples of Jesus hadn’t comprehended even the essentials of faith and the gospel at this point. They were still learning and right before them is this woman who probably understood it better than many of them. Jesus wants His disciples focused on this woman so they will learn something of mega faith. Just back one chapter in Matthew Jesus rebuked Peter for his “little faith.” Jesus rebuked Peter for his “little faith” and Peter was the only one with enough faith to get out of the boat and walk in the water in the midst of a storm. If Peter’s faith was “little” what was the size of the faith of the others? It was almost none existent. Here is a woman of mega faith and Jesus sees an opportunity to teach them what some big faith looks like.

So Jesus puts up some resistance. Jesus is kind of stiff-arming this woman. He isn’t doing it to be mean. He is doing it to teach the disciples. But He is also doing it for the woman’s sake as well. Great faith is persistent. There is another word for persistent you find in the Bible. It is the word “perseverance.” Great faith perseveres. It perseveres through what? It perseveres through the trials. It perseveres through the struggles. It perseveres through the storms, the difficulties, the challenges, the resistance, the persecution. True faith is great faith and great faith perseveres through everything.

Jesus knows what this woman knows. Jesus knows exactly where this woman’s faith is. He knows just how much she can take. Jesus knows that this woman’s faith can stand the test of resistance. Jesus is putting this woman’s faith to the test, not for the purpose of making her faith fail, but for the purpose of proving her faith’s value. Jesus wants His disciples to see great faith and the harder Jesus resists the greater her faith shows up. This mother is the ultimate teacher mom on matters of faith. She is now providing an object lesson for the disciples of Jesus.

In reality we would think this should be the other way around. Jesus should have been able to turn to Peter and say, “Peter, teach this Gentile pagan worshiper something about faith.” This is incredible. The disciples who had been traveling with Jesus and learning at His feet for over a year at this point were learning about faith from a Gentile woman.

Then, her response to the resistance of Jesus is amazingly insightful and witty. Look at verse 27. The woman said, “Yes Lord, but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their master’s table.” She took off with the picture Jesus had given to her. She got it. She acknowledged that Jesus was right. She wasn’t of the children of Israel. She didn’t deserve His help. She knew she was from a people who should have been exterminated by the Jews. She understood the difference between the covenant people of God and the rest of humanity. She knew she was on the outside. She simply asks Jesus to allow a little of the benefits intended for Israel to fall off the table onto her. “Let just a little bit fall on me.”

You talk about a good soil hearer of the seed of the word of God. This woman was there wasn’t she. Look at the response of Jesus. Verse 28, “Then Jesus said to her, ‘O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed at once.” This is amazing. Never once did Jesus commend His apostles for great faith. In three years of intense training they never got close to where this woman was.

What a great teacher of faith this woman was!

Let’s wrap this up with something we can take home and chew on. This “great faith” thing can be made really simple. Great faith involves nothing more than a proper understanding of who we are. Remember how unworthy we are. Remember how undeserving we are of anything good that God might do for us. In light of our sinfulness we deserve hell. We are undeserving. 

Next, great faith involves a proper understanding of who God is. We are undeserving and God is the omnipotent Sovereign of every circumstance in our lives. He is a holy God. He cannot accept sinful people into His holy presences. Our sin will prevent our acceptance.

Third, great faith understands that the Omnipotent Sovereign God is willing to meet needs for undeserving people. God is always ready to meet our greatest need, which is the need for forgiveness. He will give mercy to those who cry out to Him for mercy. He will forgive because of the work of Christ on the Cross. He will save us from the penalty we deserve which is eternal separation from Him. He will redeem us. He will deliver us from the domain of darkness and make us to become His children. All this comes to us by faith in Jesus Christ.

I can identify with this woman. I too am so undeserving that God would do anything for me. I am a sinner. I am a wretched sinner. I deserve the sentence of condemnation that a holy God would give to a sinner.

I, like this woman, also understand that only Jesus can help me. Only Jesus can provide the solution to my problem. He alone is the sinless Son of God, the Son of David, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Savior of sinners.

I continue to learn that I cannot stop coming to Jesus crying out, “Lord, help me!” We need a great faith that will persist in the face of trials and persevere until life is over.

Let’s pray.