Sermon on August 9, 2026
“Lost Sheep”
By: Anthony Amato, seminarian
“I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
If you’re anything like me, you might find it uncomfortable to hear Jesus speaking this way. A woman is coming to him in desperation, hoping that her daughter might be healed of her affliction, only to have Jesus resist her request. She’s a Gentile, a Canaanite, and Jesus insists that he has come only for the people of Israel.
Jesus also uses a rather demeaning metaphor where the Israelites are described as “the children,” and everyone else, including this woman, are dogs.
I think one of the reasons this passage challenges me so much is because I have a very specific, very personal way of imagining Jesus. For me, Jesus is always humble and tender. His anger is never premeditated, and his words are only severe for those who deserve it. My Jesus would never have said what he said to the Canaanite woman.
Many attempt to defend Jesus in light of today’s gospel reading. They argue that Jesus is simply testing the Canaanite woman, and that he always knew how the woman was going to answer him. And we could certainly interpret it this way. The Greek word for “dogs” being used in this passage is more indicative of a domesticated house dog, rather than a wild dog on the streets.
Additionally, the woman recognizes this and even engages the metaphor that Jesus is using: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
Both of these points have been used as evidence that Jesus is testing the Canaanite woman. When he says he’s come to feed not the dogs, but only the children of Israel, maybe he does so with a little twinkle in his eye and a cheeky smile on his face. Maybe, in his divinity, Jesus already knew how the woman would respond, intending this to be a teaching moment for his disciples, who just moments ago asked Jesus to ignore this woman.
This interpretation certainly paints Jesus in a much more sympathetic light, mainly because it justifies his use of language that is not only offensive, but very exclusionary. Jesus has come only for the lost sheep of Israel? What about the Gentiles? What about all of us? Does Jesus really believe that his mission is to save the Israelites and no one else, or is this all part of the test?
If we search earlier in Matthew’s gospel, we find that Jesus has actually used this “lost sheep of Israel” expression before. In ch. 10, Jesus commissions his disciples to cast out demons and heal the sick, but he sends them out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.”
This greatly complicates the interpretation that Jesus was merely testing the Canaanite woman. Jesus, at least according to Matthew’s telling, is clearly under the impression that his ministry is only for the Jews. And this doesn’t just complicate our interpretation of today’s gospel passage. It also unsettles our image of a divine Christ who always knew his true purpose was to save all of humanity, not just Israel.
Today, I invite us to sit with that discomfort, and I ask all of you to consider this text at face value. To quote one of my bible professors, “what does the text actually say?” In Matthew chs. 10 and 15, Jesus says plainly, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Isn’t it possible, that this is what Jesus actually believed. Isn’t it possible that as a Jewish male living in 1st-century Palestine, Jesus, like any human being, was a product of his upbringing and social context?
Jesus was raised alongside expectations for the Messiah, and he likely recognized his Messianic role primarily through a Jewish lens. He would have shared the same worldview and also the prejudices of his tribe of birth. This would explain why Jesus was hesitant to even talk to the Canaanite woman when she first approached him. To Jesus and his people, the Canaanites, which is itself a derogatory term, were the worst of the worst – they were dogs.
So here’s the point, Jesus was a human being every bit as much as he was God. And just as each of us must question and discern what it is God is calling us to do, perhaps Jesus underwent this same, most basic human experience. Perhaps Jesus did not yet know the full extent of his calling, nor the full truth of his ministry.
Now, you might be thinking to yourself, Anthony, Jesus is the embodiment, the very personification of truth. How could he not understand the truth behind his calling – the truth that he was meant to heal and to bless all peoples?
And I would answer that question by directing you to the Canaanite woman’s response to Jesus: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” The woman in this story speaks the truth, and Jesus recognizes it. The truth may have been a challenge to his worldview, a disruption to his sense of call, and yet he allows himself to be inspired, to be changed by the truth that this nameless woman speaks. I may be a dog, but I will take whatever crumbs of salvation you have to offer.
Jesus is transformed by this experience! He never again says that he was sent only for the lost sheep of Israel, and the Gospel according to Matthew eventually ends with Jesus sending out his apostles to make disciples of all nations.
So yes, Jesus is the embodiment of truth, because truth is much more than just having all the answers. Truth implies the ability to recognize truth when we see it and when we hear it. And this ability to recognize truth is something God is calling us to exercise, especially now with the proliferation of AI and a world full of people who speak lies and misinformation for their own political and monetary gain.
Those who receive these lies into their hearts and repeat them for others to hear, defile themselves, because it is what comes out of the heart and through the mouth that defiles a person, just as Jesus teaches us. But if defilement is of the heart, then so are the qualities that the unnamed woman in our gospel exemplifies: faith, respect, persistence. These things do not defile us. Rather, they honor and serve us.
When we recognize these qualities in others, we are oftentimes transformed by the experience. And when we allow ourselves to be changed, when we allow our most tightly held convictions to be challenged, especially as they relate to our understanding of God, we find that God is much bigger, much more loving, and much more inclusive than we could possibly imagine.
Let us pray: Almighty and Ever-Living God, may we each have the wisdom to listen for truth in the same places that Jesus eventually learned to find it, among the voices of the marginalized. Help us to listen to the homeless, the immigrant, and all those experiencing danger, prejudice, and discrimination. In doing so, may we see a fuller, more truthful image of God than scripture or tradition alone will allow.
Amen.
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