A Children’s Sermon on Matthew 15:10-28

Preface for Pastors and Parents

Writing a children’s sermon on Matthew 15:10-28 is challenging in multiple ways.  (It’s the lectionary Gospel for Proper 15(20).)

There is one ordinary difficulty that comes up with many lectionary selections: The passage is really two scenes quite different from one another: 

But then there is an unusual challenge: Jesus just seems so rude to the Canaanite woman. It is hard to make sense of in any sermon. 

It comes out well in the end, but it isn’t the way one hopes the Son of God will behave. And I certainly don’t want tell the kiddos “Go and be like Jesus!” if that means insulting people.

What’s a poor preacher to do? When I did a children’s sermon on Mark’s version of the same story I dealt with it one way. This time I’m taking a different approach it in light of the seemingly unrelated verses that start the reading. You can let me know if this children’s sermon on Matthew 15:10-28 succeeds at making sense of Jesus’ behavior or not.

A Children’s Sermon on Matthew 15:10-28

Good morning kids! I am so glad to see you here in worship today. Thanks for coming up to hear the children’s sermon.

I wonder if you’ve ever noticed that sometimes people do surprising things. You can think you know exactly what your mom or dad is like and then — Surprise! — they do something you never would have expected. 

Sometimes, though, people have reasons for the surprising things they do. If you could only know what someone is thinking they probably think what they are doing makes perfect sense. 

In today’s story from the Gospel, Jesus does something very surprising. To me it sounds like he’s really rude to a woman who asks him for help. When I read it, I tried to imagine what he might have been thinking. I don’t know if it happened exactly this way, but here is what I imagine.

A Hike

Jesus and his friends had been on a long hike. They walked so far they actually crossed the border into another country. They were near the ancient cities of Tyre and Sidon.

“Wow!” said Peter, “I’ve never been here before!”

“Me neither,” said Jesus. “But boy, am I hungry! Who brought lunch?”

They all looked at each other. They all shrugged. 

“Okay,” said Jesus, “looks like we’ll need to buy some food.” 

They found a little shop just on the edge of town.

“What kind of food do you have for sale?” Jesus asked the shopkeeper. “I’ve never been here before.”

“We have all the local specialties!” she said. “How about I put together a bit of everything so you guys can try it all?” 

“Sounds great!” said Jesus. “Thanks”

A Picnic

Jesus and his friends carried the bags of food out to a nice grassy area and they sat down to eat.

Peter looked at the containers of food one by one. “Ew! That’s gross!” he said, his face all squinched up in a scowl. “EW! That’s gross too! That’s not like the food we eat back home.”

Jesus took a bite. 

“Try it!” he said “Its really good, actually.”

“No way!” said Peter. “In fact, if you eat that stuff I think you’re gross too. I don’t think I want to be around you on the way home. Ew!”

“Oh Peter,” said Jesus. “What you put in your mouth can’t make you gross. It’s what comes out of your mouth that can make you gross.”

“What do you mean?” Asked Peter. “I think that food is really gross! I mean —“

“I got your point,” said Jesus. “But think about it: Whatever you eat goes through your body. It comes out the other end and you flush it — It’s gone forever. But what comes out of your mouth can really hurt people.”

“But I don’t think —” Peter started.

“Watch” said Jesus. 

A Woman

But just then, a woman came running toward them from town. She was calling out Jesus’ name.

“Help me Jesus!” She called. “Help me!” 

She was all out of breath when she got to Jesus and his friends.

“Please help me!” she said. But Jesus didn’t even look at her.

“My poor daughter!” the woman begged. “She’s gone kind of crazy!” she said. “Could you help her please? I know you can heal her.” 

But still Jesus wouldn’t look at her. 

“Um, Jesus?” said Peter. “Could you maybe tell her to go away? This is getting kind of embarrassing.” 

So finally Jesus looked at the woman.

“Here’s the thing,” he said. “I was sent by God to the children of Israel. I wasn’t sent to Tyre and Sidon. I can’t take the food intended for the kids and throw it to the dogs.”

Faith

Peter looked shocked. “Lord, how could you say that? I mean, that’s so rude! You called her a dog! Don’t you know that could hurt her feelings?”

“So you do understand what I was saying!” Jesus said. “See how much more dangerous the things that come out of your mouth can be?”

Bit the woman wasn’t bothered at all. She still wanted Jesus to help her daughter. She looked Jesus in the eye and said, “Yeah, but even the dogs get to eat the crumbs the children leave behind!”

At that Jesus whole expression changed. He looked at her with his big brown eyes all full of love, and he smiled gently. “Oh, my friend, you really have amazing faith! When you get home you’ll find God has done exactly as you asked.”

She was so surprised, so happy, that she turned and ran all the way home. And her daughter was all better, just as Jesus had said.

Wondering 

I wonder why people think some kinds of food are gross?

I wonder if you’ve ever said something and then felt gross because you said it?

I wonder how that woman became so sure that Jesus could heal her daughter?

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You are, of course, free to use this children’s sermon, or adapt it as you find most useful. But, if you use it, please do one (or more!) of the following.

• You can let me know that you are using it, either in the comments below, or using the contact form above.
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