
Matthew 15:21-39
15:21-24 | After His confrontation with the Pharisees, Jesus left Jewish territory and entered the pagan lands around Tyre and Sidon. While Mark calls this woman a “Syno-Phoenician”, Matthew uses the older term, woman of Canaan. Jesus had previously healed Gentiles on Jewish soil; here His healing took place in Gentile territory. Still, He made it clear that His first priority was the Jewish people.
15:26 | The children represent Israel, the bread represents the gospel, and the little dogs represent the Gentiles. This does not imply that Jesus had disdain for the Gentiles but that He could personally only reach and teach so many during His earthly ministry (John 14:12-14).
15:29-31 | Jesus departed to the Decapolis, a primarily Gentile region outside Herod’s jurisdiction. The majority of those Jesus healed were indeed Gentiles indicated by their praise of the God of Israel, a phrase Jews were not likely to use.
15:32 | The feeding of the 5,000 took place in Jewish territory; this feeding of the 4,000 took place in Gentile territory, on the southeast shore of Galilee. Thus, the first crowd was predominantly Jewish, which the second was predominantly Gentile. Yet Jesus blessed them with exactly the same sort of miracle, proclaiming that His worldwide kingdom had in fact begun.
15:33-39 | The large baskets used to collect the remaining fragments of bread were containers made of woven rushes – a different term from the one describing the baskets in the first feeding. Another way to differentiate the different makeup of the crowds.