Sometimes, I forget just how radical the Jesus of the Bible truly is. He came and turned the culture of the day upside down. He set things straight. He shocked religious leaders. He ran to the broken, the marginalized, and the hurting.

He seems to be especially drawn to the humble and, in many of the accounts God includes in the Word He sovereignly controls, Jesus is seen going to those who felt themselves undeserving.

I think of the culturally outcast Gentile woman who humbly asked the Lord to heal her daughter (Matt 15:25), though she (like all of her day) believed the Messiah was the promised One only for the Jews.

But instead of taking this opportunity to explain to the Gentile woman that His salvation would be for all, Jesus curiously replied, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” (Matt 15:26)

Why would He say that?

Was He perhaps fighting back a smile as He waited for the words He knew would roll off her tongue?

For the woman replies, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from the master’s table” (Matt 15:27)

Yes, I have to believe a smile burst across Jesus’ face at her humble faith as He said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” (Matt 15:28).

Though Jesus had called the faith of others great (significantly, they were all Gentiles), He only says this directly to this woman who had humbly, but with faith, asked Him to help her.

There is so much to talk about here. We want to ask with humble hearts. But we need to know we can ask! Our God makes it clear that His heart bends toward those who desperately turn to Him.

And one more thing to note —it’s also significant that in the woman’s pleading she said “Lord, help me!”. She didn’t say, “Lord, help my daughter.” She was honest that her heart needed help as it was breaking over the state of her child.

Spurgeon comments on this passage regarding our hearts for unsaved loved ones and says when we ask for the salvation of those we love to be so honest as to say, “Lord help me!”.

For Christians, who love others who are lost, especially when those others are our own lost children, we are, in fact, more desperate for their salvation than we might be for anything we’d ever ask for ourselves.

But aren’t you thankful, aren’t you so incredibly thankful, that we can ask God to save them and to help our troubled hearts.

Because of Jesus, we can ask and we can rest. Not only is He radical in His coming for all, His compassions they fail not! His mercies are new every morning! (Lam 3:22-23)

What a Savior!

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