Matthew 15:21-16:20 | Mark 7:24-8:30 | Luke 9:18–21

For a short period of time Jesus and His disciples go north of Galilee to the Syrian coast, where the region of Tyre and Sidon was, and they encounter a gentile woman who keeps asking Jesus to free her demon possessed daughter.  Jesus pushes back, because she is not a Jew, but she persists and Jesus commends her for her faith, and heals her daughter.  Many times the faith of gentiles was far greater than of those in Israel.

Upon returning to Galilee, Jesus teaches and heals people for 3 days, but before sending them home, he feeds some 4,000 men, plus women and children, with 7 small loaves of bread and a few fish, and afterwards they gather up 7 large baskets of food scraps.  Jesus has to remind the disciples of this miracle, and the feeding of the 5,000, when they (again) misunderstand His instruction to beware of the leaven (teaching) of the Pharisees.

He then asks His disciples the crucial question that every person must answer for themselves - “who do you say I am?”.  It is critical that people believe He was sent from God, and that He was crucified for the sin of the world, but rose again on the 3rd day to life everlasting.