(Audio)
And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out,
"Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!
My daughter is tormented by a demon."
It might have seemed as though Jesus was indifferent to the Canaanite woman, or, worse, in some way hostile to her because of racial prejudice. But though it would have been easy for the woman to assume this, it should not be so for us. The first reading made it clear that God intended to allow "foreigners" to join themselves to him, even to minister to him, becoming his servants. The signs of this plan go back even before the time of Isaiah. We can see it in the divine blueprint of the temple, which had a court intended for the Gentiles. Back further still God's covenant promise to Abraham included the blessing of all nations through his offspring. This was the context of God's plan that Jesus himself came to fulfill. During the time of Solomon the nations came to Israel to seek the wisdom of God. But Jesus was the promised Son of David even more perfectly than was Solomon. Thus his momentary silence before the petitionary prayer of the Canaanite woman had to be something other than indifference or hostility.
"Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!
My daughter is tormented by a demon."
It might have seemed as though Jesus was indifferent to the Canaanite woman, or, worse, in some way hostile to her because of racial prejudice. But though it would have been easy for the woman to assume this, it should not be so for us. The first reading made it clear that God intended to allow "foreigners" to join themselves to him, even to minister to him, becoming his servants. The signs of this plan go back even before the time of Isaiah. We can see it in the divine blueprint of the temple, which had a court intended for the Gentiles. Back further still God's covenant promise to Abraham included the blessing of all nations through his offspring. This was the context of God's plan that Jesus himself came to fulfill. During the time of Solomon the nations came to Israel to seek the wisdom of God. But Jesus was the promised Son of David even more perfectly than was Solomon. Thus his momentary silence before the petitionary prayer of the Canaanite woman had to be something other than indifference or hostility.
The subjective experience of the Canaanite woman must have included the fear that is was precisely because of her nationality that she was not immediately able to find the same access to the healing power of Jesus that others apparently had. No doubt the enemy tried to tempt her into giving up immediately, into assuming that the thoughts of fear and doubt that appeared in her mind were the unchangeable reality of the situation. We face a similar temptation when God does not respond immediately. Our default assumption tends to be that he doesn't care about us. Sometimes this takes the form of us thinking that he doesn't care about this or that specific concern of ours. But we tend to assume the implicit corollary that he would not be indifferent to such a concern if his care for us were real in any meaningful way. Of course, in this way our desires are much like those of children who want what they want when they want it and go on to pout if they can't get it immediately.
There is, however, another way we might and should be like children that is much more dangerous to the enemy and effective in the Kingdom. It is being like the child who refuses to give up because he knows that his parents love him and can provide for him. The situation may still arise where he demands something that would not be beneficial to him. In such a case the parents would not provide him with that particular thing. Yet they would doubtlessly see to it that the underlying need or desire that made the child want that thing, whether happiness, or security, or comfort, or something else, was addressed, to the degree that they were able.
Still we may ask if human parents ever act like Jesus and intentionally place some initial resistance to a request that might have been addressed immediately. The answer to this is yes. Parents often ask children to put in work of their own, even though such work does not necessarily earn the result, so that children can appreciate the value of what they receive. There is often a deeper comprehension that results from persistence and struggle that is otherwise absent.
Although there is an apparent analogy between Jesus and human parents his approach nevertheless also had an aspect that would be inappropriate for human parents. This was his desire to test and thus strengthen the faith of the Canaanite woman. He wanted her to understand that his abundance was not limited by the normal constraints of reality. The only way to believe this was through faith. Faith allowed her to see that apparent barriers and obstacles to receiving the grace and mercy of God were only that, apparent.
There is, however, another way we might and should be like children that is much more dangerous to the enemy and effective in the Kingdom. It is being like the child who refuses to give up because he knows that his parents love him and can provide for him. The situation may still arise where he demands something that would not be beneficial to him. In such a case the parents would not provide him with that particular thing. Yet they would doubtlessly see to it that the underlying need or desire that made the child want that thing, whether happiness, or security, or comfort, or something else, was addressed, to the degree that they were able.
Still we may ask if human parents ever act like Jesus and intentionally place some initial resistance to a request that might have been addressed immediately. The answer to this is yes. Parents often ask children to put in work of their own, even though such work does not necessarily earn the result, so that children can appreciate the value of what they receive. There is often a deeper comprehension that results from persistence and struggle that is otherwise absent.
Although there is an apparent analogy between Jesus and human parents his approach nevertheless also had an aspect that would be inappropriate for human parents. This was his desire to test and thus strengthen the faith of the Canaanite woman. He wanted her to understand that his abundance was not limited by the normal constraints of reality. The only way to believe this was through faith. Faith allowed her to see that apparent barriers and obstacles to receiving the grace and mercy of God were only that, apparent.
Jesus been sent only to the lost sheep. And yet here he was in the Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon, showing that his intended destination would not be the only place to receive the grace of his presence. He never denied the possibility of collateral grace for those whom he encountered along the way. It did not require taking food from the children to feed others. There was such an abundance that all could eat and be satisfied. But he did not explain those things for the woman, in an attempt to ease her difficulty. He wanted her faith to reach out and take hold of them. They would thus become more fully her own faith, rather than mere data, data that she would inevitably take for granted to one degree or another. Parents, on the other hand, aren't the object of such supernatural faith, and thus typically ought not test the degree to which their children believe in them. The analogy goes so far as to say that push back and resistance to some requests is sometimes appropriate. But if parents put their children's belief in them to the test it is likely to result only in uncertainty and even trauma. Whereas here, as a result of Jesus testing her, the Canaanite woman was that she was able to achieve a level of faith in him that would have been otherwise impossible.
She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps
that fall from the table of their masters."
Then Jesus said to her in reply,
"O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish."
There is a real way in which faith brings the blessings of the future, of the world to come, and of the life of the resurrection, into the here and now of the present. To do so it must contend victoriously with all the negative thoughts and doubts that try to make us believe that things are hopeless. Paul knew that the mind was a battlefield and that faith required a strategy, which was to "take every thought captive to obey Christ" (see Second Corinthians 10:5).
Perhaps there are strongholds of fear and uncertainty in our minds that are preventing us from exercising our faith to lay hold of the promises of God. If so, let us turn to his word, and not our doubts, so as to build ourselves up in the truth. If we really know that "the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable" we won't believe the lie that we have been abandoned. When we are tempted to believe that we have been forgotten we should remind ourselves that God "will not leave you or forsake you" (see Deuteronomy 3:6). We will then have confidence that his plan is not just for some people, not most others while excluding ourselves as we are often tempted to think but rather "that he might have mercy upon all".
She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps
that fall from the table of their masters."
Then Jesus said to her in reply,
"O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish."
There is a real way in which faith brings the blessings of the future, of the world to come, and of the life of the resurrection, into the here and now of the present. To do so it must contend victoriously with all the negative thoughts and doubts that try to make us believe that things are hopeless. Paul knew that the mind was a battlefield and that faith required a strategy, which was to "take every thought captive to obey Christ" (see Second Corinthians 10:5).
Perhaps there are strongholds of fear and uncertainty in our minds that are preventing us from exercising our faith to lay hold of the promises of God. If so, let us turn to his word, and not our doubts, so as to build ourselves up in the truth. If we really know that "the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable" we won't believe the lie that we have been abandoned. When we are tempted to believe that we have been forgotten we should remind ourselves that God "will not leave you or forsake you" (see Deuteronomy 3:6). We will then have confidence that his plan is not just for some people, not most others while excluding ourselves as we are often tempted to think but rather "that he might have mercy upon all".
No comments:
Post a Comment