Praise the Lord
for all the manifold blessings of Jesus that money cannot buy. I have been
blessed beyond belief with so many women in my life. My mom, who is partially
bed-ridden, is a woman of great and abiding faith. My wife is a woman of deep
faith. All of four daughters are women of deep faith who walk with Jesus in
faith.
Today I have been
looking at the Canaanite woman and her faith as it is recorded in Matthew
15. There it tells about the "great faith" of a Canaanite woman. This woman was
unique in two ways. She was the only Gentile woman Jesus healed in Matthew's
gospel, and she is the only person Jesus said had "great faith." Compare that
with the five times he reminded the disciples of their "little faith," and we
can see how unique she is.
The story doesn't begin with us knowing about her great faith, but
with her desperation, where great faith often begins. The Canaanite
woman, whose name we never hear, had a daughter whom she described as "cruelly
possessed by a demon." We don't know exactly what this meant, but it
easily could have meant she was afflicted with violently insane behavior, like
the man who lived among the tombs in Matthew
8, or
that she had terrible seizures, like the boy who often fell into the fire in
Matthew
17.
Whatever her symptoms, her mother was desperate for her to be healed - to be
free from this terrible state. Her desperation led to hope - not hope in the
folk cures and remedies she probably had tried before, not hope in the best
medical advice of the day, but hope in the God of Israel, hope in the Messiah,
God's Chosen One.
This hope led to a
faith without shame. Many times we can be afraid to let our faith be
known. Sometimes we don't want to stand out; Sometimes we just don't want the
added scrutiny that comes when people realize we're followers of Jesus Christ.
This woman was different; she lived out a faith that came from having nothing
left to lose, a desperate faith. She approached this band of disciples and
their leader, Jesus. She screamed out to them from a distance, "Have
mercy on me, Lord, Son of David!" ( We are reminded here of blind beggar
Bartimaeus). She didn't just shout; she screamed, her cries as desperate as the
faith she had that Jesus was the One who could make a difference. She didn't
care that the disciples didn't approve. She didn't care, even as a woman
approaching men who were strangers, that she would stand out like a sore thumb.
She didn't care about the things that often make us ashamed. She had the faith
of a desperate mother - a faith without shame. This should
make us think about our faith. Does it come out of desperation? Does our faith
rise out of a confidence that Jesus is the only One who can bring meaning to our
lives, the only One who can bring true spiritual and emotional healing, the only
One to whom our lives are worth devoting? The Canaanite woman's faith was
without shame because she knew Jesus was her only hope and she didn't care what
others expected.
It is
interesting to note the encounter of this woman with Jesus our Lord.
She cried out, but
Jesus didn't say a word - He maintained complete silence. At this point, the
disciples got a little uncomfortable, as most of us would have been. It is revealed in the Word of the Lord that the divine delays are
not denials. Jesus our Lord was delaying His response. In every
situation He has the last word. Jesus said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel." How do you think they would have responded? Would
they have been shocked that Jesus said this? We then see something more about
her faith. Not only does she have faith without shame, but her faith was
without fear. She was not afraid of Jesus or the disciples. She threw herself
down at Jesus' feet in total worship. With nothing to lose, she showed a
relentless dependence on Jesus. Without shame and without fear, she fell at
Jesus' feet and asked again, "Lord, help me."
Is this the kind
of utter devotion we have, or are we afraid to pray and ask God something
because we might be told no? This woman didn't let Jesus' lack of response stop
her, and we must not either.
On top
of a faith without shame or fear, she showed a faith without stopping, a faith
that wouldn't quit. As she bowed down at Jesus' feet, He told her something
very strange. He said, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it
to the dogs." Everyone there knew what Jesus meant, both the disciples
and the woman. He was saying in effect: It isn't good to take the blessing
meant for Israel and give it to the Gentiles. Who do we stand with when we hear
this? Do we stand with the disciples, who probably agreed
and said, "Jesus has a point; we should take care of our own," or do we find
ourselves at Jesus' feet with the woman saying, "Jesus, master, as always You're
right, but even the dogs eat from the crumbs that fall off the master's table."
In other words, on her face in worship at the feet of Jesus the woman said, in
effect, "Lord, I know Your blessings are for the entire world. I know Your
blessing is so great that I'll gladly take the leftovers and be
satisfied." At this final response from the woman whose faith would not
quit, I can see the scene. Jesus' serious face broke into a smile; He reached
down, grabs her by the hands, helped her off her feet, looked her in the eye and
said, "Great is your faith woman, your daughter is healed!"
In Jesus
alone,
Brown
http://youtu.be/6XIT06R-r5g
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