A Reply That Displays A Great Faith

A Reply That Displays A Great Faith Matthew 15:21–28 (NIV) 21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” 23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” 25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. 26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” 27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” 28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment. Mark 7:24–30 (NIV) 24 Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. 25 In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. 27 “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” 28 “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29 Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. Earlier this week Mariette told me that the three girls asked us to go out with them to Drift Restaurant on the Bluff in Devonport Friday evening. My first response was: “I don’t really want to go there. It is not my sort of place.” I was quite willing to go elsewhere, but since Drift was the place that the girls wanted to go to, they went without us. Afterwards I asked myself: “I wonder what they think I meant when I said that Drift is not my sort of place. Did they think I meant Drift is not good enough for me? That I think I’m better than the people who are going to Drift of a Friday evening?” But that wasn’t the case at all. What I meant was that it is too busy and too noisy for my liking. I would’ve been outside my comfort zone if I had gone. In this I’m not alone. All humans find that they’re more comfortable with certain types of people than others. These types of people are usually very much like themselves: they are people from a similar background, similar culture, similar interests, similar habits and so on. This is natural and normal. The question is, what are we going to do when we’re at a crossroad where we must make a choice? How should we behave towards people who are significantly different from us, who have a different belief system, different values, or a different culture? By now all of us have heard the name Brenton Tarrant – the right-wing white supremacist who killed 50 innocent people and injured scores more just because they were different. Jordanians, Syrians, Saudi Arabians, Egyptians, Turks, Pakistani’s, Afghanistani’s and British people were unceremoniously mowed down, just because they were different. Now, we may be shocked. We may condemn this despicable act of senseless violence. But friends, will this act change the way we view people, just because they are different? Or will we find justification for just sticking with the people we feel comfortable with? Maybe even worse: will we try to find justification for mingling only with people we feel comfortable with? I grew up in a system where people used Scripture, God, Jesus to justify their preference to stick with and look after those who looked like, talked like and think like themselves. I want to say to you: It doesn’t matter how we look at, it will never we good in God’s sight. We need to see it for what it is – despicable, unacceptable, and unchristian. This is not a knee jerk reaction. This is not emotion driving. Friends, it is Scripture based and God driven. I often hear people argue that Jesus was racist – that He accepted the divide between Jew and Gentile. I would like to suggest that Ancient Judaism presents a special case of this problem and Jesus operated within that setting. Allow me to refresh your memory: From the earliest times the Jews were very conscious of their status as God’s chosen people. Years—centuries, really—of being hated, persecuted, overrun, sneered at and generally ill-treated by the rest of the world had hardened Jews’ sense of God’s choice into a solid wall, an invisible steel fence around their national identity. Foreigners were off limits. You could, perhaps, do business with them, but you shouldn’t eat with them. Stricter Jews wouldn’t even go into non-Jewish houses. This is the context of our Bible reading today. The strangest thing about this story is that, initially at least, it looks as if Jesus is sharing this prejudice. ‘It’s not right’, He said to the non-Jewish woman, ‘to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.’ Dogs! Yes: that’s a word Jews regularly used to refer to non-Jews. And dogs in the ancient world, we must remember, were not family pets. They were rough, often infected, scavengers. Our equivalent might be ‘rats’. The ‘dogs under the table’ in the woman’s reply are animals that have come in off the street. What was going on? Why on earth did Jesus seem to share this horrible viewpoint? I think we find the answer in Paul’s letter to the Romans. In summarizing the argument of this letter, Paul declares that God’s plan in sending the Messiah was a plan conceived in two quite distinct stages. First, the Messiah had to come to God’s ancient people, Israel. They had to hear the message of the kingdom. But then, as the ancient prophets and Psalms had often declared, once God had fulfilled his promises to Israel in sending their king, then — and only then! — the non-Jewish nations would be brought in. This is how he puts it: ‘I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed 9 and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written: “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing the praises of your name.”’’ (Romans 15:8–9). First the Jews, then the Gentiles. Even Paul, who celebrated his own calling as ‘apostle to the Gentiles’, knew very well that he was part of Phase Two of the plan, not Phase One. Jesus, on the other hand, was very conscious, here and elsewhere, that His urgent task was to implement Phase One. Therefore, when He found himself in non-Jewish territory, He did his best to stay hidden. He hadn’t come to tell the nations that Israel’s God was their king. That would be someone else’s job. And if you listen to Matthew 28:18–20 Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” He had come to tell God’s people that God was establishing his long-awaited kingdom through his own work. In any case, until he had completed that work (which for him would not be done until he was ‘enthroned’ on the cross), the way would not be open for the nations to come in. That’s the point Paul makes in Ephesians 2:11–21. So, on the surface, Jesus’ words in Mark 7:27 may have seemed harsh and unsympathetic while they weren’t. But the woman recognized them as a wide-open door to God’s throne. Quickly, she stepped in, taking a cue from Jesus’ reference to “dogs” and add to his analogy of a family dining table. She interpreted Jesus reference not as the negative term for “dog” that referred to a scavenger dog (the word sometimes used by Jews to refer to Gentiles); instead, he used the word for a household pet. Listen carefully: Her attitude was expectant and hopeful, not prickly or hypersensitive. The woman knew what she wanted; she believed Jesus could provide; she persevered; she seized the opportunity. We could learn from this woman’s singular purpose and optimistic resilience. Jesus really does want to answer. She enables us to see that we don’t have a case—as some people have ridiculously suggested—that Jesus was here simply repeating standard Jewish prejudices and that this Gentile woman shook him out of them with her clever wordplay. On the contrary. She affirms the special status of the Jewish people, and accepts that any blessing that will come to non-Jews will be a spill-over from what the one true God is doing for them. And, as with the centurion who showed great faith (Matthew 8:1–13), Jesus is happy to respond. God’s plan is going ahead in proper order: but, just as Jesus himself was the central bit of God’s future arriving in the present, so the healing of this child was a bit of God’s future—the time when the Gentiles would come in—arriving in the present. That, of course, is what we long for and pray for day by day: that the joy, the justice, the love, the rescuing and restoring power of God’s ultimate future would come into our lives ahead of time, right now, today. We learn, in our weakness and continuing frailty, that we can’t have it all right away. We still await God’s full new creation. But, like the woman, we should pester God to give us, in the present, as much as is possible of that future right now. Lent is a good time to rediscover the habit of persistence in prayer, of not taking an apparent ‘no’ for a final answer. Friends, this incident during Jesus’ ministry that both Mark and Matthew recorded presents to us an excellent illustration of strong and complete faith. This woman suffered and overcame great battles. Her resilience teaches us the true way and virtue of faith, namely, that faith is a hearty trust in the grace and goodness of God. Mark reminds us that she heard some news about Jesus, Mark 7:25. What kind of news? Paul reminds us in Romans 10:17 that faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. This is what this woman heard and responded to. Even when Christ acts differently, as if to let her faith and good confidence be in vain and turn his good reputation into a lie, she didn’t think; he is my enemy and will not receive me. She persisted even when Jesus himself seemed to speak words of rejection: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). First his silence, then this. But not even his suggestion of Jewish exclusiveness could defer her. No, she turns her eyes from all this seemingly unfriendly treatment of Christ and continues to cling in her confidence to the good news she had heard and embraced concerning him, and appealed: “Lord, help me!” (Matthew 15:25). She dropped his Messianic title and simply cried for help. We must also do the same and learn firmly to cling to the Word, even though God with all his creatures appears different than his Word teaches. May God help us in time of need and of death to possess like courage and faith! But while they thought he should be more tender-hearted, he became only the more indifferent, as we see and think. For now, he is silent no more nor leaves them in doubt; he declines their prayer and says: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” We might want to reprimand Jesus with quoting all the words in which He promised to hear his followers, as Matthew 18:19 (NIV) “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” Or Mark 11:24 (NIV) “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours;” and many similar passages. What had become of these promises in this woman’s case? What does this woman do? She does not give up, she clings to the Word although it be torn out of her heart by force, is not turned away by this stern answer, still firmly believes his goodness is yet concealed in that answer, and still she will not pass judgment that Christ is or may be ungracious. That is persevering steadfastness. She follows Christ into the house, as Mark 7:24–25 informs us, perseveres, falls down at his feet, and says: “Lord, help me!” She does not despair, but agrees with his judgment and concedes she is a dog, and desires also no more than a dog is entitled to, namely, that she may eat the crumbs that fall from the table of the Lord. Is not that a masterly stroke as a reply? She catches Christ with his own words. He compares her to a dog, she concedes it, and asks nothing more than that He let her be a dog, as He himself judged her to be. Where will Christ now take refuge? He is caught. Truly, people let the dog have the crumbs under the table; it is entitled to that. Therefore, Jesus completely opens his heart to her and yields to her will, so that she is now no dog, but even a child of Israel. All this, however, is written for our comfort and instruction, that we may know how deeply God conceals his grace before our face, and that we may not estimate him according to our feelings and thinking, but strictly according to his Word. According to Matthew Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment. And Mark said he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. Friends, per implication this woman said: Lord, it is true, I am a sinner and not worthy of your grace; but you promised sinners forgiveness, and you came not to call the righteous, but, (as Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:15), “to save sinners.” If that is the case, then must God according to his own judgment have mercy upon us. This was king David’s approach in Psalm 51:4 too. He said: “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge...” This woman, like David understood that if God is to be righteous in his words that teach us that we are sinners, then we may claim the rights of all sinners that God has given them, namely, the forgiveness of sins. And once our sins are forgiven, we eat not only the crumbs under the table as the little dogs do; but we are taken care of as a child of God and have God as our portion according to the pleasure of His will. Friends, let we stress this again: This woman knew that she was a “dog.” She knew there was no merit in her that would win Christ’s help. She was a Gentile, not a child of the household. The bottom line is: she depended upon Christ’s goodness and not her own. She believed in the Gospel of grace. It was all of grace. “Those with a hungry heart and a broken spirit are the favourites of God.” David understood this: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). Christ promoted the same when he said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3), and “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6). This is the meaning of our passage and the scriptural explanation of it. The writer of Hebrews tells us: “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). She believed that God is, and thus she earnestly sought him, and thus she pleased him. Her faith was humble: “Nothing in my hand I bring, solely to the cross I cling.” It was a faith that believed his word. It was a faith that persisted. The Syrophoenician woman came to Jesus on the other side of the Cross. She did not have the ultimate revelation of God’s love and power toward us. But we do: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Like with this woman, the word has come to us that Christ can meet our needs. He can heal our hearts. He can take the prejudice away. We can help us to overcome our proclivity to stick to our own and enable us to reach out to those who are different from us. What is required? First, that we believe. Second, that we approach Him humbly. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). Third, that you come to him, just as the woman did. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Only when we have found our rest in Christ will we be able to lead others to that rest too. One of the obstacles the Canaanite woman had to overcome was the dismissive attitude of the disciples. Likewise, seekers today are advised not to judge the gospel on their first impression of most church folk. If you are seeking help from Jesus, don’t be put off by the airs and attitudes of some people who claim to know him. Christians are not perfect. “Get rid of her,” said the disciples. And so today in many different ways people in need of Jesus are put off by the “righteous.” If you’re looking for Jesus, don’t stop until you find him. And when you find him, try your best to be as generous and loving to others as he is. Amen.