What is great faith?
Maybe you’ve been there. You just bought a gift – some assembly required. No problem, right? Just sit down, start putting things together, and hope you don’t have too many extra parts. It could be a desk, a tool caddy, or a bicycle – something you could use around the house. Only trouble is, that item came in a cardboard box, with a hundred different pieces.
Although some projects are easy enough to figure out without directions, there are some items where we need to follow the directions. Trying to put a new purchase together and not following the directions can be a costly mistake.
Why don’t we look at that instruction sheet? It’s probably printed in six or seven languages – if you don’t want to read in English, then perhaps you could read in Japanese or French. How often don’t we just think “Well, I can do it by myself – I don’t need those directions.” We just grab the pieces, start putting them together…and sit there, an hour later, wondering why our bicycle doesn’t look the same as the picture on the box. Was it arrogance? Were we smug, confident in our own abilities? Did our pride prevent us from simply walking through that instruction sheet, step by step? In more than one instance, our own attitudes can hinder us from successfully putting together a project.
In today’s account, Jesus is teaching about the attitude of faith. The Jews in his day were arrogant in their own righteousness, thinking that their own deeds would get them to heaven.
Now, we consider the question: what is great faith? We see that faith does not have an attitude of arrogance; rather, great faith simply clings to Christ in humble perseverance.
Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre & Sidon. Jesus wanted to get away from Palestine for a while. Some of the religious leaders from Jerusalem had recently come up to Galilee, in order to test Jesus. They had insisted that Jesus’ disciples undergo certain traditional washings before eating. These washings had not been commanded by God – they were mere traditions, instituted by humans.
Jesus preached harsh law to those leaders. Those leaders put their own rules above God’s commands. They loved to have people see their pious actions – but those leaders harbored arrogance and selfishness in their hearts. Those very leaders thought that mere religious action, without faith, was enough to save them. Now Jesus wanted to get away from the Jewish crowds, in order to make sure his disciples understood that an attitude of humility shows greater faith than mere outward acts of religion.
Jesus and his disciples walked out of Galilee and went northwest to Tyre & Sidon. This wasn’t a Jewish region – it was a pagan region, filled with people who worshipped idols of wood, metal, and stone.
The disciples may have been a bit shocked that Jesus wanted to get out of Israelite lands. After all, to the Jewish mind, Gentiles were excluded from God’s kingdom. These disciples may not have seen Christ’s purpose in leaving Israel.
Jesus had seen the people of Israel. He had lived among them for 32 years – the last two of which were his preaching and teaching ministry. The religious leaders had come to him, time and time again, trying to prove him wrong. They had come with arrogance in their hearts, thinking that God loved them because of the seemingly pious things they did, or that God loved them merely because of being Abraham’s physical descendents.
This account is a serious warning for us. We’re Christians. Many of us have been Christians for a long time. Yet, do we harbor that same attitude of arrogance – arrogance that seeks to make us right with God by our own actions?
Perhaps we look to our worship attendance. “I’m a good person – God must love me, because I make it to church every Sunday.” Perhaps we become proud about the offerings we bring, or the charity we do: “I bring food for the food drive, I put my offerings in every week, I volunteer regularly.” The temptation is strong – the temptation to look to our own actions, our own deeds, as the reason and proof that God loves us. “I do this; therefore, God must love me – at least, love me more than that person.”
The sinful attitude of arrogance that Jesus saw among the Jews is the same sinful attitude of arrogance that tries to seize our hearts. This should be no surprise, of course; each of us must daily struggle with our lifelong enemy – that sinful nature in which we were conceived. This very sinful nature rears its ugly head, time and time again, seeking to ruin every Godly thought, Godly deed, and Godly action. Our sinful hearts cannot be rid of that attitude which Jesus condemned – “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
Our sinful hearts attempt to let arrogant attitudes rule our lives. This lesson is a stern warning to us – avoid the attitudes of the arrogant. But if mere outward action doesn’t show great faith, what is great faith? Listen now as Jesus points out great faith – faith that clings to Christ in humble perseverance.
Jesus finds such humble, persistent faith in today’s lesson. A Canaanite woman, a Gentile by birth, finds Jesus in this region of Tyre & Sidon. This woman follows him, crying out for compassion.
As a Canaanite, she wasn’t even supposed to exist. The Israelites were supposed to have killed all the Canaanites when they entered the Promised Land, centuries and centuries earlier. God had wanted the sinful Canaanite race destroyed, both as a punishment for their idolatry and in order to protect Israel from those very idolatries.
But this Canaanite woman comes crying out at the top of her voice: “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Why does she call Jesus the Son of David? This was a term which only Old Testament Jews or converts to Judaism would have known. This term wouldn’t mean anything to her, unless she had heard or read some of the Old Testament promises. The Jewish leaders didn’t even call Jesus the Son of David – why was this Gentile, this Canaanite woman, calling him that?
This woman is confessing her faith in Jesus – she puts her trust in Jesus, the Son of David – Jesus, the promised Messiah. The prophet Jeremiah spoke of the Messiah when he said: “In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land.” Someone had told her of this promised Messiah – this Messiah who would come from David’s family and be the Son of David.
Then there’s her request. “Have mercy on me.” The very phrase she uses is the same phrase which the poor beggars would use as they sat by the roadside. This woman knows that she deserves nothing from Christ –and yet, she cries out because she knows Christ can and will help her. What humility of faith – faith that relies upon God’s promises and seeks help from the only source of true aid. She looks solely to Jesus as the one who can heal her daughter.
This woman cries out in faith. She recognizes that Jesus was Israel’s promised Messiah, even when the religious leaders of Israel refused to believe in Jesus. The religious leaders had demanded that Jesus follow their traditions or provide miracles, while this woman faithfully relied upon God’s own promise about this Messiah.
Jesus knows the faith of this woman. He knows that, perhaps, she’s led a difficult life – a Gentile believer, living in the middle of a pagan society. But Jesus doesn’t answer her request right then & there – rather, Jesus appears to ignore her. This woman persists. She follows after Jesus and the disciples, crying out over & over again: Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!
The disciples get tired of this incessant crying, and they say to Jesus: “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” Perhaps they didn’t like the strange looks they were getting from the other people along the road. These disciples wanted nothing to do with that Gentile – a woman who was, in their minds, outside of God’s family. She wasn’t a Jew, so how could she be a believer?
The disciples had asked Jesus to send this woman away, so Jesus finally gives her a response: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” Although it sounds like Jesus is telling this woman to go away, Jesus is giving the perfect response for this woman to hear. Jesus doesn’t want her to give up – rather, Jesus is letting her put her faith into action and display her humility and persistence.
This woman perseveres against the new challenge. Her faith clings to Jesus and she comes, humbly kneeling, before him. Why does she continue to follow Jesus? Why doesn’t she just give up?
Perhaps she had heard the words of Isaiah, recording God the Father’s own words to Jesus, the promised Messiah: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” This woman knew that the Messiah would also come to bring God’s love to Gentiles, as well as Jews.
Or maybe she had heard the words of the prophet Micah: “In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, ’Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.’ The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.” This woman knew that God’s word and God’s love was for people of all nations, not just the nation of Israel.
Now that this woman has come, begging on her hands and knees, Jesus has a chance to speak to her – face-to-face. And what does he say? “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”
The woman had humbly trusted in God’s promises. She had put her faith in action by coming before Jesus. She had persevered against Jesus’ challenging responses – and now this? This sounds like an insult! Dogs? Did Jesus just call me a dog?
It was not unusual for Jewish people to call Gentiles dogs. The word they used to speak about the mangy, vicious, flea-bitten street dogs is the same word they used when talking about Gentiles. Perhaps a gentler, English word would be “mutt” or “mongrel.”
Jesus doesn’t use the term for a mutt or mongrel. Instead, Jesus uses the word for a child’s pet, a dog that lives in the house with the family. “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs” – to the house dogs, the child’s pet.
The woman’s response shows that she caught the kinder, gentler word Jesus used. She humbly begs for the smallest crumb, the smallest morsel of God’s infinite grace – to have her daughter back. Now she comes back with: “Yes Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” The line of thought is more like “And indeed, Lord, those very pet dogs get to eat the fallen crumbs.”
Jesus is more than delighted to hear this response: “’Woman, great is your faith!’ And her daughter was healed from that very hour.”
When we hear an account like this, we can’t help but marvel: what faith! What trust! What perseverance, what humility! Maybe the thought crosses our minds – she’s got great faith, but I could never have faith like that.
This woman’s faith wasn’t great because she was a better person. This woman’s faith was great because God’s word had forged this great faith – a faith that humbly trusted in Jesus. Great faith clings to Christ alone, trusting in God’s goodness through trials and tribulations. This woman came in humility and perseverance – because that is a natural characteristic of faith. Her faith was great because it relied upon God’s promises and trusted in Jesus – despite all challenges.
The woman in this story trusted in Jesus because of the things she had been told – prophecies from Jeremiah, or Isaiah, or Micah. We have an even greater reason to trust in Jesus. In the Bible, we have these same prophecies she would have heard. What is more, we have a full account of Jesus’ own life on earth. The Scriptures contain the full record of God’s love for us – love that compelled Jesus to come to earth, to live in our place, to die in our place, to be buried in the same grave we will face – and then Jesus walked out of that grave, alive. The rest of the New Testament then explains these events in Jesus’ life – what Jesus’ life, and death, and resurrection mean for us today.
Jesus lived his life free from the attitudes of the arrogant. Jesus perfectly obeyed God the Father, and always had a humble attitude about his worship life. There was never a thought of sinful pride when Jesus came to church on the Sabbath, or obeyed his parents at home, or contributed his offerings at the Temple, or helped other people in need. Jesus did not have the attitude of sinful arrogance that we often hide in our hearts.
Even though Jesus had every reason for confidence in his actions – for Jesus never sinned – Christ instead gave that perfection to us, and took our sins upon himself. Jesus died the death which our sins deserved, and gave to us the free gift of perfection. Jesus’ perfection now covers us like a new robe. Every arrogant attitude and sinful thought has been covered. God no longer sees our sinful arrogance, but only Christ’s perfection.
In our Bibles, we’ve got an abundant supply of teachings about Jesus – a banquet of books that unfolds for us this story of God’s love. Through his holy Word, God works the same faith in our hearts which that woman had – a faith that humbly trusts in God’s promises and perseveres through challenges.
Challenges will continue to come our way. Being a Christian doesn’t mean that life on earth will be all roses & daisies. After all, we still live in a sinful world. God may miraculously take away those challenges and trials, or God might let us suffer and struggle with them for a while. What makes Christian suffering different is that we know God will use challenges for our own eternal good. Those struggles force us to rely upon God and his unchanging word.
When those challenges come – the death of a loved one, the pain of betrayal, the dreaded diagnosis, the loss of a job, or some other calamity - look to your one source of true strength, your one source of true comfort – Jesus Christ. Cling to him in faith. Humbly submit to God’s gracious, loving will. Through his Word, God will provide the strength you need to persevere through these challenges. In the process, God will strengthen your faith and deepen your understanding of God’s own love.
Maybe you’ve put a bicycle together at 2:00 in the morning. Maybe you’ve put a bookshelf together on a Sunday afternoon. At any rate, you probably learned somewhere along the way that it’s just easier to follow the directions from the start, instead of trying to figure things out for yourself. This takes a bit of humility, to set aside our own self-confident attitude and just follow the directions.
In the same way, great faith does not arrogantly depend upon its own works or deeds; rather, great faith is that which simply, humbly clings to Christ.
That is the faith Jesus encourages us to have in this lesson. Trust in this Jesus. Cling to him in faith. Read his promises in Scripture, and believe in him. The promises which that woman heard pointed ahead to Jesus. Those same promises now point us back to Jesus – back to Jesus and his perfect life and death. Trust in these promises, these words from God’s own mouth. Humbly persevere – Christ is overjoyed to give you that same great faith.
2 Thess. 2:16-17
16May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
Jeremiah:
“In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land.”
Isaiah:
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Micah:
“In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, ’Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.’ The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”
2 Thess. 2:16-17
16May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
