Great faith

 

Although Scripture is the Word of God, we must still approach it with intelligence and that sort of suspicion which will help us to seek out the hidden treasure which it contains. 

Take for example the tale of a Canaanite woman—an outsider—who continually shouted at Jesus to take pity on her, because her daughter was “tormented by a devil.”  (Matthew 15:21-28).  Jesus ignored her, but those who were with Him were annoyed at her shouting and asked Jesus to give her what she wanted.  He answered them with a sort of “mission statement”; “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”  The woman had approached and overheard.  She knelt at His feet and called Him “Lord” and asked again for help.

Jesus remained focused on who He had come to save and to serve: the Jews.  “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house dogs,” he said.

The woman was unfazed by this act of what today we call political incorrectness.  She was steadfast, and met him point for point: “Yes, but even the house dogs eat the scraps that fall from their master’s table.”  In one fell swoop she had acknowledged the Jews’ disdain for outsiders such as herself (the “dogs”), and honored Jesus by her alluding to Him as the master of the house.  And she made it clear that she wanted Him to include her—or more particularly, her daughter—as a beneficiary of His giftedness.

I wonder if He was motivated by her acknowledgement of His special giftedness as “master of the table”.  Or maybe He was touched by her quick wit, her almost lawyerly extemporaneous speaking skills.  Was he moved by her persistence, her fierce motherly love for her daughter?

As I ponder this gospel, I imagine Jesus’ inner monologue to be something like: “If I’m not here for this woman, I’m here for nobody.  Look at her faith!  Look at her trust!  Look at her concern for her daughter!  Look at her dogged determination to try every last avenue of healing—even to risk humiliation—for her own.   This is the kind of love I experience from Abba Father.  I will give her what she asks.”

Matthew’s gospel has Jesus telling her, “O woman, great is your faith.  Be it done for you as you desire.” 

The encounter seems to be clear and have several levels of meaning:  the priority of Jewish claims on God's beneficence, the value of persistence in prayer, etc.  And we can see that this latter point is supported by what Jesus has to say about the man seeking bread in the middle of the night (Luke 11:5-13) or about the widow and the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-18).

One tool of critical importance in our understanding of a passage like this is our personal experience, because when we confront our own experience of asking God for something and the seeming silence our request is met with we might and often do wonder whether God is listening or even whether the value of persistence in prayer is a hoax.  Which leads us, or at least should lead us, to a personal conversation with God about the problem.

Some possible points to consider in this situation: maybe we’re asking for something that’s not good for us or for others and maybe instead God is taking seriously our petition in the "Our Father" that asks that God's will, not ours, be done.  Or maybe God is willing but the people we’re asking Him to influence are actively turning a deaf ear to His voice.  Or the changes we’re asking for can’t happen in a moment: ocean liners are not as maneuverable as bicycles, and we human beings have a lot of history and momentum to overcome.

Or maybe I'm saying that Scripture is not simply God's word to us but a place where, in the Spirit, we have a privileged place to exchange words with God, a place where we cooperate in His teaching our hearts and His helping us to grow in understanding, wisdom, patience, gratitude, and love.