Whenever we hear Jesus say, “Great is your faith,” we should pay close attention. It means that the person to whom Jesus is talking is someone who can likely teach us a great deal about following Jesus. So, today our attention is drawn to what makes the Canaanite woman unique in her ability to trust in Jesus.
First, this unnamed, indigenous woman to the gentile region of Tyre and Sidon knows that Jesus can heal her daughter. And, I do not mean that she knows in the manner that she looked up “miracle workers” in the yellow pages and saw a listing that said, “Jesus, the cure for all your diseases!” so she thought, “Hey, why not give it a shot?” Rather, I mean that she has a deep trust that Jesus can intervene in some way in the tragic situation of her daughter.
Her daughter is tormented by a demon; a condition that we have seen before in the Bible that can drive a grown man to live a life naked in the tombs. Imagine what the condition can do to a child. With a deep love for her child, she desperately asks Jesus over and over again, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David.”
Now, I am going to get very specific with you about what the Bible says concerning the woman’s request. After-all, she is being lifted up as a model for your own discipleship, so understanding the nature of her faith is important for your own.
Notice that the woman does not ever tell Jesus what to do. Rather, this is what she says: “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon." She asks, as others have before her, that the Lord have mercy on her…that the Lord show compassion on her. Then she tells Jesus the situation, “my daughter is tormented by a demon.”
She does not tell Jesus what to do about the situation. She does not insist that Jesus heal her daughter. She does not tell him to head over to her house. She just trusts that if Jesus knows what was going on, he will be able to help.
Have you ever considered just telling Jesus the problem? Often our prayers can be pretty specific. “Get rid of the cancer.” “Let me get the job.” “Let me win the Reese Peanut-Butter cup sweepstakes contest that would allow me to have those delectable little treats for an entire year.”
Now, do not hear me incorrectly, it is not that you can pray wrong. God hears your prayers and the needs of your heart no matter what. But, how the woman differs from a lot of my prayers is that she doesn’t feel the need to have the answer. She just tells Jesus her problem, and trusts deeply that the Lord will provide the answer.
There is something very freeing about that. After-all, is not God going to answer your prayer however God sees best anyway? Rather than expecting God to act in a certain way, and being disappointed when God does not do things your way, there is a certain sort of soul releasing freedom that comes with being open to whatever God does in the end. Part of the woman’s great faith is this great trust. “Thy will be done.”
Then there is the part of the woman’s life of faith that I just love. It is just so striking. She is persistent.
Actually, it is her persistence that gets her in trouble with the disciples in the first place. She keeps asking, continually, for Jesus to show mercy. Everywhere he and the disciples step, she is there, asking for mercy. She is like your younger sibling, following you around through every room, asking you to go to the kitchen, reach up, and grab the cookies from on top of the cabinets.
The disciples finally have had enough of this clingy child and seek some sort of relief from Jesus, "Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us."
Now, here is the part of the story that is somewhat confusing, but at the same time, it is the part of the story that you have likely experienced in your own faith life. Instead of answering the woman with a miracle, Jesus answers, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." These are painfully dismissive words from Lord of mercy and love. In other words he saying, “You are not my problem.”
Why does not Jesus provide some sort of act of mercy right away? Some have suggested that he is testing the woman’s faith in some way. Other have suggested that Jesus did not yet know that his mission should include the gentiles, and God uses the woman to reveal this aspect of his mission. Others think that Jesus is simply being racist and sexist like the other men of his time. I am not sure that is it. Still others think that Jesus is intentionally making a point for the benefit of his disciples, so that they will change their minds, as he does, about helping the gentiles and showing mercy on women and children in particular.
Quite frankly, I do not know what Jesus is doing here. All I know is that it is true. I have been a pastor for 17 years, and I have to tell you, those 17 years are filled with people asking God for help and not receiving an answer in anything that we would consider a timely manner. What is God up to? Is God golfing? Is God attending to other more important activities? Maybe, it just is not the right time. I do not know, I cannot peer into the mind of God and the woman cannot peer into the mind of Jesus.
Though I do not know what Jesus is doing with this woman, I do know what impresses Jesus about this woman: she is persistent. Her faith is one that does not give up. Her faith is one that will not let up until she has some sort of answer for her child. It is one that loves and insists on solutions to the pain of the world.
"It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the family dog," Jesus says, resisting her efforts even further. She persists, "Yes, Lord, yet even family dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." She may be a woman and a gentile, but mercy is for even the likes of her. She is persistent. She is insistent. She does not give up on her cause of mercy and healing. She is a mother in the purest sense that will do anything for her child.
Though we do not know what Jesus was thinking earlier in the story, we certainly know what he thinks in the end. Jesus lifts the woman up to his disciples and to us as a person of “great faith.” She is worthy of emulating.
Not only does the woman have a deep trust that the Lord is merciful, which he is; not only is the woman open to whatever the Lord will do for her, which he will; she is persistent in asking Jesus to intervene.
After-all, we have a Lord whose mercy inspires in us a deep faith, a deep trust in the words, “thy will be done,” and a persistence that does not give up until the Lord acts. As followers of Jesus, we deeply trust and we persevere. As followers of Jesus, we are the Canaanite woman.
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