From there Jesus took a trip to Tyre and Sidon...a Canaanite woman came down from the hills and pleaded, 'Mercy, Master, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly afflicted by an evil spirit.' Jesus ignored her... Jesus refused... Then the woman came back to Jesus, went to her knees and begged, 'Master, help me....' Jesus gave in. (15:21-28)This woman's encounter with Jesus continues to fascinate and perplex me. At first reading, Jesus seems rude and dismissive. The woman seems obstinate and demanding. These are my projections on this passage. Tim Keller sheds light on what's really going on:
"What [Jesus] is saying to the Syrophoenician woman is, 'Please understand, there's an order here. I'm going to Israel first, then the Gentiles (the other nations) later...' She responds to the challenge... She is wrestling with Jesus in the most repectful way and she will not take no for an answer....She's not saying, 'Lord, give me what I deserve on the basis of my goodness.' She's saying, 'Give me what I don't deserve on the basis of your goodness - and I need it now.'" (King's Cross)At Jesus' first refusal of her, she could have gone away, sought out an exorcist for her daughter or left in a bitter spirit of complaint and dejection. Instead, she pressed into Jesus, acknowledged Him as Master, fell to her knees, declared that He was her only help, knowing that she was undeserving of that help, but her hope was in Him alone.
Recently, I had one of those mornings where I woke up in the very early morning hours with anxious thoughts racing over a situation with one of my daughters. I pleaded with God to calm my mind, to help me return to sleep, to protect my daughter. I never really fell back to sleep and got up cranky. I told my husband what I was wrestling with in the hopes of receiving understanding and comfort. I placed demands on God and on Eric in the belief that relief, sleep, and understanding were what I needed more than anything else. I was desperately missing what the Syrophoenician woman (the "beggar dog") knew.
"But am I wrong for wanting the trouble to go away more than I want to draw near to God, more than I want to enjoy Him and reflect Him in this situation....
"Change that! Use this! Satisfy me! I pray like that all the time. Make me a wise parent... Give me the wisdom I need to relate well... Bless my doctor with medical wisdom...
"Are those prayers wrong? Yes, when they express the deepest passion of my heart. No, not when they express desires that are subordinate to my passion for God Himself, for His glory to be revealed through my valuing Him above all else...
"We can stop insisting that God change that, use this, and satisfy us. When someone we love is hurting, when we're scared and feeling inadequate, when pain in our souls seems unbearable, when our cynicism about answered prayer reduces us to rote praying, we can pray, not to change that, use this, or satisfy me, but rather Lord, I come." (Crabb, The Pressure's Off)Lord, I come.
2 comments:
Staci, this is good! It goes along with what you wrote the other day about neediness and our demanding-ness, something that has gotten me down and I've been stuck on recently. I just realized how much fear is in my prayers, that God won't answer the way I want. I'm realizing that I have the the wrong approach.
So glad that you are going through the NT like this and blogging about each chapter. What a great way to be used by God; to explore His Word, apply it to your life, and write about it to encourage and challenge others! Thanks!
Laurel! So glad you're on the blog and that we can share this journey through the NT together.
Would love to catch up! Will contact you off-blog.
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