Faith In The Right Things

Good Morning. Today, we have a tough lesson, in that it seems to show us a Jesus who is not the approachable loving friend we sometimes can imagine, but standoffish, aloof, and cold; similar to the way he talks to Mary in Cana before He turns water into wine. As the cartoon on the bulletin cover shows, Jesus isn’t looking very Christian.

Now I hope you know, I say that tongue in cheek. You expect I have an interesting point as I begin here, and I do. And the question we should ask as we read our lesson is, Do we love and value God because of who He is, or just if he does the stuff we want him to do, and acts the way we want Him to act, or do we come before him like sinners coming before a holy God in desperate need of Grace.

To illustrate. My seminary professor told a story about a confirmation teacher who always began his first class with a jar full of jellybeans and asked his students to guess how many beans are in the jar. He wrote down the student’s names, their guesses, and in a third column, their favorite songs.

When the list was complete, he revealed the actual number of beans and he asked the class who was closest to being right. The teacher then turned to the list of favorite songs and asked the class, “Which one of these is closest to being the BEST song?” The students protested that there is no “best song”; a person’s favorite song is purely a matter of taste, of how they feel. He set them up! 😊

The next question for the class was, “When we examine the Christian faith, is that more like finding the number of beans in a jar, or more like guessing your favorite song?” Most of the time, the answer from the students is that they see their faith more like choosing a favorite song. Many begin with the assumption that the purpose of religion is to make them feel good about themselves.

Well, there are religions like that for sure. But you can’t find God, by just making one up from your imagination. (summarize Isaiah 44:13-20) To play with the opening illustration for a second, does it matter how you feel about how many jellybeans are in the jar, or how other people feel about your guess? Can I say, if I am happy about my guess, it’s just as good as anyone else’s guess? I can… Am I right?

Today’s Gospel Lesson is an incredible example of the difference between a faith that’s only there to make me feel good, and a faith that is founded on a reliable object, a God who doesn’t waver or depend on my emotions.

To set the stage for our lesson, Jesus had left Israel, to hide out for prayer and preparation before he would face the cross. He had chosen to enter the Gentile lands to the north, the “Spiritual Wilderness.” Mark says He was hiding out in a house as the lesson begins, hoping for some seclusion to pray.

So, this woman, believing that Jesus was in the house, bursts in through the doors, past the disciples to Jesus, and begins loudly pleading with him. “Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David.” Matthew even uses one of his favorite phrases, “And Behold!” the same way he introduced the Angels and Wise Men.

This passage is really funny when you think about it. Jesus doing all he can to escape the crowds looking for miracles, He’s trying to pray so he hides in another country, in the house of a stranger, and that’s not even good enough.

On the other hand, you can contrast this with the picture of a woman who would follow Jesus anywhere. WHY? Because she knew that He alone could provide what was needed. And that’s the point of the story. Her faith moved her, at all costs, through perceived insults and any hindrances, to the feet of the throne of God, because there alone she knew she could get what she needed.

In her first plea, she calls him the Son of David, recognizing him as the promised messiah of the Jews, which is odd because she wasn’t a Jew. She was Phoenician, either Lebanese or Syrian today, whose people worshiped other gods. But it is clear she knew about the True God, so she continues pleading.

The disciples come to Christ to ask him to send her away, basically because she was annoying everyone. But to this, Jesus doesn’t answer the woman, He only answers the disciples, “I came to the lost sheep of Israel.”

But this woman wanted Jesus to know that even though she wasn’t a lost sheep of Israel, she knew He could help her. She knew that He could give hope, even to a Gentile. So she continues to beg for His help. “Lord, help me.”