Matthew 15:23 – But He answered her not a word……..
She was a woman of Canaan with a desperate need. How out of the ordinary it must have been for a gentile to come to Jesus; Him being a Jew surrounded by crowds of Jews. Was it awkward for her? Did she draw strange looks and disconcerting stares? An outsider; a gentile. She had no part in the covenant, no reason to think that she deserved anything from Christ. But she is desperate and she had heard about Him (Mark 7:5). Perhaps she had heard about His healing of a centurion’s servant and was clinging to the hope that there was indeed some portion of mercy for the gentiles.
Whatever her state of mind, she comes to the place Jesus is staying and apparently from a distance, she cries out to Him. As she begs Him to cast a demon out of her daughter, He responds with…..silence. Even the disciples take up her cause, asking Jesus to send her away, almost certainly intending that he would do so by granting her request. At this Jesus replies:
“I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Matthew 15:24
Was she emboldened by this unexpected mediation by the disciples? For she now comes close enough to fall at His feet and worship Him. Undeterred by His previous disregard of her plea, she continues to present her request, only to be met with this response:
But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” Mark 7:27
This would have been enough to crush most of us, but with a bold faith she answers Him:
“Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Matthew 15:27
And the result…..
Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.” And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed. Mark 7:29-30
Did this woman have such confidence in the mercy of Christ that she was compelled to continue presenting her petition, or was she so desperate that she had no other choice?
Although she was ignored – “ and He answered her not a word”
And denied – “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of Israel”
And delayed – “let the children be filled first”
She persisted with a tenacity that would shame the most valiant prayer warriors, and yet with a humility exhibited by few. What a precious combination.
And she trusted that a crumb from the hand of Jesus was sufficient to meet every bit of her need. But because of her faith she was granted the children’s bread.
Jesus seems to have acquired a reputation for not following protocol. From not washing His hands correctly, to healing on the Sabbath, to associating with sinners. He just didn’t seem to follow the religious etiquette of the day.
And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. Matthew 22:16
At first glance this seems to be a compliment, but the Pharisees were notorious respecters of persons and expected others to be respecters of their persons. This was not a comment concerning their pleasure in Christ’s impartiality. They despised this about Him, and how He continually snubbed them – choosing instead the company of prostitutes, tax collectors and all manner of sinners.
Jesus would not conform to the religious norms of His day that violated the heart of the law of God and this infuriated the religious elite. While Jesus did not purposely stir up dissention and discord, it did seem to erupt most places He went. And almost every time it was because he violated someone’s idea of proper religious protocol.
Romans 12:2 tells us not to be conformed to this world. That includes the religious world.
May the Lord strengthen us in our desire to be conformed into the image of Christ, even should it mean incurring the disdain of those who are expert in the letter of the law but void of the Spirit of it.
Have you ever looked around your church on a Sunday morning during the worship service? If you have, you have probably noticed two distinct groups of people. There are those who seem to be so caught up in the presence of God, so focused on Him that they are oblivious to the things around them. And then there are those who are standing with their hands in their pockets, or arms folded across their chest or looking at their watch. What is the difference between these 2 groups? I believe the difference is in the extent to which the knowledge of who God is has gripped our hearts.
Too often we have allowed the holy things of God to become familiar and common. Or we have not really experienced a personal revelation of His greatness. God is to us some being living in a distant place who we sing songs to once a week. Maybe He hears, maybe He doesn’t. In any case, there seems to be no need to really “engage” in worship. But yet we leave church saying that we have worshipped God. How can you worship One that you do not know? How can you adore or praise One whose praiseworthiness you are unaware of? This at best is mere flattery of God, not worship; an attempt to perform some religious duty that we feel God requires. We may say the right words, but we remain unconvinced. Is God honored in this?
Let us fall to our knees before Him and confess that we have not known Him and have been unable to truly worship Him. Knowing that the Lord is seeking those who will worship Him in spirit and truth, let us seek to be among that group.
PRAYER: Father, too often my worship of you has been mere attendance at a service in order to soothe my conscience that I have performed my duty toward you. But I know that you desire worship that comes from a heart that has experienced a revelation of Your glory. So I ask that You destroy every false idea of You that I have held onto in an attempt to make a god that was appealing to me, and teach me who You are in truth.
Could you do it? If you knew it was God’s will, could you pay the hit man to kill you? Tie yourself to the railroad tracks? Buy the poison that someone would put in your next meal?
Seems a bit ridiculous to even ask these questions because thinking that God would require something like this of us is quite outlandish. But this is exactly what Jesus did.
As Jesus announces that He will be betrayed by one of His disciples, He is asked by His disciples to identify the traitor.
“Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it.” And having dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Then Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.” John 13:26-27.
With these words the final sequence of events that would lead to His crucifixion is set in motion. And as Judas walks out the door on his malevolent mission, the next words of Jesus are – “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him.” John 13:31
NOW! Not only at the resurrection, not only at the cross, not only at the ascension, but now – in this moment of surrender and yieldedness to the will of the Father.
How beautiful our life becomes and how radiantly the glory of God shines through our lives in the act of laying our own plans, goals and agenda on the altar and bringing down the knife, preferring rather to have God’s will than the things by which we have sought to gratify ourselves.
May we daily lay all things down at His feet as an offering of surrender that He may be exceedingly glorified in us.
Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. John 1:35-37
John the Baptist was a unique man in history. When I think of him, I get images of Michael York in “Jesus of Nazareth” – a wild eyed, wild-haired man, on fire with a message of repentance. But when I read about him in the gospel of John, I get a picture of a man entirely unconcerned with his own status or “ministry”. Each time John opens his mouth, he is pointing people to Jesus. Whether it is those in authority that have come to discover who he is, or whether it is his own followers, John consistently points to Jesus.
And who can forget this verse – “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) Not only does he speak these words, he lives them by pointing people away from himself and toward Jesus.
In this age of self-promotion and ministry-itis, it seems discouragingly rare to encounter a believer whose SOLE concern is pointing people to Jesus. We point people to our church, our pastor, the latest Christian book or song, and all too often to ourselves. But what about the Lamb of God??
Make no mistake – our words and actions are pointing. Where are yours pointing?
Are You God only on our mountaintops? Are You not also God in our valleys? Have You not chosen, O God, to draw us into a deeper place of love and dependence in these very desolate times of our lives, when all other means of support and comfort have been withdrawn? How quickly we look to other people and other things for our help. But Your love for us is too great, Your desire for a people too strong, to allow us to continue to place our trust in any other. And so we come to the valley of the shadow of death and you will not allow us to run through quickly to the other side, but You insist that we walk through. And there in the valley, as our hearts are stripped of independence and pride, we see that when all else is gone, You remain. Oh the wisdom of God! We would never willingly choose the valley, but You have set times that You have ordained it for us. How we murmur and complain as we begin to traverse it. How we pity ourselves and our miserable condition. Until that moment when You still our hearts and reveal to us the blessing of the wilderness.
Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Will bring her into the wilderness,
And speak comfort to her.
I will give her her vineyards from there,
And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;
She shall sing there,
As in the days of her youth,
As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
“And it shall be, in that day,”
Says the LORD,
“That you will call Me “My Husband,’
And no longer call Me “My Master,’
For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals,
And they shall be remembered by their name no more.
In that day I will make a covenant for them
With the beasts of the field,
With the birds of the air,
And with the creeping things of the ground.
Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth,
To make them lie down safely.
“I will betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me
In righteousness and justice,
In lovingkindness and mercy;
I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,
And you shall know the LORD. Hosea 2:14-20
In the dry desert places of our lives, may we find You Oh God. And let our hearts sing in that wilderness place as we discover that in You we have a love that is sufficient for all things.
Last week I read a tragic news story of a teenaged boy who trespassed into a restricted area of an amusement park to retrieve his hat and was struck by a roller coaster and died. The story was so terribly sad to me and as I pondered it, this spiritual parallel unfolded…..
There is unforeseen danger in the restricted areas. God has clearly – by His Word and His Spirit – marked certain things off limits. Why? Not to deny me any pleasure, but to protect me and preserve my life. Although I may not see the approaching danger, or be aware of any threat to my safety, I need to understand that these areas have been restricted to me because there is indeed danger lurking there. And when it comes, it may come so speedily that I am unable to escape.
Why do we feel the need to trespass into the restricted areas? Isn’t it true that sometimes the very presence of a sign warning us to keep out only increases the desire to go in? The apostle Paul said in Romans 7:7 “I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet”.
Just a glance at the forbidden thing is all we want. But Achan only took a few small items from the forbidden things of Jericho and it cost him his life and the lives of his family. (Joshua 7).
And who can forget the trespass of Adam and Eve that has affected us all?
Had this dear boy known it would cost him his life to retrieve the hat, I am convinced he would not have considered it that valuable.
And may we, as the people of God, not be guilty of disregarding the commands of God to possess trifles and worthless things.
He is my Delight 