A Lesson on Faith
A young man went to a counselor one day because he was dealing with feelings of failure and inadequacy. He told the counselor that he wanted to go to college, but he felt as if there were too many problems. After sharing his hopes and his hurts, he waited for some positive words of wisdom. It never came. Instead of encouragement, he heard words of discouragement. The counselor said that college is just too expensive for some people. Then he said that the young man did not have enough IQ to finish college. Finally, the counselor said, “Just attend a vocational school and find a job.”
Shocking? Jesus did worse, to a Canaanite woman (now Lebanon ), not a member of the Jewish nation, an outsider and a woman, he totally rejected her!
People always want to be on the inside. And there is always someone pushed aside. In our case, who is an outsider? Someone who is not Christian perhaps? Someone who is not well off? An illegitimate child? Someone who is not Visayan? These are people who do not belong. They are people in need.
It is to these people that Jesus ministers. And he ministers, with love and care. But in our story, Jesus is uncharacteristically brutal and exclusive to an outsider. For what purpose? We may ask.
A pastor is usually friendly. You walk into his office with a great burden, and no matter what he is doing, he drops them and talks. If he dismisses you rudely, by saying “go away, I’m busy” it must be for a reason. What reason could Jesus have had for turning away a Lebanese woman?
She came to him with a request. Her request was not a selfish one, it was not even for herself but for her daughter who was sick. The pain, anguish and hope that were in the mother’s voice could be compared to any mother pleading for the life of her child. Yet Jesus rejected her. Jesus rejected the Lebanese woman at least four times that day.
1. First rejection — Jesus was silent upon hearing her request. Scripture says, “Jesus, did not answer her a word.” What was in the mother’s thoughts, after such a brutal rebuke of silence? Could she have felt like many hurting Christians feel verywhere? God is absent. God is silent. Lets just forget everything and give up. Yet this outsider woman did not give up!
2. Second rejection — the disciples say “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us!” In modern words we would translate that as, ‘get rid of her. She is a waste of time and space.” Jesus did not rebuke his disciples. Does Jesus allow discouragement to grow for a divine reason?
3. The third rejection. Jesus said,“ I was sent ONLY to the lost sheep of the house of Israel ”. In other words he was saying, ‘you’re an outsider. You are not my concern.!’ Brutal rejection!
4. the final rejection: “it is not proper to take bread from children and give it to the dogs! Jesus called her a dog! Could Jesus be destroying the woman’s faith to build it? It happens. God tests your faith to make it stronger, the more heat iron takes, the harder it becomes.
Because it is uncharacteristic of Jesus to be so cold, it must be a pedagogical moment for Jesus. More likely, he was teaching his disciples understand this woman’s faith — “your faith is not like this woman’s! Yours is cheap. I preach and you believe. You think you’ve got it made. This woman, is not part of the deal, but what faith she has! What adversity she deals with. What faith! She deserves grace.”
Look at how the woman reacted to Jesus discouraging words. When Jesus ignored her, and called her a dog, she remained humble, and persistent, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from the masters table.” In other words, she was willing and ready to receive whatever crumbs Jesus tossed her way, because even those crumbs would be more than enough to fulfill her request.
The truth is God’s grace is given freely and abundantly. We have fertile lands, and teeming seas for example. But should our faith in that grace of God come cheaply?
There was a meeting of chaplains in Christian universities in Asia in Tainan , I just attended. In our sharing of reports, it was so easy to gloat over the fact that we are free to have 5 worship services on Sundays. That we can hold university wide Christian convocations, dorm devotions, because nearly everyone is a Christian.
Not so in China nor India , where Christians are a tiny minority, where it is illegal to convert a Hindu into a Christian. Chaplaincy work there is difficult, dangerous and dirty. Every Christian won, is a great victory for a chaplain. But in the Philippines , Christianity comes so easy, it becomes almost meaningless. You can be a Christian and be colossally corrupt. You can be a Christian and be fatalistic and dirt poor. You can be a Christian and pay starvation wages to your workers. You can be a Christian and believe in the spirit of the glass.
I realized then, we are inviting the Chinese to say, so what if you’re Christian. You don’t have a single gold medal at the Olympics, or you have more poverty than we have per capita.
We need to give our faith a second look. If it is cheap faith, inherited without effort through infant baptism, and we are assured of salvation and eternal life, why should we strive for anything? We’ve got it made!
That’s exactly what Jesus is pointing out. No, you have no clue about faith. That is not faith. Look at this woman. She has faith. This being Mission month, Jesus is saying, look at this outsider. She has more faith than you insiders. She struggles. She holds on. She persists. She does not give up. She has faith. That is why Jesus eventually said, “Woman, your faith is great, it shall be done for you as you wish.”
Maybe you think our 6% annual GNP growth rate since 2003 is nararamdaman. Solita Monsod says it doesn’t translate into real growth if wealth is not distributed evenly. Maybe you think that BPO (Business Process Outsourcing or simply call centers) and export of labor will save us? But those jobs do not show how much faith we have in God and in ourselves. They are the easiest things to do.
Maybe, we should be like the student at the beginning of the story who the counselor says, is not cut out to be a graduate. We need to put our faith to the test, like the Canaanite woman’s. Maybe we need to rethink our faith. Do we have an easy faith? Have we the “got it made” kind of faith? Or do we have the Canaanite woman’s great faith, that can make things change?
(Sermon delivered Aug. 17, 2008, Silliman University Church)
