Response to Faith

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

RESPONSE TO FAITH

Matt 15:21-28

21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession." 23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." 24 He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."  25 The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said. 26 He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."  27 "Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." 28 Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

NIV

This seems to be a very strange encounter because of how Jesus handles this request from the Canaanite woman. Calling her a dog just seems to not be in the character of Jesus, who is normally full of mercy and compassion for those in need. The fact that Jesus came to the Jews did not prohibit others from wanting His power in their lives. If it were true that Jesus only came for the Jews and never ever intended for any gentiles to receive salvation, or any other prayer request would be completely out of the will of God. John makes it quite clear in his account of the gospel that God so the world, which must include all the gentiles, that He gave His only begotten Son so that whosoever believes should not perish but have eternal life. This would then include this Canaanite woman. Therefore, what we would conclude is that Jesus was giving this woman an opportunity to exercise her faith. We think that her request was certainly well presented in the way that it was short, humble, full of faith, fervent, yet modest and it was indeed rational, but also relying on the mercy of God, and we could say she was persevering. The point being is that when we have a need, we do not need to babel on like Jesus said the Pharisees did, trying to impress people with their fine words. We do not need to remind God of every word He said, or quote many verses within our request. If we need healing, we only need to ask to be healed, with faith and being humble before our lord. We noticed she had no other recourse, so her reliance was completely on Jesus. We think maybe we might put a little more faith in the doctors than we do in Jesus, so our reliance is divided and maybe, just maybe that may be why we do not see such miraculous healings as did those in the time Jesus when the medical practices were so lacking in comparison to today. We have heard, and maybe even thought ourselves, that God uses doctors to heal us. Maybe that is true, maybe He does, but maybe He doesn’t and would rather we rely completely on Him. Maybe we give up too soon in our request and total reliance on Him, thinking the doctors are His method. It’s just a thought. What we do know is that Jesus met this woman’s need. He responded to her faith. Jesus will also respond to faith. Can we utilize doctors and still have faith? Who is to say, only God knows? What we do know is that Jesus heals, and however He elects to do it is fine with us. Jesus always responds to faith.