22 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
23 But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.
27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.
28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
Here are four characters in this story: the woman, her daughter, Jesus and the disciples. So we can think about them seperately.
The woman begging for mercy, from far behind Jesus's back to in front of Jesus's feet, from receiving no word from Jesus till receiving Jesus's reward, is really humble, patient and faithful. She admitted her weakness and low status, and she firmly trusts that there is no other salvation but Jesus, so she consisted begging, no matter Jesus didn't replied a word at the moment. Sometimes we also cry for Jesus like this woman, but can we still consist praying without any word from Him? Do we move ourselves more actively, even though we're weak, from the position behind Him to somewhere in front of him?
As for her daughter, although she didn't appear in this scene, she also reminds me not to be caught by evil like her. Although God's mercy is unlimited, it'smuch better to escape from all the temptation and sin.
As for Jesus, it seemed very strange for Jesus to ignore such poor woman. If we compare with other cases, we can find that Jesus always faces and listens to these sinners and sicks. There is no exception but this Cannan woman. I think that Jesus was pretending cool and just tested this woman, but also comes me a thought, "what woulld happen if this poor woman is truely hurted by such taunt?" Then I have two answers. First, a common answer, she couldn't pass the test and then missed God's grace. Second, since all the test is measured personally as what we can bear, just as Paul said, "You have been put to no test but such as is common to man: and God is true, who will not let any test come on you which you are not able to undergo; but he will make with the test a way out of it, so that you may be able to go through it. (1Cor 10.13)", then Jesus should know that the woman could bear his ignorance and taunts. Therefore, there must be no result as the woman couldn't pass the test. So I think maybe this test was just played for the audiences, like the disciples or us, to encourage their/our faith.
Finally, the disciples. I'm also afraid to become such disciples who see themselves knowing and caring about of Jesus's thoughts but unfortunately faild in it. The reason they intend to send the woman away is just "she cried after us". Isn't it a reason kind of manner, tradition or something? Are these disciples different from those who condemned Jesus sitting with sinners? So I reflect myself if I've also done something alike to deprive anybody of the opportunity to know Jesus, ex. oh he/she would't believe etc.
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1 comment:
at times God does seem to be cruel. but God's mercy seem to always surpass his timing. like at Cana when his mother Mary asked him to help out at the wedding with the lack of wine. he said, "My time has not yet come" (John 2:4). but we know at the end of the story, Jesus did help out even though His time has not yet come. perhaps with this incident it is the same. the time for non-Jews has not yet come, but because of her persistence, Jesus's mercy overcame.
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