Little Woman, Huge Faith

We all live up to our beliefs.  Truly, we live according to what we believe to be true.  However, that which we profess to believe we rarely live up to.  There is a huge difference in what we actually believe and that which we profess to believe.

In the story about the woman from Syrophoenicia recorded in Matthew 15:21-28, Jesus is addressing the true beliefs of his disciples regarding women and Gentiles.  Though they might have been honest enough to confess their prejudices, Jesus is using a powerful teaching moment to expose their sinful attitudes.  Let’s look carefully at how he does it.

I have often struggled with this passage because in it Jesus seems to be so harsh and cruel to a minority single mom who needs help for her daughter.  You would think that Jesus would be very kind and compassionate to her, as he has been to others in the past.  He healed the servant of a Centurion.  He healed a demoniac on the other side of the Sea of Galilee.  He raised the synagogue ruler’s daughter who had died.  He had just said, “Come until me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”  And then a single mom with a terribly sick daughter comes to him and he says and does nothing.  This is not the Jesus I know.  Why?

As I mentioned, Jesus is exposing the sexism and racism of his disciples.  These ran deep in the culture in those days.  There was a prayer which men often said which went like this: “Blessed are you Lord God for not making me a Gentile, a slave, or a woman.”  This prayer was said every morning by devout men in Israel.  Paul addresses this very prayer in his letter to Galatians when he says in 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  Even the order of the groups mentioned is exactly the same in the Jewish prayer and in Paul’s teaching against this statement.

Sexism was so rampant in Israel at the time of Jesus that a Rabbi would not speak to a woman in public, not even to his own family members.  So when Jesus did not reply to this Syrophoenician woman it was out of his character to remain silent, but it would be the norm of how a rabbi would treat the situation.  And unfortunately the disciples seem ok with that.  In fact the disciples tell Jesus to send her away because she is annoying them.

Jesus then affirms their belief by saying that he was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel.  But he has already healed Gentiles and their children.  Why now does he say this?  Well, he is engaging in something called reductio ad adserdem.  This is when a person takes a position and shows its logical conclusion.  This is something people like Gandhi and Martin Luther King were very good at doing.

But this woman is very insistent.  She comes to Jesus again on her knees and begs him to help her.

Then, amazingly, Jesus replies with the most insensitive saying imaginable.  He says that it is not right to take the children’s bread and give it to the little dogs.  Now this is hard for me to listen to from the mouth of Jesus.  Dogs were just a bit above pigs.  They were despised.  They were not domesticated or house pets.  Jesus is using the term little dogs, but I don’t know if this is any better.

Hopefully the disciples at this time are hearing what their own views about women and Gentiles actually sound like.  Jesus is illustrating in a graphic way what their own racism and sexism really look and sound like.  He was using this special moment and his gift of teaching to rid them of their prejudices.

Jesus also used this special moment to heal the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter.  Jesus blessed her because of her great faith.

Jesus had a great appreciation for the faith of women and elevated them whenever he could.  He allowed a sinful woman to anoint his feet.  He allowed Mary to hug him after his resurrection.  He allowed Mary to sit at his feet and he taught her right along with the rest of his disciples.  He was revolutionary when it came to his positive dealings with women, even those who were not Jewish.

The faith of this single minority mom was huge, and her daughter was healed.  The disciples, on the other hand, learned an important lesson about how to treat women and minorities.  This is a lesson we all need to learn.

The Spirit Guides

The beauty of the Bible is that is always challenges us to look very carefully at what God is teaching us. During the months of January and February I have been learning a lot about the early church and how the church should function. The Spirit-filled church of Acts has so much to teach us in how we go about doing church. One area in which I am growing is in the area of understanding how the Holy Spirit leads us.

Ever since I went to a seminar on listening prayer at the beginning of January, I have been studying the book of Acts trying to find out how the Holy Spirit guided the early church and its leaders. I have combed through the entire book of Acts and looked at every instance of where individuals or groups have received divine guidance to see what principles and patterns I could find.

Overall, I found four predominant ways that the early church was guided to make decisions. The first way was in putting forth a proposal and discussing it together. The church leaders used this proposal and discussion method in at least three instances: in Acts 1, when they were looking for a replacement for Judas; in Acts 6, when they were choosing the seven men who would oversee the distribution of food to widows; and in Acts 15, where they were resolving differences over Gentile believers coming into the church.

The second frequently occurring way of finding guidance was through a vision. In Acts 9, Saul had a vision of Christ at his conversion and was instructed in what to do next. In Acts 10, both Cornelius, a God-fearing gentile, and the apostle Peter received complimentary instructions through visions. In Acts 16, Paul had his vision of the man calling for help from Macedonia. And then in Acts 18, Paul received a vision encouraging him to keep teaching in Corinth.

Thirdly, we find that angels were often sent to give guidance and protection to apostles in difficult or uncertain circumstances, such as imprisonment, storms at sea, and even Philip’s being sent to teach the Ethiopian eunuch. You can find these stories in Acts 5, 8, 12 and 27.

The fourth commonly occurring form of guidance was by the voice of the Holy Spirit being manifested in some way. This very often occurred when someone was to be sent to a new place or to do something new. For example, in Acts 13, Paul and Barnabas were sent on their missionary journey by the word of the Spirit. In Acts 20, Paul was compelled to go to Jerusalem by the Spirit. Then in Acts 21, Paul received a prophecy from the prophet Agabus, which was given by the Spirit. Peter also received a word from the Spirit, along with the vision, in Acts 10.

Having discovered all this, I can only come to one sure set of conclusions and that is this: the Holy Spirit guided the early church in a variety of ways depending on the people and the circumstances involved. The Spirit guided the early church even at times when it does not appear that they were looking for guidance. He guided by a certain method in one instance and in the next instance he lead in another way. Each person and each circumstance was different and the Holy Spirit knew what was needed.

We have to be careful that we do not put the Holy Spirit in a box and try to control the way that he speaks to us. However, it is so very important that we seek to have the mind of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 2:16 Paul concludes a discussion about knowing God’s will by saying, “But we have the mind of Christ.” Again in Romans 12:2 Paul teaches us, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Growing so close to Christ that we know his mind is so very helpful in knowing the will of God in situations that we encounter. To me it is like that old game show on TV called “The Newlyweds.” Remember how one of the couple was in a back room and they asked questions to the other spouse to see if they knew how the hidden spouse would answer. Then they got them back together and found out how close they might have come to knowing the mind of their spouses. Some couples knew each other so well that they almost always knew what the other one was thinking.
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When we really mature in Christ and get to know the mind of Christ, we know what his will would be in more and more of the situations that we are faced with in life. Finding God’s will does not have to be a difficult thing as we begin to simply know the will of the Lord because we understand the mind of Christ. This is what we should all be seeking in our lives -- renewing our minds to know the will of God.