We often think of Jesus as a perfect model. It isn’t often we encounter his humanness.
Last night in our men’s Bible study at church, we discovered a very interesting (and for many of us, overlooked) aspect of Christ’s ministry. Our focus was on the second chapter of Mark’s Gospel where Jesus deals with the Syro-Phoenician woman who wanted help for her demon-filled little daughter.
A Greek woman, she had come down to Tyre where she must have heard Jesus was. Truth be told, Jesus was there trying to avoid the pressing crowds and to get some rest. But the woman would have no part of it. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
In fact, the Matthew account of this incident says that Jesus initially ignored her requests and that the disciples actually asked him to “send her away” because of her loud, distressed cries. The Lord’s apparently stark and harsh response was what astounded us last night.
“First, let the children eat all they want”, Christ told them, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” In Matthew, his response was, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel”, which sort of explains what he meant in Mark’s version.
But it also raises a LOT of questions.
Why did Jesus avoid this apparent opportunity to show his power in ministry? Did Jesus really “look down” on Gentiles as is implied? Or does this event simply show his weariness, frustration and humanness? Why didn’t he act immediately? What is going on?
Of course when the woman answered the Lord by saying, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs,” Jesus responded with wonderful and comforting words. “For such a reply (which exhibited her great faith), you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”
The episode ends well, but the trail sure took some interesting turns. We spent quite a bit of time discussing what we can learn from this occurrence. Among many possibilities, the myriad of relationships between faith and works (especially from Luther’s perspective) emerged as a worthy ponderance.
Because we are justified by faith, we should now act accordingly, rather than "resting on our laurels". Faith, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead, says the book of James.
No comments:
Post a Comment