22 Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” 23 But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26 He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 27 She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 28 Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
– Matthew 15:22-28
For whom did Jesus come to save? Most of us would answer that Jesus came to save the lost, and we would find that answer repeated by many if not most persons of faith, today. In this little story, tucked into the gospels, however, we hear that there was, at least initially, a different purpose of the Messiah.
In this story, Jesus has an encounter with a Canaanite woman. Other translations might say “Syrophoenician”, or “Greek” woman, but the main point is that she was not Jewish, not of Israel. The point of this, is that when we look at the words of the Prophets they speak of the Messiah as one who comes to save God’s chosen people. The word Messiah means the “chosen one” he is supposed to come to restore Israel, to lead God’s people and make them great. Jesus does so much more. The one who came to restore the house of Israel, came to do more than what the prophets could see or speak about. God has more in his plan than anyone had imagined.
I believe the idea that Jesus came to do more than anyone expects is vitally important to our faith. Our expectations don’t often match the beautiful abundance of our God’s extravagant grace. Often we fall short of what God is willing to do through us. We especially fall short on offering the amount of grace, forgiveness, mercy, and love that should be offered as we emulate Christ in our lives. We often make our own judgements as to who is worthy of our love, or even our support, or our prayers. We make excuses as to why we cannot love or support someone. We claim that they made choices that moved them out of God’s grace. However, when we see this woman, who is truly outside of the promise of the prophets, make claim that she has faith, believes in the power of Jesus; Jesus is astounded, and so should we. We should be astounded that Jesus offers healing and grace beyond our comprehension, we should be astounded that Jesus brings life to this woman by giving her back a healed daughter. We should be astounded that Jesus is doing more than we expect, because he is greater that we may understand or imagine.
We stand amazed at the great healer, who I believe even now, will do more than we can imagine as we pray, as we place our hope in him alone, and as we speak and work for a better tomorrow for our faith, for our nation, for our world.
Grace & Peace,
Sam