Scripture: Matthew 15:21-28
Journal: What is your mission? Who and
what is God calling you to these days?
How will you tell the difference between the things and the people that
he has called you to and the things and the people that are a distraction to
what he’s called you to? Is there a
“Canaanite woman” that you need to give your attention to this day?
Reflection:
We hear a lot these days about our need to be missional.
"The church is only really the church when it is on mission,"
the experts say. And they are so right. But what in the world does
that mean? What is it supposed to look
like? Well, Jesus gives us a wonderful picture—albeit rather odd—right
here in Matthew 15. And if we can get past our initial resistance to the
image he's using, and really hear what he is trying to say, I think it has a
lot to teach us.
Jesus and his disciples were
traveling through Tyre and Sidon when a Canaanite woman approached them,
begging for mercy for her demon-oppressed daughter. But, we
are told, Jesus did not answer her a word. Interesting. That’s
not a side of Jesus that we are used to seeing. Why in the world would he
hear this desperate cry and say absolutely nothing? Maybe it had
something to do with the fact that Jesus knew his mission. And knowing
your mission has a lot to do with knowing not only what you have been
called to do, but knowing who you have been called to do it to.
Jesus did not let needs and demands and agendas and expectations determine his
course, but only the voice and will of his Father. So he stayed true to his mission: "I
was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." And
this woman was a definitely not one of Israel's lost sheep, but a Canaanite.
The Canaanites were one of the
peoples that inhabited the Promised Land before the Israelites finally arrived
from their forty year pilgrimage in the wilderness. The Canaanites were
notorious enemies of God's chosen people, constantly worshipping and serving
their own gods rather than the God of Israel. So God commanded the
Israelites, because of his deep love for them (his chosen people
and his treasured possession), to drive all of the Canaanites out of the
Promised Land, lest they remain in the land and infect the children of
Israel with their defiant mindset and detestable practices. God wanted
the hearts of his people to remain pure and holy, fully belonging to him in
every way (Deuteronomy 7:1-6). So naturally the disciples, like all
true Israelites, tell Jesus to send this Canaanite woman away.
That's where it really gets
interesting, because then she comes and kneels before Jesus, begging for his
help. And when she does so, Jesus makes an incredibly interesting
statement: "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it
to the dogs." Now if we can get past the fact that it appears
like Jesus is calling her a dog, we can see the amazing quality of what he is
saying. I was called to the lost sheep of Israel. They are the
ones I came to proclaim the good news to. Your day will come. The
Father has a plan for that as well, and I will fully trust his plan. But
for me, right now, my mission is to the lost sheep of Israel. And if I
allow myself to get diverted or distracted from what the Father has
sent me to do and to be, it would be like taking the bread right out of
the mouths of the very ones I have been called to. I mean,
none of us would ever do that to our own children, right? But that is
what Jesus says we're doing when we know our mission and allow something
or someone to distract or divert us from that mission. When we are
not being about what God has called us to be about, we are disobedient.
One day a good friend of mine was
innocently asked by someone in our church if he would consider teaching Sunday
School for a group of Middle School students. And before the request
was fully out of his mouth my friend had already replied with a quick and
firm no. "Well, don't you even want to pray about it?"
the man asked. To which my friend replied, "I've been praying about
that all of my life. Let me tell you what God has told me I am to be
about." And he went on to list a number of things that God had
clearly communicated to him that he was to be about—his mission, if you
will. Then he went on to say, "If I said yes to your request, I
would be disobedient to what God has called me to be about." In
essence, that's what Jesus seems to be saying here, but the story does not
end there.
“Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat
the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." the woman
replies. And what a beautiful reply it
is. “I'm not asking for the children's bread,” says the woman, “I
realize that you were sent for them. All I'm asking is for a few of the crumbs
that might fall off the table. That will
not cost you (or them) anything, as far as your mission and direction is
concerned. She understood mission. And Jesus fully realized
that she understood mission. In fact, he was moved with
compassion. “Then Jesus answered her, ‘O woman, great is your
faith! Be it done to you as you desire.’ And her daughter was
healed instantly.”
So, it seems, not only do
we need to be clear and focused on what our mission is, we also need to be open
when someone or something outside of those parameters comes along that is in
need of our touch or our help. We must
live in that creative tension between being focused and being open. Which means we must be depend on God to show
us the way. We must constantly be
seeking the heart and the voice of God on a regular basis to guide us in all
we do.
Prayer
Closing
Prayer: What Thou wilt, when Thou wilt, how Thou wilt. This is the cry of my heart, O God. ~John
Newton
No comments:
Post a Comment