A Mother's Faith

Jesus is with his disciples, and according to Mark's gospel, Jesus is looking for a break with his disciples.

He's looking for a retreat.

And so he leaves.

This is the longest, farthest trip he ever took.

And so he is there with his disciples.

And we pick up the text, Matthew chapter 15.

Matthew 15 · chapter mention

And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre in Sidon.

And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David, my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.

But he did not answer her a word.

And his disciples came and begged him, saying, Send her away, for she's crying out after us.

He answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

But she came and knelt before him, saying, Lord, help me.

And he answered, It's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

She said, Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.

And Jesus answered her, O woman, great is your faith.

Be it done for you as you desire.

And her daughter was healed instantly.

This is the reading of God's holy and perfect word.

Please pray with me.

Oh God, we pray, would you give us faith like this woman?

This woman that no doubt one day we'll meet.

But Lord, we don't want to just hear her story.

Lord, we want to live like this woman lived in our own story.

And so, Spirit of God, we pray.

Take your word, your living word, into the parts of our lives and hearts and minds that need life.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

I want to talk about gifts on Mother's Day.

Did you get a gift?

Get a card.

I want to talk about gifts, but I don't want to talk so much about the gift that you mothers are going to receive.

I want to talk about the gifts that you mothers are going to give.

And not just you mothers, but all of us.

What's the most precious gift that you can give to your children, to your grandchildren, to your spouses, to your friends?

The gift that many of us have received, some of us have received, certainly from our own earthly mothers, the gift of faith.

The gift of faith.

Again, Jesus is traveling to a far country.

The town of Tyre would be about 25 miles north of Galilee.

And some of you know that Galilee was on the northern reaches of where Jesus traveled and ministered.

Galilee was quite a bit farther north than, say, Jerusalem or Bethlehem.

And then Sidon is about 25 miles beyond that.

I mean, this is a road trip, right?

Jesus went far, and he's looking for silence and retreat and time with his disciples.

And yet there's this Canaanite mother, and you have to understand, like, how much that meant to the people who read that.

I mean, enemy, pagan.

Jesus is going to the land of pagans.

Jesus is going to the land of people who despise the Jews, mostly.

And he goes there and he encounters this woman and he pays her the supreme compliment.

One of the few times we find anywhere in the Gospels where Jesus gives this compliment.

Your faith is great.

That's why we all need to listen in.

Jesus and his disciples enter this house.

Mark tells us that he entered a house and did not want anyone to know it.

Okay?

He's trying to get away.

I love this.

This is how Mark puts it.

But he could not be hidden.

Isn't that so like Jesus?

He could not be hidden.

Jesus had this way about him that just compelled the people in the crowds to come and find him wherever he was.

Even in a pagan land, a desperate mother found Jesus because her daughter was in deep trouble.

She was possessed by a demon, it says terribly so.

She had real problems.

Her soul ached because of her daughter's problem.

This is what the commentator, biblical commentator Bengal, how he put it.

A mother does not usually have to make her child's misery her own.

It is her own.

And she needs release as much as her daughter.

Wow.

Let me read that again.

A mother does not usually have to make her child's misery her own.

It is her own.

And she needs release as much as her daughter or as much as her son.

That's just a mother.

That's a parent.

Did you notice when she first came up to Jesus what she said?

Son of David, Lord, have mercy on.

What'd you say?

Me.

Why did she say, Lord, have mercy on my daughter?

Because her daughter needed mercy.

But this is just more of what Bengal was saying, and this is what the text is bringing out.

When your heart is bound up with your child, as it should be, her problem, his problem is your problem.

But I don't need to belabor that, do I, parents?

Have mercy on me.

I am right in there with my daughter's need.

She found Jesus.

She came crying out.

This is in the imperfect tense in the Greek.

It means she didn't just say, Jesus, I'm here.

I need help.

She kept saying it over and over again, and actually the verb means to shout.

This is not socially cool.

She's really kind of causing a scene.

Does she care?

No.

Do the disciples care?

Yes.

Jesus, get rid of her.

She's bothering us.

And then it says, but he did not answer her a word.

The disciples are annoyed, the disciples are irritated.

And boy, there's an application here, right?

When the church doesn't know what to do with people with big problems, send them away.

Jesus does.

Jesus knows.

But Jesus did not answer her a word.

This is really kind of maybe one of the most ultimate awkward pauses in the Bible.

Okay, picture her.

She's there, no doubt, in tears, in anguish.

She's crying, she's pleading.

Jesus, where did she learn about Jesus?

Don't know.

The Bible doesn't tell us.

But somebody told her.

Somebody knew.

And somebody told her.

And she was hanging on with everything she had to that hope.

And then she's crying out, and Jesus looks at her, and it doesn't tell us how long the silence was.

But it had to have been awkward.

And then when Jesus finally speaks, whenever that was, after that long, awkward pause, when he finally speaks, this is what he says.

It's like a soliloquy.

He's not really talking to her.

He's not really talking to his disciples, it would appear.

Is he talking to himself?

Well, if he was, it was certainly for the benefit of those who were listening.

He says this.

I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Jesus, is that helpful?

Are you answering her?

Let it sink in.

Why do you think Jesus said that?

When he finally speaks, but look at the response of hers in verse 25.

But she came, and insert closer because that's what it means.

She came closer to him, and then she knelt before him.

And what you know what she's doing right now?

She's worshiping.

In the silence, in the loneliness, in the fear, she's worshiping Jesus.

She came closer and knelt before him, saying, Lord, help me.

And Jesus is surrounded by requests.

The woman is saying, Help me, and the disciples are saying, Get her out of here.

And then Jesus speaks again.

It's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

And she says, Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.

Wow.

Man, I'm glad this story is in the Gospels.

I need stories like this.

Put yourself in the shoes of the woman as much as you can.

Wait a minute.

Did he just call me a dog?

Did he just call me a dog?

And we can soften the blow a little bit because in the Greek it's a house dog.

It's not a wild pack dog.

Does it soften the blow some?

Yeah.

But I think there's a lot of people today, probably in the church too, who would say, wait a minute, did he just call me a dog?

I'm out of here.

Between the silence and calling me a dog, if I'm gonna get help, I think I'm gonna have to go somewhere else.

Are you with me?

That's what's going on.

But she doesn't do that.

Why did she not take offense?

This is why we need to listen in.

Why did she not turn around and leave?

What she says is, Jesus, if you are likening me to a dog, I accept that.

Because even pet dogs, house dogs, are fed by their masters.

And they get the crumbs that fall off the table.

And Jesus says, Woman, you have great faith.

In the remaining moments, we're going to look at the humility of faith, the perseverance of faith, and the reward of faith.

She would never have gone to Jesus if she didn't believe that only he could help her.

Her humility kept her in the conversation with Jesus.

Please hear that.

Her humility kept her in the conversation with Jesus.

That's why she didn't bolt.

Does your humility keep you in the conversation with Jesus?

Yes, she could have been insulted.

How dare he talk to me like that?

Nobody calls me a dog.

Why didn't she walk out?

Like we do sometimes, right?

How many times do we walk out?

How many times do we walk away from Jesus when we feel like Jesus is not treating us as we deserve to be treated?

I'm picturing what was going on in Jesus' mind.

Well, let's break from them to what happens perhaps is going in Jesus' mind when we walk out, when we come to him with something deep, a burden on our heart, and we come to Jesus, and the awkward long silence just kind of pours water over the fire of our souls, and we just turn around and walk out.

This is what I picture Jesus thinking when we do that.

I thought we were having a conversation.

I mean, you came to me, right?

You came to me with a need, a deep need.

I thought we were having a conversation.

Where'd you go?

Where'd you go?

How many times are we having a conversation, starting a conversation with Jesus, and he just sees our back walking away?

Because essentially what we're saying is, Jesus, you really just didn't come through like I asked you to come through.

Jesus, what's with the silence?

What's with the silence?

What's with what's with the things that you are telling me that evidently you want me to listen to, but I'm not hearing because I'm thinking about this and you're telling me something about that?

Are you humble enough to come to Jesus with your needs today?

Are you humble enough to stay in the conversation with Jesus and not walk away?

Am I the silence?

What do we do with the silence?

That's the question.

Samuel Rutherford, the great theologian centuries ago, said about this text, it is said that he answered her not a word, but it is not said he heard not one word.

Boy, that's gold.

He may not have answered her right away, but he heard her.

We need to ask God to help us to get beyond trying to define and control the conversations that we have with Jesus.

Brothers and sisters, we need to learn how to get away from that.

We need to learn how to stay in the conversations in the awkward silence.

We need to learn how to listen to what he's saying us, not what we want him to say to us.

Jesus is still listening even when he's not speaking.

Did you know that?

Jesus is still listening.

When you're there and you're speaking, he is listening.

He's not walking away from you.

Are you gonna walk away from him?

Am I?

Boy, I hope not.

Charles Purgeon talks about this, how this weight and this silence grows our faith.

He says, when faith, faith like a muscle of the body, grows stronger as the weight it must bear grows heavier.

Yes.

When faith is rewarded after continuing to besiege a silent heaven, or worse, when heaven seems uncaring and hard, then a great lesson has been learned, and that believer is never the same again.

Amen.

That's just this gospel message that we're trying to understand and we're trying to learn and we're trying to we're trying to grow in our understanding.

The humility of faith.

Spurgeon also said, believing is the cure for fainting.

And you must do one or the other.

When your heart is really heavy with the burden of your daughter, your son, your spouse, your friend, when your heart is really heavy, the cure for fainting is believing, and you must do either one or the other.

You will always either believe or faint.

Secondly, the perseverance of faith.

Again, she kept crying out.

Even during the silence, especially during the silence, she kept crying out.

Mercy kept her there.

What did she say when she came to Jesus?

Lord, have mercy.

Not justice.

She knew that she had no other place to go.

She holds on to what he did not say.

He did not say go away.

She holds on to what he did not say.

Would you please leave?

I'm here for rest.

You're disturbing me.

He didn't say that.

He didn't say go away.

So she waited and she didn't stop asking.

She didn't stop crying out.

And she got even closer and she knelt before him and she bowed down and worshiped him.

Jesus' silence did not push her away.

That's what we need to learn.

That's what I need to learn more and more about.

What are we doing with the silence?

I dare suspect that today there are some, there are many of us right now where it feels like we're hearing the silence.

God, I've been praying about this for a long time, you know.

God, you know how heavy my heart is.

For my daughter, for my son, from my spouse, for my friend.

You know, Lord.

What are we doing with the silence?

One of the old Greek philosophers who kept going after his master, whom he wanted to be his master.

His master kept trying to, you know, shuck him off.

And this is what he said there is no club that was ever made that is heavy enough to drive me away from you.

Wow.

And that was a Greek philosopher.

What about Jesus?

There is no club that was ever made that is heavy enough to drive me away from you.

The philosopher told one of his men to bring a club to drive him away, to get rid of this nuisance.

Lord, I'm not going anywhere.

Teach me patience, grow my faith, give me hope.

I like the way one commentator put it.

In the midst of this dialogue between Jesus and this woman, there is a shard of hope.

And that was enough.

That's a kind of a powerful word, a shard.

A small broken piece of something that is precious.

That's all she needs.

Just give me a shard, and I'll hold on to it.

Grow my faith.

The perseverance of faith.

Faith keeps coming because Jesus isn't going.

Faith keeps coming because Jesus doesn't say, go away.

Faith keeps coming because Jesus doesn't say, would you leave me alone?

I'm trying to get some R.

Faith keeps coming because Jesus isn't going anywhere.

He wants to keep the dialogue going.

He wants the conversation to continue.

And we're going to have to be okay with the silence sometimes.

We're going to have to be okay with that.

Because we're not in control.

And like Spurgeon said, he's developing and building muscles that we didn't know we needed.

He says, I'm building your muscles.

I'm building your spiritual muscles.

You don't know what's coming.

But I'm preparing you and I'm building you your spiritual stamina, your spiritual strength.

Because he knows.

He knows what we need not only now, but he knows what we're going to need in the days and the years ahead.

And that's part of his plan.

And that's part of his silence, and that's part of his answer.

To keep coming.

And lastly, the reward of faith.

Oh my.

Woman, you have great faith.

Jesus' words had at least put her in the house, as one scholar said.

Jesus' words had at least put her in the house.

Even though she was under the table, she was in the home.

And she did find those shards of hope.

Notice what it says, woman, you have great faith.

Notice it doesn't say, woman, you have great love.

You know what that says to me?

Most of us.

It's like, yeah, I have great love for my daughter.

Yeah, I have great love for my son, for my spouse, for my friends.

Yes, I have that.

I have great love.

I see it.

I know it.

I believe it.

But that's not the question.

Do we have faith to come to Jesus?

Do we keep coming to Jesus?

What does Paul say in Galatians chapter 5?

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

The only thing that matters is faith expressing itself in love.

Love flows from faith.

Faith is what connects us with Christ.

Faith is what unites us to Christ.

Faith is what keeps us coming.

When love, when love shrivels up, when love just can't produce whatever it is that we need to keep coming, faith does.

Woman, you have great faith.

This mother got a healed daughter that day.

John Ryle said, faith may be found in unlikely places.

It is grace, not place, which makes people believe.

I love that quote.

It's grace, not place.

This was the most unlikely person you can imagine to exhibit this kind of faith.

Far from the Jews.

Pagan land.

This was not the candidate.

I hope that gives you some faith, even hope more.

You might be thinking, of all the people in this room, I'm probably kind of at the bottom of the faith ranking.

I'm probably at the bottom or near the bottom of the Christian living.

I'm not sure I can run with this crowd.

That has nothing to do with it.

It's not the place.

If you grew up in a non-Christian family and you did not have a mother who shared the Christian faith with you, do not despair.

It's not the place, ultimately.

It's the grace.

There is no one who is beyond that grace of Jesus.

That's why John Newton, the slave trader, converted, amazing Christian pastor, songwriter, amazing grace.

He said this after his conversion: I have never despaired of any man since God saved me.

If God can save me, he can save anyone.

And if God can answer my prayer, he can answer anyone's prayer, but you come to Jesus.

You come to Jesus this morning.

That's the good news.

Because Jesus is listening.

What is crying out for healing in your life?

Go to Jesus.

What is crying out for healing in your life?

And now it's time for us to go to Jesus.

Lord, we come.

We come this morning and we ask, and Lord, maybe some of us need to get beyond our social customs and our fear of being a nuisance to you or crying out to you.

Father, I pray that conventional reserve, as it's been called, does not keep us from coming.

Father, I pray this morning, right now, by your Holy Spirit, that you would show every person in this room what that need is in our lives.

And Lord, that need may be for us.

That need may be for our daughter, our son, a friend, a spouse.

Lord Jesus, whatever that need is, we are coming to you now as your spirit works in us, as your spirit opens us up, as your spirit gives us faith to believe that you're not going to leave.

Oh Jesus, give us grace to stay, especially during the silence.

Give us grace to stay.

Give us grace to believe.

Give us grace to keep coming.

To even keep coming closer.

Lord, I pray this morning that we're coming closer.

And Jesus, hear us.

And Jesus, answer these prayers as you take them to the Father, as you intercede for us this morning.

May our faith grow.

May our faith grow because of our growing understanding of your great mercy.

We pray, Lord Jesus, in your name.

Amen.