8/17/17
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
Our Gospel reading for this week is from Matthew 15:21-28. In this passage, a Canaanite woman whose daughter is suffering comes to Jesus and asks him to heal her. Jesus at first puts a roadblock in the way of the woman. He says that he was sent “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (v. 24b, CSB). What do we make of this?
There is a great deal of context lost here. We don’t know the tone of Jesus’ words. We don’t know his expression, or that of the woman. We know virtually nothing of the setting. However, the Canaanite woman’s response suggests that she understood Jesus to be friendly. She asks for some leftover crumbs of healing. That is precisely what Jesus gives. He heals the daughter immediately.
By faith the Canaanite woman knew that Jesus not only could heal her daughter, but that he cared enough to do so. On the other hand, we have a tendency to approach God as if we will have to wrestle with him and then twist his arm until he does what we want. We view prayer almost as an adversarial relationship. The Canaanite woman simply comes to Jesus and asks him for what she needs. She knows that he can do it. She trusts that he cares enough. May it ever be so with us.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
Our Gospel reading for this week is from Matthew 15:21-28. In this passage, a Canaanite woman whose daughter is suffering comes to Jesus and asks him to heal her. Jesus at first puts a roadblock in the way of the woman. He says that he was sent “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (v. 24b, CSB). What do we make of this?
There is a great deal of context lost here. We don’t know the tone of Jesus’ words. We don’t know his expression, or that of the woman. We know virtually nothing of the setting. However, the Canaanite woman’s response suggests that she understood Jesus to be friendly. She asks for some leftover crumbs of healing. That is precisely what Jesus gives. He heals the daughter immediately.
By faith the Canaanite woman knew that Jesus not only could heal her daughter, but that he cared enough to do so. On the other hand, we have a tendency to approach God as if we will have to wrestle with him and then twist his arm until he does what we want. We view prayer almost as an adversarial relationship. The Canaanite woman simply comes to Jesus and asks him for what she needs. She knows that he can do it. She trusts that he cares enough. May it ever be so with us.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.
RSS Feed