A Faith That Won't Quit!...Continued from page 1

Matthew Blake Judkins

A Canaanite’s Great Faith

However, the Gospel of Matthew offers us a different take. This passage is about the faith of the Canaanite woman. As a matter of fact it is about the “Great faith” of the Canaanite woman. This would not be such a big deal if Jesus went around applying this compliment loosely, but this woman is unique in two ways. She is the only Gentile (non-Jewish) woman that Jesus heals in Matthew’s gospel, and she is the only person that Jesus says has “Great Faith.” Compare that with the five times he reminds the disciples of their “little faith,” and you see how unique she is. For the disciples to hear about her great faith would be like a Hatfield learning about great faith through a McCoy!

Desperation that leads to true faith

But the story doesn’t begin with us knowing about her great faith. It begins in desperation, where great faith often begins. The Canaanite woman, whose name we never hear, has a daughter who she describes as “cruelly possessed by a demon.” We don’t know exactly what this meant, but it could have easily meant she was afflicted with violently insane behavior, like the man who lived among the tombs in chapter 8, or that she had terrible seizures, like the boy who often fell into the fire in Matthew 17. Whatever her symptoms, her mother was desperate for her to be healed ? to be free from this terrible state. But her desperation led to hope ? not hope in the folk cures and remedies that she had probably tried before ? not hope in the best medical advice of the day ? but hope in the God of Israel ? hope in the Messiah, God’s Chosen One.

Faith without Shame

This hope led to a faith without shame. Many times, we can be afraid to let our faith be known. Sometimes we don’t want to stand out. Sometimes we just want to be polite and not, “talk religion.” And sometimes, we just don’t want the added scrutiny that comes when people realize that we’re followers of Jesus Christ. But this woman was different ? she lived out a faith that comes from having nothing left to lose ? a desperate faith. She approached this band of disciples and their leader Jesus. She screamed out to t

hem from a distance, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David!” She didn’t just shout, she screamed ? her cries as desperate as the faith she had that this was the one who could make a difference. She didn’t care that the disciples didn’t approve ? she didn’t care that as a woman approaching men who were strangers she would stand out like a sore thumb ? she didn’t care about the things that make us ashamed. She had the faith of a desperate mother ? a faith without shame. This should make us think about our faith ? does it come out of desperation? Does our faith rise out of a confidence that Jesus is the only one who can bring meaning to our lives, the only one who can bring true spiritual and emotional healing, the only one worth devoting a life to? Or, is our faith just a casual thing we do because it’s expected? The Canaanite woman’s faith was without shame because she knew Jesus was her only hope, and she didn’t care what others expected.