As soon as we get in the carradio on, CD on, or tape player on. And we can understand a Jesus like this in Mark 14:60≦1, when the high priest said: Man, don't you understand what kind of power I have? Speak up for yourself.īut a woman who is troubled and heartbroken over the serious condition of her daughter, for him to look at her and ignore her? We don't understand that kind of Jesus, because we think the Jesus we worship should always speak, should always act, and should always give. The Bible says Jesus answered him not a word. We can understand a Jesus like this in Matthew 27:14, when Pilate challenged him to be his own defense attorney. The Bible says he answered them not a word.
#Praying in silence trial
Now we can understand a Jesus like this in Matthew 27:12, when the chief priests at the trial of Jesus challenged him to defend himself. So, have mercy upon me.Īnd the Bible says that after listening to this emergency request, Jesus answered her not a word. When I see my child with glassy eyes, when my child seems to be someone I never gave birth to, it affects me. I'm not possessed, but any time my daughter is affected under demonic domination, it affects me. She has a request: Lord, my daughter is possessed by a devil. The woman in Matthew has heard about Jesus, and she has come to disrupt his anonymity. Elijah said, "Make me a little cake first." And when she put God first, God sustained her for the rest of the famine by putting a cornfield in her barrel and an oil well in her cruet. There was a widow in the TyreSidon area who was gathering sticks to make a last meal for her son and herself and then die. God sent him outside of Palestine to a pagan territory. Then, when the brook dried up, God opened another door for Elijah. God sent the raven catering service to sustain him and kept a brook running to give him water. He was saying, "You don't need to read the newspaper, and you don't need to listen to the eleven o'clock news to get the meteorological report for the next three and a half years. Elijah had been walking around with the key to the water department around his waist. How could someone in the northwestern part of that area outside of Palestine know about Jesus? And how would she know he's in the house?Įight centuries prior to this time, God had been sustaining the prophet Elijah. There's a woman from the Tyre and Sidon area who discovers Jesus is in the house, and she comes there with an urgent request. He does that in order to be incognito, because he needs a little rest and relaxation. The text says Jesus leaves the environs of Palestine and goes to a house in the Syrophoenician area. That's why, when we come to this passage of Scripture, we are troubled, we are astonished, we are astounded, and we are frustrated. We want the ego, the "I am" Christ who will be what we want him to be: I am the water of life. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you can ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Knock and the door shall be opened unto you.
We want the Christ who says: Ask and it shall be given. We want to serve a Christ who always speaks, always acts, always gives. And when he does not, we are disappointed. We are coming dangerously close to worshiping a vending-machine Christwe stand before him, make our selection, take our prayer quarter, put it in the slot, and expect that Christ to always give us what we have selected when we want it and how we want it. We are coming dangerously close to worshiping a self-styled Christ, a Christ that we have made in our own image and after our own likeness. We are coming dangerously close to Christological idolatry that is, worshiping a Christ who never was, is not, and will never be the Christ of the Bible. Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour. He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." "Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." The woman came and knelt before him. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession." Jesus did not answer a word. Hear these words from the Word in Matthew 15:21≢8: Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
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