LENT II

February 28, 2010

St. Augustine Anglican Church

“Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David.”

The Rev. Gerald Parks

          The story of the healing of the Canaanite woman’s daughter (Matt. 15:21-28), who was “grievously vexed with a devil,” is one that shows us that the fame of Jesus’ miracles and healings was widespread in parts of the ancient world, or at least spread as far as to those areas closest to the Jewish homeland.  Good news travels fast, even when there is no CNN or printed word to spread it; and news this good had reached the area of the great Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon (in present day Lebanon) before our Lord’s arrival there.  Such “good news” inspired the “woman of Canaan” to approach Jesus and beg for His mercy in helping her daughter.  And the information she had was detailed and accurate enough to allow her to address Him correctly as “thou son of David.”

          One can only assume that Jesus was just passing through this foreign land and had hoped to keep a low profile.  And He seems reluctant to help the Gentile woman who confronts Him, at first ignoring her: “But he answered her not a word.” (Matt 15: 23)  And, as she persists, He says to her, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matt. 15:24)  But then she entreats Him, “Lord, help me,” to which He tells her, “It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” (Matt. 15:26-27)  Jesus often commented on the faithfulness of those who were the recipients of His mercy, and the Canaanite woman was no different: “Then Jesus answered her and said unto her, O woman great is thy faith: be it unto thee as thou wilt.” (Matt. 15:28)

          As with many things in the ancient world, demonic possession, described in this story as being “grievously vexed with a devil,” is an area only dimly understood.  Whether it was mental illness that was the problem, or what we would now call autism, or any of a large number of various other maladies of the mind and body – or perhaps any or all of them – we don’t really know.  But what we do know is that in Jewish society, illness of any kind was considered to be a punishment from God for sin – the greater the sin, the greater the punishment.  And that only God could relieve the suffering of the afflicted by forgiving the sin that caused it.  And the Canaanite woman obviously believed Jesus had the power to do it.

          Phrases like “Trust in the Lord,” or “Let go, and let God,” roll off Christian tongues easily; and so do others which express a different view, such as, “God helps those who help themselves.”  Yet, as seemingly opposite as these appear, there is similar wisdom in each of them; for what they all share is the element of trust that God will help us if we call on Him in the hour of need – not that He can or might help us, but that He will.  We might say that faith in God, without trust in Him is like champagne without bubbles and about as inspiring.  If our faith lacks the element of trust, it is a dry and brittle thing, and will never sustain us, even though intellectually we know it should.  The fact is faith can never involve only the intellect – that was the problem the Pharisees had.  It must also involve our emotions to be real, and trust is that emotional part of ourselves that we give to God, who desires our personal involvement with Him.

          But trust is not given easily by most of us: it has to be learned and practiced.  Although the Canaanite woman seems to have had an abundance of it, trust in the Lord for the rest of us must be practiced diligently through prayer and experience, if we are to break free from the arrogance and self-interest that ties us to our worldly cares and prevents our self-giving to God.

          I have memories of an old music teacher, long since gone to glory, who demanded of his students copious amounts of practice time to become proficient on their particular instruments.  He didn’t allow excuses, and he had no sympathy for inadequate performances.  Invariably, on hearing a less than stellar rendition of an assigned lesson or piece, he would ask, “How much have you practiced?”  And when he heard your answer, which might be the truth, but in my case usually wasn’t, he would somewhat sadly ask, “Why do you practice?”  “To get better,” you might answer, when what you really meant was, “To avoid these questions!”  But what you better not say, as some of us learned to our regret, was, “Because practice makes perfect.”  “That is incorrect,” he would say, “Only perfect practice makes perfect; Imperfect practice makes imperfect, like this.”

          So too is the practice of our faith.  We are imperfect creatures by nature, who lack in ourselves the ability without help to practice our faith perfectly, or to do any good thing.  No matter how diligently we practice our faith, if we do not have trust that the One who is the source of all faith will help us, the performance of that faith will be imperfect and not satisfying to either God or to ourselves.  The Canaanite woman was given her daughter’s cure because she had faith enough to trust in our Lord’s healing mercy.  And it is in our trust in His mercy that we too will find the cure for our souls.  Trust in the Lord: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David.” (Matt. 15:22)