Bible studies- Monday
This year's Assembly Bible Studies are led by the Revd Dr
Israel Selvanayagam, Principal of the United College of
the Ascension. They appear daily in Hotline on the day they are given to
Assembly. Choose the study you would like to read from the menu below:
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Monday
An Alien Woman of Great Faith
Jesus then withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And a Canaanite
woman from those parts came to meet him crying, ‘Son of David! Have pity on
me; my daughter is tormented by a devil.’ But he said not a word in reply.
His disciples came and urged him: ‘Send her away! See how she comes shouting
after us.’ Jesus replied, ‘I was sent to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel, and to them alone.’ But the woman came and fell at his feet and
cried, ‘Help me, sir.’ Jesus replied, ‘It is not right to take the
children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.’ ‘True, sir,’ she answered, ‘and
yet the dogs eat the scraps that fall from their master’s table.’ Hearing
this Jesus replied, ‘What faith you have! Let it be as you wish!’. And from
that moment her daughter was restored to health.
(Matthew 15:21-28)
Background
The dialogue takes place in a natural setting on the borders of Sidon and
Tyre, two famous Gentile towns lying on the other side of Galilee. The terms
used in the dialogue, like bread, crumbs, table and dogs come from the
context of a bakery that was popular in the districts of Tyre and Sidon.
These towns had their own temples, in Sidon, there was the temple for Eshmun,
the god of healing. That would illustrate the fact that healing in such a
place was different from the healing offered by Jesus which was part of the
new breaking in of God’s reign and a new orientation in life. Mark (7:26)
identifies this woman in national and political categories, a Gentile and a
Phoenician of Syria, while Matthew highlights her religious affiliation
calling her a Canaanite. Jesus’ initial response with apparent harshness
reflects the anti-Canaanite feeling persisting among the Jews which had a
long antecedence. This encounter is preceded by Jesus challenging the
Pharisees’ divide on purity and pollution in relation to food and, by
implication, people also. But this was in the context of what was happening
within the tradition. Jesus found his ministry to be bound to address the
lost sheep of the house of Israel who included the poor, disabled, women,
tax-collectors, lepers and children. The woman was able to understand this,
but her plea was to have at least the crumbs falling under the master’s
table, signifying God’s generous hospitality with abundant grace to be
extended to people who, by tradition, have been alienated. Obviously Jesus
was moved by this plea and his change of attitude found expression in the
following course of his ministry when he was in the Gentile Galilee healing
the sick and the disabled and feeding a crowd of more than four thousands.
He said to his disciples that ‘My heart goes out to these people’ (Mtt.
15:32).
The Central Focus of the Encounter
Jesus did not expect a woman of an alien cult to challenge him as to the
limited boundaries of his ministry. RS Sugirtharajah calls her act as
‘evangelising the evangeliser.’ ‘Not only was the Canaanite woman helped,
but she, in her turn, helped Jesus. She did a great service to him by
enabling him to broaden his particularistic and intolerant understanding of
non-Jews, an understanding which separated and segregated Gentiles as
unclean and impure.’ The early Church had a lesson here to go beyond the
Jewish boundaries. The most important aspect of this story for our
consideration is the attitude of the woman, pleading for widening the
boundary of Jesus’ ministry with sensible argument which Jesus calls "great
faith."
What is Faith?
The writer to the Hebrews defines faith as "the assurance of things hoped
for, the conviction of things not seen" (11:1). But this definition does not
cover all the aspects attached to faith in the Bible. For example, the
Pauline idea of justification by faith has been subjected to a variety of
understandings. Consequently, church denominations differ in defining faith
while each claims to base its definition on the Bible.
In comparative religion, faith is seen as a common human way of moving
into the field force of life, of finding coherence and meaning in life in
relation to multiple forces and to fellow humans. Some view faith as a
universal aspect of human feeling of transcendence, inherent capability of
human life to face opportunities and confusions with conviction. Beyond
systems of belief faith is a fundamental openness to move on. Jesus had a
unique view of faith which comes close to this understanding.
As a devout Jew, Jesus shared with his tradition the fundamental aspects
of what may be called faith. But he seems to have a more basic and human
view of it. This has to do with one’s confidence and ability to "move"
things. For example, when he chided his disciples for having little faith or
lacking it, he saw fear, anxiety and absence of reflective awareness as
opposed to faith (Matt. 6:30; 8:26; 14:3 1; 16:8). He explained that if they
had faith "as a mustard seed," signifying dynamism of life to sprout and
grow, they could move mountains (17:20; 21:21). Metaphorically, in the early
Church some persons appeared to have "faith so as to remove mountains" (I
Cor. 13:2) although for Paul without love they were nothing. The underlying
meaning of "moving mountains" which presumably became proverbial, however,
is ability to move, take initiative, disturb the status quo, and so on. For
Jesus, faith in this sense is a weighty matter, weightier than observing
little customs (Matt. 23:23). We will point out how Jesus discerned faith in
the life of certain people within his religious tradition and outside also.
People of Extraordinary Faith Within and Outside the Tradition
Jesus found this faith in certain people who belonged to his own
tradition: in the four men who brought a paralytic to Jesus by opening a
roof (Mk. 2:4); in the daring act of a woman suffering from flow of blood
for twelve years who touched the garment of Jesus (Mk. 5:34); a blind man
who was persistently shouting ‘son of David, have mercy on me’ to draw the
attention of Jesus (Lk. 18:42). The Canaanite woman and the blind man
calling Jesus ‘son of David’ is significant because unlike Jesus, David was
hostile to Canaanites and the disables (see 2 Sam. 5:6-8; cf. Matt. 21:14).
The same kind of faith Jesus found in certain people outside his
tradition. Thus he appreciated the faith of a Roman centurion who not only
trusted the power of Jesus’ word but also found in Jesus a new life-style as
different from the Roman hierarchy of which he was part (Matt. 8:10). This
was followed by Jesus’ prediction of people coming from different directions
and sitting
at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Similarly, Jesus called faith the
extraordinary gesture of a Samaritan who was healed of leprosy along with
nine others but only he returned to thank Jesus (17:19). Add the case of the
Canaanite woman to this list. In all these cases extraordinary ability to go
against the currents brought healing. There is no mention of particular
confessions or expressions of belief in all these stories, nor explicit
conversion to another faith tradition. This fact calls Christians to develop
a new understanding of conversion and faith in a multi-faith context.
Israel Selvanayagam
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