The Healing Power of Faith

pístis (from peithô, "persuade, be persuaded") – properly, persuasion (be persuaded, come to trust); 
​faith.
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    There she was: disheveled, dirty, her hair flying raggedly in the breeze.  She just wouldn't leave them alone.  It felt so frustrating. 
     And there was Jesus just ahead, moving silently along the road, each footstep raising small clouds of dust in the wind.  He was still ignoring her, his silence dramatically different from the crowd and marked by the absence of the slurs and racial epithets of the throng. Of course,  as a rabbi Peter wouldn't have expected any less of Him.  Esteemed rabbis didn't even speak to their own wives in public, but she was a Gentile woman. Jesus' toleration of her insolence without rebuke was angering.  
   Moving through the Gentile areas of what had once belonged to the Chosen People under King Solomon, and still yet was their inheritance by God, they were now walking in the region of Tyre and Sidon. Simon cringed again as she called out, her incessant voice rasping with overuse: “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is miserably possessed by a demon.”
    Unclean, defiled-- in so many ways.  Like the small street dogs that ranged through the villages, rolling in excrement, eating rotting food. Every kind of Gentile sin marked her from her clothing and jewelry to her lack of a veil, with not even an attempt at keeping the Jewish law given them from God.  How dare she come now in all her perversity and call out the Messianic name of Jesus!  "Son of David"--The Jews' Messiah!  The anger and frustration kept mounting.  

     And still Jesus did not answer a word.

    Feeling a tap on his shoulder, Simon turned to face James and John.  Their eyes sparked as they leaned in to be heard above the crowd: "Peter, you tell Him!  He will listen to you!  You're the one he said had some faith for coming to Him on the water last week. If he listens to anyone, it will be you." 
    Simon wasn't so sure.  A wave of doubt washed over him.  He could clearly remember that stormy night, when he had yelled across the crash of the waves: he had challenged Jesus to tell him to come to Him on the water--if it was really Him.  Even after being invited, even after stepping closer and closer, he had still doubted and failed. 
  Swallowing nervously, Simon summoned his courage and caught up to Jesus, matching his long strides with Jesus' own.  "Master, send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”         The look came into Jesus' eyes then, a look Simon had grown all too familiar with: a mixture of pain, sorrow, anger and incredulity.   A wave of guilt and shame washed over Simon as a memory came suddenly back to him. A memory of the Master, just yesterday, with them in the field.  Eating the grain. They'd been hungry, and there had been no food.  They'd been sleeping outdoors every night on their way that week.  They themselves had been dirty--it had been a full week since they've had even a foot wash.
    The Pharisees had come and watched them in disgust.  They had demanded that the Master rebuke Simon and the others for not having washed their hands first--they were defiled, unclean. They could be banned from worship at the Temple and synagogues for breaking the rules. 
   Jesus' face had carried that same look then as He had rebuked the Pharisees: “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.” 
   Tight-lipped, Jesus turned away from Simon without responding. Turning and looking toward the woman, her tears trailing in salt down her dirty cheeks, he called out to her, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
    Simon could see the waves of first pain, desperation and then determination spread over the woman's face. 
    The woman came to Jesus. The crowd fell deathly silent.  Simon could hear the breeze whistling through the shrubs behind them. Kneeling before Jesus in the dirt, she demanded persistently, “Lord, help me!” 
     All eyes followed the speakers back and forth, breaths held in.  Jesus looked up from the woman at the crowd.  Looking at Simon, the Master replied to the woman: “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
     Pain welled up in Simon's heart at His words.  That's exactly what he had asked for. It's how he had felt.  It just sounded so terribly callous coming from the Master's mouth. The desperation in the woman's face flashed back to his mind.      But undaunted the woman was speaking again, lowering herself to even the worst of insults, lowering her body yet further to the ground: “Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
    Jesus' face broke into a wide grin as He threw back His head and laughed, His expression exultant: “O woman, your faith is great! Let it be done for you as you desire.” 
   Simon watched her face, now radiantly beautiful as she stood shakily to her feet, thanking the Master profusely before running off into the distance.

   "Your faith is great," Jesus had said. Incredibly, Simon realized with a sudden understanding, it had taken a greater faith to come to Jesus through a hostile crowd, facing the shame and insults, than to walk on water after being invited to come!  Simon had thought he had passed such a great test--doing the impossible, walking on the water. 
​   But the greater honor of a larger test had been reserved for this Gentile woman.  She had believed after being rejected and reviled. She had pursued Jesus after being turned away.  Simon's test had won him some modicum of respect among the disciples, but the woman's faith was one that brought redemption and healing to her household, transforming her very nature through one radical word from the Master.   

"And her daughter was healed at that very moment."
​Matt 15:28

Great Faith
chooses suffering, disgrace, and pilgrimage to seek and find Jesus
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   In so many ways, this concept drives counter to what we hope for in life.  I don't know about you, but I have always craved peace, security, stability, warmth, good food, the respect of my friends and family, and a home to delight in.  I'm sure this woman desired all of these as well With the Syro-Phoenician woman, however, it was undoubtedly her great love for her daughter that gave her the motivation to choose this painful and rewarding path.
     As we read In Hebrews chapter 11, we see a long chapter full of faith elders, heroes of the faith, both men and women, who are the "great cloud of witnesses" who have gone before us.  They witness to the transformation and salvation of lives through supernatural faith in God through Jesus.  In reading through the list, we see many examples of exciting faith adventures of which many of us are all too familiar--Abraham and Sarah, Moses, Noah, Joseph, Rahab and so many others. 
    Some stories, more than others, seem victorious and glorious, full of honor and heroism, and marked by a rise to wealth and power.  Others not so much.  If we read through some of their stories in the Old Testament, though, we come to find that suffering, disgrace and pilgrimage mark all of their stories in painful and profound ways. 
    Abraham, the first pilgrim, was called an "Ibri," (a Hebrew) because it means to "pass over," referring to the River that he had to pass over from his old life into a new life.  He went from a stable home, a planned future, and of pursuing whatever his appetites wanted to wandering as a stranger in a foreign land, totally reliant on God's protection and provision. 
   Moses too, had to "pass over" the Red Sea, rejecting the old life of promised and planned power in the kingdom of Pharaoh, and choosing instead to "suffer disgrace with God's people" (v. 25).
     For true Israelites, those that are Israelites through faith and not through physical descent (Rom. 3:28-30), we must all "pass over" from death into life, from our old way of seeking empty appetites, to a new life of being continuously satisfied in God, from enjoying "the pleasure of sin for a season (Heb. 11:25), to choosing rather to suffer disgrace and a metaphorical "homelessness" that comes with being a follower of Jesus, who "had no place to lay his head" (Matt. 8:20).

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    The Apostles Paul urges us in this way, "What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away" (1 Corinthians 7:29-31). 
    Paul is not saying that we should necessarily leave these things physically, but that each of them should be dedicated to the Lord's use in a way that He may have full control over our hearts and choices.  We should be free to serve the Lord without being entangled with items.  ​

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Great Faith
​is unafraid and unhindered by the power and scorn of others
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     Have you ever had a time where you were praying for something you knew was in the will of God, and yet saw no answers?  I certainly have.  In fact, many of the larger answers to prayer in my life have been after years of praying--fervently.  And still I have many others that I am still waiting on--and praying for.  
    God is a good father.  Not only does He want to give us good things, He also knows the best timing for these gifts.  Many times the ways or means that we would have chosen are not the best, and don't accomplish as full or complete a victory as God would desire for us. 
    Often too, the things we would choose to accomplish our goals--in our lives, in our spouse's, friends' or children's lives--are not actually building but rather shortcutting the system that the Lord is using to build that character quality into our lives.  More and more now I pray for not a specific action from God, though I do still ask for those, but rather specific character qualities and transformation in our souls, and leave just how He wants to do that to God Himself.  
     Usually, there are these same obstacles in our way:  people of influence or power that could make our lives harder (Pharaoh, King Herod, Pilate--a boss, a co-worker, a spouse or child).  They have a semblance of power over us because they can make manipulative or derogatory remarks.  They may have the power to slander or gossip about us to others.  Perhaps they may sabotage our efforts, or make our work more difficult. Even worse, sometimes they may try to physically or emotionally abuse us, like the demon did to the Syro-Phoenician's daughter.  
     But when we know that our all-powerful God can transform and change our lives, bring healing and restoration and save us from all evil, the ugly power that tries to block our efforts to reach the Lord becomes a small problem that the Master can easily choose to override.  This is what the woman knew about Jesus.  
    Jesus put it this way: “So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (Matt. 10:26-31) 
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Great Faith
perseveres because we see the nature of the invisible God through spiritual eyes
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    In chapter 9, the sinful and forgiven tax collector Matthew gives us a crucial clue into Jesus' purpose in ministry: to show mercy and give healing and cleansing to the heart-sick, regardless of their outward appearance and physical birth or works: 

    While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’  For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matt 9:10-13).
     In fact, Matthew doesn't reflect on Jesus' Old Testament quote once, but twice.  In the passage of chapter 12, where the Pharisees are condemning the disciples for eating on the poor person's gathering of grain from the field on the Sabbath, Jesus once again quotes this phrase: "If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent."  Matt 12:7
     A commonly used literary device in both the Old and New Testaments, as well as being commonly used in other ancient documents, is that of chiasm:  To build arguments and themes underscoring and leading to establish a main idea, and then retracing that point back with symmetrical arguments and themes to the conclusion. 
    In the book of Matthew, Jesus' teaching on defilement coupled with the visual demonstration of the Syro-Phoenician woman is at the very point of the chiasmic theme of the entire gospel:  Defilement and faith are a matter of the heart, not the outward appearance, and Jesus is here to heal and cleanse anyone who comes to Him in persevering faith.  
     This woman knew something in the very core of her being about Jesus that not even His disciples had fully comprehended:  That He was merciful and compassionate to all who sought Him. I don't really understand how she knew this.  Her genuine certainty that the Lord would help her goes past my own experience. 
     My experience is much more like Peter's: growing up in a Godly household, I have lived my whole life knowing that I was invited.  Stepping out on the water with Jesus in life's scary situations seems huge already to me. 
    But believing that He cares and hears and will answer my prayers when He seems to be ignoring me--and most especially when I hear the voice of the enemy telling me how unworthy I am, how my failure as a wife, a mother, a friend, a minister, has disqualified me from His help--those are the times when it is hardest to persevere and believe that He will help me.  
     But as we get to know Him intimately through His word, through prayer and conversations, through listening to His voice and receiving His good and gracious gifts, the more we get to know His true nature: that He never leaves or forsakes us; that He is full of compassion, gracious and abounding in mercy; and that He has "plans to prosper and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future" (Jer. 29:11).  Based on our relationship with Him, we can know that we will be heard.  
    As you and I grow in maturity in the Lord, we will find that our relationship with the Lord determines what we believe of Him rather than the circumstances surrounding our requests.  We will place less confidence in what we can see with our eyes and more in what we can see with our spirits:  That God is continuously working all things for our good (Rom 8:28).

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Great Faith
welcomes the sanctifying and healing Spirit of God over our households
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    When Jesus had given her the word, she got up and went home because she knew that her prayer was answered and her daughter was healed without having yet seen it.  We never see her again in the gospels. 
   But we have a clue about the result of her encounter with Jesus.  Her daughter was healed by the Lord as a result of her desire: a desire which mirrored the Lord's desire for them.
    Contrary to what seemed to be, the Lord Himself desired to give her compassion, mercy, relationship and wholeness. Her very faith, the inbirthed persuasion given to her from the Lord, enabled her to desire what the Lord Himself desired for her and for her daughter.  
     When we walk in faith because we love others like He loves, then we will desire the very things that He desires for them, because through faith our inner nature is transformed to become like His.  So we may boldly come to His throne in our time of need in order to receive His mercy and grace for our needs, knowing with confidence that He hears us (Heb. 4:16).  
   What situation do you face today that requires a faith from God that defies your situation?  What steps will you take to seek God against all odds?  

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You need to persevere so
that when you have done the will of God,
you will receive what he has promised.  For,

“In just a little while,
    he who is coming will come
    and will not delay.”

 And,

“But my righteous one will live by faith.
    And I take no pleasure
    in the one who shrinks back.”

 But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.
​(Heb. 10:37-39)