I had that conversation again yesterday (Well, it wasn’t really a dialogue. I was just listening. But sometimes those are the best kinds of conversations.). The conversation goes something like this: I “don’t believe” in God because… well, I’m angry at Him. If He’s so sovereign, why did He allow suffering into this world.
I am going to sidestep that conversation right now. I’ve already written about that plenty of times (if you revisit some of my old blogs, you’ll probably find that question answered again and again and again). The reason I brought that up is because I was reminded of how we can read the Bible with either no faith (which leads us to blame God), or varying degrees of faith (which leads us to different and deepening understandings of Him).
This morning, I am reading the story of the Canaanite woman who cried out to Jesus for mercy on her demon-possessed daughter. You can find it in Matthew 15: 21-28, among other places in the Gospels. Honestly, when I first read this story decades ago, with my brand-new mustard seed faith, I was a little offended. It sounds like Jesus is calling her a dog. But because I did have faith, I didn’t just blacklist Him for such an “atrocious” comment. Instead, I talked to some friends, who enlightened me that the dog reference was cultural, and that He was pointing out that she was not a Jew.
As I continued to read it, it occurred to me that, in the end of the story, He actually praises her faith, which was put on display (alongside her deep humility). And I wondered if maybe, just maybe, He gave her such a hard time with the conversation, in order that He might draw out her deep faith and put it on a pedestal (Side note: for all those still blaming God for suffering in the world, this is one of the advantages and purposes of it. We’d never know the depth and glory of triumphant faith if the fire of adversity wasn’t aimed at some of those whose lives are full of it).
This morning, however, I saw something interesting that I’d never noticed before. It is found a few verses down, right after Jesus heals a whole slew of people, after talking with this Canaanite woman. It says (vs. 31) “And they glorified the God of Israel.”
I recently wrote another blog post (https://spacewelch.com/2024/09/16/the-majesty-and-authority-of-christ-unveiled-by-his-miracles/) about how Jesus’ miracles were intended to unveil His Sovereignty over all creation. They were not meant to make people’s lives better so much as to show us that Jesus = God. This simple verse, “And they glorified the God of Israel”, shows us which God He actually was (not that there are really any other Gods, though there are plenty of idols, and Jesus was not one of them!).
Those of us who have been reading the Bible awhile know that one of the great triumphs of Christ’s death was that He opened the Kingdom of heaven to both Jews AND Gentiles (those who were not Jewish). If you don’t believe me, look at some of Paul’s writings and it becomes abundantly clear (Ephesians 2-3 would be a great place to start, as well as Romans and Galatians). If one of the things Christ sacrificed His very own life for was that people like this Canaanite woman might be saved, then why use her suffering to publicly distinguish the difference between her and the Jews? Unless…
I think we find the answer in Matthew 15:31. I don’t think this interaction was about isolating her, so much as it was about aligning Himself with the God who had been working miracles since the beginning of time. By keeping His ministry to the Jews (prior to the Cross), Jesus was able to point all mankind to the glory of the true and living God, and away from replacing the “I am” with a carpenter’s son who worked miracles. He was showing us firsthand what it says in Colossians 2:9 about Jesus being the fullness of Diety in bodily form, yet He was facing the telescope the other direction. Rather than pointing out who Jesus is in correlation with who God is, He was showing us who God is in correlation with Jesus.
Jesus isn’t the new kid on the street, He is the same Being who spoke creation into existence (read John 1:1-18), spared Noah’s family during a global flood, called Abram out of the land of Ur and Moses out of the land of Egypt (and me out of the domain of darkness). He is the same God who shut the mouths of lions, made dry land out of the Red Sea and the Jordan, sent a chariot of fire for Elijah after bringing down fire on the altar for Elijah, kept Shad-rach, Meshack and Abed-nego completely unharmed in the fires of Babylon. He is the same God who spoke through the Prophets, gave Moses the Law on Sinai, and filled Solomon’s temple with such a dense cloud of glory that no one could enter. And He is the same God who decided to enter earth through the womb of a virgin, to the greeting of livestock and shepherds. And He displayed the greatest glory through the greatest suffering (if you who blame God for suffering in the world want the most triumphant example of how He has used suffering for good, just look at the cross!).
He was Glory Incarnate, but not just any glory… the Glory of the God of Israel. The same glory we can trace throughout the entire Old Testament. He didn’t come to save only natural-born Israel, but He displayed His miraculous powers through His interactions with them long before we see “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).
I believe this is why Jesus made it a point to do most of His earthly miracle working through the nation of Israel, even knowing that He was just about to open the Kingdom of heaven up to everyone (Romans 1, Galatians 3, etc., etc., etc.). But first, He didn’t want us to miss the majesty of the One He incarnated… the One who’d been working miracles all along. He didn’t want to become a substitute for Himself, in the eyes of mankind.
Rolling back around to the whole question of suffering and God and His goodness and sovereignty… the truth is, we’re the ones whose vision needs corrected. The longer I walk with Jesus, the more wonder I find in the very things I am originally tempted to judge Him for. It is not me who gets to sit Him down and interrogate Him. It is me who needs to trust that He really is Who He says He is, and ask Him to show me, through the lens of the faith He has gifted me, how to reconcile the world’s brokenness, knowing that He truly is both sovereign and good!
Space 9/29/24
