Scripture: Isaiah 56:1, 6-7; Romans 11: 13-15, 29-32; Matthew 15:21-28
Beloved in Christ, we are today reminded that in us is a deep seated ability to persist in our quest for solutions to our myriad of problems. There is the Canaanite Woman in each of us because God has proved to us that he favors all and it is in His eternal plan to bring all to His Mercy.
The mistake we often do and that often leads us to frustration is to give up praying and give up our faith altogether because of what we perceive as God’s silence and indifference to our problems. Worst still we give up trying to knock at the door of mercy feeling that God has not forgiven us and as such we cannot forgive ourselves.
“You just can’t beat the person who won’t give up.” ―Babe Ruth.
In the Gospel story today, Jesus himself could not beat the Canaanite woman who would not give up. The first attempt she made to seek for help met with Jesus’ silence. The Gospel account says he did not answer her at all. Did we see ourselves in this situation sometimes? That we pray and nothing seem to happen? Are you experiencing that silence of God in your life now? Know it today that someone has gone through what we may be going through but with a difference: The Canaanite woman didn’t stop there in the pains of Jesus’ snubbing. She didn’t resort to complaining like some of us do. She didn’t say a word again but she saw another opportunity to try again.
She went to Jesus’ close allies – His disciples. The disciples considered her more of a nuisance than one seeking for help hence they urged Jesus to give her what she wanted so she will not be bothering them with her pleas. Jesus’ reply to the disciples which the woman must have heard was damning. “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel”. This response was enough to let this woman give up hope because she was a Canaanite who was considered by Israelites as heathens, worshippers of idols and adulterers. But the Canaanite woman won’t just give up.
She now faced Jesus headlong and this time around knelt before him. Her tone must have changed from loud cry to quite soft plea now. “Lord, help me”. Then the final blow came from Jesus, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” This is surely the Canaanite woman’s breaking point. But rather than give up, the woman launched her final push too by replying to Jesus an epic reply that exudes faith and was commended by Jesus. She said “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
Dearly beloved in Christ, in each of us there is the Canaanite women that is most times left and ignored due to the deceit we often find ourselves in; that God can do things for us sharp sharp. We often quantify our faith with the amount of God’s miracles we can see instantly and we are often attracted to where miracles are manufactured just to make us feel good and sometimes part with our hard earned resources leaving us with stickers while our so called men of God employ six guards to protect them.(According to Robert Mugabe)
The Canaanite woman in us must be activated for those of us that have become lukewarm and have given up on Christ or the Church completely.
The Canaanite woman in us should make us remain focused in what we want from Christ and never giving up in our daily struggle to overcome sin and the deprivation of poverty. No matter the seeming silence, the intimidation from the divine and the name calling, in the end it is our persistence that Jesus sees and he grants us our heart desires.
Activating the Canaanite woman in us makes us break our limitations and places us within the range of God’s favor. God has shown to us today that his favor is there for all as he revealed through Isaiah that on His Mountain shall come people from all nations. We must activate the never give up mentality today in our families, in our church and in the society.
May God give us the courage to engage the Canaanite woman in us so that in the end, we shall win!
