How Great is Your Faith

 Today's Gospel reading was from Matthew 15: 21-28 about the Canaanite woman who begged Jesus to heal her daughter. Jesus tells her "you have great faith," and heals her daughter. The pastor mentioned the other time Jesus commends the faith of a suppliant was when the centurion requests healing for his slave (Matthew 8:5-13). However, Jesus regularly says to his disciples, "You of little faith..." So I began asking myself what the faith that Jesus commended looked like.

Both the centurion and the Canaanite woman knew they didn't deserve Jesus's attention. Jesus was a Jewish teacher and came "for the lost sheep of Israel." The centurion told Jesus, I don't deserve you to come under my roof." The Canaanite woman accepted the "dog" terminology that Jesus had used. Yet Jesus's friends and disciples often expressed that they deserved Jesus's/God's attention and his favor. This humility - an accurate recognition of my separation from God - seems to be an important element of Faith.

Both the centurion and the Canaanite woman expressed an understanding that what they asked, though all the world to them, would take very little effort from Jesus. The centurion said that all Jesus had to do was give the order. The woman called her request crumbs. They recognized that in comparison to how much power Jesus had, their major request was a small request. This perspective of comparing my life to the infiniteness of God seems to be another important element of Faith.

And yet, in the face of all odds, the centurion and the Canaanite woman both requested healing for someone they cared about. And both were commended for their faith. Their humility and perspective, instead of leading them to despair, filled them with confidence to make their request. They knew something I don't. When I see all the odds against me, when I don't see my prayers get answered, when I feel separated from God and my requests as pitiful attempts of recognition, my prayers get hedged and weak. I struggle to ask boldly, I doubt that God cares, I lose hope and feel that I just have to muddle through on my own. So this confident action, in the face of opposing knowledge, seems to be the most important element of faith. 

I don't mean to say that if I have these three elements, God will give me what I want. God cannot be put in a box like that. But if I can learn that humility, that perspective, and that confidence, maybe I will have taken a step of faith.