#DailyDevotion Do You Appeal To God On False Pretenses?
Matthew 15:21–24
21Leaving that place, Jesus went away to the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon. 22There was a Canaanite woman of that territory who came out and shouted, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! A demon is severely tormenting my daughter.” 23But He didn’t answer her a word. Then His disciples came to Him and urged Him, “Send her away. She’s yelling after us.” 24“I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel,” He answered.
Now this is the 2nd time someone cries out, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!” The first time is when the blind beggars cry it out twice. Which in the liturgy of the Church gives the three-fold Kyrie i.e. “Lord have mercy upon us.”
Now this woman is called a Canaanite by Matthew. The other Gospel calls her a Syrophoenician. Who knew either was still in existence at the time of Christ. Nevertheless that she is not a Jew but an ancient enemy of Israel, someone who should have not existed if Israel had done the job the LORD had given them to do a thousand years earlier.
Now this one has come to Jesus, crying to him for mercy. Not only was she crying to him for mercy by she was using his royal title, “Son of David,” as if she were a Jew. She was appealing to him as if she herself were a Jew, a subject of Jesus, who had a right to appeal to him for help. He refused to even recognize her presence. Like the blind men who continually cried out to Jesus for help she does not let up. It was the disciples who tired of her crying out, who ask him to do something who finally get a response out of Jesus. The response is probably not the Jesus response that moderns think he should give, in fact they would probably never quote Jesus ever again if they heard him say it, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” Well that doesn’t sound very kind. What sort of Jesus says something like that?
It is a Jesus who tells the truth. Jesus’ initial mission was to the Jews. You might recall when Jesus sends out the 12 and then the 72, they were sent only to the lost of Israel. Paul, apostle to the gentiles recalls in Romans 9, “They were made God’s family. They have the glory, the covenant, the Law, the worship, and the promises. 5They have the ancestors, and from them according to His body came Christ, Who is God over everything, blessed forever.” Jesus would eventually, after the resurrection, expand the mission to the Gentiles. But not yet. More importantly though, I think Jesus ignores her because she is appealing to him under false pretenses. She is coming to him as a Jew and she is not a Jew.
Do we in our prayers come to God the Father under false pretenses? Do we ask him to help us being something or someone we are not? Do we appeal to our works and piety as the basis of the LORD helping us like, “I go to church every Sunday,” “I tithe every week,” “Look at all the good I do O Lord!” Instead, we should appeal to God our Father in all humility, telling him because of our sins we deserve no good thing at all from him but we appeal to him solely on the merits of Jesus Christ alone.
Merciful God and Father, we deserve no good things from you. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ have mercy upon us and give us all good things. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.