The Psalms recite this very same history over and
again. You would think that one of those
would be enough and they could just trot it out when they needed it but that
isn't good enough. The story of the covenant
needs to be told over and over. It is
the story of a faithful God and an unfaithful people. It is the story that proves His own
self-declaration to Moses on His Name in Exodus 34, that He is indeed merciful
and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping
steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin. They interpret the "thousands"
as that many generations and His love and provision for them has proven the
interpretation to be correct. We, in our
worship, tell the same story in the Creed and in the Eucharistic Prayer week
after week for one simple reason, we are prone to forget the truth of both
God's love and faithfulness and our own lack of love (We have not loved You
with our whole heart, we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves) and our own
faithfulness to keep covenant with Him. The
blood of Jesus is the only thing that separates us from the judgment of God, we
need to plead it as often as possible.
Can you imagine the disciples' reaction when this woman came
begging Jesus to help her poor little daughter and He stood there completely
silent, dispassionate? How could He
possibly ignore her pleas so callously? This
was not the man they thought they knew if He could stand there pretending not
to hear her cries. His response to their
words to send her away shows that they were asking not for Jesus to dismiss her
but to heal her daughter so that she might leave them alone. She will not be dissuaded or dismissed, but
comes right in front of Him, kneels and begs.
The scene is exceedingly pitiful and yet Jesus reacts more viciously
than anyone could imagine, “It is not right to take the children's bread and
throw it to the dogs.” How horrible can
He be to have the power to change this life and yet scorn and mock her in this
way. She doesn't care, the only thing
that is important is her daughter and the fact that she knows He can heal
her. Finally, you can hear the
tenderness in His voice in the reply, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done
for you as you desire.” No one of those
who saw and heard this exchange will ever think the same way about Gentiles
again. They are capable of great faith,
persistence and perseverance.
There is a refrain in this lament also. The words "in a single hour" are
spoken by both the kings of the earth and the merchants concerning the
suddenness with which judgment came and the great city was destroyed. It wasn't a siege against the city over a
long time that brought her to this state of destruction, it was the work of a
single hour, something that at the time was possible not for man but only for
God. Now we can destroy cities in a
single hour with a nuclear strike and this may be what happens to the great
city but it will a judgment of God, just as He destroyed the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah in a single hour. The message
and implication are that we shouldn't get too attached to things of earth, they
are simply passing away. One of the
great collects written by Thomas Cranmer for the Book of Common Prayer includes
a plea that "we may so pass through
things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal." That should indeed be our goal, just as it
was Jesus'.
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