10/ 10/ 2000  Worship service            
         
As they are today, the people of Israel always have had a strong sense of supremacy.  They believed that they were superior to other people on this earth, that they were the sole possessors of God's love since God had chosen the people of Israel over others.  Because of this sense of elitism as the chosen people, the people of Israel, even during the time of Christ, refused to greet nor converse with people of other descent.  

Considering the attitude of the Israelites towards foreigners, or non-Israelites, today's scripture reading possesses a very special and  powerful message.  Jesus was on his way to Tyre, Sidon and Phoenicia, or the region that is known today as Lebanon, when he ran into a woman from Canaan.  This area, a foreign land to Israelites, was looked upon by the Israelites as dirty, destitute land that was worthy of disdain and segregation; it was almost impossible to imagine a Israelite striking up a conversation from someone of this region.

It is recorded that strangely enough, Jesus enters this alien land; not only does he enter a region that was considered as a restricted zone for Israelites, he meets and talks to a woman from Canaan, whose ancestors have lived on this land for generations.  Futhermore, he exorcises the demon out of this woman's daughter after she was possessed.  This event clearly shows and proves that the Christian religion, the word of the gospel, can be spread throughout the world, to people of all descents, rather than just amongst people of Israel.  It also shows that God will save not only His chosen people of Israel, the descendants of Jacob, Issac, and Abraham, but that he will give grace and salvation to non-chosen people--the foreigners--on this earth.

We often consider and equate the nascent epoch of Christian mission work with  Paul; however, according to today's scripture, it is easy to see that true missionary work was set in motion by Christ when he healed the Canaan woman's daughter.  Today, I will explain to you the spiritual meaning behind what happened between Jesus and this Canaan woman, and implications of Jesus' disregard of the woman's status and treatment her daughter.

First, this woman had uncommon motherly love; this afforded her the unvacillating faith to approach Christ despite her stature and background.  In verse 22, the woman cries out to Christ, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David!  My daughter is severely demon-possessed."  This woman could no longer stand idle and watch her daughter go through severe pain as the demon had possessed her.  This is why she sought out Christ.  There is no parent in this world who do not love his or her children.  Most parents are willing to do anything to lessen the pain suffered by their children when they become afflicted with an ailment or a problem.  The love this woman had for her daughter was so great, it afforded her the courage to ignore the social statute--that forbade her to meet or talk to people of Israel--and approach Jesus.  

In verse 22, the reason why the Bible specifically identifies this woman as "a woman of Canaan" is not only because she had lived in this region for so long, but that people of Canaan had been the arch enemies of people of Israel as the people that opposed, ostracized and rejected the Israeli faith in God.  Furthermore, during these archaic times, it was hardly imaginable for a woman to talk to a man who she did not know.  This woman, fully realizing that she is not supposed to talk to a man because of her gender and her social stature, was able to overcome the regulatory obstacle because of her love for her daughter.  

Not long ago, I found myself very impressed--and graced--by an article that I had read in "The Sower," a magazine published by Korean Wycliffe Missionaries.  The Wycliffe missionaries' primary task is to go to the countries--where the Bible is not yet translated into the indigenous language--to live with the natives and work on translating the Bible into the new language.  There was an article titled "Thinking of my son on a mission" by a man named Kim Woo Young, one of the elders at his church, whose young son was away on a mission.  This father, like many other fathers, expected his son to lead a stable and normal life, to wed a good woman and be successful; after all, his son had gone to US to study.  

After graduating from a good university, his son went on to get two Master's degrees.  The gist of the article was that this father, although having some reservations about his son toiling and laboring away on a remote mission, was graced through his son's act of doing the hard thing that very few people were willing to do.  What impressed him the most, perhaps, was the fact that his son possessed a firmer and stronger faith than he did.  He was especially taken back when he had read his son's will.  The son, apparently not knowing what might happen to him in some of the remote places he will be going to, had left a will in case he did not come back alive.  It was an unbelievable faith.  I was especially impressed with the letter that the son had sent to his married sister, which the father had shared in his article.  The father and the daughter both cried upon reading a line from the letter, which had said, "I hope your newborn son's appearance takes after his beautiful mother and father; his heart, I hope he takes after Jesus."  

Elder Kim stated that his daughter, when talking about her older brother, always says "I respect my brother, who really loves God."  There is nothing more beautiful than for an entire family to follow God's will, to love and obey our Lord.  The woman from Canaan, believing that Jesus could save her demon-possessed yet dearly loved daughter, went forth to him despite her environment and social stature.
Secondly, this women willingly took in all humiliation and still sought after Jesus.  Despite being a foreigner, she believed that Jesus was the Son of God.  This is illustrated in verse 22, when she calls Jesus "O Lord, Son of David!"  

Because she had faith she was able to ask Christ to heal her daughter, who had been possessed by the devil.  However, the first response out of Jesus was silence.  He did not respond to the woman's pleas.  Jesus might have been testing the woman, to see how she would respond to silence; or perhaps, Jesus might have thought that if He did not respond to her, she would give up and leave His side.  
Although Jesus did not respond, the woman kept on yelling and pestering Jesus.  In verse 23, His disciples says to Jesus, "Send her away, for she cries after us."  The disciples, rather than showing sympathy or interest in the woman's plight, were more interested in avoiding this uncomfortable situation, out of their tendency to look down upon this woman from Canaan.  That's why they urged Jesus, "Send her away."

It was then that Christ, as a passing word for the woman to barely catch, utters the disheartening phrase, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."  This phrase means that Jesus was only interested in saving the chosen people of Israel, and not anyone else.  Of course, such is not true, for Jesus loved this woman from Canaan and wanted to save her; he had uttered these words to test the woman, as a litmus test of her faith.

Despite the disheartening and condescending word from Jesus, this woman, with a greater faith and fervor, approaches Christ.  In verse 25, "Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, help me.""  She was asking for Jesus's generosity and compassion with the humblest of attitude.  The colder Jesus treated her, the more genuine her requests became.  Jesus, as illustrated in verse 26, responds even more dispassionately, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."  

The children refers to the chosen people of Israel, the people of Jewish descent who shares common physical ancestry with Christ.  The bread refers to the word of salvation, or the gospel of God.  And the woman from Canaan, through the phrase, became a dog.  Just as it is in present, all the cruel and degrading terms and insults were related to dogs in those days.  Comparing, or likening, someone to a dog means that the person is considered less than human, who is looked down upon and treated like a rabid beast.  The true value of this woman's faith showed after she heard this insulting phrase from Jesus.

In verse 27, it is recorded, "And she said, "True, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table."  Jesus was greatly impressed by the woman's unwavering faith.  In verse 28, it is stated, ""O woman, great is your faith!  Let it be to you as you desire."  And her daughter was healed from that very hour."  This woman as was able to gain salvation from Jesus because of her desperate faith, which allowed her to overcome all the humiliation and insults; she was ready to rejoice at the opportunity of gaining Jesus's grace, even if it meant that she had to become a dog-like being.  

Conclusion:  The faith of this woman from Canaan allowed an unimaginable event, at the time, to happen.  God's salvation and grace was extended to people who were not chosen.  It is true.  If we have complete faith, the faith that allows us to believe that God can fix us and save us, there is nothing we cannot accomplish.  If we have humble faith, we can overcome all obstacles and all undesirable situations with our faith.  I pray in the name of our Lord that we all can take lessons from the woman from Canaan, whose complete and humble faith allowed her the salvation that she desired.