“The Power of Faith”

Scripture: Mark 7:24-30

Today, we begin a 3 week series on Christian “power”. For some Christians, though, power is nowhere in their vocabulary. Instead, they seem to only want to talk about humility, trust, grace, peace, and so on. And those are certainly Christian characteristics, but without a certain amount of power, how can we ever be humble? Without power, how can we trust? How can we discover and advocate for peace? How can we possibly show love to the majority of the people we come in contact with?
Power comes in many forms, and we will be looking at 3 of them. For today, we look at the power that comes to us in faith. Buell Kazee, a Southern writer and storyteller, once wrote:
Faith is not trusting God to get something; faith is trusting God when there seems to be nothing left. When everything is gone with no hope of restoration and when there is nothing on which to base your faith; then can you still trust God?
--Buell Kazee, Faith Is the Victory (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1983), 149.

How about the folks who lost everything a year ago in that devastating flood, but somehow, retained the great faith to know that God is still a loving God? Power? Absolutely!
How about those who are suffering in oppression and persecution throughout the world, but continue to worship and praise the Living God? Power? You had better believe there is! Today, we consider the power of faith that was in one Gentile woman.

Read Mark 7:24-26

So why was Jesus even in Phoenicia? He left Judea, passed through Samaria, then through Galilee, and on to Tyre. It was a trip that was at least 100 miles long, and it took him into Gentile territory, of all places. Did he need a rest? A time away to pray and meditate? Perhaps it was something totally different, but scripture tells us that he didn’t want anyone to know that he was there. Good luck, Lord! It’s never happened before and it wasn’t going to happen this time, either! I expect that word began to spread as soon as he came into view of the town, and a certain woman – a Greek no less – came to him with a vital request for healing.

A woman, a gentile woman, and probably a very poor woman at that, has the audacity to approach Jesus and fall at his feet in a worshipful posture. This was happening all the time – non Jews seemed, on average, to see Jesus in a much better light than the Judeans did.
When he healed the 10 lepers, who was the only one who came back to give Jesus honor? The Samaritan! (Luke 17:11-19) Who were some of his greatest evangelists? A Samaritan woman who he met at Jacob’s Well (John 4:1-42) and a Gentile man who he had freed from a legion of demons (Luke 8:26-39). And to the Pharisees chagrin, he tells a story about a Samaritan man who is far more loving of another than their fellow Jews were. (Luke 10:25-37)
Jesus had, without question, established a powerful relationship with Jews and non Jews alike, and the Jews didn’t like it and couldn’t understand why he did it. The Pharisees were disgusted by it, his disciples were embarrassed by it, and everyday Jews tried to ignore it. But regardless of what others thought about it, Jesus never distinguished between people – he loved them all, welcomed them all, taught them all, and healed them all.
And this makes his encounter with the Syro-Pheonician woman all the more strange.

Read Mark 7:27-30

Many commentaries and academics try to make sense of this passage by explaining that the woman, in faith, was able to change Jesus’ mind – to turn him away from his apparent demeaning words and thoughts. But if Jesus truly loved all people as much as we believe he did, can this really be what the exchange all about? Why does he seem to be heaping insults on this poor woman, who comes only to ask that her daughter be healed, if he loves her?

Good and right intentions can sometimes be muddled by what Garrison Keillor describes as “woofing”. He writes:
To know and to serve God, of course, is why we're here, a clear truth that, like the nose on your face, is near at hand and easily discernible but can make you dizzy if you try to focus on it hard. But a little faith will see you through. ... When [life] temporarily goes to the dogs, cats must learn to be circumspect - walk on fences, sleep in trees, and have faith that all this “woofing” is not the last word.
-- Garrison Keillor, On the Meaning of Life, in We Are Still Married (New York: Viking, 1989), as quoted in Tim Dearborn, Taste & See: Awakening Our Spiritual Senses (Downers Grove: Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 1996), 71.

With all due respect to my learned colleagues, I think they are “woofing” – that Jesus’ words are not what they seem to be, and are definitely not the last word. I believe that Jesus was using this situation as a teaching moment – not for the woman though, but for his disciples. The words that he was speaking were not his opinion, but rather that of his followers. The disciples were “surprised” when they discovered that Jesus was talking to that Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well (John 4:27). On another occasion, they tried to shoo the children away from Jesus and chastised their parents for bothering the Lord. (Matthew 19:13-14) And when Jesus began this conversation by implying that the gentiles needed to get in line behind the Jews, that they only deserved the leftovers of God’s grace, I believe that the disciples began to smile.
But the Lord wasn’t through yet - he was going to teach them that it wasn’t a blood line that endeared people to God, but a faith line. The woman believed that Jesus could heal her daughter, and he would. The disciples believed that Jesus shouldn’t heal the girl, but he did anyway. Which one do you think had the living and powerful faith?

In 1928, the Church of England revised the wording in the Communion service from “lively” faith to “living” faith. This revision created quite a stir. One Yorkshire churchwarden in particular, who disliked the change vigorously, protested: “Look at our vicar. He's living, but he ain't lively.”
--Michael Wright, Yours, Lord (London: Mowbray, 1992), 9.

The disciples may have been walking in faith, but the woman was living in faith. And how many of us are wavering between these two descriptives? Is ours a living faith, one that is as strong and vital as this woman’s? In Luke’s gospel (20:38-40), Jesus tells his listeners “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” Jesus wants living disciples, not just ones who are lively. In Colossians 3:12-17, we are offered a description of what it means to live in Christ. Except for the singing part, these are not “lively” characteristics – compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and so on. These are “living” characteristics, and each requires the power of faith in Jesus Christ, for without him, they would all be impossible.

But there are times when we don’t seem to have the strength or courage to “live” with Jesus. The woman’s daughter was in that situation. She was bed bound, incapacitated by the effect of the demon, and her mother couldn’t even carry her the distance to see Jesus. But in faith – in powerful faith – she went herself, on behalf of her beloved daughter, seeking Jesus’ mercy for the life who was struggling. Remember Rahab in Jericho? Through her living faith, she and her entire family were spared from the destruction. (Joshua 6:24-25) Sometimes it is the power in our faith that sustains someone else.

A woman had experienced one loss after another. Her husband had left her for another woman. Her mother had died. Her son had been arrested and put in jail for selling drugs. She had been laid off from her job. She said to her group at church, 'I feel numb. I've lost my faith in God. I'm having trouble seeing any reason to go on living.' A member of the group responded, 'We'll hold on to you and we'll hold on to your faith until you are able to take it back again. Until then, let our faith carry you.'
--Quoted in J. Michael Ripski, Conversing With God (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992), 86.

The lesson that Jesus taught that day wasn’t for the woman. She had the faith already, but Jesus’ traveling companions still had a lot to learn.
First, they had to learn that faith in the Triune God is not restricted to a select few – it is available to all who will come to Christ.
Second, that the power that comes in faith isn’t for us alone – actually, it is for others as much as it is for ourselves.
Third, our response in faith can never be just an active and busy life in the church. It is to be a living faith, an honest faith, a serving faith.
Fourth, it is only in our weakness that Christ’s power can become perfect. (2 Corinthians 12:9)
I wish that Jesus had taken a personal film maker with him, one who followed him around on his travels and encounters and put everything into the eternal record. I would love to see the expression on his face, on the woman’s face, and on the disciples’ faces, and hear the inflection in their voices, as this scene played out. And I would love to see the changes that came over each one.
Did the woman change Jesus’ mind? No, I don’t believe she had to. Did Jesus change the minds and hearts of his disciples? I believe that he did. Has he changed our hearts and lives? I’ll leave the answer up to you.

But has he?