6.5 - Immanuel: God with us
God calls us to come to Him and leave behind the prison of our judgments and evaluations of Him. Only as we trust God more can we see Him more, with a trust that is not blind but is able to see the unseen. The glory of God’s works is evident to our senses, but the glory of God Himself is known only by trust in Him. How can we trust so transcendent a God? God’s Spirit who searches the depths of HIs will is distinct from the cosmos of HIs continual concern. We can never hope to reach God in His holiness, but He has chosen to speak His holy will in a language we can hear and receive. How He translates Himself to us is not from one spoken word to another but from His holy Spirit through a life our senses can see and hear and touch (1John 1:1), with flesh and blood like ours. God’s will is revealed in Jesus’ life on earth, expressing God more intimately and clearly than has any other revelation of Him. Jesus is God’s chosen One through whom we are chosen to know Him with a vital knowing, as Adam knew Eve and they bore a living child (Genesis 4:1). To see Jesus is to see God’s mysterious will, the passion of His heart wanting us
God’s unique passion for us can never be captured by the general revelation of His glory on earth. His general glory speaks of the wonder and mystery of His ways. God’s unique glory is His special concern for each one of us that we discover when we find Him choosing us, just as He chose Israel from among the nations. God’s choosing can be considered a source of pride when it is confused with our intentions in choosing. Pride wants to be chosen above others. But God chooses from humility. God’s desire to choose begins and ends in Him, not in our judgments or appearances. Being Israel does not save, nor does being Gentile damn. God alone makes the difference. Our only hope is in God’s free choice. The revelation of God who chose Israel for no merit of her own is the hope God reveals to all peoples for no merit of their own, both Jews and Gentiles. God chose Israel to reveal Himself not only to Israel, but to all nations
Through the prophet Ezekiel, God told Israel how she had defiled His holy name among the nations and how He would answer her. He would make His holy name holy in Israel so that the nations would know who He is in truth. God cleanses and redeems Israel not only for her sake but for the sake of all nations so that they may know His personal concern for them. Therefore, God said to Israel,
“I will vindicate (kadash = make holy) the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord,” declares the Lord, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. . .I am not doing this for your sake,” declares the Lord God, “let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel! . . .Then the nations that are left round about you will know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted that which was desolate; I, the Lord, have spoken and will do it.” (Ezekiel 36:23, 32, 36)
Ruth the Moabite clung to her mother-in-law Naomi the Jew so that the God of Israel would also be her God (Ruth 1:16). Not only did God choose Ruth for Himself, but He also made her the great grandmother of the greatest King in Israel, David (4:17), through whom was born the Messiah
One day when Jesus was in the land of Tyre and Sidon, a Canaanite woman who lived in that region came to Him, begging for help. She had heard Jesus was doing miracles for the crowds following Him and delivering them from all kinds of intractable illnesses. She came to Him as a mother pleading for help for her daughter who was bound by an unclean spirit (Mark 7:25). Her daughter’s condition would likely be translated today as a psychological illness that was tormenting her and compelling her to be destructive, most likely to herself. This mother came to Jesus, desperate for Him to do the impossible and heal her daughter
There was, however, a glaring obstacle between them. Jesus was Jewish and she was not. When God chose Israel, He commanded her to live apart from the surrounding nations (e.g. Leviticus 20:24, 26). She was not to intermarry with them or worship their gods. She was to remain separated for God alone, as He would be for her. As a devout Jew, Jesus knew His people were not to mingle with other peoples. As the Messiah, He also knew God’s will through Him for all peoples, His plan that was unfolding as this woman engaged Him. Jesus’ response to the Canaanite mother probably shocked the Jews who were with Him, and shocks us today. It is difficult to rework this story and make it socially palatable, even in a church sermon
The Canaanite mother approached Jesus from behind and began to cry out to Him, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demonpossessed” (Matthew 15:22). Before a large crowd of Jews surrounding their miracle working rabbi, this lone Gentile woman persisted in shouting after Jesus to help her daughter, to please help her. But Jesus did not appear to respond to her at all. He stood silently until His disciples begged Him to send her away because she would not stop crying loudly for His help. She was making a scene, embarrassing them while they were probably just wanting to keep on praising God for all the good works He was doing among them. Get away, woman, with your hopeless problems, and stop souring our celebration! Finally, the mounting pressure between these two groups -- a solitary Gentile woman and a crowd of Jews who wanted nothing to do with her -- broke. The rising tension between them gave way to the work of God in His Son, the work He was doing even as Jesus stood silent before her. Finally, Jesus spoke
His words sounded faithful to His Father’s covenant with Israel. He explained to the woman, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Still, she persisted with Him, her heart reduced by this time to three simple words begging, “Lord, help me” (vs. 25). So Jesus again spoke to her who was by now fallen at His feet. “It is not good,” He explained, “to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Still, she persisted. Not only did she accept what He told her but she took His answer further. She expounded on His comparison of children and dogs, and explained her need more deeply to the One who was drawing her heart to Himself. “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their master’s table” (vs. 27). To the Jews who were present, they were probably amazed that He was speaking at all to this woman. To us who now read of their encounter, we may be disgusted that Jesus would have compared this anguished mother to a groveling dog. But to Jesus and this woman, their words united them — the Jewish Messiah and Gentile woman knowing and known by the other — with a mutual understanding that gave way to the impossible. “Oh, woman,” Jesus said to her, “your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish” (vs. 28) Her daughter was healed the very hour that Jesus pronounced it so
The story of Jesus and the Canaanite mother is told in two gospels. It is a striking story of an encounter created by God’s hand. Jesus received this woman as one sent by His Father, a Canaanite whose deep need softened her heart to receive deeply. According to the Law and prophets, Jesus was sent to Israel as her Messiah. But the Law and prophets also spoke of promises that were being fulfilled with this mother. Jesus fulfilled the Law of Moses to accomplish for Israel’s sake what she could never do, so that she could trust Him who accomplished for her. Jesus also came as God’s way for those who did not even know the Law. This way of God does not destroy His Law, but no longer depends on the Law to complete His promises. God’s way is dependence on God, Himself, in Jesus. In Jesus is God’s rest from works under the Law that condemn and divide. He is the Messiah for all, both Jews and Gentiles
Jesus explained to the woman what she already knew from the Law but neither of them stopped there. The woman expressed no wounded pride from His apparent rejection. Such surface pain could not touch the things that were wrenching her being. Her need was of the most substantial kind lodged in the pit of her heart, so she had to go straight for the jugular, straight to this Man who she required to answer her need. She appeared to know in His presence that He was listening and available to her. Even in His silence she persisted in crying out her pain to Him, waiting for and expecting His response. The Jews with Him were dismayed that He would talk to her and we can be offended that His words sound so demeaning but for Jesus and this woman, they came together in God who chooses who He wills by grace
God did not choose Canaanites to be His people and yet He chose this woman in Jesus to receive His healing and approval. “Your faith is great,” Jesus told her, words He rarely spoke to any Jew. She was chosen for God’s healing and blessing. God’s way of choosing contrasts greatly from ours. Our choices rely on our values and judgments and they are inherently limited by circumstances and resources. Whenever we choose one thing, we exclude the rest. But God chooses entirely out of His grace in Jesus who invites all and receives all who receive HIm. Jesus reveals God’s most unique election that is offered to all
When God chose Israel to be His people, He surely made her His own apart from all other nations. But what He reveals in the Hebrew Scriptures and most fully shows in His Messiah is that His sovereign choice of Israel is His first but not last choice, the beginning but not the end of creating for Himself a people to be one with Him, forever