How Great Is Your Faith...What does great faith look like...Matthew 15:21-28

 


Do I have faith to make it back to Poudre Lake 9 miles "up" the trail?  The only consolation is I will be walking over very familiar trail and I made some mental notes of trail markers to be accomplishments on the way back.  A campsite sign, a large log along the trail and such help me to know my position and points of possible rest.  Here is an example of one.

Our passage is so good because Jesus points out to His disciples someone who has "great faith."  He has done this before pointing to the centurion in chapter 8.  He will do this again when He points to the widow who puts into the offering her last two mites.  Jesus is giving His disciples people to look at who have what they don't at the time.  Jesus keeps reminding them that they have "little faith."  They have faith but it is not as full as the faith of these. 

It makes us evaluate our own faith.  Would Jesus say we have "little faith" or would He say that we have "great faith"?  Little faith seems to question God on His provisions or who He is.  Great faith acknowledges that He is God and the One we go to for provisions because He owns it all.  Little faith seems to go the way of fear while great faith keeps coming humbly to the Master's feet.  Have you noticed that those of "great faith" are not the important or religious leaders of the day who look the part?  We have a Roman centurion, a Gentile of the oppression party to the Jews.  We have a Canaanite woman, another Gentile of the cursed race against the Israelites.  We have a poor widow who is pitied for her position.  These are the ones who show us it is not the outside but the inside that matters to God.

Our next passage will emphasize this even more to Jesus' disciples as they go deeper into Gentile territory with the gospel message.  These are not church going people.  These are those we might deem "far from God."  But we will learn much from them just as we have from the Canaanite woman of Tyre and Sidon.  She was persistent to come to Jesus as the Master and Lord even though the answer received was not expected.  She was respectful to give Jesus the position of Lord, the One in charged.  She was worshipful to bow down before Him, humbling herself to be in the position of the little dog waiting under the table for the crumbs to come.  So many times we might give up, change our verbiage of the one we are addressing and complain about our position even when speaking to God.  Hang in there; proclaim that He still is your God; and humble yourself in gratitude to what you will receive.

King David writes in Psalm 84:10-12 (LSB), "For better is a day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere.  I would choose to stand at the threshold of the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wickedness.  For Yahweh God is a sun and shield; Yahweh gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk blamelessly.  O Yahweh of hosts, how blessed is the man who trusts in You."

The mighty King David who has sat upon thrones and has been the "top dog" is stating that he would rather just be at the threshold (a gatekeeper) of God's house.  He would rather be the little dog under the table as long as he was positioned under the Master's table who was providing the food.  The food from Jesus' table is the bread and the cup.  Jesus providing Himself as a sacrifice for the wrath of God and shedding His blood for the forgiveness of our sins so that we would be able to stand before a holy God because of His righteousness imputed upon us.  

May we all seek to have great faith.

Adam



A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 39th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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