Mothers and daughters - sometimes a tricky one...
This mother was desperate. And desperate mothers will do most things to get healing for their children.
Her daughter is demon possessed (my modern mind's thinking 'how on earth did that happen? Doesn't she mean severe epilepsy or something?)
Anyway, she's got nowhere else to go so without probably realising it, she does a perfect prayer in her desperation:
'Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me' (Matthew 15:22) (Basically, she, along with blind Bartimaeus, invents The Jesus Prayer).
Me, I couldn't resist this plea, but we read in one short sentence: 'Jesus did not answer a word.' The disciples have to urge him: 'Lord, send her away for she keeps crying out after us.' So this woman is repeatedly calling out, begging, but Jesus appears reticent.
It gets worse. Jesus says that his mission is only to the 'lost sheep of Israel.' She is a non Jew. The woman persists, kneeling before him, getting personal: 'Lord, help me!'
At this point Jesus is, shall we say, enigmatic, to say the least (rude, if we're being uncharitable). 'It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs.' The cultural/religious set up was that the Jews 'owned' the Messiah, although this was going to change radically after the resurrection and Pentecost. Will this un named foreign woman force the hand of Messiah?
She comes right back: 'but even the dogs eat crumbs that fall from their masters' table.' And in so doing, beautifully prefigures Anglican Eucharistic liturgy - 'We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs from under your table...' - and that cool U2 song: 'I would believe if I was able, but I'm waiting on the crumbs from your table'*
Her faith is rewarded. Her daughter is instantly healed. I just love Jesus' words: 'Woman, you have great faith!'
He applauds her and so do we.
*From How to dismantle an atomic bomb
I've often camped at the New Wine Christian festival near Bath, England, and I can report that tent pegs are normally invaluable. No pegs, no home for a week.
Occasionally you need a tent peg for another reason - maybe to pierce a hole in the top of your polythene pack of sausages in the absence of scissors - but generally they're for hitting into the ground with a mallet. Never have I heard of someone bashing one into a man's skull whilst he was asleep - certainly not at Week A anyway.
But this is what our fabulous female for today does, outwitting the mighty army Commander, Sisera, into the bargain.
Israel's enemy have been defeated but the hated Sisera is still at large and staggers into the camp of Heber, the Kenite, an ally. He is met by Jael, Heber's wife, and all indications are that she will hide him safely in her tent till danger is past. She offers a bed, tucks him up, gives him a bedtime drink and meekly receives her instructions: 'Stand in the doorway of the tent (...) If someone comes by and asks you, 'Is anyone here?' say no.' (Judges 4:20).
But this lady ain't no pushover. While Sisera's asleep, she creeps in, takes a hammer and inserts the tent peg through his temple (I'm thinking these Ancient near Eastern ones are a bit tougher than your average Millets variety).
For this action she is called 'most blessed' and gets her own jolly song -
'She struck Sisera, she crushed his head,
She shattered and pierced his temple.
Chorus: At her feet he sank,
He fell; there he lay.
At her feet he sank, he fell;
where he sank, there he fell - dead'
(dee dum, dee dum, dee dum...etc.)
TBH I'm having a few 21st Christian qualms about this one, but the text suggests positives: she is part of the divine plan; she is blessed; the land has peace for forty years (Judges 5:31).
Make of it what you will.
It's a bit like buses - you wait for ages for one, then two come along. After pages of Old Testament men through Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy and most of Joshua, we come across two women who take God's people forward unflinchingly. Today, Deborah (nickname - 'Bee') and tomorrow her equally strangely named sister in battle, Jael (nickname - 'Mountain Goat').
It's the bad old days in Israel - people lurch from misspent youth to old age, sinning happily against the Lord and suffering the consequences. In a long line of male judges who try and sort them out we suddenly read this:
'Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the Palm of Deborah (...) and the Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided' (Judges 4:4-5).
Sorry, Deborah...? Was that DEBORAH, as in a woman's name? As in a WOMAN leading an Old Testament, militaristic, patriarchal society...just like that?
The OT is full of surprises. She summons Barak to do battle against Sisera. His answer:
'If you go with me I will go; but if you don't go with me, I won't go.'
I rather like him for this - quite 'sensitive man' answer - but God is less impressed, opening up an opportunity for another woman* to have a part in Israel's eventual victory.
Deborah is not backward in coming forward about her role:
'Village life in Israel ceased,
ceased until, I Deborah, arose,
arose a mother in Israel' (Judges 5:7).
Between them, these two women have got the whole nation wrapped up, spiritually and tactically.
*To be continued...
God has astonishing foresight. At some point around 1400 BC he looked down from kingly splendour, noticed a feisty prostitute and thought 'there's a woman whose heart is in the right place - hmm, another special one for the genealogy of my Son...'
In the children's book series, 'Horrid Henry', by Francesca Simon, everyone has an alliterative name to show what they are like: Horrid Henry, Perfect Peter, Moody Margaret - you get the idea. Today we meet Resourceful Rahab who saw an opportunity and grabbed it in both henna-ed hands. Opportunistic or faithful?
An invading people are heading to your city to raze it to the ground. Do you:
a. Sit at home shaking with fear
b. Take up arms and fight them off
c. Side with the invader and adopt their faith into the bargain
Rahab decides on c. As Israeli spies enter her city she hides them on the roof and after they've escaped to the hills, lies to the king of Jericho about what she has seen. As the Israelites prepare to take Jericho and everyone else is 'melting' in fear she and her family prepare to be evacuated as she suspends a red rope from her window - a sign which effectively says to the Jews 'here is the family to spare' - a nod to the blood red marks on the Passover doorways.
For this faithful action she gets a mention in the Epistle of James centuries later: 'Was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies (...) so faith without deeds is dead (James 2: 25-6).
An established leader of the New Testament church commends a foreign prostitute. Strange things happen when women of faith take action.
