It seems incredible to us that God might have a useful purpose for the troubles and afflictions that befall us in life. We cannot imagine that any good can come from such things as illness, struggle, strife, and adversity. The only good that can come of it is to have it removed. That is certainly what our prayers say as we beg the Lord to remove these obstacles to our happiness and comfort.
There is probably no person in which the crosses of life are more profound than this Syro-Phoenician woman we heard about in the Gospel read. Her daughter is severely oppressed by a demon and this mother pours out her heart to the Lord and yet hears nary a word. Jesus heard it. His disciples complained about her as a distraction and embarrassment to their cause. We understand. We find those who bleed all over us with their hurts and needs a similar embarrassment. We shew them away with promises of prayer in the hopes that we might never see them again. So the disciples hoped the woman would disappear.
But she did not. Even though Jesus insisted that He was not sent for her in particular, she begged Him for mercy still. When He as much as insulted her as a dog trying to steal what belonged to the master, she had a come back. She was not going anywhere. Dogs don’t deserve a place but they do get the crumbs. At this the Lord does something seldom seen in the New Testament. He commends her faith. In fact, she becomes one of two whose faith is commended. Both Gentiles and both outsiders but with profound faith. Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me.
Look at what she does. This woman does not argue with Jesus about the rightness or wrongness of her cause or His response. She does not try to make her prayer more urgent nor does she try to tell Jesus what He should do for her. In her prayer she demonstrates absolute trust and confidence that whatever His answer will be, it will be the right answer for her. Even if that answer is not relief from the demon but the presence of God to comfort her in the midst of the struggle.
Now there is faith. Typically, our faith wavers. If God gives us what we ask for and what we want, our faith is strong. If we feel that God has left us hanging with out answer or relief, our faith wavers. If we fear that God has abandoned us and our cause, our faith fades away. We are fair weather pray-ers and our faith is a fair weather faith. What God had been not do, however, is leave us in our afflictions.
We pray out of need and for the need to be met. This woman prayed because she worshiped the Christ who was her only help in time of trouble and His wisdom was enough for her. His mercy, however that mercy looked, was all she wanted or desired and she was confident that mercy was sufficient.
The most profound prayer is not that which gets God to surrender His will to ours or answer us with the outcome we seek but that which expresses confidence that whatever God wills, that is good enough for me. The most profound prayers are not those with great words and lengthy petition but the prayer of faith. The simplest is the most profound. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me. It is not an echo of the words of this Syro-Phoenician woman because her words seem to have worked but an echo of her faith – her absolute confidence that God’s mercy, whatever that mercy looks like, is enough for our need.
When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He did not. He taught them a prayer. They were looking for a formula but He gave them a form. They were looking for little helps to spice up what is essential a rather boring activity but He gave them something to memorize and pray in every need, on every day, alone or together. He invited them to have confidence in God’s mercy. Nowhere is this more profoundly stated than in the petition, Thy will be done. For this is what the woman in the text prayed. Even if that will of God was for the affliction to continue, for her and her daughter to continue to suffer. That is why prayer is hard.
Prayer is not difficult because it is hard to learn or to find the time or to stay awake long enough for it. Prayer is difficult because it is the test of faith. Faith is put on the line along with life and its afflictions, pains, sorrows, fears, worries, anxieties, and hardness. What more can you pray than what this woman prayed? Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me. To learn to pray is to learn faith so that we are confident of the Lord’s mercy. We will always receive forgiveness even if we do not always receive an end to the afflictions and trials of this mortal life. We will always receive His presence even if it is to hold our hands, give us the crumbs of His mercy, and sustain us in the dark day. We will always receive life even if that life is filled with trouble before it is surrendered in death. So there remains merely this. Is this enough for us? Do we have confidence in God’s mercy? Are we content with His presence? Do we believe His grace is sufficient? Will we content with Him not for the outcome we want but as those who trust in Him?
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