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Post by michelle on Feb 8, 2007 20:53:40 GMT -8
12/05:
Verse 16 - "Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them.
This verse cracks me up. I think this is a moment Jesus just wanted to slap Peter in the back of the head to knock some sense into him.
Onto a more serious note...
8" 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'
When I drift from my relationship with God, my first instinct is to not go through the motions. I feel fake when I do it and I feel like I'm being dishonest to God. If I'm praising God with my lips and not with my heart, what's the point? I'm really, really struggling with this right now.
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Post by Josh on Feb 9, 2007 18:00:46 GMT -8
12/05:
What exactly do you mean by "drift" and "going through the motions"? I suppose the answer to that is crucial. Still, a few thoughts occurred to me:
First, perhaps it's good to recognize that when Jesus says that 'their hearts are far from me', He's not primarily talking about their emotions. He's talking about their will. If anything, they don't have a problem getting 'emotional' about God- they have a problem obeying Him. They are disobeying Him by being unjust, etc..
Second, I think there are two kinds of "going through the motions": there is the Pharisitical kind which is self-illusory. They honored God with their lips all the while thinking that it was satisfactory- feeling smug in their own righteousness.
But when a believer feels they are 'drifting' in some way from God, but continue to do their duty before God,recognizing that something is wrong and asking God despite their feelings to accept their offering- that is a completely different story.
If your heart is convicting you of some insincerity that is a good sign that your heart is near the right place. All that remains is acting on the conviction despite feelings.
Maybe I would suggest just re-admitting to God your weakness when it comes to "being like Him". Ask that He bring Godly sorrow leading you into better choices and that he guard you from worldly sorrow which only leads to despair and apathy.
And remember that He loved us and does love us still while we are yet in sin, while we are divided still in our loyalties.
Does this help or hinder?
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Post by michelle on Feb 9, 2007 18:02:37 GMT -8
12/05:
Honestly, it neither helps nor hinders, though I do very much appreciate your time and effort. I'm not sure that I can ever explain what I mean in a way that will be understood and I don't really think that I care to try.
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Post by michelle on Jun 7, 2007 7:31:11 GMT -8
Josh, in reading those words when I am not in the place that I was obviously at before (wow, I can't believe that I was that cold to you) I absolutely see what you mean and I do find it helpful. Your words do really strike a chord with me and I am going to lock them away into my brain for future reference. So the women's group has been reading through Matthew and one of the question in our current study is about Jesus' reaction, namely why is he hard on to the Canaanite woman, in verses 21-28. My initial thoughts were that Jesus was tired and had been performing a lot of miracles and this was just another one to him. But I find that hard to believe because earlier in Matthew Jesus tries to retreat to a private place and people follow him and he "has compassion on them and healed their sick". So I came up with a few more ideas. 1) Jesus could be testing the disciples. The disciples react by wanting to send her away. It seems to me that Jesus could be teaching them a lesson in compassion. 2) Jesus could be testing the woman's faith. Jesus seems to be "giving away" healings at the first asking or by someone touching him. Perhaps Jesus wanted to see if the woman would be persistent in her faith or if she would walk away at the first sign of hardship. 3) Knowing little about the history at that time, I wondered if it had something to do with Canaanites in general. Did they have an overall lack of faith in the Messiah? Any insight, anyone?
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Post by Josh on Jun 10, 2007 17:21:23 GMT -8
It is very true that time and place affect our perspective very much- almost scarily so, huh? But that's why we need to Holy Spirit so much- to help us see through our present cloud-cover.
As to the Canaanite woman story- Rose and I were talking about it a bit this week.
I think there is some validity to all three of the points you made. Perhaps we can fill in some more details:
First off, the fact that she's a Canaanite means she's not Jewish. This woman is one of the handful of Gentile individuals that Jesus has direct contact with in the Gospels.
If you look at many of the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah, there is an idea that the Messiah was coming first and foremost to restore Israel. Of course, the prophecies also indicate that the whole world would be blessed through this restoration of "true Israel"- that God's "mystery" plan was to bring all peoples into His one true Israel-- that is, the Church.
What this seems to have meant for Jesus was that His brief ministry of 3 1/2 or so years from the time of His baptism to His death was going to have a particular focus-- a very Jewish one.
Here's one example of what I'm talking about from a prophecy in Daniel:
"Seventy 'sevens' [c] are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish [d] transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. [e]
Notice how the ministry of the Messiah would in effect be the 'wrapping up' of the Jewish age. In fact, in his earthly ministry, Jesus proclaimed (and predicted) the impending demise of the old Judaism (aka, the Mosaic covenant), which occurred in AD 70 at the destruction of the Temple by the Romans.
Time was of the essence if Jesus was going to restore the true, spiritual Israel. And if it was going to start with the Jews first (as Acts 1:8 and other texts indicate), and then branch out to the Gentiles, Jesus had to get busy reaching out to the "lost sheep of Israel" first.
But in this Matthew 15 passage, I think it's interesting that when the disciples tell Jesus to send the woman away (as they do elsewhere), Jesus doesn't. All he says is "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel", as if acknowledging some tension in his focus.
I wonder, based on Jesus interactions with and comments about Gentiles elsewhere, whether Jesus is saying these things in a facetious way- that is to say, in order that his very Jewish-centered disciples will hear, "Hmmm, I'm supposed to be ministering to the Jews first.... right?"
Jesus knows what will happen with his message after His death. How it will spread powerfully to the Gentile world. He knows that that is part of His calling. But the disciples were quite dense on this issue. In fact, some of them had a hard time leaving their Jewish comfort zone after Jesus rose from the dead-- and it took God allowing persecution and the persuasive words of Paul to stir them to action.
So, I do see a bit of a test (for the disciples and for the woman as well) in this passage.
Lastly, this miracle stands out as one of the few in which Jesus uses merely His word from afar to effect a healing/ demon possession. His surprise at this woman's amazing faith (aka desperation, mind you) is evident by the power of the miracle.
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