Yesterday, I posed the idea that the Canaanite woman likely lived a faith life filled with the promises and the protection from her meeting with Jesus. Ah, hello? Having her daughter be made well in a moment? This mom must have preached good, lifelong messages from her experience with the “Son of David (Matthew 15:21).”
Even with Jesus’ promises and protection, I wonder if she might have encountered what Moses did with the Israelite people who experienced a far less than ideal life as disgruntled, shortsighted travelers in the desert. Remember, those under Moses’ leadership groaned a great deal.
Like Moses and the Canaanite woman, reality steps in as we continue our faith journeys. Hardships still happen. This is why this text this Sunday, the 16th, sets us up for Pentecost Sunday, the 23rd.
On the 16th, we find ourselves in John 17:13-26. In this text, Jesus prays to His Father for what is needed on our paths—which is a safeguard from the evil one (v. 15).
In this prayer, it isn’t clear that Jesus is alluding to the Holy Spirit, which we receive on Pentecost Sunday. Like the Canaanite woman, what we can hold is the hope that Jesus gives Himself as a holy sacrifice so that we can be made holy by the Father’s truth (v.19).
This holiness is not self-righteousness. (Who us? Holy? Like the people in the desert, we groan even on good days.) What this truth speaks to is that the Holy Spirit lifts us, lights us and loves us. Evil? Yeah, it’s in the world Jesus speaks to in His prayer, but good news: by way of Jesus’ sacrifice, we can be like the Canaanite woman and overcome every tangled step we experience in our desert places.
Consider this week how Jesus’ sacrifice sets us free from the bondage of sin, and how, in our valleys of dry bones, the Holy Spirit breathes life into the most barren situations we experience.