Matthew 15:21-28
21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.”
23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”
24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
28 Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
Jesus seemed like a really mean God. First, He did not answer the woman. Next, when He finally replied, it was worse than what the woman hadn't heard. Ouch.
God's silence is felt in the weight of crushing grief, described by C. S. Lewis in A Grief Observed:
"Meanwhile, where is God? … When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be—or so it feels—welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become. There are no lights in the windows. It might be an empty house. Was it ever inhabited? It seemed so once. And that seeming was as strong as this. What can this mean? Why is He so present a commander in our time of prosperity and so very absent a help in time of trouble?"
When God is silent, He simply wants us to persevere, to be "loaded with chutzpah—a Yiddish word that means something like:
headstrong persistence,
brazen impudence,
unyielding tenacity,
bold determination,
raw nerve, even gall."
In good times, I don't usually remember Him. At most, I litter my prayers with half-hearted thanksgiving and hasty requests. In bad times, however, when I remember Him, when I desperately call out to Him, the silence deafens me. Worse, things get out of hand, and I question the Lord who so blesses us in good times and bad.
Fortunately, God is always there. In these times, He draws me back to realise how much I need Him.
Thank You for all the testings and trials that mould me to who I am today. Thank You for blessing me with an abundant life that comes not only with good times, but also bad.
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