Crumbs of Mercy

At Remedy we’ve been going through the book of Matthew for a long time. I mean WAY before I started going there, and we’re only in Matthew 15. But one thing that has stuck out to me over and over is the idea of what it means to have faith. For the longest time I’ve thought the answer was based on how much I believe in God. With the Lord’s teaching (through Phud) I’ve come to realize more of what it actually means. Obviously I believe in God, that He is an actual being that exists and created everything. But it’s not like there are certain levels of that. Technically you either believe in Him or you don’t. It would be silly for me to wake up tomorrow morning and say “I really need to believe in God more today.” So in Matthew, he talks a lot about having great faith (in the cases of the centurion and the gentile woman) and having little faith (in the cases of Peter and the disciples). What I’ve been seeing through reading these particular stories is that the faith Jesus talks about here isn’t dependent on the measure of faith that I have, but the object of it. It’s not a question of, “Is my faith big or small?” necessarily. The better question is, “Is my faith based on something little or something great?” Great faith means I’m dependent on and the object of my affections is Christ. In Matthew 15, the gentile woman had great faith because the object of her affection, her desperation, was based on Christ and not on her sick daughter or her circumstances. She didn’t come to Jesus with a heart of entitlement; she came begging for crumbs of mercy. If I only believe that Jesus was an actual guy that lived a long time ago and did some cool stuff and learned some facts about him, that gets me no closer to anything. Having great faith (so I’m learning) is trusting and committing my life to something great, not just nodding my head at something I believe is true. I love learning from stories that I’ve heard a thousand times. And the more I read it and the closer I grow towards Jesus, the more I realize that like that woman, I’m a beggar whose appeal is based solely on Christ’s mercy. Good stuff.