Unnamed and Desperate: The Woman Who Begged for Mercy

Nothing makes us feel more helpless than when one of our family members suffers.  That's what the woman in today's story is facing..  Her daughter is suffering. (Matthew 15:22.)  Both Matthew and Mark tell this story, and both identify the daughter’s problem as demon possession.  While it could have been literally true, often people of this time used this label to explain what we call seizures.  For me, it doesn’t matter what the diagnosis was; I get everything I need to know when the mother says her daughter suffered.

This mother burst through the crowd where Jesus was with a cry that would not be silenced: “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me.  My daughter is suffering terribly.” (Matthew 15:22) Here is what I see in this encounter between Jesus and the unnamed mother.

She was desperate for mercy.

I find it interesting that she asked mercy for herself first.  I don’t see that as selfish; I see it as honest.  She was a mother at the end of her rope.  A mother who doesn’t know how to help her child is a desperate mother. 

She was desperate to end her child's suffering.

When our children suffer at the hands of bullying, insecurity, fear, or disease, we suffer, too. I can remember when I was desperate to find the right doctor who would see our daughter, Lisa, and address a new problem I couldn’t handle.  Nothing kept me from getting the attention of someone who could help. I feel this mother’s heart.  She was not going home without help!

.

She was desperate because she was not one of “them.”

She had the wrong nationality: she was Canaanite.  She had the wrong sex.  She was a female in a male-dominated world.  She had the wrong religion.  She was a gentile, probably with a collection of idols she found as silent as the stones outside her home. And her daughter had the wrong problem. Her “possession” ostracized her from social situations. She lived without friends.

Jesus heard the desperate woman.

Jesus not only saw this woman, but he also heard her desperation from her first cry. Somehow, this Canaanite woman understood who Jesus was.  Had she heard about other healings? She risked rejection, name-calling, being run out of the city, and maybe even physical harm to get to Jesus.

The reason that humbles me is that all I have to do is quiet my inner talk about any trial or reversal so that I can make my request known to Jesus. I don’t have to muscle through a crowd.  I don’t have to wonder if Jesus will hear me.  He knows my name, my heart, my address, my suffering, or the suffering I bring to him for someone else. 

Jesus addressed her suffering.

The mother left her desperation when Jesus answered her cry.  Her suffering turned to hope.  Her hope looked for the answer Jesus sent.  On this occasion, it was a healing experience for her daughter.  Whether exorcising a demon or releasing her brain from abnormal activity, Jesus took away the daughter’s suffering, which also took away the mother’s suffering.

The lesson for us? Jesus knows what will best address our fear and desperation. He prioritizes spiritual healing and inner health.  Our responsibility is to recognize where he wants to bring his healing first and become his partners there.  Then our cries for mercy turn into prayers of gratitude.

What I know for sure is that whatever Jesus gives first to our cry for mercy will address our suffering in a way that helps us look for his next anxwer. Then we become his partners in mitigating suffering and in bringing spiritual wholeness to ourselves and to those whose suffering we bear.

How have you found this true?