Title: Faith that Overcame Local Feelings
"...Jesus answered and said, "I am not sent anywhere except the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Then the woman came and bowed down to Jesus, saying, "Lord, help him." He answered, "Take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. It is not right." The woman said, "Sure, Lord, but even dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." Jesus answered and said to her, "Woman, your faith is great, and it will be as you wish." And from that hour her daughter was healed."
1. In any country or any ethnic group, there are bound to be local feelings.
As a representative example, the US, UK, and Canada, which are developed countries, all have regional feelings. The American Civil War was, in fact, a product of local sentiment. There is still a lingering feeling that the Southerners of America call the Northerners, the Northerners ridicule the Southerners, the Easterners despise the Westerners, and the Westerners despise the Easterners.
So is the UK. Local sentiments in England and Scotland have a long history. It is for this reason that terrorist incidents sometimes occur in Gentlemen's Country.
The same goes for Canada. People in the French-speaking region, centered on Quebec City, still speak French, not English, and live with their own local feelings.
This was also true of the nation of Israel, God's chosen people.
In particular, their 'selection consciousness' has always created discord with all foreign nations. History is a good example of how much misfortune caused by Germany's extremely aggravated feelings with Hitler's Nazism.
It was the same in the days of Jesus. People from Judea and Samaria hardly met each other and could not even talk to each other, so the local feeling was great. They didn't get along at all. The Jews despised the Samaritans like dogs and pigs, and they did not even turn to the area. So, when people from the southern Jerusalem area went to the northern Galilee, they would deliberately turn around and travel long distances. Because most of Jesus and his disciples were from Galilee in the north, it was for this reason that they ridiculed, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"
Local sentiment is not a bad thing in itself. The feeling of loving one's hometown, one's place of origin, and one's hometown is a beautiful thing. Even now, we all have a heart to love our hometown. My childhood, the hometown where I played wildly in Sanya! It is human nature to remember and love friends who grew up together and shared the same experiences. However, if it goes too far and local feelings of antagonizing, slandering, and even fighting each other as enemies, then it is wrong.
2. Jesus was the one who personally overcame these local feelings.
Jesus acted on his own to get rid of the wrong local feelings of the Jews. He led his disciples into Samaria, a region that Jews were so reluctant to, and first spoke to a Samaritan woman who came out to draw water from a well in Samaria and preached. This would not have been possible with common sense. So when the disciples came back and saw what Jesus was talking to the Samaritan woman, they were amazed, but no one asked, 'What are you asking? Why are you talking to me? This was groundbreaking.
And what is even more amazing is that Jesus made us realize his messianic mission. (Luke 10:25-37) A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he met a robber and fell on the side of the road. He went, but no one took care of him, but the Samaritan led him to the tavern even though he was traveling, and he told the innkeeper that he would come back and ask for more if the cost was more, and he instructed you to go and do the same.
This was absolutely impossible in view of the local feelings of the Jews at the time. It was a virtue and a common sentiment to not have any dealings with Samaritans. How radical is that saying, 'Go and do likewise with the Samaritans'? In that sense, the Lord was the savior of all mankind who broke the local emotions. In other words, the Lord's coming to this earth wasn't just for certain Jews, and moreover, it wasn't just the Southern Jews as a savior. Therefore, the Lord said to His disciples, ?쏞ome and come, and be my witnesses.??In the state, there is no discrimination on national borders or nationalities. What was divided into two and enmity with one another was made one by the cross. Therefore, it is said that "everyone has become a new creation in Christ", and therefore "the old has passed away and the new has come." What would be the previous one? It means that even local feelings, thoughts, and customs that you had before have been changed into something new in Christ.
Here is something for today's Christians to reflect on. This is because there are still many cases in which local emotions in Jesus Christ are not overcome. Moreover, if it is kept as it is even in the church, it must be completely destroyed. Because the Lord has shown it to us. It means that believers in Jesus have a responsibility to show the world that they have overcome local feelings. The Lord clearly asked, 'Who is the friend of the man who met the robber?' He said that he was a Samaritan, not a priest or a Levite, and told you to go and do the same. In that regard, we need to think about the faith of the protagonist shown in today's text.
3. Today's Christians must imitate the faith of the Canaanite woman.
The content of this text is that the Lord did not even pretend to hear this woman's plea to heal her demon-possessed daughter. To his disciples, Jesus said something very shocking. He refused, saying, "I was not sent anywhere but the lost sheep of the house of Israel." These were words that evoked a very local sentiment. But this woman did not back down. According to the text, "Lord! Help me," he said more explicitly this time, saying, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." What an awkward word to hear! But this woman overcame this by believing only in the power of the Lord and believing. "Lord, you are right, even dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." At this, the Lord was amazed and said, "Woman! Your faith is great, and it will be as you wish." This is a faith that today's Christians should meditate on and imitate.
Why did the Lord say that to this woman? You may be puzzled. However, our Lord was trying to examine this woman's faith. It was to test how earnestly this woman had faith. What does it mean that "He was not sent anywhere but the lost sheep of the house of Israel"? It means that his mission is for the Jewish people, not the Gentiles. Despite these words of the Lord, this woman never backed down. Rather, he pleaded with the Lord more actively. So, with more provocative words, the Lord blatantly touched the woman's stomach, saying, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." At times like this, if you were like a normal person, you would have turned away with a real sense of humiliation. He must have turned around and said, "Heh! To hear such words come out of the mouth of the Son of God... After all, blood can't lie..."
If this woman had turned away from local emotions, her relationship with the Lord would have ended forever and her daughter's illness would have been the same. However, with a more positive attitude, he said, "Lord! That's right, don't even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from my master's table" "Heal the children of Israel and perform a miracle like the remaining crumbs so that my daughter can be healed." What a wonderful confession of faith. is it! The Lord tried to see the faith of this woman by evoking local emotions, and this woman showed that she possessed a wonderful faith that transcended local emotions. So, what did the Lord say? "Woman! Your faith is great! It will be done as you wish!" He said that he had great faith in this woman. This is still the case today. Not only this woman, but also people who can transcend local emotions are people of great faith.
We need to reflect on our reality today while thinking about these words. Today, local sentiment in our country has been further veiled by politicians. These days, even the term 'exploited local emotion' has appeared. It means feeling that can ruin the country. The people of a certain region unconditionally support only the people of that region, and then another regional emotion is provoked. This is something that needs to be overcome. But who will lead it?
Those who say, ?쏽our faith is great??should take the lead by Christians who have 'great faith' like the Canaanite woman. It is also the greatest task that Christians who confess the same Jesus Christ as Savior and pray and sing in one faith must overcome. If we cannot overcome this, it is because our faith proves to ourselves how cheap our faith is compared to the Canaanite woman. But the problem is that we Christians are actually prisoners of this local emotion. They say they are brothers in Christ, but in real life, they are not able to overcome their local color.
We hope that many conscientious Christians will be elected again as members of the National Assembly, rather than thinking passively only on the negative side. In today's text, like the Canaanite woman, become the bearers of faith who overcame local feelings and say, "Your faith is great!" I hope that all those who have faith that can hear praise for ??