SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2008
Persistence
and Expectation
[And
the Canaanite woman said,] “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall
from their masters' table.”
--Matthew 15:27
Now there
was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout,
looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been
revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the
Lord's Christ... And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phan'u-el, of the tribe
of Asher; she was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years from her
virginity, and as a widow till she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple,
worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.
--Luke 2:25-25,
36-37
Today
the feast, the last of the days of the Nativity season, coincides with what I call the
Church's "two-minute warning" for the Pre-lenten Sundays about to begin with
Zacchaeus Sunday next week.
This
strange overlap brings us two Gospel texts completely out of sync in time and setting. The
first talks about the presistence of the Canaanite woman. She is not only initially
rejected by Jesus as she was a Gentile, but then he proceeds to insult her by likening her
to a dog. Yet the woman is not here before the Lord to seek either His acceptance or
affirmation; she only knows that her daughter is sick and that Jesus is the only one who
can heal her. She, in faith, takes upon herself the rejectioin and reproach of the
Lord for the life of her daughter. How many if us in this present age of enlightened
sensitivity would have so thick a skin in the face of such rejection and reproach?.
But
in her clever answer to Jesus' rejection, cited above, Jesus sees her profound faith, the
kind of faith that can comprehend His divine suffereing for our salvation. For in this
encounter Jesus shows us Himself in the woman; foreshadowing the rejection of the children
of Israel, and the reproach of the Cross. And as she persisted in her request to Jesus, so
does Jesus "set his face for Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51) and Golgotha.
A
the same time we read of Simeon and Anna, the Righteous and the Prophetess who, having
devoted themselves to the ascetical life await the revelation of the Lord's Messiah.
While the Gospel doesn't tell us how old Simeon is, we can infer that he is old and
has been waiting patiently for a very long time to see the redemption of Israel. Likewise
Anna, in most of her eighty-four years was devoted to watching and waiting as well. How
many of us have that patience? I don't know about you, but I get annoyed if I have
to wait more than 5 minutes for my food at McDonald's!
But
we see in both texts that God answers those who are both persistent and patient, and the
two can live in us side-by-side just as in any relationship. It is like being in love: one
must persist in pursuing the object of one's affection and patiently watch and wait for it
to come to its fulfillment. It is no different with God. He has become flesh for us, to
pursue us from birth even into the depths of hell, vanquishing it forever. And as He is
also the Risen and Ascended Lord, He waits patiently for us: to turn to Him, draw near to
Him in fear and faith and love, to have communion with Him, and life everlasting with joy
in His presence. These texts, then, are not lessons in how to relate to God,
as much as they are vivid icons of how God relates to us. In these curious, strange
and seemingly incongruous vignettes and obscure characters, we behold God the lover of
mankind.
--From
OCA Feasts & Saints
"The peace of God, it is no peace,
But strife closed in the sod.
Yet, brothers, pray for but one thing—The marvelous peace of God."
--William Alexander Percy
