What A Lot Of Nerve

Hebrews says that we can’t please God without faith. It appears to me that a big part of faith is something we would describe as nerve. Audacity. Tenacity. It becomes apparent that God respects people who have enough nerve to ask for what they want, regardless of their position.

What brings this to mind at the moment is an incident that occurred while Jesus & Co. were traveling through Tyre and Sidon. A woman there began harassing them, asking Jesus to heal her daughter. He ignored her. (So much for the always-kind-and-compassionate Jesus that we hear so much about.) She didn’t quit. Finally the disciples went to Jesus and said, Please, could you make this woman go away! She’s really annoying us!

Jesus’ answer? I’ve only been sent to help Israel. But still the woman would not be put off. Now that she had his attention, again she asked for his help. His answer would have been a death-blow for me, I’ll admit. He said, It isn’t right to give to the dogs the food that belongs to the children of the house. Me, I’d have been done for. I’d have walked away in tears from being called a dog and from the clear hint that I wasn’t worthy of his help. But this woman was made of stern stuff.

She said, But even the dogs get the crumbs that fall off the table.

At that point, what could Jesus say? She was right! He had used a little simile, and she had beaten him at his own game. So he said, OK, you can have what you asked for.

I call it nerve.

Jesus called it faith.

Mind you, she didn’t argue about being a dog. She understood what he meant, and she knew it was true. The issue wasn’t how deserving she was. She knew she deserved nothing. But she also seemed to understand that if he gave her what she was asking for, it would not cause a shortage for anyone else. It would be ‘no skin off his back’ if he gave her the help she was asking for. So she kept asking.

What I see in myself (and I think I’m probably fairly normal) is that when I am most cognizant of my undeserving state, I perceive that condition as meaning that I can’t ask for anything. What nonsense! This woman knew she deserved nothing, but it didn’t stop her from asking for what she wanted.

And that is faith.

See, part of faith is recognizing that God’s choice to give me something does not depend on my goodness, but on His goodness. He calls it faith when sinners come, asking for the moon on a platter as though they had never sinned. We don’t pretend we’ve never sinned—we’re required to confess our sin, in fact—we just make our requests as though we’ve never sinned.

I call it a whole lot of nerve.

God calls it faith.

It’s what pleases Him the most.

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