Mark 7:25-30 For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet:… I. A COMMENDATION OF THE WOMAN'S FAITH. But now what is it that Christ commends and admires? It is the greatness of the woman's faith. Now faith may be said to be great either in respect had to the understanding, or to the will. For the act of faith proceeds from them both; and it may be said to increase and be great, either as the understanding receives more light, or the will more warmth: as the one doth more firmly assent, and the other more readily embrace. In the understanding it it raised by certainty and assurance, and in the will by devotion and confidence. This woman's faith was great in both respects. She most firmly believed Christ to be the Lord, able to work a miracle on her daughter: and her devotion and confidence was so strongly built, that neither silence nor denial nor a reproach could shake it. And because we are told that "the greatness of virtue is best seen in the effects;" as we best judge of a tree by the spreading of its branches, and of the whole by the parts; we will therefore contemplate this woman's faith in those several fruits it brought forth, — in her patience, in her humility, in her perseverance; which are those lesser stars that shine in the firmament of our souls, and borrow their light from the lustre of faith, as from their sun. 1. We must admire her patience. She endured much; misery, reproach, repulse, silence, and the name of a "dog." Her patience proves the greatness of her faith. 2. Next follows her humility, a companion of patience. "She worshipped Him." Not a humility which stays at home, but which "comes out of her coasts" after Christ. She cries after Him; He answers not. She falls on the ground; He calls her "dog." A humility that is not silent, but helps Christ to accuse her. A humility, not at the lower end, but under the table, content with the crumbs which fall to the dogs. Thus doth the soul by true humility go out from God to meet Him, and, beholding His immense goodness, looks back unto herself, and dwells in the contemplation of her own poverty; and, being conscious of her own emptiness and nihility, she stands at gaze, and trembles at that unmeasurable goodness which filleth all things. It is a good flight from Him which humility makes. For thus to go away from God into the valley of our own imperfections, is to meet Him: we are then most near Him when we place ourselves at such a distance; as the best way to enjoy the sun is not to live in his sphere. We must therefore learn by this woman here to take heed how we grace ourselves. For nothing can make the heavens as brass unto us, to deny their influence, but a high conceit of our own worth. If no beam of the sun touch thee in the midst of a field at noonday, thou canst not but think some thick cloud is cast between thee and the light; and if, amongst that myriad of blessings which flow from the Fountain of light, none reach home to thee, it is because thou art too full already, and hast shut out God by the conceit of thy own bulk and greatness. Certainly, nothing can conquer majesty but humility, which layeth her foundation low, but raiseth her building to heaven. This Canaanitess is a dog; Christ calls her "woman:" she deserves not a crumb; He grants her the whole loaf, and seals His grant with a Fiat tibi. It shall be to humility "even as she will." 3. And now, in the third place, her humility ushers in her heat and perseverance in prayer. Pride is as glass: "It makes the mind brittle and frail." Glitter she doth, and make a fair show; but upon a touch or fall is broken asunder. Not only a reproach, which is "a blow," but silence, which can be but "a touch," dasheth her to pieces. Reproach pride, and she "swells into anger;" she is ready to return the "dog" upon Christ. But humility is "a wall of brass," and endureth all the batteries of opposition. Is Christ silent? she cries still, she follows after, she falls on her knees. Calls her "dog?" she confesseth it. Our Saviour Himself, when He negotiated our reconciliation, continued in supplications "with strong crying" (Hebrews 5:7), and now, beholding as it were Himself in the woman, and seeing, though not the same, yet the like, fervour and perseverance in her, He approves it as a piece of His own coin, and sets His impress upon it. And these three, patience, humility, perseverance, and an undaunted constancy in prayer, measure out her faith. For faith is not great but by opposition. 4. I might add a fourth, her prudence, but that I scarce know how to distinguish it from faith. For faith indeed is our Christian prudence, which doth "innoculate the soul," give her a clear and piercing eye, by which she discerns great blessings in little ones, a talent in a mite, and a loaf in a crumb; which sets up "a golden light," by which we spy out all spiritual advantages, and learn to thrive in the merchandise of truth. We may see a beam of this light in every passage of this woman; but it is most resplendent in her art of thrift, by which she can multiply a crumb. A crumb shall turn this dog into a child of Abraham. To our eye a star appears not much bigger than a candle; but reason corrects our sense, and makes it greater than the globe of the earth: so opportunities and occasions of good, and those many helps to increase grace in us, are apprehended as atoms by a sensual eye; but our Christian prudence beholds them in their lust magnitude, and makes more use of a crumb that falls from the table, than folly doth of a sumptuous feast. "A little," saith the Psalmist, "which the righteous hath is more than great revenues of the wicked" (Psalm 37:16). A little wealth, a little knowledge, nay, a little grace, may be so husbanded and improved that the increase and harvest may be greatest where there is least seed. It is strange, but yet we may observe it, many men walk safer by starlight than others by day.Many times it falls out that ignorance is more holy than knowledge. 1. Shall we now take pains to measure our faith by this woman's? We may as well measure an inch by a pole, or an atom by a mountain. We are impatient of afflictions and reproaches. 2. But next, for humility: who vouchsafeth once to put on her mantle? 3. Lastly: For our perseverance and fervour in devotion, we must not dare once to compare them with this woman's. For, Lord! how loath are we to begin our prayers, and how willing to make an end! Her devotion was on fire; ours is congealed and bound up with a frost. But yet, to come up close to our text, our Saviour mentions not these, but passeth them by in silence, and commends her faith.Not but that her patience was great; her humility great, and her devotion great: but because all these were seasoned with faith, and sprung from faith, and because faith was it which caused the miracle, He mentions faith alone, that faith may have indeed the preeminence in all things. 1. Faith was the virtue which Christ came to plant in His Church. 2. Besides, faith was the fountain from whence these rivulets were cut, from whence those virtues did flow. For had she not believed, she had not come, she had not cried, she had not been patient, she had not humbled herself to obtain her desire, she had not persevered; but having a firm persuasion that Christ was able to work the miracle, no silence, no denial, no re. preach, no wind could drive her away. 3. Lastly; Faith is that virtue which seasons all the rest, maketh them useful and profitable, which commends our patience and humility and perseverance, and without which our patience were but like the heathen's, imaginary, and paper patience, begotten by some premeditation, by habit of suffering, by opinion of fatal necessity, or by a stoical abandoning of all affections. Without faith our humility were pride, and our prayers babbling. For whereas in natural men there be many excellent things, yet without faith they are all nothing worth, and are to them as the rainbow was before the flood, the same perhaps in show, but of no use. It is strange to see what gifts of wisdom and temperance, of moral and natural conscience, of justice and uprightness, did remain, not only in the books, but in the lives, of many heathen men: but this could not further them one foot for the purchase of eternal good, because they wanted the faith which they derided, which gives the rest τὸ φίλτρον, "a loveliness and beauty," and is alone of force to attract and draw the love and favour of God unto us. These graces otherwise are but as the matter and body of a Christian man, a thing of itself dead, without life: but the soul which seems to quicken this body, is faith. They are indeed of the same brotherhood and kindred, and God is the common Father unto them all: but without faith they find no entertainment at His hands. As Joseph said unto his brethren, "You shall not see my face except your brother be with you" (Genesis 43:3); so, nor shall patience and humility and prayer bring us to the blessed vision of God, unless they take faith in their company. Yea see, our Saviour passeth by them all: but at the sight of faith He cries out in a kind of astonishment, "O woman, great is thy faith!" And for this faith he grants her her request: "Be it unto thee even as thou wilt:" which is my next part, and which I will touch but in a word. II. Fiat tibi is A GRANT; and it follows close at the heels of the commendation, and even commends that to. (A. Farindon, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet: |
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