“You have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed”
Words from The Book of Genesis (Gen. 32.28), from the classic story of struggle, Jacob wrestling with an angel, wrestling with God, it seems, and by virtue of prevailing becomes Israel, one who strives with God. It is all about the struggle, the jihad.
The word, jihad, in its proper spiritual sense, is about the struggle of the soul in relation to the will of Allah, the will of God. So, too, for Christians and Jews, there are the struggles of the soul with respect to God and our life with God in prayer and praise, in service and sacrifice. The struggle means acknowledging our own faults and shortcomings, our sins, to be blunt about it, which is only possible through the prior recognition of the goodness of God. The struggle is “to decline from sin and incline to virtue”; the struggle, quite simply, for “holiness” as Paul tells us. We “are called,” he says, “to holiness” which is the quality of God in our very being. It is a constant struggle intensified for us in the disciplines of the Lenten journey. Lent is about embracing the struggle.
But what kind of struggle? Will it be a struggle which diminishes and destroys or the struggle which dignifies and ennobles? In any event, the struggle is defining. It is nothing less than a “striv[ing] with God and with men,” as the Genesis story reminds us. The struggle, the jihad, is altogether defining. It is ultimately about character and virtue.
This is what we see in the story of the Canaanite woman. We see her perseverance. She tenaciously hangs on to what she believes about Jesus. She senses in him the presence of God in whom there is health and salvation. She seeks in him healing and grace for her daughter. She seeks it by the only means we can receive it – through the prayer for mercy and help. This is no weak and wimpy prayer; this is the prayer of a strong woman who, like Jacob become Israel, will not let go. That tenacity of spirit, that persistent willfulness about what is objectively perceived, that willingness to hold on belongs to the truth of Israel but finds its expression here in one who is from outside Israel, a non-Israelite, yet one who strives with God and breaks into the very heart of God in Jesus Christ.
Such is the struggle of faith. Notice that she will not be dissuaded, not be put off. Notice, too, the intensity of the dialogue which brings out the depth of her faith and insight about Jesus and about what God seeks for his people. “Truth, Lord; yet the little dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” That is to have a strong hold of the truth and goodness of God. The struggle is not about her presumption but her perseverance. Thus is the kingdom of God taken by storm. And yet, this is what God wants from us. It is about our struggle for God and with God.
This is the struggle of faith, the struggle to believe. For faith in God is utterly meaningless without worship. In the ordered forms of our worship we are constantly being challenged about our lives in faith, constantly being challenged to grow up in our understanding and commitment to Christ.
Religion, and especially the Christian religion, is not a consumer event. Service means our service of God in prayer and praise, not what pleases our interests, not what caters to our proprieties of comfort and ease, not what is merely rote and routine. It is about our engagement with God in Jesus Christ, something which is so powerfully and poignantly signaled in the exchange between Jesus and this woman of Canaan. We may find the exchange more than a little disturbing but it is really about how she is being put to the test (and we are, too,) about what we think and seek and with what kind of intensity. It is all about the struggle.
When we forget, ignore or deny the struggle, we neglect the Gospel. We neglect Christ when we neglect the struggle. At issue, always, is whether we will honour the struggle and embrace it as belonging to our very freedom, to our very dignity and truth.
The struggle is defining and there is glory in the struggle, as the Scriptures show us. “O woman, great is your faith,” Jesus says in a kind of marvel and wonder at her. Her struggle to persevere is given to be our struggle. It is about who we are. Embrace the struggle, the jihad of the spirit, that it may be said of us:
“You have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed”
Fr. David Curry
AMD Feb 28th, 2016