Bargaining with God

       Did you ever fixate on something from Scripture? Perhaps a theological point drives you crazy, like how many angels can fit on the head of a pin? I have often wondered when Jesus knew it all. Having taken human form, did he have awareness of his Divine essence from birth?  Jesus lived through actual birth like us, lived as a child, was a teenager and all that. Did he always know the whole truth?  I thoroughly enjoyed the book The Gospel According to Biff, Jesus' childhood friend. Still, I do not know when Jesus knew. I often think it was a revelation to some extent like we have as humans, that God the Father ( or Mother ) loves us with reckless abandon and we are a beloved child. How long did it take for you to realize that?  

        In today's passage, Jesus clearly says ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’  Then Jesus proceeds to cure the daughter at a distance. Jesus also cured the Centurions' lover at a distance. There seems to be no end in my mind as to Jesus' capacity to love. There are other stories in the entirety of Holy Scripture that have humans bargain with God. Abraham successfully bargains ( pleads?)  with God over Sodom saving Lot and his family.  Can we really bargain with God then?

         The essence of God is love and it is all about relationships of love. That relational love is the only great way I have ever heard the Trinity explained.  God is so much about love that God simply cannot be anything but love. So we always get the most loving and full response from God.  Yes, Jesus came for the lost sheep of Israel but God created everyone so how can he not love them too?  including this womans' daughter who is sick.  It has happened time and time again. Scripture says, ask in faith and you shall receive.

       I don't know if I would want to rely too heavily on that love though.  I mean, we are capable of some pretty stiff necked and wicked responses to life. Can we count on God's redemptive love then too? Always? Sure, but God in His love will always give us what we want. Even if we ask for it and it makes God cry. That really is what sin is, isn't it, turning away from God? God gives us what we ask for. If we ask to go hell by our own actions, he will grant us what we've asked for out of love and respect for us. Does God want us to go to hell? Certainly not. We ourselves do the condemning. Can we count on God's love if we turn back to a righteous path? Abso-friggin-lutely!

          So I suppose we really don't bargain with God per se but we do 'impose' on God's infinite love for us. God cannot help be what God's true nature is. That is all love.

Matthew 15:21-28

 Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’ But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’ He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.