The story of the Canaanite woman gives us a clear picture of this principle. The bread was for the children. Yet she said, “Yes, Lord, for even the little dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table” (Matt. 15:27). This was a request that she had no right to ask. But the Lord likes to see men asking Him in this way. He not only granted the request and healed her daughter, but He praised her for her great faith. We can find many examples like these in the Gospels. If we form the proper impressions of these things, we will know the Lord’s heart through them.
After the Lord came down from the Mount of Transfiguration, a father brought his demon-possessed son to Him. The Lord first rebuked the man (Mark 9:14-29). He did not rebuke the leper who came to Him, and He did not rebuke the paralytic whose friends removed the roof. They were all presumptuous, yet the Lord Jesus was happy with what they did. But here the father first brought his sick son to the disciples. When they could not heal him, he brought him to the Lord. The Lord asked the father, “How long has this been happening to him?” He answered, “From childhood. And it has often thrown him both into fire and into water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” He came to the Lord for healing, but he was not sure if the Lord could heal. He said, “If You can do anything.” The Lord picked up his words and said, “If You can.” Following this, He said, “All things are possible to him who believes.” The Lord seemed to be saying, “Why are you asking if I can? You should realize that all things are possible to him who believes! It is not a matter of whether or not I can, but of whether you believe.” We have to visualize the situation at that moment. The man came halfheartedly. He intended to come to the Lord, but he did not have the faith. He did not fully trust in the Lord’s healing. In pleading for His mercy, he qualified his prayer with the words, “If You can.” The Lord rebuked this word severely. He is not pleased when men ask Him for less. He is not afraid when men say to Him, “You have to do it whether or not You are willing.” But the father did not say this. In effect he was saying, “If You can do it, do it. If You cannot do it, so be it. Your disciples could not do it. I will not press for anything if You cannot do it either.” The Lord rebuked him, saying, “You say, If You can. All things are possible to him who believes” (v. 23). When the Lord said this, the father, “crying out...said, I believe; help my unbelief!” (v. 24). As soon as he was rebuked and his mistake was exposed, he turned and believed. He put all the responsibility on the Lord. This is a beautiful picture! The higher a man’s demand is, the more the Lord is pleased with it. The less a man asks for, the less the Lord is pleased. We have to be a tender person and allow the Lord to impress these things upon us. Once we see them, we will realize that all the Gospels are filled with the Lord’s glory.
In the story of the good Samaritan in Luke 10, we should focus on the Lord’s word. The lawyer asked, “Who is my neighbor?” (v. 29). The Lord’s answer was based on something completely different. Verse 27 says, “You shall love...your neighbor as yourself.” The word yourself refers to the lawyer, and the neighbor must be someone other than the lawyer. In effect the Lord was saying, “If you, the lawyer, can love your neighbor as you love yourself, you will have eternal life.” Verse 29 says, “But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor?” He thought that the Lord Jesus was asking him to love others, and he wanted to find out who these others were. The Lord responded with the story of the good Samaritan, and at the end, asked, “Which of these three, does it seem to you, has become a neighbor to him who fell into the hands of the robbers?” The lawyer answered, “The one who showed mercy to him.” Jesus said, “Go, and you do likewise” (vv. 36-37). The lawyer asked who his neighbor was, and the Lord Jesus responded by asking who was the neighbor of the man who fell into the hands of the robbers. In other words, the lawyer was the one who had fallen into the hands of the robbers. The One who showed mercy to him was his neighbor. The neighbor does not refer to any man; it refers to the Savior. The Lord showed the lawyer that the neighbor is the Lord Himself. He said, “Go, and you do likewise.” This means that the lawyer should do his best to love that Samaritan. Many people have turned the parable around. They think that the Lord wants them to be the Samaritan. They do not realize that they cannot go to the cross to forgive sins, and they cannot be lifted up to bring down the Holy Spirit. Only He has the wine and the oil. Only He has the beast, the inn, and the denarii. We are not the Samaritan. It would be totally wrong to ask the man who fell into the hands of the robbers to be the Samaritan. The neighbor whom the Lord referred to was the Samaritan. This means that the Lord came to be our Neighbor; He came to save us, to provide us with the beast, the wine, which signifies the forgiveness, the oil, which signifies the life, the inn, which signifies the church, and the denarii, which signify the gifts and grace. These things He gives until He returns. When the Lord tells us to love the Samaritan, He is telling us to love Him. We have to learn to touch the fine points in this passage. This is the way to read the stories in the Bible.
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