It’s hard to stay focused. There is so much to distract our attention. Even when you set your mind to a task, there seem to be ever increasing temptations to stray. Whether with personal goals, workplace initiatives, or community aspirations, it takes enormous efforts to persist.
Sometimes what undermines our persistence is the unpreparedness for the distractions or obstacles. We knew that it wouldn’t be easy, but we weren’t ready for how hard or how long it would take. Other times our desires get diluted for the goal we had set to achieve. Or, we question the worthiness of the original goal we set.
Persistence is the secret sauce of success. Seneca defined it as “constancy of purpose.” To persist is not sexy or convenient. It often makes you unpopular because you always have to say “no” to others who mean well but would otherwise undermine your commitment. Or it wears you out, especially fighting the temptation to take the wider road more often taken. To persist is grinding it out, feet on the ground, every day showing up, resolving to stay at it.
Jesus had to persist. Sometimes we think that because Jesus was God, everything was easy for him. That somehow because God is all-powerful, Jesus effortlessly stayed the course. In the gospel according to Mark, we have a story of Jesus hiding in a house across the Israelite border in Syrian-Phoenicia. He had confronted the Pharisees and convicted the crowds and felt the need to get out of the country and let things cool off for a bit. Persisting in his mission led to conflict and the need to get away to reflect on what to do next.
Jesus came as the King of Israel with a mission to deliver his people from slavery, to proclaim forgiveness of their sins to those that would repent of their rebellion towards God. Jesus came with the power of God to bring about the salvation of God’s people, to bring healing to their broken hearts and hope to their sin-wrecked lives.
So when a Greek woman from Syrian-Phonecia discovers him hiding in her village, she seeks him out and asks him to heal her demon-possessed daughter. Jesus essentially says no. That’s not what he came to do – he came first to set Israel free from the evil one. She was asking him to deviate from his mission, and he resisted her request. But nevertheless, she persisted. She didn’t take no for an answer from the King of Israel. As a mother, she couldn’t do anything else but persist for a yes. Jesus was deeply moved by her persistence and healed her daughter.
The persistence of Jesus in his mission almost caused him to say no to a healing opportunity of a little girl from an enemy nation. The persistence of a distraught mother overcame Jesus’ resistance to deviate from his mission to Israel. Jesus didn’t heal many non-Israelites. He rarely left Israel. But to those that asked, he would say yes. Why? The mission of Jesus was to restore the mission of Israel: to be a people that leverage their power in the world for the healing of the nations. As God’s people, they were to persevere in the ways of justice and mercy, a source of light amidst the dark empires of the world.
Her persistence expanded Jesus mission of healing. Jesus persisted in his mission of healing, including women, the poor, outcasts, and outsiders. And now Jesus persists with you. There are more mothers out there pleading for their daughters to be healed due to the ravages of evil. There are more fathers begging for their sons to be rescued from death. And Jesus is calling you to leverage your power, the power of our community, the power of your workplace to persist in the healing of the wounded.
What’s your purpose in the world? What is God calling you to do? May you join in with the expanded mission of Jesus to heal what has been maimed, abused, neglected, and corrupted. The world needs more healers who persist.
