Driven: Compelled to Missions by Christ’s LoveMuestra

Passing the Test

Jaime Escalante believed in the students that many people around him had written off. A native Bolivian, Escalante taught math at Garfield High School in Los Angeles. Ninety-five percent of Garfield students were Latino, and four-fifths came from families in poverty. His story, which became their story, inspired so many that writers captured it in book and magazine form and in the film “Stand and Deliver.”

Escalante knew that success in math and further education could prepare his students to make it in the world beyond high school, so he challenged them to attain what others thought impossible. He said they could succeed if they had the ganas, the desire. In a high school that faced losing its accreditation because of its awful academic results, Escalante taught and challenged his math students to prepare for the AP Calculus exam so that they could score well enough to earn college credit, something that shocked not only their community but even the testing service. 

Jesus also challenged His followers to tests of faith. When the Canaanite woman, identified as a Greek born in Syrian Phoenicia, came to Him for help, He seems to have tested her along with His disciples. When she first approached Him about her sick daughter, He didn’t even answer her. He did, however, hear His disciples urge Him to “send her away.” 

His replies to her pleas—that He came for the Jews and that dogs shouldn’t get the food meant for the children—sound harsh, even racist, today. Kenneth Bailey, in Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes, suggests that Jesus may very well have been voicing what He read as the thoughts of His disciples. He had taught them before about the great faith of those outside the Jewish faith, but the disciples’ attitude toward a distraught Greek mother revealed their indifference. She was a bother and not worthy of their time. Perhaps Jesus wanted them to hear their own thoughts spoken out loud.

Jesus tested the woman’s faith. In her clever, persistent response, she revealed both her drive, her ganas, and her faith in the Lord’s healing power. In doing so she taught His disciples another lesson in His curriculum...that He came to bring Good News to the Gentiles as well as the Jews.

What kind of ganas will your actions reveal this week about your faith in Jesus’ power and desire to help others?