Reminiscere (Lent II) - Matthew 15:21-28 - Februrary 21, 2016
Reminiscere, the 2nd Sunday in Lent
Order of Holy Communion - Pg. 15O God, Who seest that of ourselves we have no strength, keep us both outwardly and inwardly that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
1) Jesus
goes to the region of Tyre and Sidon and there He is met with a Canaanite woman
in great need. Her daughter is severely demon-possessed. This demon-possession
is a tribulation for her daughter but it is also a tribulation for the
Canaanite woman. Who is so heartless as to not be moved at the plight of their
own child? This poor girl’s mother is racked with anxiety as she helplessly
watchers her daughter be tormented by the devil. This woman could have cursed
God for allowing the devil to gain such a foothold over her daughter. She could
have become angry with the for not acting to remove this cross from her
daughter and from her own shoulders. She could have become despondent, feeling
the absolute and utter helplessness of her situation and there is no one to
help. Her daughter’s demon-possession is a test of the Canaanite woman’s faith.
The Lord allows this terrible tribulation to befall her daughter, and her, to
move her not to doubt, despair, or despondency, but to motivate her to run to
Christ. This is exactly what she does. When she hears that Christ has left the
boundaries of ancient Israel and is now in the region of Tyre and Sidon, her
great need compels her to search Him out. The news of Jesus’ healings and mercy
had travelled throughout Judea, Samaria, and Galilee and had apparently burst
the boundaries of ancient Israel, so that even this woman of Canaanite descent
was coming to Jesus for mercy. He believed that He would give her just that,
for He said in John 6:37, “All that the
Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means
cast out.” This woman approached Jesus in faith, believing His word that He
would not cast her out because of her ancestry or the fact that she was a
Gentile. She responds correctly to this first test of her faith.
2) But
the Jesus she meets is very different from the Jesus of which she had heard so
much about. She does not meet Jesus the merciful. She meets a Jesus who appears
harsh and distant. When she prays to Him, “Have
mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed”
she doesn’t receive the response she had expected. She received no response at
all. “He answered her not a word.” The
woman could take Jesus’ non-response as a response and assume He’s
communicating with her non-verbally. If you speak with someone and they ignore
you even when they know you’re speaking to them, you get the picture. If this
were a normal social situation then one could assume that Jesus was brushing
this woman off. The disciples interpret Jesus’ silence in that way. They want
Jesus to get this woman to move on so she stops annoying them with her
continual crying out after them. Surely at this point the woman’s conscience is
attacking her. Everyone knows that when you are ignored in such a way, you bug
off. The person who ignores you in such an obvious way just doesn’t want to
speak with you or have anything to do with you. But the woman knows Jesus
better than the disciples do. For her this is no normal social situation. She flees
to Jesus because Jesus is God in human flesh. She comes to Jesus because Jesus
is able to her daughter. She goes to Jesus because her great need drives her to
the only one who is able to do something about this tribulation and cross. She
understood that often in the Scriptures the Lord does not answer prayer right
away. How many times in the Scriptures do the saints pray, “How long, O Lord?”
as they wait on their God? She could take Jesus’ silence as “bug off.” Instead
she interprets His silence as saying, “Keep praying.” In this she passes the
second test of her faith, God’s silence and postponement of help.
3) Then
the third times comes. Having hammered Jesus with her petition for mercy to the
point of having annoyed the disciples, Jesus enters the fray. He finally
speaks. “I was not sent except to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Jesus sees her faith and persistence in
prayer. So He tells her that His promises, His mercy, His aid, His comfort, do
not apply to her because of who she is. She is a Canaanite woman. The
Canaanites were repeat offenders in the idolatry department, so much that the
Lord used ancient Israel to drive them from the land of Canaan. She lives in
Tyre and Sidon, a land with idolatrous history. Jezebel, the wife of wicked
King Ahab in the Old Testament, was from this region. Wicked, whorish Jezebel
brought with her her Baal worship and incorporated it into the already
syncretic religion of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Tyre and Sidon are
continually spoken against in the prophetic oracles against the nations, for Tyre
and Sidon were wealthy and they trusted in that wealth as their strength. This
woman is not of the seed of Abraham. She comes from the historical enemies of Abraham’s
seed. Jesus’ words strike against her conscience like a hammer. “I’ve not come
for people like you. You are not worthy of me.” This third test of this poor
woman’s faith is the most brutal thus far. Jesus’ words play toward any doubt
that exists in her heart. Jesus’ words turn up the furnace which is testing the
strength of her faith. At this point the woman’s faith could have broken. She
could have believed that a) she was not worthy and b) that Christ really didn’t
want to help her.
4) But
she doesn’t believe either of those two things. She does quite the opposite. “She came and worshiped Him, saying ‘Lord,
help me.’” She is relentless. Her faith will not let Jesus go. Her faith
will not so easily cast aside its trust that He is merciful to those who
earnestly seek Him. Then Jesus proctors the final test of her faith. “It is not good to take the children’s bread
and give it to the dogs.” Jesus hammers home His point, “You are not worthy
of my help. I’ve come for Israelites, not Canaanites. They are children of God.
You are a dog.” And at that moment, as Luther remarks, she’s got Him. He’s
given her a word that she can hang on and cling to and ultimately use against
Jesus. She confesses her unworthiness. “Yes
Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master’s
table.” “Lord, I am not worthy to sit at the table with you and your
children, the Israelites. I am truly a dog underneath the table. But give me
what I am due as that dog. You will be no poorer for giving me the scraps from
the meal of your mercy. Jesus gives her a word, a word that most would consider
to be mean and offense, and she clings to it. She puts her trust in even this
Word of Jesus. Her faith will not be deterred even by evil sounding words from
God. She knows the Jesus she seeks and she seeks Him still, even when He
conceals Himself behind silence and testing.
5) That
is what Jesus wanted to hear. Jesus IS merciful to all who seek Him earnestly
for mercy. His words are true, “the one
who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” He does come only for lost
sheep of house of Israel. But this woman, by her faith, proves that she is no
dog. Her faith shows all that in spite of her ancestry, in spite of her
location, in spite of the outward cross and tribulation she bears up
underneath, she is a true Israelite. Though not related by blood to the
Patriarch Jacob, she possess the faith that caused Jacob to wrestle with the
pre-incarnate Christ all night by the fords of the river Jabbock. Jacob wrested
the Angel of the Lord and would not let Him go until He blessed him. Even when
the Son of God dislocates Jacob’s hip, Jacob still does not let go of the Son
of God. This Canaanite woman does the same. She wrestles with Jesus. She
overcomes His silence with faith. She overcomes all anxiety and the evil
conscience which tells her she’s not worthy to approach Jesus. She overcomes
Jesus’ Himself by confessing her unworthiness, owning it, and clinging to that
word of Jesus. Her faith conquers Jesus’ silence and obtains what she asks, for
Jesus says, “O woman, great is your
faith! Let it be to you as you desire.”
6) Jesus
praises this woman’s great faith so that it might be a model for all who hear
of it. All Christians face external trials and tribulations in this life. Every
Christian has needs that ought to drive to them to Jesus in prayer. The
Canaanite woman teaches us again that faith responds to the needs of this life
by fleeing to Jesus and seeking mercy from Him. The faith of the Canaanite
woman should also remind us to persevere in prayer in spite of God’s silence.
God does not always answer our prayers immediately. Often He delays sending His
help. When it seems that God is silent to our prayers and that He postpones
helping us in our need, the Canaanite woman’s faith should spur on your our
faith, that we remember that when God tarries it is not because He is not
merciful or that He doesn’t favor us, but that He does this to test our faith,
to exercise it, so that it matures and strikes deeper roots into the promise of
the Gospel. When feelings of unworthiness arise they are to be fought off with
faith so that they do not turn into doubt or despair of God’s mercy. When sin
accuses your conscience so that you think that you have no worthiness by which
you can offer your petitions to God your heavenly Father, do what the Canaanite
woman did and confess your unworthiness. You daily sin much and surely deserve
nothing but punishment. You are unworthy for everything for which you pray. But
you do not pray based on your own worthiness. You do not pray as if Christ owes
you anything. You pray based not on your own worthiness but on the promise of
Christ to hear, to answer, and to be merciful to you in ever need.
7) Jesus
praises this woman’s faith in His mercy so that He might work a similar faith
in your heart. The Canaanite woman’s faith was put there by the Holy Spirit
working through the Gospel.
The same is true of your faith. Her faith was exercised and tested by Christ, as yours is as well through various trials, tribulations, and crosses. Do not despair when your faith is tested, but rejoice “that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7). Amen.
The same is true of your faith. Her faith was exercised and tested by Christ, as yours is as well through various trials, tribulations, and crosses. Do not despair when your faith is tested, but rejoice “that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7). Amen.
May the peace of God, which
passes all human understanding, guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus our
Lord. Amem.
--
Rev. Josh Sullivan (ELDONA)
Holy Cross Lutheran Church (UAC)facebook.com/