Matthew 15:21-28
To Whom is Christ Sent
Second Sunday in Lent, Reminiscere
March 12, 2017
Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID
Jesus just had a confrontation with the Pharisees and scribes and now he is withdrawing from the conflict. He goes northwest into the area along the Mediterranean – the area of Tyre and Sidon, one of the few times He ventured outside the borders of Galilee. St. Matthew writes, “And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.’” This was pagan territory. This woman, a Canaanite, was a descendant of the Old Testament people that Israel was ordered to exterminate because of their idol worship. This area had been the home of Jezebel, the daughter of the king of Tyre who had been married to King Ahab of Israel in the ninth century B.C. and had promoted the worship of the false god Baal. Israel and Canaan did not get along very well.
And so this woman’s words are a little surprising. First she asks Jesus for help and calls him Lord. And second, she addresses him as “Son of David.” She uses a term that identifies Jesus as the Messiah descended from the king of Israel. Now, we know that the report about Jesus had gone out into all of the area surrounding Galilee and Judea. She had probably heard about Jesus’ miracles and some of things He had been teaching. Apparently, someone had spread word that He was the promised Messiah, and not only that He had the power to heal, but it was His pleasure to do so. And how did Jesus respond to this mother crying out for mercy on behalf of her daughter? He ignores her!
This probably seems all too familiar. At some point, every Christian has this experience when they are call out to God for help and it seems to fall on deaf ears. Health problems of mind or body. Problems in marriage or family. Finances. Work. School. The list goes on and on. And so we ask God for help. And we are met with silence. And so we go back again to the Lord.
In fact, that is precisely what happens in our text. Ignored by Jesus, the woman kept crying out to him. The disciples became so annoyed that they came to Jesus and were asking him, "Send her away, for she is crying out after us." Instead, Jesus basically replies, “Not my problem.” He said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Jesus was the Christ, Israel’s Messiah. What did He have to do with her?
And yet this Gentile, this non-Jew, this Canaanite woman came right up to Jesus, knelt before him and said, “Lord, help me!” She humbled herself before Jesus and begged for His help. And still, He doesn’t seem to care. Jesus said, “It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” Jesus’ reply was to call her a dog. And He didn’t mean the beloved family pet. This Jesus sure isn’t very nice, nor very gracious.
Again, how often do feel this way. When we feel that God is ignoring us, we react. We get frustrated with God. We get angry with God. We despair that God does not care. We are tempted to give up on the whole God thing, either living a life in the dumps or bitter at the unfairness of the world.
The Canaanite women did not stumble in this sin. She just kept looking to Jesus. She was convinced that He could help, that He would help, and the even the smallest help from Him was more than sufficient. She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." She had a faith that refused to turn away from Jesus, as surely as the faith of Jacob refused to let go after wrestling with the Lord. She is a shining example of what it means to pray without ceasing. Finally, Jesus responds to her, "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly.
Now perhaps some would say: “See, she finally got it right! That’s why Jesus cast out the demon and healed her daughter. You can have the same thing if you just try hard enough, if you just pester God enough, or if you just have enough faith.” The problem with this is that Jesus says the Christian life brings the cross and even death. In the very next chapter Jesus says, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
The Lord never promises an easy life. He doesn’t promise you’ll have the answers to the prayers that you want. It doesn’t always seem like God is on your side. At times, Jesus comes off like your enemy! He is the enemy of your lust for the things that harm you, of the worry that consumes your peace of mind, of your sinfulness and greed and covetousness. Sometimes He causes Christians to bear trials, temptations, and suffering. Yet this is not to harm us, but to strengthen us and finally to bless us.
Today’s Scriptures lessons teach us that the Christian life is one of persistent faith in Jesus. It is a faith that refuses to be turned away and clings to the Lord – like Jacob wrestling with God, like the Canaanite woman bowing down before Jesus and uttering the simple words: “Lord, help me!”
Faith does this, not because we think that we if just hold out long enough we will finally get the answer we want. Instead faith does this because of what God has already done in Jesus Christ. God sent His Son into this world in the incarnation in order to suffer and die on the cross in our place. He received God’s judgment against our sin. And then on the third day He rose from the dead.” That is God’s answer. That is the proof and guarantee of God’s love and care for you. God’s most powerful saving action for us occurred on a cross, on a Friday afternoon, where it did not look like God was anywhere to be found. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me.” And yet, that was the moment when God was most powerfully present for us.
There are times when it seems that Jesus is treating us like the Canaanite woman in our text. Yet the woman demonstrates how faith reacts to this. Faith clings to Jesus and refuses to let Him go. This faith is the simple trust that God does love us and will care for us. And this faith is far more than just the power of positive thinking. It is the living hope of the resurrection. The Crucified One emerged from the tomb as the risen Lord. In baptism we have received a share in Jesus death, and have received the guarantee that we will be raised too. The Holy Spirit within us – the Spirit who will transform our body on the Last Day to be like that of the risen Jesus – is the down payment of our resurrection. The body and blood of the risen Lord received into our mouth in the Sacrament of the Altar is the assurance that our bodies will be raised, for Jesus said: “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” This is our future. This we believe. This we confess by means of the Creeds. This we will one day experience fully. Until that time, as you wrestle with the Lord, He will not let go of you, so do not let go of Him.
* Some of this sermon was adapted from a sermon prepared by Pr. Mark Surburg.