Lent 2
Mt
15:21-28
3/5/23
When you
become a parent, you soon realize that an incredible change has occurred. This
little life has been placed in your care, and there is the recognition that you
will do anything for him or her. The needs of the child are always going to
come before your own. This is part of
the blessing of having children. They are a means that God uses to turn us away
from ourselves and toward service for others.
He places us the in the vocation of parents for in this way he cares for
the child through us, and at the same time he is also at work in our lives too.
The needs of
the child come before our own. And
nothing draws this out more than illness.
If our child is sick we are driven to do everything in our power to
help. And in the case of serious
illness, parents find themselves motivated to go to the greatest lengths
possible to seek assistance.
We see an
example of this in our Gospel lesson this morning. A mother’s daughter is severely oppressed by
a demon. There doesn’t seem to be any
hope. Yet then, she learns that Jesus
has come into her area. She goes to him
and begs for his help. In her
interaction with Jesus we hear very surprising things. Yet ultimately, our text teaches us an important
lesson about how God deals with us.
Our text
begins by saying, “And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district
of Tyre and Sidon.” This is not where we
would normally expect to find our Lord.
Tyre and Sidon were located north of Galilee along the Mediterranean
coast. This was Gentile territory –
pagan territory. It had been the home of the wicked Baal worshipper Jezebel.
Jesus is
there because he has just been in conflict with the Pharisees. Christ is
following the plan set forth by the Father. There is a time for him to die in
Jerusalem, and that time has not yet arrived. So as he does on a number of
occasions, our Lord withdraws after the conflict to another area.
Jesus may
have been in pagan territory. But the reports about him had spread far and
wide. And in our text we encounter a
woman who has heard about Jesus – who has learned things about him that show
remarkable knowledge.
Matthew
tells us, “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.” Now when Matthew says “and behold,” he is signaling the
reader that what he is about to describe is surprising or remarkable.
We learn
that a woman from that area came to Jesus.
Matthew emphasizes the unexpected character of this event by calling her
a “Canaanite” woman. This was an
anachronistic term – nobody called residents of that area with that ancient
name. However, he uses it to emphasize the pagan character of the woman – or at
least, the expected pagan character of anyone who lived there.
The woman approached Jesus and was crying
out repeatedly, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is
severely oppressed by a demon.” There
are two things that are surprising here.
First, she calls Jesus “Lord,” and in Matthew’s Gospel people who
address Jesus in this way speak from the attitude of faith.
And second, she calls him “Son of
David.” This address identified Jesus as
Israel’s Messiah. Matthew had
emphasized this at the beginning of the Gospel when he wrote “The book of the genealogy of Jesus
Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Somehow the woman had
learned this about Jesus, and she as a Gentile called upon him
the Messiah of Israel.
However, the surprises in our text are
just getting started. For after the woman calls Jesus “Lord,” addresses him as
“Son of David,” and begs him to help her daughter, Jesus did not answer her a
word. He ignored her. We expect
our Lord to act in compassion as he so often does. Yet in this case, he does seem to care at
all.
Jesus’ lack of response did not stop the
woman. It is apparent that that she
kept crying out, because the disciples said to the Lord, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” They
wanted Jesus to heal her daughter and get rid of her.
But Jesus answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
In this statement we hear something that is just as true about most of us. Jesus came first as Israel’s Messiah. He was the fulfilment of God’s promises to
Israel – those God had taken into the covenant with himself. The woman was not included in that
group. Most of us were not included
either.
Yet there were two
things driving the woman. She was there to get help for her daughter. And she
believed in Jesus as the One who could do this. So she came and humbly
knelt before him as she begged, “Lord, help me.” Once again, she spoke in faith as she asked
for help.
Surely, Jesus would
now help the woman’s daughter! But
instead, our Lord answered, “It is not right to take the children's bread
and throw it to the dogs.” Jesus
called her a dog. And unlike our world
where dogs are beloved creatures who even sleep on our beds, in Jesus’ day to
call someone a dog was tremendous insult.
Beyond this, Jesus said that his help simply wasn’t meant for her. He had come for the children of Israel.
While our text is
filled with shocking features, it is also not hard to relate to the experience
of the woman. There are many times when
we approach God and ask for help.
Perhaps it is for ourselves.
Perhaps it is for others whom we love or care about. We pray and we pray. Yet nothing
happens. Or things even get worse.
When we experience
this, the temptation is to give up. We
may think, “If God is ignoring me, he must not love me. Or maybe he just isn’t
there at all.” We face the crisis of
faith in the temptation to turn away from God.
The woman certainly
faced this. Jesus had ignored her. Jesus
had called her a dog and said that what he had to offer wasn’t for her. But the woman did not turn away. Instead, she
pressed into him even more. She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs
eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
The woman didn’t dispute
what Jesus had to say. She was a Gentile.
Jesus was Israel’s Messiah and not hers.
But in faith she asserted that Jesus’ grace and power were so great that
even the crumbs of his work were more than sufficient to heal her daughter. She
clung tenaciously to Jesus and would not let go of him.
Then Jesus answered her, “O
woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” Our Lord praised the woman for her great
faith. Then we are told, “And her
daughter was healed instantly.”
Jesus answered the woman’s plea for help – a plea that arose from deep
faith in Jesus.
When Martin Luther
preached on this text he said, “But see how Christ drives and pursues faith in
his people so that it becomes strong and firm.”
Jesus does not give the woman the answer she wants. He rebuffs her. He rejects her.
What is it that kept
the woman coming to him asking for help?
She had heard the word about Jesus.
She had heard the word that Jesus was the Son of David – Israel’s
Messiah – who healed the sick and cast out demons. She had heard the word of the kingdom of God
– that God’s reign was present in Jesus to deliver relief. She had hear the
word, and she believed it. She took hold of this word and clung to it in faith
no matter what Jesus seemed to be saying or doing.
Like the woman, you
have heard the word. But the word you
have heard goes beyond anything she knew.
You have heard the word that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, conceived
by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.
You know that he is Immanuel – God with us – because he is true God and
true man.
You know that Jesus
was baptized in order to take our place. He identified himself with sinners,
even though he had no sin. He did this so that he could offer himself in our
place. Jesus said, “the
Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life
as a ransom for many.” By his death
on the cross, our Lord redeemed us from sin. He freed us the damnation it would
bring.
You know that word. But you
also know the word does not end there – and that makes all the difference. Jesus was buried in a sealed tomb. But on the
morning of Easter, when the women went to the tomb, they found the tomb opened
and the angel told them, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek
Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said.
Come, see the place where he lay.”
God raised Jesus from the
dead. And then he exalted him as Christ
ascended into heaven and was seated at the right hand of God. The exalted Lord
has poured out the Spirit to give us faith.
And he has promised that he will return in glory on the Last Day to
raise us from the dead and renew his creation.
You know the word that because of Jesus you are forgiven and that death
has been defeated. Through baptism the
Spirit has given you new life, and God has made you his own. He has put his name upon you.
This Gospel Word is the
word about Jesus to which we cling, not matter what appearances may be
like. There are times when it seems like
God is treating us the way that Jesus treated the woman in our text. But as Luther preached, “This was written for
all our comfort and instruction, so that we may know how deeply God hides his
grace from us, so that we would not consider him according to our perception
and thinking but strictly according to his Word.”
God
allows us to experience times like this so that we grow in faith and trust. He
forces us to ignore what we see, and instead look in faith to the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ for us. Is this pleasant? No. Do we want it? No. But our heavenly Father
wants to draw us closer to himself, and for this to happen the old Adam in us
must be crucified. We must be stripped
away of our pride, self-sufficiency, and apathy toward God.
Yet the God who does this is the God who gave his Son into death for us. As Paul told the Romans, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
Not
only did he give him into death, but he raised him up on Easter. In the resurrection of Jesus we have seen the
great “Yes!” of God’s victory for us. It
is to this we turn in faith, no matter what circumstances look like. We do this because in Christ God has given us
his love that will carry us through every challenge to the day of glory when we
will live with our Lord forever.
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