Lent
2
Mt
15:21-28
2/25/24
What
is Jesus doing up here? What is Jesus
doing way north in the district of Tyre and Sidon? This is an area along the Mediterranean coast
that is north of Galilee. It is outside
the region that was ever part of Israel.
Instead, it had been the home of the evil Jezebel who worshipped Baal.
This
was pagan territory and it was not an area where Jesus conducted his
ministry. When Jesus denounced the
cities where most of his miracles had been done because they did not repent he
said, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they
would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.”
Jesus has left the land of Israel
because he has just been in conflict with the Pharisees. The Pharisees and
scribes had come from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the
elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” They had
travelled all the way to Galilee to confront this trouble maker.
Jesus had disputed with them and
said at the end, “You hypocrites!
Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
“‘This people honors me
with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
The Pharisees
were offended. And so as Jesus does on
several occasions like this when there is conflict, he withdraws. Our Lord is on a divine schedule. He will die, but he will not die until it is
according to God’s timing.
Our text tells
us that Jesus withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. Jesus was not there to do ministry. However, his presence did not go
unnoticed. 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.’”
Whenever
Matthew wants us to note that something is surprising or remarkable, he says,
“And behold.” What he describes is certainly
surprising. We learn that a woman of
that region approached Jesus. Matthew
calls her a “Canaanite woman.” This was
an entirely anachronistic term. Nobody
in Matthew’s day called people of that area Canaanites. However, it was a term
from the Old Testament that emphasized the pagan nature of the woman.
It was
surprising that a pagan woman would approach Jesus. Yet more surprising were the words that she
spoke. First, the woman said, “Have mercy on me.” The woman came to Jesus asking for help. She
a pagan, appealed to Jesus – a Jew.
Then the woman
called Jesus “Lord.” In Matthew’s Gospel,
this is the term that Jesus’ disciples use to address Christ. We do not expect to find it on the lips of
this pagan.
But most
surprising is that she addresses Jesus as “Son of David.” Matthew begins the Gospel by saying, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus
Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” The term “Son of David” identified Jesus as
Israel’s Messiah. This pagan woman –
this Gentile - calls out and addresses Jesus as the Messiah of Israel. She called upon him and asked Jesus to help
her demon possessed daughter.
The
woman had said things exactly right: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David.”
She had pleaded with Jesus to help her daughter. And how did Jesus respond? He ignored her. He did not answer her a word.
Jesus ignored
her, but this did not stop the woman.
She kept crying out to Jesus. It
reached the point where the disciples were annoyed. They came to the Lord and asked him, “Send
her away, for she is crying out after us.”
Apparently, they wanted Jesus to give her what she wanted so that she
would just be quiet and go away.
However, Jesus answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house
of Israel.” Jesus
said bluntly that he wasn’t here for her.
He was Israel’s Messiah. We are probably surprised to hear this. But it is not an isolated statement. When Jesus sent out the twelve apostles in
chapter ten he told them: “Go nowhere
among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Our text
confronts us with the reality that Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of God’s
promises to Israel. He was the Messiah
for those whom God had taken into the covenant at Mt. Sinai. He was here, first and foremost, for Israel –
for the Jews. As Paul told the Romans, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the
power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek.”
It is a
humbling reminder that we as Gentiles have been included in God’s salvation
purely on the basis of his grace. We had
no claim to God’s saving work in Christ.
But God in his mercy has extended it to us as well. He saving intention included us and he has
worked through Israel and her Messiah to give us forgiveness and eternal
life.
Jesus
had provided no answer to the woman. But
the woman did not give up. We learn that
she came and knelt before Jesus. She pleaded, “Lord, help me.” With the woman directly before him, surely
now Jesus would help her.
However,
our Lord responded, “It is not
right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” Not only did
Jesus refuse to help the woman, but he called her a dog. Now we are used to having dogs as pets that
we treat like part of the family.
Perhaps the dog even gets to sleep on our bed. But in that culture dogs did not hold any
such privileged position. It was deeply
insulting to be called a dog.
Yet rather than
being angered, the woman replied, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the
crumbs that fall from their masters' table.”
She didn’t deny her status as a Gentile who was not part of Israel. Instead, she asserted that the left overs of
what Jesus had to offer were sufficient to help her.
Then Jesus
answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you
as you desire.” Our Lord praised her
faith, and told her that her plea would be granted. We learn that her daughter was healed
from that hour.
In many ways,
it is difficult to listen to this text.
This is not the Jesus that we expect.
We know our Lord to be the loving and compassionate One. And yet he does
not seem to be so here. Instead, he
ignores the woman. He rebuffs her. He
even insults her.
Yet upon
further reflection, we recognize that sometimes this is the experience we seem
to have with God. We trust and believe
in him, and yet problem after problem seems to arise. We experience continuing health difficulties
that weigh us down and wear us out. We
face uncertainty about our career or school plans. We see family members experience challenges
and hardships and are pained by this.
We turn to God
in the midst of these things. We ask for
help. And yet things don’t improve.
Perhaps they even get worse. We
call out to God and yet he seems to be ignoring us. Or worse yet, it seems like he is against us.
At times like
this it is easy to waver in doubt. We
begin to question God. We even get angry
at God. There is the temptation to turn away from him.
Today’s text
speaks to this experience. We begin with
the content of the woman’s cry: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David.” We do not know how the woman had heard about
Jesus. The report about Christ had gone
throughout the region, and obviously it had even penetrated the area of Tyre
and Sidon.
She addressed
Jesus as “Lord.” We understand in a way that she could not that Jesus is the
Lord. He is the Son of God who entered
into our world as he was sent forth by the Father. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the
virgin Mary, he is Immanuel – God with us.
And he is the
Son of David. He is the Messiah promised
by God who fulfills his saving promises.
He is the One who brings rescue and deliverance. Yet during this season of Lent we prepare to
remember that he did so in an unexpected way. Jesus the Messiah came to be
enthroned on a cross with placard over this head, “This is Jesus the king of
the Jews.” He died as the sacrifice that
takes away our sin and gives us forgiveness.
Buried in a
tomb, it appeared that Jesus had been a false Messiah. Yet King David himself had prophesied in
Psalm 22, “For you will not
abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.” David spoke about the resurrection of Christ,
that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. On Easter God raised Jesus from the dead.
Jesus
ignored the woman. He rebuffed her. He insulted her. And yet the woman kept calling upon Jesus in
faith. She refused to be turned
away. She persistently came to the Lord.
There
are times when this is how God deals with us.
God hides his “yes” under a “no.”
He seems to ignore us. Yet he does so to lead us into deeper faith. He forces us to ignore the circumstances and
what they seem to be saying. He leads us
to cling to his word – his word that speaks of Christ crucified and risen for
us.
The
Holy Spirit has provided the woman in our text as a model for us. She refused
to let go of Jesus. She kept coming to
him in faith. She would not be turned away.
She was so confident that Jesus could help that she said even his crumbs
were enough.
Like
the woman, we persistently turn in faith to the Lord who suffered, died, and
rose for us. God has revealed his love
in the death and resurrection of his Son.
He has spoken his great Yes to us in Christ. In him we have forgiveness and peace with
God. In him we have life and the hope of
the resurrection.
Of
course, this faith is not something that we created. It is God’s gift – it is God’s creation. And so if we are to walk by faith in Jesus,
we need to focus our lives on where Jesus is present for us – on where we meet
Jesus. We need to continue to return to
those ways that the Spirit of Christ strengthens and sustains faith. We come to Christ’s Word and his Sacrament
for these are far more than crumbs. They are the life giving means by which the
Spirit leads us to say, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David.”
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