Mark's thoughts: Parents, do you want your children to grow up to be Christians?

Parents,

 

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:17-18).

 

Do we believe these words from Scripture? God’s word is absolutely clear in teaching us that those who believe in Jesus as the crucified and risen Lord will have salvation and eternal life. Those who do not believe in Jesus will receive damnation as the eternal judgment against sin. If we believe this then there will be nothing we will want more for our children than that they continue in the life of faith as Christians when they are grown up.  We will want to act in ways that help them to become faithful believers as adults.

 

God’s word teaches that he has commanded you to raise your children in the faith: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:3). Foundational to this life in Christ is the reception of the Means of Grace each Sunday in the Divine Service. Through these gifts the Holy Spirit delivers forgiveness and strengthens faith. As the explanation to the Third Commandment states, “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.”

 

Your actions are teaching your children what really matters in life and will play a large role in determining the pattern of life they will follow as adults. Your children should be learning to assume: “On Sunday we go to church. This is what our family does.” A Sunday without the Divine Service should seem strange.

 

If on any given Sunday you are just as likely not to attend church (or more likely not to attend as several Sundays run together), you are teaching your child how not to be a Christian. Recognize that our culture has changed. When my parents were growing up, being a Christian was viewed as a positive thing by the world. When I was growing up, being a Christian was viewed as a neutral thing. In the world where your children are growing up, being a Christian is now viewed as a negative thing. This increasing secular nature means that the culture leads people away from practicing the faith. In our world, sporadic attendance at the Divine Service teaches children that it is not important, and trains them not to attend when they grow up. The culture will make sure they end up that way.

 

To raise children “in the instruction of the Lord,” they need to learn what is in the Scriptures.  How is this happening in your family? As pastors teach Catechesis, they find that youth do not know basic biblical accounts. They do not because Scripture was not read at home, and they did not attend Sunday school with any regularity.

 

And so, I return to the point with which I began in citing the passage from the Gospel of John: Do we believe these words from Scripture? If we do, then there is nothing more important than having our children grow up to be practicing Christians.  In the seeking this goal there are three things you can do to be faithful in your vocation as a Chrisian parent:

 

 

1. Bring them to the Divine Service each Sunday.

2. Bring them to Sunday school each Sunday.

3. See that Scripture and the Small Catechism are read in your home each day.

 

Please contact your pastor if you have any questions about how the last of these can be done, and about spiritual formation in your family life.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent - Lk 11:14-28

 

   Lent 3

                                                                                                            Lk 11:14-28

                                                                                                            3/8/26

 

            By all accounts, Iran was a formidable opponent. It had a strong military.  Iran had invested billions of dollars into this. It had produced thousands of ballistic missiles and drones that were capable of showering destruction on the entire Middle East. It possessed mobile launchers that past experience indicated were very difficult to detect and destroy. It had deployed submarines and ships, along with small attack boats that were capable of sinking shipping and closing the Straights of Hormuz.

            Iran could hit every country in the region with an overwhelming barrage of missiles and drones. And at the same time it had made itself very difficult to attack. It had built deep bunkers to protect its command and control systems, along with the missiles.  Most importantly it had acquired Russian S-400 anti-aircraft systems, which Russia said were the best in the world, and were considered by many to be a significant threat. Then on top of that, at the beginning of this year they added Chinese HQ-9B anti-aircraft systems that the Chinese said could detect and shoot down stealth aircraft.

            Iran was strong. But it has quickly become clear that the United States and Israel are far stronger. With incredible ease the forces of these two nations have completely dismantled Iran’s air defenses and are now able to bomb whatever they want, whenever they want. They have used massive bunker busters to take out protected targets. They have been able to detect when mobile launchers send up a missile, and then immediately destroy the launcher. And those Chinees radars? Actually, some people say they have performed quite well. When they blow up, you know that an F-35 fighter is in the area.

            In our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus describes how a strong man who is armed seems secure, until someone stronger comes along and disarms him. We learn that the spiritual reality of our world is one of conflict between the devil and God. We are warned that the devil is a powerful opponent. And we receive the good news that Jesus Christ has overcome the devil and made us his own.

            In our text we learn that Jesus cast out a demon who was causing a man to be mute. When the demon had been cast out the man was able to speak and the people who were there marveled. However, some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons.”  Beelzebul, like Beliar, was another name that Jews used for the devil.  These critics were saying that Jesus was able to cast out demons because he was in fact on the devil’s side. They said that Jesus himself was demonic.

            Our Lord responded by saying that this was just dumb. He said, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul.”  Christ pointed out that no kingdom chooses to fight against itself. To do so would mean its own destruction. The devil wasn’t going to cast out his own demons, and thereby lose his power and control.

            What Jesus was doing in casting out demons was instead the work of God overcoming the devil.  He said, “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”  Our Lord’s words reflect our Old Testament lesson this morning. There we learn that the magicians of Egypt were able to replicate the first two plagues that God used Moses to bring upon Egypt. They were able to turn water into blood, and bring forth frogs. But when Yahweh had Moses bring gnats upon the land, the magicians were not able to this. They knew that this was something beyond their power and said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.”

            Jesus said that since he was casting out demons by the power of God, it demonstrated that the kingdom of God – the reign of God – had come upon them. God’s saving power was present in Jesus to overcome the devil. Christ said, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil.”  The devil was strong and armed. There was no doubt about it. But Jesus was stronger and he was freeing people from the devil’s power.

            Our text today reminds us about an important truth. The world that we live in is a spiritual battle ground.  It is the scene of a war.  In this war the devil fights against God as he seeks to maintain control over people and take them to destruction with himself. 

            It has been this way since the devil tempted Adam and Eve to disobey God. By this action they lost the image of God – the ability to know God as he wants to be known, and to live perfectly according to his will. Instead, the devil became the lord of all who been conceived and born ever since. Sinful fallen people, produce more sinful fallen people under the devil’s power. And all who are under the power of the devil and sin now die, because sin brings death.

            That’s not a pleasant description. It’s not what people want to hear.  But it is what God has revealed in his word. St Paul told the Ephesians, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

            Paul told the Corinthians, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” The natural person – the person as conceived and born – does not get God. He simply can’t.

He can’t because he is sinful fallen nature for whom the devil is lord. Jesus told Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”  No parent has ever sat a child down and said, “Today I am going to teach you how to be jealous,” or “Today I am going to teach you how to be angry.” We don’t because it is already there inside them, ready to show itself in ever greater ways. As the baptismal rite says: “The Word of God also teaches us that we are all conceived and born sinful and are under the power of the devil until Christ claims us as his own. We would be lost forever unless delivered from sin, death, and everlasting damnation.”

But God has delivered us. He promised that he would send a descendant of Eve who would defeat the devil. In the fullness of time he sent forth his Son who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. True God and true man, Jesus Christ was presence of God’s saving reign in this world.

Jesus was the stronger man who had come to overcome the armed strong man. The demons knew exactly who Jesus was. One demon exclaimed, “Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are— the Holy One of God.”

In his ministry, Jesus was the presence of God’s reign that was overcoming Satan, sin, and death.  We see this clearly as he casts out demons such as in our text. There are certainly reasons to be believe that demon possession continues in our day. But Jesus seems to run into people who are demon possessed all the time, and that is certainly not our experience. A likely explanation for this is that since Jesus was the presence God’s end time reign, the devil threw all of his forces at him. They were there in such plentiful and obvious ways because Jesus the Son of God was there.

Jesus was the presence of the end time saving reign of God. Sinners who sin must be condemned. That fact is a reflection of who God is as the just and holy One. And so God sent his Son in the flesh in order to receive the judgment against our sin. Paul told the Romans that, “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.” Through this God freed us from sin and its power. Paul told the Galatians that Jesus Christ “gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age.”

The sin of Adam brought death to all. But on the third day God raised Jesus from the dead in the resurrection life that has overcome death.  Paul told the Corinthians, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”

            This forgiveness and life are now received through faith in Jesus Christ. But conceived and born in fallen sinfulness, this is not something of which we are capable. And so through his Spirit the Lord Jesus gives new life. We are born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. And in order to bring faith and salvation to all – even to the newly born sinner – Christ has included water in his command and combined it with this word. Through baptism we are born again of water and the Spirit. Baptism is the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Spirit. It is the action of God by which the sinful, fallen infant becomes the forgiven child of God in Christ.

            No matter whether it is the infant who is baptized, or the adult who is called to faith through the Gospel and is baptized into Christ, the result is that a person whom the devil ruled as lord has been wrenched away from him to be a child of God.  Now, for that person, Jesus is Lord.

            But here’s the thing about the devil – he is not a gracious loser. Instead, he is a determined enemy who never ceases in his efforts to reclaim spiritual control over a person. Paul warned the Ephesians, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

            He has been doing this for a long time, and he is very good at it. He knows that the best way to regain control is to convince people that he is not a problem – that there is in fact no spiritual war going on. He wants people to be oblivious to the spiritual aspect of life, and instead to focus on this world. He wants people to set their attention on getting more stuff, on their career, on their sports and their entertainment.  He wants them so busy pursuing these things that they don’t have time or attention for anything else.

            It is the word in the Means of Grace that created faith. It is the word in the Means of Grace that sustains faith.  And so he wants you to think about everything else other than the Means of Grace. Where there is almost no interaction with Scripture at home, this is good. Where attendance at the Divine Service begins to take second place, this is even better. He wants to separate you from Christ, and the way to do that is to separate you from the Means of Grace.  He wants you to starve yourself of the Spirit’s work, so that the way of faith in Jesus becomes less and less, and the way of the world in your life grows more and more.

            The devil is playing for keeps, because in this struggle there are no points for second place. It is all or nothing: faith or unbelief; forgiveness or judgment; life or death; salvation or damnation.  You are either on Jesus’s side or the devil’s. As Christ says in our text, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

            Peter warned, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” The apostle warns us about this reality. And our response is therefore to focus on the Means of Grace – to hold on to them and use them. This means reading Scripture during the week, and even attending Bible class – by the way, we have it on Wednesday morning and not just Sunday. It means making baptism a part of our daily spiritual life as we return to the promises God has given about this Sacrament. It means attending the Divine Service each week to hear God’s word proclaimed, and to receive the true body and blood of Jesus Christ as our Lord comes to us in the Sacrament of the Altar.

            When you were baptized, you became part of the Body of Christ, the Church. The life of faith is meant to be lived as part of that Body. It is lived in the community of the faithful. You are supported in the walk of faith by being with other Christians.  So choose to spend time with Christians. Make the life of this congregation an important part of your personal and family life. Together we keep each other focused on the true nature of the spiritual struggle that exists. We point each other to Christ, and his Word and Sacraments.  We encourage each other to walk in the ways of the Lord, instead of those of the world.  Together we continue in the way of faith in Jesus that leads to resurrection and eternal life.

 

 

           

 

 

 

Sermon for the second mid-week Lent service: Table of Duties - Of Civil Government and Of Citizens

 

Mid-Lent 2

                                                                                      Table of Duties:

Of Civil Government;

Of Citizens

                                                                                                3/4/26

 

            Can a Christian be a soldier? At the time of the Reformation, those who were called Anabaptists said that, no, I Christian can’t serve in this role because it involves killing other people.  In response, Martin Luther described how God’s rule takes place in two different but complimentary ways.

            God’s right hand rule occurs through the Gospel. It takes place through the proclamation of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Church is the means by which God carries out this work that gives forgiveness and eternal life. There is no force or threat involved here. Luther objected to all attempts that would coerce people into the Christian faith.

            God’s left hand rule occurs through the law. The government is the means by which God carries out this work that retrains sin and wrongdoing. This has nothing to do with the Gospel, for here force is the means that compels all who would disobey.  Luther emphasized that this left hand rule was God at work, and so Christians can and should serve in positions like being a soldier.

            Last week we heard about Pastors and Hearers. These were all vocations that were directly tied to the Gospel. Tonight, we take up “Of Civil Government” and “Of Citizens.” These by contract have nothing to do with the Gospel. But they do involve the work of God. These topics are very straightforward.  But they also confront us with challenging questions – questions that the Christian faith answers in ways that are different from the world.

            The Small Catechism’s Table of Duties provides only one verse for the topic “Of Civil Government.”  And to be honest it is really all that we need.  In Romans 13 Paul says, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.”  Paul says in a straightforward manner that governing authorities have been instituted by God – he is the One who has provided them.  Since God put them there, to resist the governing authorities – the civil government – is to resist God.

            The role of the government is very simple: it is to restrain wrongdoing and maintain order. Paul goes on to add: “For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.”  Paul can even describe the government as “God’s servant.”

            Civil government exists because of one reason: sin.  It is the means God has established to restrain and control evil. To understand how crucial this is, consider what happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, or what we have seen recently in Los Angeles and Minneapolis when crowds did not feel constrained by police.  The veneer of civilization is a very thin one indeed. 

When given a chance, sinners will do terrible things. That is why God established governing authorities.  As Peter says in the verse included under “Of Citizens”: “Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.”

In our present setting it is important to recognize that the Christian Church has always understood that it is the role of the government to protect its citizens by controlling the borders of a nation. It establishes laws about entry, and enforces those laws.  There will, of course, be immigration and decisions about allowing entrance will seek to balance the resources and well being of the nation with concern for the outsider. But we must recognize that when government agents such as ICE enforce the law in the proper manner, they are the instruments of God’s left hand rule.

            The government is God’s servant.  The irony is that it plays this role, even when the government itself rejects the idea of God; even when individuals in the government do not believe there is a god.  Remember, Paul wrote these words when the government was the Roman Empire and the leader was the emperor Nero. 

And by the same token, since the government functions in this way, it is easy to understand why it is entirely a God pleasing thing for Christians to serve in the government, in the police, as corrections officers, and in the armed forces. These are important vocations which carry out God’s work.  With good reason Luther included good government among the blessings listed under “daily bread” – life without a functioning government is a frightening thing. Think of the disorder in a place like Haiti.

            Nothing is free, and so government and what it does, costs money.  From ancient times, governments have raised money through taxes. The Roman world was no different and so Paul went on to say in Romans 13: “Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.”  Paul told Christians to obey the authorities God had placed over them, and to do so by paying taxes.  In saying this, he was repeating Jesus’ own teaching when he said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

            Civil government is a great blessing from God.  It carries out a challenging job as it restrains sin.  And so Paul said in 1 Timothy 2 that Christians are to pray for their leaders and government as he wrote: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior.”  When you were baptized, you became part of the royal priesthood of God’s people. And part of your priestly service is prayer. Certainly we do this together in the Divine Service each week.  But prayer for our government and leaders needs to be part of your daily life as well.

            As we think about Paul’s words regarding civil government, we see that in the apostle’s death we learn something that we must consider as well.  Paul probably wrote the words of Romans 13 during the first five years of Emperor Nero’s rule.  They were good years as he was guided by his teacher, the Stoic philosopher Seneca. However, as an unstable individual, Nero eventually turned on Seneca and forced him to commit suicide.  Nero’s rule soon descended into madness and injustice. Before it was done he was having Christians burned as torches at night. Paul himself was martyred.

            Civil government itself can be warped by sin into something that does wrong.  It can become something that commands things that are contrary to God’s will.  When this happens, the apostles were clear as to how Christians respond when they said, “We must obey God rather than man.”

            When this happens, we are called to suffer. True, we work as citizens in our form of government to bring about change.  But where this does not succeed, we are willing to suffer for what is true according to God’s will.  In the same chapter of 1 Peter in which the verse in the Table of Duties is found, Peter goes on to say to slaves: “But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”

            Our Lord Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead in order to win for us forgiveness and eternal life. But Peter describes how his death does something else. Jesus’ suffering provides a model for us by which he teaches us to entrust ourselves to God.  Now this is not a model that we want. We don’t want to experience injustice.  We don’t want to be wronged and harmed. But Jesus is also the reason that we are able to do this. The Holy Spirit who created faith in Jesus also enables us to walk in faith.  Christ’s death and resurrection for us is the reason that we know we can trust God in the midst of any circumstance. God the Father has revealed his love and care in the death and resurrection of his Son. And therefore we are able to trust him in the midst of all challenges.

            Civil government is a great blessing from God.  It restrains sin and allows us to live in peace.  Our vocation as citizens is to obey the government, pay our taxes, and pray for those who govern us.  Yet when the government acts unjustly, or when it commands things that violate God’s will, we are called to follow our Lord in entrusting ourselves to God in the midst of suffering when he allows it.  We do this knowing that, just as for our Lord, this way leads to life and resurrection for us.

 

 

 

 

Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent - Mt 15:21-28

 

   Lent 2

                                                                                                            Mt 15:21-28

                                                                                                            3/1/26

 

           

At our house Amy turns in to go to bed earlier than I do.  So on most nights I will go upstairs to our bedroom to say goodnight to her and see if there is anything we need to talk about for the next day.  When I walk into the room, I am always greeted by the sight of our little white dog Noel, and our golden retriever Luther there on the bed with her. Sometimes there is the trifecta as our cat Martin has also decided to join the party.

In our house the dogs are a beloved part of our family life.  And here in the United States there is nothing unusual about that. I am sure that many of you feel the same as well. However, in other cultures things are very different. For Islam dogs are considered haram – forbidden. They fall into a spiritual category in which they are considered to be sinful and must be avoided. This leads Muslims to carry out acts of brutality against dogs in killing them.

Dogs in Jesus’ world seem to have held a position that was somewhere in between these two poles. They probably weren’t sleeping on the same bed like part of the family. They were after all, dogs. But as our text describes they were also present in the house, and under the table, ready to eat anything that fell to the floor.

Our Gospel lesson begins by saying, “And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.” Jesus goes away because he has just been in conflict with the Pharisees and scribes who had come from Jerusalem looking for a fight.  They had asked, ““Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” These religious leaders attacked Jesus because he and his disciples weren’t living according to the rules that the Pharisees had added on top of the Torah itself – the rules they described as “the tradition of the elders.”

Our Lord responded to them sharply as he condemned the manner in which they were creating commandments that were not from God. He said, “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.’”

After this had finished, our text describes how Jesus withdrew from Galilee as he went north along the Mediterranean Sea into the region of Tyre and Sidon. This is a regular pattern in Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus has said that he is going to suffer, die, and rise from the dead. He is carrying out the Father’s will, and it is going to happen according to the Father’s timing. Nothing will be allowed to preempt this. In the face of conflict with the religious leaders, Jesus withdraws until the time is right for their hatred and anger to cause his death.

Tyre and Sidon were pagan country. It had been the home of the Baal worshipping queen Jezebel in the days of Elijah. Matthew emphasizes this point by describing the woman who came to Jesus as a “Canaanite.”  This was an anachronistic term from the past. It would be like calling someone from Alabama as “secessionist” or “a rebel.”  But the label “Canaanite” resonated with ancient pagan past of that area.

Matthew has identified this woman in way that leads us to view her as just another pagan who doesn’t believe in the true God. For this reason, the first words out of her mouth are surprising.  We learn, “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.’”

Her first words were, “Have mercy on me, O Lord.” These are the same words that we just used in the Kyrie of the liturgy as we said, “Lord, have mercy.” They are a cry for help. But the remarkable thing is that the woman addresses Jesus as “Lord.” In Matthew’s Gospel only people who have faith in Jesus use this word to address him.

Even more striking is the fact that she calls Jesus “Son of David.” Matthew’s Gospel has made it clear that Jesus is the descendant of King David who fulfills God’s promise of the Messiah. But we don’t expect a Canaanite woman to confess that Jesus is the One promised to Israel by God. 

The woman came to Jesus with the language of faith on her lips. And this included her plea for help as she asked Jesus to rescue her daughter from demon possession.  How had she heard about Jesus? We don’t know. The Gospels emphasize how crowds came from far and wide to hear Jesus. Word about Jesus had been carried north into this region, and the woman believed that Christ could help her daughter.

With the language of faith, the woman had appealed to Jesus to help. And what was Jesus response? He didn’t answer her at all. He was silent.

The silence of God is something his people experience.  We encounter hardships and difficulties, and ask for God’s help. Yet none arrives. Or things even get worse. We find this experience expressed in the Psalms such as when David says, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?”

In response to this, our Lord teaches that faith continues to call out to God. It continues to ask him for help.  It believes and trusts that God is the loving and caring God he has revealed himself to be in his word. And so it keeps calling out to him.

Jesus taught that we should always pray and not lose heart in the parable of the persistent widow. There an unjust judge would not give justice to the woman.  But she kept coming to him again and again and again. Finally he said to himself, “Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.” Our Lord teaches us to continue to come to God in persistent prayer because that is the approach of faith.

Jesus had been silent. But the woman continued, persistent in crying out to Jesus for help.  We know this because the disciples got tired of hearing her. They approached Jesus and begged him saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.”  They asked Jesus to give her what she wanted so that she would just go away.

But Christ answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  He refused to do anything because he said he wasn’t there for her. These words are probably surprising to our ears. Yet they are a reminder that as the Son of David, Jesus was Israel’s Messiah.  When Jesus sent out the apostles to heal and proclaim the reign of God that was present in Jesus he said, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” It is a reminder that as Gentiles we are the wild olive branches that have been grafted into the cultivated olive tree that descends from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Jesus had said that he wasn’t there for her. But the woman did not cease to press on in faith. She approached Christ and knelt before him saying, “Lord, help me.”  Surely, Jesus would finally grant her request. But instead he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” He called her a dog who was not worthy of what he had to offer.

But the woman was not deterred by this. She replied, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” The woman granted that she was not descended from Israel. She didn’t dispute the fact. But she asserted that Jesus had so much to offer that even the crumbs – even the leftovers of his saving work – were sufficient to save her daughter.

The woman had not been turned away. Her faith had been persistent as she kept pressing on into Jesus with her entreaty. Then Jesus answered, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And we learn that her daughter was healed instantly.

In our Gospel lesson today we do not find the Jesus that we expect. He is unresponsive to the woman as first he doesn’t answer her; then he says that he isn’t there for her; and finally, he calls her a dog. But we see that at the end of the our text he heals the woman’s daughter by freeing her from demon oppression.

This action leads us to recognize who Jesus is, and what he has done for us. Our Lord declared that in his person the saving reign of God had entered into the world. On another occasion when he had healed a demon oppressed man and was accused of doing so by being in league with the devil, Jesus announced, “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

Jesus was the presence of God’s reign to free us from Satan, sin, and death. We noted earlier that Jesus had withdrawn into the region of Tyre and Sidon because it was not yet time for his conflict with the religious authorities to result in their action to kill him. But during Lent we are preparing to remember that as our Lord had said, that day did arrive during Holy Week. In the Father’s timing, Jesus carried out the Father’s will as he suffered and died for our sins.  Christ offered himself as the ransom to free us from the judgment of God.

He redeemed us in the weakness and shame of his death. But then on Easter God vindicated Jesus by raising him from the dead. The Father demonstrated that he had been at work in Jesus’ death to restore us to himself. And in Christ’s resurrection God defeated death forever.

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ now is the defining feature of how we look at life. God has acted in the sacrifice of his Son to reveal his love and bring us salvation. In the resurrection of Christ we have received the confirmation that the way of the cross led to victory over death. In his Word, the Spirit of God has made this known to us. Through baptism the Spirit has given us new life as the people of God – a people who know that our sins have been washed away.

God’s Word has revealed what he has done in Christ. In the life and death of Jesus, God has given us his love. As the Gospel God, his word declares that his love and care for us will never end.  There are times when we must listen to that word, and not to our perception of what is happening.  When we experience hardships, and God seems to be silent, because of Christ we listen to the encouragement of God’s Word that his love for us has not ended and that he is still at work in our life.

Scripture teaches us that God uses these experiences to cause us to grow and mature in faith.  St. Paul told the Romans, “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

God works through these things to produce endurance, character, and maturity.  These are important traits for a Christian, but they are not things achieved with ease and little cost. Their acquisition is the process of moving from life lived as old Adam, to life lived as new man in Christ.  But for that to happen, God must put to death the old Adam in us. Faith and maturity as Christians grow in the midst of this experience as we are led and sustained by the Spirit.

In our text, the Canaanite woman kept drawing near to Jesus. She didn’t stop. She did it verbally as she kept calling out to him. She did it spatially as she approached and bowed down before him. And in this, she is an example for us in two different ways.

First, at all times, but especially in times of hardship, we need to draw near to Christ and hold on to him. We do this by listening to his word and receiving his sacraments. Through these Means of Grace Jesus is present for us. His Spirit works through these gifts to sustain and strengthen us in faith to face all challenges.

And second, we continue to turn to God and call out in prayer.  Prayer is the cry of faith, and faith is exercised through the act of prayer.  We continue to ask, seek, and knock in prayer because our Lord tells us to do so in the confidence that God does hear, and does answer in his time and way. We can trust this, because Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, and then rose from the dead.