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Lent 2 - 2002
Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is the Gospel lesson just read from Matthew 15. Today we hear from our Lord about the theology of the cross, and how God’s mercy is hidden in the strangest of places.
Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercies and Your loving kindnesses, for they are from of old. Thus we pray in our introit for the day. Remember, O Lord. Don’t you find that strange? I mean, why does the almighty and all knowing God need to remember something? Doesn’t He know everything already?
This is the question which vexed both the Canaanite woman and the disciples in our Gospel lesson. Her daughter was severely demon possessed. Now in these modern days, it is hard for us to imagine such a circumstance. But imagine a situation where a child of yours is out of control. They are vexed by trials and problems and maybe even illnesses or worse. Now imagine that you are helpless. There is nothing you can do to aid or help your loved one.
We’ve all been there, in one way or another. There are times in life when it hits you head on that you do not control your world: An illness, a drug or alcohol problem in the family, violence that strikes when you least expect it. All of these problems and more point us to the reality of sin in our lives, and how truly powerless we are against them. It’s frustrating. But more than that, it points us to the great power and control which sin has in our lives.
That is the situation this poor woman found herself in. Her daughter was in the clutches of demonic possession, and all she could do was stand and watch. Helpless to cure her own daughter, she goes to the one and only place where she might receive mercy. She goes to Jesus.
From the perspective of the world, though, her chances weren’t good. Jesus was the Son of God sent to redeem Israel from all her sins. This woman was a Canaanite, from the very people which God had commanded the Israelites to destroy so many years before. She was a woman, and had no standing in the community. We don’t even hear if she has a husband.
But faith in Christ does not look at what my eyes may show me, but at where God has promised to be found. She goes to the Son of David and pleads for mercy. Like Blind Bartemaeus from a couple weeks before, she goes and relies on the promised mercy of God, even when everything seemed against her. She goes to her Lord and cries out,“Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.”
Her cry is one of faith. She cries out to the only one who can help her. She cries out to the only one who has power over the devil, as we heard last week in Jesus’ temptation. Problem solved. Everything is taken care of. Yes? No.
Our text says that He answered her not a word. How can this be? How can He just allow her daughter to suffer? Why doesn’t He hear her prayer and release her from her pain? Even the disciples don’t understand it. And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.” At first glance this looks as though the disciples are being cruel, but they aren’t. That word “send her away” is the Greek word for forgive. They wanted Jesus to grant her request and remove the demons from her daughter. But Jesus wants to show the disciples and us the depth of this woman’s faith in Him. And so Jesus says I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
On the surface, it looks as though Jesus has just rebuffed her completely. But she is not deterred. Lord, help me, she cries! “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” Jesus replies. My gifts of salvation are not to be tossed around and wasted on those who will not receive it, Jesus is saying. But the woman catches Jesus in His words, and He is glad to be caught. “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” The woman recognized that Jesus had just admitted that she was in the master’s house. And if you’re in the master’s house, you get fed, even if you’re a dog. She was willing to be a dog begging at the table in order to have her. And in that faith in Christ against all experience, in that faith she was saved. “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that hour.
This is the way of faith, my friends. Faith looks to Jesus as the only one who can help, but does not flinch when the answer doesn’t come as quickly or in the way we would like. It is very tempting to look at faith as a possession, or to make faith basically into willpower. You don’t have enough faith! If you only believe harder, then God will bless you. But that isn’t the point of our text this morning. The point is not the greatness of the woman’s faith. The point is the greatness of the one in whom she had faith. The point is that she looked to Jesus to help her, and nowhere else.
Okay. So the question is, what does this have to do with you? This gives you the lens to understand your life under the cross of Jesus Christ. Hear again our epistle lesson:
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:1-5 NKJV)
Because we are justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we have peace with God. Now maybe those are just words that go in one ear and out the other for you. But those words define you. In your Baptism you have been linked to the grace of God, and you stand in the hope and glory of God. What that means is that you are in God’s presence always by faith. For faith clings to what is not seen. Faith clings to Jesus Christ alone, and not to feelings or thoughts or even what you own eyes may tell you.
Now this is most tested under tribulations. These tribulations of life, which you and I face every day, constantly push you to find your hope somewhere else. Like the woman in our text, though, there is no where else to turn. There is no where else that you find your life. The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit in the waters of Baptism. Those holy waters create faith and make you a child of God. That means when the tribulations come, when the hardships and trials of this life are at their worst, it is at those times, more than any other, that God’s grace and mercy will shine through for you.
Hard to imagine? Yes. But that is what this woman in our text teaches us. Cling to Christ and His promises to be with you always. You receive Him again today in His Holy Supper. The woman said that even the dogs get to eat the bread that falls from their master’s table. Well, this bread is not simply bread. This wine is not simply wine. It is the very body and blood of Jesus Christ. And because you receive it in faith, that means you are in Him and He is in you.
So who is this woman in our text. This woman is the Christian Church. Always crying out to God by faith. Always trusting. Never doubting that the Word made flesh will give her what she needs. And because you are baptized, you are a part of that great holy Church that cries out to God in faith, and God never disappoints. As one pastor has put it, “She persists because she believes that even a crumb from the Bread of Life elevates the lowest of dogs to the celestial table of the children of God.” (Prof. Chad Bird)
So when the world throws it’s worst at you, by faith you may cry out with the whole Church of heaven and earth, bring it on! For you have Jesus, and He will never disappoint you. In His name. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.
Copyright © 2002 by Todd A. Peperkorn. This sermon may be freely reproduced, as long as it is properly cited if it is reproduced electronically or in print.
This page was created on 02/18/2007 and last edited on: 02/18/2007