The Second Sunday in Lent - Reminiscere - 3-8-09

The Church Season of Lent,
Reminiscere,
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (March 8, 2009)
One Year Series

“A Persistent Faith”

Readings:
Psalm 121
Gen. 32:22-32
1 Thess. 4:1-7
Matt 15:21-28

Sermon Form: Deductive

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 15th chapter of St. Matthew, especially the following verses.

Matthew 15:21-28 (NIV)

21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.” 23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” 25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. 26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 28 Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Persistence pays off or at least that is what it would seem like here. If we try real hard, just like the Canaanite woman, we can have it all. Once, twice, three times she begs and her request is granted, the poor woman had to ask three times. Maybe if she had taken the time to read the prayer of Jabez (1 Chron. 4:10) in the Old Testament, and prayed like him she would have had only to ask one time just for her request to be granted. But for this woman it would not be that easy, though in the end it would seem that her persistence is rewarded in spite of her many disqualifications. She begs for mercy, to which the response is silence, strike one. She is a Canaanite, a gentile, a dog to the Jews, strike two because she is not of God’s chosen people. But even in the face of two rejections, and with reminders of her disqualifications she is still persistent and begs for mercy from the Jewish rabbi. Yet when everything around her tells her to stop, and even when the disciples beg to have her sent away, she does not stop. This woman knows very much. She knows that her daughter is sick, demon-possessed, and even more importantly she knows who she is talking to because she addresses this rabbi as, “Lord, Son of David,”(v. 22) And as much as it would seem that this woman knows, Jesus knows even more. Jesus knew before this woman ever came to Him that she had,

“A Persistent Faith”

This woman’s sympathy and love for her daughter was so acute that she felt it as her own grief. This surely includes a natural affection, but the words which follow indicate a higher type of love. She was already believing and therefore loving too. But this meeting with the Messiah probably didn’t go quite the way that the woman would have expected. She could have been thinking that if I get close enough for Him to hear me, then He will listen and immediately see all my troubles and take care of them. And indeed this woman had reason to feel grief, for her daughter was suffering terribly at the hands of a demon, in fact she tells Jesus that her daughter is demon possessed. And so scripture tells us that she did get close enough to talk to the one person in the entire world who could solve all her troubles. But when she asked the question, He didn’t say a word. But she persists.

He keeps walking and so does she, shouting and pleading more loudly. In fact, she becomes downright embarrassing. The disciples urge Jesus to send her away Yet Jesus engages her in a conversation. It would seem her persistence is beginning to pay off.

Have you ever been there? Have you prayed and prayed to God yet it seemed like the more you would pray the more silence your received? Then what did you do? The most common thing to do is walk away in despair. Because, satan whispers in our ears: “See, it’s just like I’ve been telling you. He doesn’t care about you. You can’t count on Him. You’re going to have to handle it on your own.” Satan fills our ears and our hearts with words despair, reminding us all that might go wrong, all that might have happened if only Jesus would listen, if only He would do more

Yet as Luther said, “Christ is pleased at heart when we persist in prayer and do not give up (1:324). Faith takes Christ captive in His Word, when He’s angriest, and makes out of His cruel Words a comforting inversion, as we see here. You say, the woman responds, that I am a dog. Let it be, I will gladly be a dog; now give me the consideration that You give a dog. Thus she catches Christ with His own Words, and He is happy to be caught (1:325).”

And so the persistence of this woman reminds us a lot of Jacob, from today’s Old Testament lesson, doesn’t she? Jacob wrestled with God and said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”(Gen. 32:26) This Gentile woman’s faith was strong and saw the “Yes” that was hidden under the apparent “No.” She completely understood and agreed with Jesus’ words. Though her place was under the table, which she admitted, that did not prevent her from getting the “crumbs,” the blessings that Jesus could give her without depriving “the children” of anything. The Lord could answer her prayer without taking any blessing away from the Jews, and that is persistence in a faith which believes not what one deserves but rather a persistent faith in the knowledge of what Christ has done.

So, be not mistaken about the point of this scripture. While it does teach us about a faith which does not give up when the answer from God appears to be no. The point of the is scripture is not about the woman, nor is it about dogs, nor about eating crumbs, the meaning of the reading is like the other readings for today. It assures us that the Savior who came to the lost sheep of Israel also has other sheep to bring to eternal life. He died for all because God loved the whole world, not just part of it. No race or nation or people nor any individual sinner is excluded. But, by faith in Christ Jesus, all sinners are lost sheep no more, but children of God who sit at the table and enjoy the feast of salvation with all its blessings, including the answers to their prayers.

Yet all to often we want those answers now and we want them our way. Just like the Israelites who ate manna from heaven, those crumbs of bread were not good enough, they did not satisfy their persistent complaints for more food, better food. And when it appears that our prayers are not immediately answered, satan would point out how inconsistent Christ is at hearing your persistent prayers. And true to our sinful nature we do not want even crumbs, we want it all, we want our answer and we want it now and we want it our way but we are disqualified by our own sin.

Repent, for in Christ brings you in so that you may not only been given crumbs from the table, you are freely given the fullness of the incarnate bread of life. It is Christ who was persistent in keeping the law every last speck and crumb, even when it meant going to His death upon the cross. And because of what He has done for us, we do receive the answers to all our prayers. And those answers came to you in the waters of your baptism. For there Christ gave you the promise of eternal life. When you cry out in prayer begging God to hear you He does hear you. For in Christ you have been given great faith. For in hearing His Holy Word, in the waters of your baptism, in the Holy Supper of our Lord, all your requests are granted. It is a taste of not just a crumb, but communion with heaven on earth. For in His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus Christ gives you a persistent faith in His persistent mercy. And Christ’s mercy will seat you not under the table with the dogs, He seats you at His heavenly table of honor to enjoy the entire heavenly banquet feast. AMEN

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