The Church Season of Lent,
The First Sunday in Lent - Reminiscere,
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (March 20, 2011)
One Year Series
“Have Mercy”
The First Sunday in Lent - Reminiscere,
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (March 20, 2011)
One Year Series
“Have Mercy”
Readings:
Psalm 121
Gen. 32:22-32
1 Thessalonians 4:1-7
Matthew 15:21-28
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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 15h chapter of 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
The language or even the look of distress reaches beyond language, beyond personal bias, beyond the well built walls in our minds meant to protect us from getting involved with our fellow man. It is very simple, help me, please help me. There are universal signs of distress, whether we know the whole language of the person or the sending device or not. Distress has its own sign, it communicates across all boundaries. In recent aerial pictures from earthquake and Tsunami hit Japan, I’ve seen those signs of distress physically laid out on the ground marked by the letters SOS and also HELP written in English. Interesting isn’t it? Letters making a signal for all to see, conveying that I’m in dire need, please come help me. We’ve seen that kind of sign before too, from the roofs of people stranded on the flooded houses in New Orleans, from people standing with pictures of lost loved ones in the 911 attack. The list could go on and on the message is the same, I need help.
And so it is in our lesson today a woman needs help and she knew full well the help she needed was nearby. But this woman had a lot going against her, for she was a Canaanite woman and the soil beneath her feet was from the region of Tyre and Sidon. The Canaanites were in the promised land and as the Israelites came to this land the Lord told them, “6 in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, 17 but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded.”(Dt 20:17) And even further, “Every city, men, women, and children.”(Dt. 2:34) No mercy was to be given, so why would God order such a thing? All these people of Canaan were in the promised land but they worshipped false gods, they were living a sinful life in the promised land. They were living out their lives in sin, in an out of bounds life in the midst of Gods creation. Sound familiar? It should because that is the same sin as Adam and Eve and the same sin of our lives too.
But let us continue with the second strike for this Canaanite woman. She is in the land of Tyre and Sidon cities that God condemned through the mouths of three Old Testament prophets(Isaiah, Ezekiel, Amos) for their wicked ways. So wicked that even Jesus would call them to repentance in sackcloth and ashes.
Yet this woman does what any human being does in their time of distress, when you’ve been knocked to your knees by what life has given you. This woman’s daughter was possessed by demons, she had hit rock bottom, there were no options left, she had no where to go for help, no one to turn to, then Christ, “withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.” (Mt. 15:21) But somewhere this woman had heard of Christ, because she addresses Him by His Holy Name, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!”(v.22) She already believed in Jesus Christ or she wouldn’t have asked for Jesus’ help as St. Paul reminds us, “14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard?”(Rom. 10:14) But the first answer she received was not the answer she wanted, “Jesus have mercy...but He did not answer a word.”
Jesus Christ just keeps on walking, but so does she, shouting and pleading all the more loudly. In fact, she becomes downright embarrassing. The disciples urge Jesus to send her away, but now Jesus turns and engages her in a conversation. It would seem her persistence is beginning to pay off, her daughter is possessed and there is only one way out, for Jesus to hear her cries for help.
You have been there. You have you prayed and prayed to God for help, for mercy, for intervention, for relief, Lord, have mercy. God please help me, Lord have mercy on my soul. You pray, beg, and plead, in every signal of distress you can think of yet it seems like the more you would pray the more silence your receive? So then what did you do? Well the most common thing to do is walk away in despair, turn away from God. And turning away from God is the definition of sin. Satan is overjoyed when you turn from God, and when satan is able to whisper in your 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 of despair, reminding us all that might go wrong, all that might have happened if only Jesus would listen, if only He would do more for you, if He would only do more for a family member, if He would only do more for someone you know, if only Jesus would help.
Repent, for Christ does provide for you. For that Canaanite woman was from a region that is out of bounds, a place and people that had turned from God, a sinful land with sinful people, with a daughter caught in a struggle with a demon all of this too much to bear, too much to handle, too much for her to bear. Remember that you are there too, you are in God’s creation, you too have been out of bounds in your sin, and you seen the effects of sin in your lives, people struggling with addiction, lying cheating, backstabbing, gossip, rumors, every single one of the commandments fall broken. For as it is written, “None is righteous, no, not one; 11no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13“Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.”“The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15“Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16in their paths are ruin and misery, 17and the way of peace they have not known.” 18“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”(Rom 3:10-18)
In the face of all this we are only left to cry out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!”(v. 22) And again we cry out all the more louder in real pain and real agony, falling to our knees before God in Christ Jesus “Lord, help me!”(v. 25) Help me, help me. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord, have mercy.
And Jesus speaks to you just as He did to that Canaanite woman, “ you have great faith! Your request is granted.”(v. 28) That is the faith which you received in your baptism, in the water combined with God’s Word, you were healed you in that very hour. Your SOS, your cries for help, your prayers for mercy have already been heard, you are well. Christ has become incarnate for you, He has come into your life. Jesus Christ has taken away your every sin and He has given you the promise that in the hour of your death, that you will not die. He sees you kneeling before Him, Jesus has mercy on you.
And because of God’s great love for you and His mercy for You too are called to have mercy on those whom are around you. By serving those whom you meet in your daily lives, by serving your children, by serving your parents, or spouses, or by serving your employers, by srving those people who cry out for mercy, those who say help me, help me, help me. There are a lot of people out there crying for help, here in our community, and in the community of the world, hear their pleas, have mercy as mercy has been generously been given too you.
God’s mercy in giving His Son Jesus Christ is the only mercy which will give you the promise of eternal life. We fail to resist sin, we fall into sin, we sin by doubt when we think our prayers are not answered in the time we think they should be. But Jesus does answer our prayer. He does come into your life, He comes in your Baptism, He comes to you giving His true body and blood for the forgiveness of all your sins. You cry, ‘Lord help me’, Jesus comes to you, He hears your cries. He too cries, Jesus wept, Jesus the Son of David cried out too, from the cross, “It is finished” and from that very hour He had given you the promise that His mercy has made you well for your eternity. Amen.
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