Matthew 15:21-28 (Pentecost 11A)
Rev. Alan Taylor / General
Sunday, August 16, 2020
+ In Nomine Jesu +
Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and from
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
This morning’s message is based on the Gospel reading
from Matthew 15. It’s the story of a Canaanite woman
who found herself in desperate straights. Her daughter
was severely oppressed by a demon. No mention is
made in the passage of a husband, so, perhaps she was
also widowed as well, which would have made her even
more destitute and desperate. At any rate, she comes to
Jesus asking Him for mercy. She doesn’t want Him to
give her wealth, or health or happiness. No, she simply
wants mercy. And so, she cries out, “have mercy on me,
O Lord, Son of David.” The humility in her cry is
evident. She doesn’t even consider herself worthy of
Jesus’ goodness. She cries out with all of the pain of a
mother who has to watch her daughter suffer day in
and day out in uncontrollable and unbearable agony.
To better understand what’s going on in this encounter
between this woman and Jesus, a brief review of the
history of the Canaanite people is helpful. The
Canaanites were a cursed people because of the deeds
of Ham, one of the three sons of Noah. After Ham
uncovered the nakedness of his father Noah, Moses
writes in the Book of Genesis, “Cursed be Canaan, a
servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” Much
of the Old Testament is about the tensions that existed
between the Israelites and the Canaanites.
So, the Canaanites were a cursed people. In the course
of time, the children of Israel were supposed to have
dispersed the Canaanites, that they, that is, Israel,
might inhabit their land. In fact, we are told in the
Book of Deuteronomy that, the Israelites were to have
exterminated the Canaanites. But, they didn’t. The sons
of Isaac, namely Jacob and Esau, were forbidden to
take wives from among Canaanite women, and yet,
Esau, did in fact, marry a Canaanite woman. Of Esau,
St. Paul quotes an Old Testament passage, saying, “The
older (namely, Esau) will serve the younger (Jacob).”
As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
All of this is to say that the Canaanites were most
definitely outside of the covenant and promises that
God had made early on to the house of Israel. In fact,
that entire region of the Mediterranean was inhabited
by pagans, those who were, as the apostle says
elsewhere, “separated from Christ, alienated from the
commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the
covenants of promise, having no hope and without
God in the world.”
And yet, here in Matthew 15, with this Canaanite
woman, we have an amazing story of faith and hope.
She came to Jesus believing that He is the Christ, the
Messiah of God. Again, her cries are not to some
itinerant faith healer. No, she cries out to her Lord, the
very Son of David. And so, what many people in Israel
failed to believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the
Living God, she believed and confessed with every fiber
of her being. She knew that, in the person of Jesus, God
had fulfilled His promise to enter the world in human
flesh and to carry in His body the sins of the world that
He might draw all people, including the people of
Canaan, unto Himself. Make no mistake, this woman
knew what she believed and she was firm in it. Jesus is
the Son of David, the long awaited Messiah, the One
God sent to crush the head of the serpent. She knew
who Jesus was and she came to Him for help. Still, she
was a Canaanite.
She cried out to Him, but she was met with a rather
harsh reply, both by Jesus and by His disciples. First,
Jesus ignored her. Did you catch that in v. 23? She
cried out, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of
David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a
demon.” Matthew then tells us that, “(Jesus) didn’t
answer her a word.” Stop for minute and put
yourself in her shoes. I’m gonna go out on a limb here
for a minute and assume that none of us likes to be
ignored. It’s kind of thing with us, isn’t it? In fact, we
consider it rude when someone ignores us. Imagine
this woman’s situation then. She was being ignored,
not by just anyone, but by God Himself, who came into
the world to save all people from sin and death! How
was she to be excluded from such a promise? Why
wouldn’t Jesus acknowledge her?
Of course, this woman isn’t the only one who has ever
felt like they were ignored by God. The Psalms are filled
with laments of people who felt the same way. They
prayed and prayed and called out to God, but heaven
seemed to be silent. “How long, O Lord (asks the
psalmist)? Will you forget me forever? How long will
you hide your face from me? How long must I take
counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all
the day?” “O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor
discipline me in your wrath. Be gracious to me, O
Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my
bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled.
But you, O Lord—how long?”
We’ve all offered up similar prayers to God,
only to be met by what appears, by all rights, to be
silence from heaven. What are we to think and do then?
Here, Jesus ignored the cry of the woman of Canaan.
But, she persisted. Why? Because she believed Jesus
was the Son of David, and, as such, He was the very
embodiment of the mercy and grace of God! Thus, even
though He ignored her cry for help, she would not be
deterred. That particular aspect of the story reminds
me of a verse in a hymn we’ve often sung, “Jesus, I will
ponder now.”
“If my sins give me alarm
And my conscience grieve me,
Let Your cross my fear disarm;
Peace of conscience give me.
Help me see forgiveness won
By Your holy Passion.
If for me He slays His Son,
God MUST HAVE COMPASSION!”
If for me He slays His Son, God MUST HAVE
COMPASSION. After Jesus ignored the woman’s cry
for help, the disciples asked Him to send her away.
Why do you suppose they wanted Jesus to send her
away? Well, it’s really quite simple. She was bothering
them. Apparently they subscribed to the old adage that
ministry would be a great profession if it weren’t for all
the people. She was bothering them and so they wanted
Jesus to send her away! As much as their rejection of
her must have hurt her deeply, Jesus’ response, no
doubt, stung even more. “I was sent (He said) only to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
How much more
rejection could this woman take. You see,
unfortunately, as a Canaanite, she didn’t qualify as one
of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In fact, her
people were supposed to have been exterminated,
aborted, wiped off the face of the earth!
Still, she wouldn’t be denied Jesus’ mercy, for God’s
Messiah is the God of all mercy. He is the very
embodiment of the compassion of God. “Lord, help me
(she said).” Come to my aid. Rescue me! She doesn’t
look to bargain with Jesus, to assert her worthiness, or,
her value. Rather, she simply cries out to Him for help.
It’s the proper posture of the believer in Christ toward
God, isn’t it? Lord, help me. Lord, have mercy. Lord,
save me. Lord, deliver me. Lord, forgive me. We bring
nothing to the table with God. And yet, He gives us
everything, forgiveness, life and salvation.
But, yet again, Jesus rejects this woman’s cry for help.
“It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it
to the dogs (He says).” Really? Did Jesus just call this
woman a dog? As a matter of fact, He did. Oh, some
would say, but it’s not a junkyard dog. No, it’s more of
domestic pet, a cute little dog. OK, but He still called
her a dog. “It is not right to take the children’s bread
(the manna from heaven, the bread of life, the bread
and wine of the sacrament) and throw it to the dogs.”
It’s not right for the unbeliever to partake of the
heavenly manna, of the eternal gifts of God! Why, it
would be like throwing pearls, the Gospel, before
swine. They will neither recognize it nor will they
cherish it, and thus, they’ll trample it underfoot.
Perhaps this woman’s plight really was hopeless.
Perhaps God had nothing for her, no grace, no
forgiveness, no healing touch, no life giving bread. By
faith she wouldn’t fathom the thought. “Yes, Lord (she
said), yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from
their masters’ table.” A crumb, a mere scrap of the
bread of heaven is enough. Lord, she says, grant that I
might have the crumbs that fall from the table of your
grace. Grant that I might be fed as one who is least in
the Kingdom of Heaven, that the manna from above
might fill my heart and soul.
“O woman (Jesus said), great is your faith! Be it done
for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed
instantly. Faith doesn’t effect miracles in our lives, it
simply holds on to the promises of God in Christ Jesus.
When life seems to conspire against us, when we cry
out to God and He seems to ignore us, when heaven
itself seems void and bare, we look to the cross and we
crave the bread of heaven, even if it falls as a crumb
from the table. For “If for me He slays His Son, God
MUST HAVE COMPASSION!” In the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep
your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life
everlasting. Amen.
+ Soli Deo Gloria +
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