Twelfth Sunday after
Pentecost
August 20, Year of
Our + Lord 2023
Our Redeemer and Our
Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill
City, South Dakota
The Best Catechumen Ever?
- Matthew 15:21-28
Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who was the catechist of the Canaanite woman? We must find out the name and methods of the person who taught this mother of great faith, because her level of understanding and wisdom regarding the Word of God and the teaching of Christ is wonderful. Our Lutheran mission in the Black Hills would benefit greatly if we could duplicate her level of spiritual formation among us. Consider her testimony.
“Lord, help me!” This is how this woman prays, even though Jesus had already twice ignored and rejected her requests. She demonstrates the attitude that Luther encourages us to have in his explanation of the introduction of the prayer that Jesus taught us: Our Father, who art in heaven: What does this mean? With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask him, as dear children ask their dear father.
Only one firm confidence in the goodness of the heavenly Father could persevere against all the opposition that this Canaanite woman encountered. Remember, she is a foreigner, a woman who should not even approach a faithful Jew. Her people are an enemy of the nation of Israel. Still, she knows that the Lord God of Israel is her heavenly Father; so she persists in prayer.
Her trust, her love and her obedience to the commandments move her to persist. She knows well the summary of the Law of Moses, confessed by Jesus himself: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
She does not give heed to the silence and exclusion of the Apostles in training, nor even the apparent insults from Jesus. She does not take them as if they were words against her. She can let these words roll off her back like water off a duck, because she knows, she trusts with a miraculous faith, that the Father of Jesus is her own Divine Father. And her Father loves her.
And so, because of His love that she
receives, the Canaanite woman also loves her neighbors, especially her first
and dearest neighbor, her own daughter. For the love of her demon-tormented
daughter, the Canaanite woman will not stop seeking Jesus' help.
Considering the first chief part of the Catechism, the Ten Commandments, it is enough today that we review only the second one: You shall not misuse the Name of the Lord your God. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie or deceive by His Name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.
Taught by the Holy Spirit, this Canaanite woman understands, better than the twelve disciples, that Jesus of Nazareth is the LORD. (1 Corinthians 12:3). Jesus is LORD, so she does not hesitate to invoke his Holy Name, in this case: Lord, Son of David. That’s a specific and very special Biblical title. She confesses Jesus to be the Messiah of God, the descendant of King David who is also the Anointed Savior, Yahweh Himself, come to shepherd His people. She confesses Christ, not only in the privacy of her home, with her family, but in public, before a group of thirteen Jewish men. She confesses her faith in Jesus not only once, but three times, never allowing Jesus' seeming rejections to discourage her. Oh that the Name of the Lord be sanctified among us in the same way!
It seems unlikely this woman could have heard the song of Simeon, which he sang in the Temple, holding the 40-day-old baby Jesus, some 30 years before this meeting in the region of Tyre and Sidon. The disciples certainly don’t seem to know or embrace the promise Simeon declared to all nations. He prophesied that the infant Jesus in his arms would one day be not only the glory of the people of Israel, but also that this Baby was the salvation of the Lord, that God had “prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, the Nations, and for glory to your people Israel.” (Luke 2:30-32)
Because of his harsh responses to the petitions of this mother, it does not seem that Jesus cares about the salvation of the foreign nations either. It seems from his answers that Jesus shares the typical Jewish disdain for Gentiles, that is, all non-Jews. First, our Lord doesn't say a word in response to the woman’s plea. The second time, he says: I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Finally, with this desperate mother kneeling before his feet, begging for His help, the Lord says: It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.
To ignore, exclude and call the Gentiles "dogs," all this fits perfectly with the typical attitude of a proud Jew against all foreigners. Or the bigotry that can infect any proud people who forget that we are all descendants of Adam, creatures of the same Heavenly Father.
But despite Jesus’ harsh words, this woman is not discouraged. She knows that the promises to Abraham were not only for his descendants by blood, but, as St. Paul would teach 10 or 20 years later, it is not the children of the flesh of Abraham who are part of Israel. Rather it is those who share Abraham’s faith in the promises, these are the true children of Israel. (Gal. 3 and Romans 9)
Because of her faith in the promises, the Canaanite mother does not interpret Jesus' answers as “no.” Each one she hears as a "yes," because she already trusts another promise that would be written by the Apostle Paul: For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, … was not Yes and No, but in him, it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. (2 Corinthians 1:19-20)
The Lord had promised, therefore she persists, until she reaches her personal ‘yes’. And it is precisely when she hears the words that seem to us the cruelest that she knows that she has reached her ‘yes.’ She has captured her Jesus,. Listen again: Kneeling on the ground before Him, she prays: Lord, help me! 26 Answering her, Jesus said: It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. Ouch! You and I hear an insult, and doubt God's goodness. She hears the truth, and rejoices. Because, anticipating the first letter of St. John, she knows that, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But, if we confess our sins, (God) is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1: 8-9) So yes, she is a dog of a sinner, but one who believes in Jesus, God made man. So she knows He will do whatever is best for her and her daughter.
It is as if Luther consulted with her when he explained the fifth petition of the Lord's Prayer: And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
What does this mean? We pray in this petition that our Father in
heaven would not look at our sins, or deny our prayer because of them. We are neither worthy of the things for which
we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that He would give them all to
us by grace, for we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but
punishment. So we too will sincerely
forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against us.
Full of joy, the woman confesses that yes, she is a dog, a sinner who deserves nothing from Jesus, like everyone else. But her sin does not separate her from the Son of David, for she confesses her sin, and pleads to God for mercy. She knows she has Jesus trapped in His own words and promises. So, she calmly replies: "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table."
Oh, what delight, what pleasure Jesus now expresses. Finally, through their shocking dialogue, Christ leads His faithful daughter to her great confession of faith. Which causes Jesus to exclaim, "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly. What joy must have burst forth in the house, when the daughter was suddenly healed, freed from her demon. And what a surprise for the disciples, a surprise that would serve them well in a few years, when, after much resistance, they finally begin the mission to the Gentiles, to all the descendants of Abraham, that is the children of Israel by faith in Jesus Christ, the Lord and Son of David.
And what about us? What does this Canaanite woman of great faith teach us? I hope that we do not imagine that we are better than the disciples, or the Jews, that we could never be so tribal, so xenophobic, so dismissive of people different from ourselves. Human nature has not changed. We are still able to lock ourselves in our approved group, and not deal with people different from us. We need to guard against this.
We must always maintain the truth of God's law, traditional biblical values, and the need for repentance. At the same time we must remember that in Christ there is no Jew, Greek or barbarian, there are no foreigners versus natives. The great and the small, the mighty and the weak are all included in the promises. Neither the wealthy nor the poor are, for their economic condition, more or less valuable to God. For by faith in Christ we are all made one Body. Especially today, when the Church is more and more rejected by the world, when it is so easy for us to turn in and insulate ourselves, we need to remember that Christ came to save the world, the whole world. We need to remember that we too are by nature utterly sinful, like all the rest of mankind. Our value before God is only for the sake of Christ and His forgiving sacrifice. And Christ’s sacrificial love is for all people.
And may the Spirit of Christ help us learn to pray without ceasing, and to give thanks in everything, even when it seems that God ignores or rejects us. Because it is God's will for us in Christ Jesus that we pray and give thanks in everything, like the Canaanite woman. (1 Thessalonians 5) So let us pray, for our own good, and for the life of the world.
Let us pray, with confidence. Because, for every baptized believer, God's answer is always yes, even when we don't understand it. We know He will answer our prayer perfectly. In the end, He will rescue us, although we do not know when. As St. Peter wrote, But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (2nd Peter 3:8-9)
Finally, I pray that we can come to understand how infinitely great the blessing of Jesus is for us. It is not necessary to have everything in this life, because this life is only a meager preview of the real and eternal life that Jesus has earned for us. The bad things of this life do not even count, not when compared with the good things of the Kingdom of Heaven. The true blessings of this life do not need to have a luxurious or impressive appearance. Sufficient are the crumbs of the Lord.
Let us focus on the promises, so that we might share the faith and confidence of the Canaanite woman. In truth, our crumbs today are even better than the blessings she received that day when she boldly approached Jesus. Because we approach a better table, the altar of the New Testament, the meal that is a preview of the heavenly banquet, the Lord’s Supper, where we receive the fruit of the Cross and the Resurrection, the salvation of the world finished and perfected, once and for all.
As Luther explains: What is the benefit of this eating and drinking of the Sacrament? These words “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” show us that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given to us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.
All
this, and Christ himself, present to bless us, in the Word, and under the bread
and wine. Truly, a few crumbs from the table of our
master will be enough,
in the Name of the Jesus,
Amen.
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