Second Sunday in Lent – Reminiscere
February 24th,
Year of Our + Lord 2013
St. John and Trinity Lutheran Churches, Fairview and
Sidney, MT
Wrestling with Offenses – Matthew 15:21-23 and Genesis
32:22-32
God is love. God wants all people to be saved. So, encountering God should be a happy time,
right? But when Jacob encounters God, he
has to wrestle with Him all night, and comes away with a permanent limp. A Canaanite woman encounters God, and is in
turn ignored, dismissed, and called a dog. What about you? Is seeking an encounter with
God nothing but a joyous, pleasant time, or is it a struggle to gather around
His Word and Sacraments, a struggle to open your Bible and read, a struggle to
get yourself here, and then put up with the other people you meet when you get
here, a bother and at times an insult to have to deal with the rules of Church,
wearisome to put up with the shortcomings of your pastor? If God is good, why is encountering Him
sometimes so difficult?
Jacob was a trickster, a thief, disloyal,
cowardly. He was willing to accept the
Lord’s blessing, and he sought God’s help in time of need. But Jacob wasn’t much into seeking the Lord
on a regular basis, not very concerned with living in the Lord’s way. Nevertheless, God had chosen Jacob, and
blessed him richly, and God was bringing him back to his homeland, after a long
exile. But just shortly before Jacob’s
arrival, God attacks him in his sleep.
The Lord really seems to be messing with him, since the Lord could have
won the wrestling match whenever He willed.
Instead He keeps Jacob wrestling all night long. Then, when it was time to go, God, with just
a touch, puts Jacob’s his hip permanently out of joint, ending the wrestling
match.
Amazingly, even after this injury, Jacob
doesn’t seem to have taken offense. He
didn’t seem to be upset by this unexpected Wrestlemania; would an offended
victim have struggled so long and hard?
He just wouldn’t quit. I would
expect to be miffed if God woke me from a good night’s sleep with a half
nelson. I would be pretty cranky if I
had to wrestle with God, all night long.
I might feel patronized when God ends my struggling with one touch of
His finger. I might want an explanation
from the Almighty as to just what He thought He was doing.
Not Jacob.
No, despite all the struggle and discomfort the Lord had inflicted on
him, Jacob just wants a blessing, and to know His antagonist’s Name. Something about this long night of wrestling
changes Jacob, makes him want to know more about this man, who turns out to be
God, come to wrestle with Him. Jacob
asks, and the Lord answers. Jacob indeed
receives a blessing, a new name, earned through his night of wrestling, the
name “Israel,” which means “struggles, or wrestles, with God.” Oh, and Jacob receives a limp to remind him
of that night for the rest of his life.
But Jacob doesn’t complain.
Rather he marvels that he has seen the face of God, and lives to tell
about it.
The likelihood of the Canaanite woman
taking offense seems even greater. Our
discomfort with the Lord’s actions may be greater too. Jesus treats her in a very strange way, first
ignoring, then rejecting, then insulting:
“Go away, you dog, you are not worthy.”
What’s going on here? She is an
outsider, not a descendent of Jacob, not a daughter of Israel. Even worse, the Canaanites are the enemy,
worshipers of strange gods, the people the Israelites were supposed to drive
from the Promised Land, 1,400 years earlier.
But the Canaanite woman doesn’t concern herself with any of that. For the sake of her daughter, and for the
sake of what she believes about Jesus, she will not take offense. No matter what Jesus says, she believes He
can and will free her daughter from demon oppression.
Consider for a moment what she confessed
to be true about herself. By accepting
what you and I would most likely consider insults, she agrees that she is
unworthy of God’s attention. She agrees
that she is not properly part of God’s chosen people. She even agrees that she deserves to be
called a dog, and not a human being.
Why? How did she believe these
things about herself?
Well, somehow, through some work of the
Holy Spirit through His Word, she recognizes and believes that the God who
wrestled through the night with Jacob is back, traveling through Tyre and
Sidon, God in the flesh, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of David. The appearance of the Lord to Jacob in the
night is very mysterious, brief, and unique.
Moses leaves many questions we might have unanswered. But now God’s appearance is plain,
continuous, verifiable. Jesus has been
openly displaying the power of God, as He wanders about the countryside. He was in one place one day, and then walked
to another the next. You could follow
Him around; you could try to approach Him today, and then again tomorrow, and
the next. So, the Canaanite woman seeks
and finds Jesus, because she knows who He is, the One, the only One, who can
conquer the evil that has entered her life.
Like Jacob, who knew it was a special act of God’s grace that he was not
immediately struck dead in the presence of the Almighty, the Canaanite woman
sees the face of God in the man Jesus Christ, and she knew that in Him she, and
her daughter, could find real life, life free from the power of evil.
Yes indeed, the Canaanite woman confesses
a lot about Jesus, too. Have mercy on
me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter, my Canaanite daughter, is severely
oppressed by a demon. With this cry, she
confesses that God is merciful, that He cares about each and every human life,
despite how life and its trials and Planned Parenthood might try to teach you
differently. She confesses that this
Jesus of Nazareth, a man descended through His mother Mary from the line of
King David, is at the same time the Lord, the great I AM, the One who created
the heavens and the earth, the One who renamed Jacob, calling him Israel. And she confesses that this merciful Man-God
Jesus has the power to cast out demons, to rescue her daughter, and herself.
Believing and confessing these marvelous
facts, she rejoices to be called a dog by Jesus, she rejoices to argue, to
wrestle with the Lord. As Luther says,
now she has Him. When finally Jesus
responds to her pleas, even though it’s in an insult, she knows she has
Him. She knows she has Him, because
every Word that comes from the mouth of God gives life to those who trust in
His mercy. “It’s not right,” says Jesus,
“to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." She has Him now, and so rejoicing with great
joy she replies, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall
from their masters' table." Salvation is from the Jews, yes, from the
descendents of Jacob, but the Lord God who wrestled with Jacob and made him
into Israel did so for the salvation of the whole world, for the blessing of
every family on earth, as Jesus had earlier promised Jacob’s grandfather,
Abraham. In this seeming insult from
Jesus, she finds the crumb of life that she needs, that her daughter needs, the
Word with which she can hold God to His promises. A crumb from you Jesus, that’s all I
need. That’s all my daughter needs. That’s all anyone needs.
Jesus answers, "O woman, great is
your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed
instantly. Why did He do it? Jesus knew her faith. Jesus knew He would heal her daughter. Why did He treat her so harshly? For you.
Jesus knew her faith would endure, because He is the One who, by His
Word and Spirit, gave her faith in all His promises. He knew her faith would only be strengthened
by refinement, so He insulted her, to help you, and me, get over ourselves and
trust only in Him. You see, our self-importance,
our pride, our demands for special, kid-glove treatment, these are impediments
to faith. These are what threaten to
keep us on the outside, looking in with drooling muzzles, wishing for a seat at
God’s banquet, even under the table. We
don’t want anyone calling us names. We
certainly don’t want to admit that before the Almighty and Holy Lord God we are
spiritual dogs.
But the truth about ourselves that we
don’t want to hear, Jesus knows we must hear.
For if we reject the Word about ourselves, about our condition, then we
also reject the Word about the Master, the Good News that feeds poor mongrels
like you and me with the very Bread of Life, the forgiveness and healing and
eternal restoration that Jesus came to earn, and give to us.
In human, earthly terms, Jesus gave great
offense to the Canaanite woman, and also to Jacob. But because of Who they knew this man to be,
neither of these sinners took offense, for they, by God’s grace knew they were
in the very presence of God, the very source of life and healing and joy. Whatever Jesus gives, they receive with
thanksgiving. Everything that comes into
the life of a child of God is good, even when it’s painful, even when Satan or
the world or your enemies mean it for evil.
For Jesus has and will continue to work out all things, pleasant or
painful, for your eternal good. Did
someone take your pew this morning?
Perhaps the Lord knows you’ll hear better in a new spot. Did someone not smile and greet you
warmly? Perhaps Jesus is giving you an
opportunity to bear their burden, maybe even to pray for them, possibly even to
go the extra mile and greet them kindly, and speak well of them, even though
they seemed to have slighted you. Did
someone point out your sin? Thanks be to
God, rejoice exceedingly, for now you can confess your sins, to God and to your
neighbor, that they be lifted from you and taken away, forever.
We’re not to give offense, certainly not
intentionally. We are not Jesus; we
cannot read each other’s hearts. Sowe
are not called to pick on the Canaanite woman in order to teach the disciples
and the Church. That’s Jesus’ job. Insofar as we are able, we are called to
treat each other with kindness, gentleness, and the honor that is credited to
Christians by the Name of Christ. But
that name, Christ, does mean there is one offense we must always give, one
harsh truth we must always keep at the center of all we do: Jesus Christ, crucified, for my sins, for
your sins, for the sins of the whole world.
We are far worse than dogs; we are
sinners, worthy of God’s rejection, forever and ever. But in that offense, in the harsh Word of the
Cross, is also the very Bread of Life, the crumbs of the Master that have the
power to set you free. Keeping the
offense of the Cross at the center of our life together means that our remaining
sinful nature will always be offended.
You and I need to recognize and remember this. It is offensive to our sinful pride that
there is nothing we can do to save ourselves.
It is offensive to our sinful nature that God saves through a Cross, and
delivers His salvation through such unimpressive things, like mere words spoken
through the mouth of a sinner, and combined with water, wheat and wine. It is offensive to the Old Adam, that lives
on in each of us, that God calls Christians to consider themselves as nothing,
and their neighbors as though they are Christ Himself.
There is only one True reason for us to
take offense. We should take great
offense if someone tries to take away the offense of the Cross from us. If a hymn or a song suggests that
Christianity is all about what you do, if a sermon implies that your works are
required to earn forgiveness and salvation, if a teacher or a church sets aside
part of God’s Word in order to please human fashion, then with Jacob and the
Canaanite woman we must refuse to sing, we must close our ears, and confess the
whole counsel of God, come what may.
On the other hand, when we take offense
for something other than the removal of God’s True Word and Sacrament,
beware. The offense may be real. You may be in the right, or maybe not. But either way, Satan will try to use this
worldly offense to remove Jesus, and put your pride at the center of your life. So let worldly offenses go, they are of no
concern to you, for you have Jesus as your Savior. Repent, confess your doggishness, and believe
in the blood of Christ alone. With the
Canaanite woman, confess your doggishness, and claim God’s mercy. Then the angels will rejoice, and Jesus will
exclaim: How great is your faith! View
every struggle through the lens of the Cross, and Jesus will turn your
wrestling with offenses into joy and healing and everlasting life, in the Name…
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