Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Matthew 15:21-28)
Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
In our reading, last Sunday we read about Jesus temptation in the wilderness. For forty days and forty nights, Jesus doesn’t eat or drink. And then at the end of these forty days we read that the devil comes to tempt him. And Jesus wrestles with him, argues him, with the clear word of God. And Jesus wins the victory over him.
In our reading today, we also have a situation of great temptation. But this time it’s not Jesus against Satan. But a Canaanite woman against Jesus.
But here’s the difference: in our reading last Sunday, the devil makes himself look so pious, so nice, so friendly to Jesus. The devil makes his promises look attractive and beautiful. But in actual fact, they’re sick, twisted and perverted. Just like with Adam and Eve, the devil comes and says: “Did God really say?” It’s not all that bad. Just have a bit of fruit. It’s looks nice! It’s tasty. You won’t die.
But you see, this is exactly how the devil works. He’s all nice and friendly before the temptation, but as soon as we cross that threshold and give in to the temptation, then he comes down with his hammer: “Bang, bang, bang.” He says, “You’re stupid!” “Why did you do that for?” Accusation! Condemnation! Despair! Guilt! Hell! He throws one fiery arrow after another. He comes to finish off the hunt: once he’s got the deer caught in one place, then he comes in for the kill. He comes in and circles you, and makes sure that you come to the conclusion that there is no hope for you at all, that there is God who is there for you, that your sins are too big for his mercy.
In 1 John 4 we read: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
This is such a difficult thing to do, but with God’s help, everything is made clear, and it is made clear through his word, and through experience.
You see, a false spirit and false prophets demand everything from you. They demand that you give, give, give. And then they hang you out to dry. But a true spirit, the Holy Spirit, and true prophets, like Jesus Christ, the true Son of God of man in one person, our Lord and our God – don’t take from you. Instead, they give to you. Jesus showers his mercy on you, he pours out his Holy Spirit for you, he gives his body into death on the cross, he gives you all the blessings of the resurrection in Holy Baptism, he gives you his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. But false gods, false prophets, false spirits, they give out false gifts: and then all they do is take.
I heard it once said that: Every idol, every false god, demands sacrifices.
I also heard it once said: The true God gives his body and blood. A false god wants to take your body and blood.
So we also see how the devil makes bad things look good. But then we fall into the devil’s trap, he doesn’t have anything more to give us than to pound us and make us despair of God.
So in our reading today, we have a very strange situation.
This is what we read:
Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
Now we are not used to seeing Jesus look like this. In our reading, we seem to have a cold-hearted Jesus, an aloof Jesus. He is so different here, so unlike we would expect him. What about when he goes around and touches all the little children and lays his hands on them and blesses them? What about when he feeds the 5000 people? What about when he calms the storm and makes the sea to be still?
Here we see a cold, hard-faced Jesus, who is difficult to recognise. It almost looks like it’s not the same person who we know in other parts of the gospel.
But Jesus teaches us a very valuable lesson. So often the devil makes himself look good and attractive. But on the other hand, Jesus also makes himself look ugly and unattractive.
So often we want to find Jesus in everything that makes us comfortable, that makes us feel good. But then, are we prepared to come and have an argument with Jesus, like this woman in our reading today?
But we need to be really careful: we know Jesus is good, but we have to look for everything good in Jesus alone. If we want to find Jesus in everything that we think is good, then we’ve got it the wrong way around. Because it could be the devil.
One of the greatest temptations in our world today is that people want to be entertained. And so, they look for Jesus only in the places where they feel entertained – but the church is not a concert, it’s not a TV soap-opera. If you want to be entertained, then the devil will do that fine.
One thing that I often hear as a pastor is that people look down on the church because of the people that are there. So people say: “I don’t want to go to that church, because there aren’t any people my own age.” Or “I don’t want to go to that church because I don’t like a certain person.”
But what’s that got to do with hearing the gospel and receiving the sacraments? Sure: get to know people, share the company of your fellow Christians, but that’s not the mark of a true church. Sometimes I have heard parents even cash into this lie, where they say: “I don’t want to go to that church, because there aren’t any people my children’s age.” And what happens? They teach their kids a lesson from the devil: that the ages of people in a church are a perfectly valid reason not to go there. But Jesus may be found when you are the only old person in a congregation full of babies. And Jesus may also be found when you are the only young person in a congregation full of old folks. Never mind: what matters is whether the word is preached purely, and the sacraments administered rightly.
We want wealth and money, we want full stomachs and comfort, we want laughter and happiness, we want praise and compliments. And there are plenty of false prophets who will give you all of that, but they won’t necessarily be Jesus.
Jesus says: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your same as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”
You see, Jesus doesn’t let the church of God look respectable. It’s a despised, hated, spurned little group. It’s a humble thing. It’s marked with the sufferings of the cross. But the synagogue of Satan always looks exciting, it always look glitzy – but it’s empty. And it takes all your strength from you, all your life from you, and when you’re down it can’t raise you up, but kicks you in the gutter.
Beloved, test the spirits so see whether they are from God.
And so, in our reading today, Jesus turns off his friendly switch.
The woman says: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.”
But he did not answer her a word. He gives her the cold shoulder. He says nothing. Sometimes we think that Jesus isn’t listening or that he’s simply deaf to our prayers. Sometimes we want him to speak directly to us, but we can’t hear it. The reason for this is not to make us despair or to make us turn away, but to persist, and talk to him again.
So the disciples of Jesus even come to speak on her behalf: “Send her away, for she is cry out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Often when people are unhappy with Jesus, they go to the disciples of Jesus and ask them their opinion instead. So, for example, often as a pastor, people ask me questions about clear passages in the bible, hoping that I might twist them around for them to make them say what they want them to say. It’s a real sign of the devil’s work, when people stop asking “What does the Scripture say?” and start asking “What does the church say?” What the Scriptures teach and what the church teaches should always be one and the same thing. So the disciples come to Jesus and they want him to fix the problem. But Jesus won’t let the woman have her problem fixed through the disciples. Jesus wants her to ask what she wants from himself, and from himself alone.
So she asks: “Lord, help me.” And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Here he even insults her, and says something that could “hurt her feelings”, so to speak.
She doesn’t care though. She says: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
And Jesus answered here: “O woman, great is your faith! Be is done for you as you desire.” And we read that her daughter was healed instantly.
So don’t be put off by Jesus here! Argue with him. Hold Jesus to his own words. The devil wants life to be easy, to be respectable, to friendly – but then he kicks you later. Jesus shows you that there is a cross for you which you need no embrace. He wants to show you that you are completely unworthy of everything that he has to give you – but then he showers you with every gift of grace that you need.
The bare word of God, the water of holy baptism, the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper – all these things don’t look respectable at all. They can look useless to us sometimes, unentertaining, cold, unfriendly. And the devil turns you away from these things to other things.
But argue with Jesus! Let him show you how gracious he is. Don’t be satisfied with a hard face and a cold shoulder! He will give you what your heart desires: most importantly, he forgives you all your sins, he gives you eternal life, salvation, and it all begins here on earth in the church, through preaching, baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Be it done for you as you desire!
Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, sometimes we don’t understand what you want for us, and you look like you are giving us the cold shoulder. Keep us faithful and persistent, and not be fooled into believing the lies of the devil. Stay with us and remain with us, and never let us go. Amen.
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