This sermon was preached at St Peter’s Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am
Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.
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.
Let’s look at the first part of our reading. We read: And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Jesus, just previously, had been in the area around the Sea of Galilee. He had crossed over to the other side and fed five thousand people, but then also when they crossed back over the lake, Jesus miraculously walked on the water. And then when they were all on the other side of the lake, we read that there were many people who were healed by Jesus there, and some were healed simply by touching the fringe of Jesus garment. There were many things that happened in those days that wonderfully demonstrated Jesus’ power and also the fact that he was true God.
Now, after a conversation with the scribes and Pharisees, near the Sea of Galilee, Jesus keeps travelling north. The Sea of Galilee is right up the north of the territory of Israel. Our reading says that Jesus withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. It says that Jesus withdrew, as if he was going there for a rest. Just before Jesus fed the 5000, it says that he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place. Jesus does not continually put himself in the firing line, but he takes a rest when he needs it as well. He takes himself away from the busyness, and spends some time by himself, in prayer, in solitude. Here in our reading today, Jesus is doing the same thing. He goes to region of Tyre and Sidon, which today is in modern-day Lebanon. He goes quite a long way north. Now, Tyre and Sidon are mentioned many times in the bible. They were very important cities. Tyre, for example, was a fortified city, with walls. The King of Tyre had helped King David build his palace, and also helped King Solomon build the temple.
But this region, here, is outside the region of the Jews, and Jesus is going into the region where the Gentiles live. And so, the woman who comes and meets Jesus is a Gentile woman, or as the reading says: a Canaanite woman. When the people of Israel originally arrived in the promised land, they were commanded to take over and conquer the land that was inhabited by the Canaanites. We read about all this in the book of Joshua. But in those times, there were many situations, where the Canaanite people were not completely wiped out, but continued to live. And all throughout the history of Israel, we see how the people were tempted to worship the gods of the Canaanites, like Baal or Molech, and such like. So this region near the city of Tyre and Sidon is where Jesus finds himself, and the woman who comes to speak to Jesus is a Canaanite woman.
So what does this woman say to Jesus? We read that she 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.
This reading is such an amazing reading, actually. We often focus on the fact that this woman was persistent in asking Jesus for what she wanted. But at the same time, we often forget to look at what the woman was actually asking, what her prayer actually was. She says: Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.
So, we see here that she had a daughter that was oppressed by a demon. Her daughter is suffering, but she tells Jesus what kind of suffering it is: it is a demonic suffering, a suffering caused by the evil one, by a spirit, by a messenger from Satan. Today, many people, even Christians too, don’t believe in this kind of thing. There are all kinds of situations where Jesus casts out a demon from someone, and actually, if we read the Gospels carefully, Jesus is constantly doing this, it is a tremendously important part of his ministry. In fact, in the Old Testament, we read very little about demons at all. When Jesus begins his ministry following his baptism, it is almost as if he is casting out demons everywhere.
Now, at the end of Matthew 4, we read: And [Jesus] went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them.
We see that Jesus was healing all kinds of people, and some of those he healed were oppressed by demons. Not everyone was oppressed by a demon, though. There were other kinds of things going on too: diseases, paralysis, etc. Now, sometimes, today, there are two tendencies when we think about these things. Firstly, some people deny completely that there are demons and that there is anything that has to do with demons. This is one extreme. But the other is extreme is that some people think that everything wrong with people is from demons. So, when someone is struggling with sin, or is sick, or dying, there are some people who always want to perform some kind of exorcism. But the Scripture doesn’t speak like this.
But in our reading today, the woman who comes to Jesus recognises that that there is a great trouble with her daughter. She recognises that there is something else at work in her daughter that is not her daughter, another being at work. She says that her daughter is oppressed by a demon, and severely, seriously. In the mother’s eyes, her daughter has been getting worse and worse.
But also, there’s something else in these words that the mother says to Jesus. She says: Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David. First of all, it’s amazing that she recognises Jesus as the Son of David, but also she calls him her Lord. And it’s true: Jesus is the Son of David, he has descended from the family and lineage of David according to the flesh. But he is also the Lord, he is true God, the Lord of heaven and earth, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But she also says: Have mercy on me.
Now, this shows us something very important about the relationship between parents and children. Sometimes, something happens to someone’s child or children that is very worrying. Sometimes, Christian children, or any children, walk away from a good path in life, fall in with strange people, practise strange things, and sometimes their personality begins to change. There are many young people today, for example, who instead of turning to God, look to other spiritual things, by practising occult, or experimenting in things that are spiritually dangerous. And as a result, they can become spiritually troubled, and spiritually oppressed. Now, we don’t know what happened to the woman’s daughter in the reading. We don’t know if she did something, or involved herself in something, that brought about her oppression. We don’t know and we don’t need to know. What we do know is that this is the situation that is before us.
But the woman says: Have mercy—not on my daughter, but—on me. And this shows us something very special about the woman and her daughter, and in fact, any parents and their children. Because when a person’s children are troubled or oppressed, or in spiritual harm, or spiritual danger, it is not just a trouble that the child has to bear, but it is also a cross that the parent bears too. Have mercy on me, says the woman. It’s as if she says: this is not just her problem, but it is my problem. I am worried about her, I am helpless, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know how to help her. Please, Jesus, help me.
So this is the prayer that the woman brings to Jesus. This is her situation.
Now, let’s look at how things go from here. First of all, we read: But [Jesus] 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.”
Now, what’s strange about this reading is that Jesus seems to us to be acting a little out of his normal character. First of all, he doesn’t answer her all. It’s like he’s aloof, or distant, or not interested. But actually, this is not the case, right at the end of our reading, Jesus says to her: O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.
We can see that, finally, in the end, Jesus answers her prayer, and is very glad and happy to do it. He commends her for her faith, he congratulates her. Now, if Jesus had simply given to the woman exactly what she asked for in the first place, then the people who were there, and us who are reading about it years later, would actually have no idea about the great faith of this woman. We would just read it as a woman who had a problem, and that was it. But Jesus holds her at arms’ length, not to punish her, or to be unfriendly, even though he appears quite unfriendly and harsh, but to draw out from her this wonderful, strong, courageous faith that she had. Jesus knows what’s in her heart, and he draws it out from her bit by bit, so that she speaks her heart in the open, and then all of us can be blessed by it.
So, first of all, even though Jesus appears unfriendly and harsh and aloof, we can see that there’s a purpose in it all. Jesus actually uses this woman’s example to teach us about prayer, and to teach thousands and thousands of Christian people throughout the centuries how to pray. And this too, should give us some encouragement, because sometimes we have something on our mind that we should pray for, or pray about, and we pray to Jesus about it for weeks, or months, or even years. And it feels to us like Jesus doesn’t care, or he isn’t interested. Or if we are a parent like this woman, it feels like Jesus doesn’t care about our child. But in actual fact, this isn’t the case. There’s a purpose in it, there’s a reason why in our prayers Jesus wants to teach us patience. And when we pray, then, we should always leave everything to the wonderful, good and gracious will of Jesus, knowing that his time is best, his way is best, his solution is best. Actually, sometimes, we often come to Jesus as if he is just some kind of solution. He is not a solution, but he is a real person, our living Good Shepherd. And sometimes, it takes us a while to learn the lesson in prayer, that we are not coming to Jesus, as if he is a solution, or a system, or a button that we just press, but that he is a real person, our real God, our real resurrection Lord and Saviour.
So first of all, it says: But he did not answer her a word. What does the woman do next? It says: And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” As the woman’s energy and desperation increases, she asks the other people who are close to Jesus to ask him too. This often happens with us too: when we feel as though our prayers are unanswered, we speak to other Christians about it, and ask them to pray too. And sometimes, a person’s burden, then becomes other people’s burdens. In the case of the disciples who come to Jesus and beg him, it says, this is not their daughter, and they don’t care about her in quite the same way and with quite the same intensity as the mother. So they say to Jesus: Send her away, for she is crying out after us. It’s almost as if they say: Do something, will you! She’s driving us nuts!
But Jesus says: I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now, this is a very strange thing. First of all, we see that Jesus has withdrawn into the region of Tyre and Sidon, as we said earlier, which was outside the promised land, where the people of Israel lived. What lost sheep was Jesus trying to find up there? We know that Jesus was sent to live his life, the days of his flesh, as it is called, among the Jewish people, in the Jewish land. And it’s not really until after Jesus’ resurrection, that he sends his disciples out into all the corners of the world.
But there are many situations where people who are not Jews receive help from Jesus, like the Samaritan woman, the Roman centurions, and all kinds of people. It’s true, that the Gospel first went to the Jews, and then to the Gentiles second. All the apostles were Jews, and then the Gospel went out into all the world through them.
Sometimes, we feel in our prayer, that we bring our need to Jesus, and we know that only he can help us, but we think that maybe we’re just the kind of person that should be helped. Other people may be worthy of it, other people might be more privileged or significant than us, other people might have a direct hotline to Jesus, but not us.
And so, what does the woman do at this point? Does she simply walk off? Does she give up? Does she throw in the towel?
We read: But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” Here we see, that she just throws herself at Jesus’ mercy, in all of her desperation, in all of her need, and lays it all there.
What does Jesus say? He says: It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.
Now, this is a very harsh word from Jesus. And many of us today even might be offended by it, and quite disturbed by it. Why does Jesus call her a “dog”?
Well, first of all, it is not because she is a woman. Jesus doesn’t look down on women, or treat them as second-class people. There are many situations all throughout the Gospels where Jesus treats many woman with the utmost seriousness and respect, and sometimes people are quite surprised by it, especially at a time in history when men and women didn’t talk to teach other so openly and freely.
But I’ve often wanted to ask this question, why does Jesus say this? Well, I think the best explanation for it, is that we read that the woman was a Canaanite. And we read all throughout the Old Testament about all kinds of situations with the Canaanites, the Philistines, or whoever, who worshipped other gods, who sacrificed their children, who consulted witches and mediums and clairvoyants. In short, the Canaanites were constantly involved in all kinds of evil practices, and were constantly giving themselves into the hands of Satan and his demons. And also, they were constantly tempting and alluring God’s people, the Jewish people, into idolatry. In the book of Deuteronomy, especially, there are all kinds of warnings to God’s people not to worship the gods of Canaanites, not to follow their practises, and not to worship God in the way that they worship their gods.
Even if we study today the paganism and pagan religions of the world, whether it is the traditional religions from Africa, or South America, or even Hinduism in India, or even the New Age movement in western countries, what we find there is incredible superstition and darkness. And this is the kind of people that this Canaanite woman was from. Perhaps, the demonic oppression of her daughter had something to do with the practices of these people.
In the Middle East then, back then in the time of Jesus, and even now in Arab countries, a “dog” is considered a dirty animal. It’s not like us, where we keep pet dogs. In those days, people saw dogs as dirty, filthy, they rummaged through the rubbish and the trash. And in a similar way, there is a spiritual dirtiness when people go to idolatry and worship other gods, and follow strange practices. People are simply rummaging through spiritual garbage, at a spiritual rubbish dump.
And so this woman, who comes to Jesus, acknowledging him as her Lord, as the Son of David, she knows full well who her people are. She knows they are of no help to her. She knows that there is nothing to be recycled out of their spiritual garbage dumps. She knows that their practices are filthy, and she see in Jesus complete and total holiness, and authority, and graciousness, and mercy.
And so she says to him: Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table. She says: Yes, I know that I am a dog, I know that I am from the wrong kind of people, I know who we are, and I know what we have done, and I know that there will be a judgment for us. But, even dogs need to be fed, she says. Even dogs need the crumbs. I am happy to be called a dog, but I still need to be fed by you.
And this is the wonderful example that Jesus wants to draw out of her for the benefit of everyone. This is the what Jesus commends when he says: O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire. We are all completely helpless, rotten sinners, wretches, dogs scavenging on the rubbish heap. And yet, we have a Saviour who feeds us, and not just with crumbs, but who prepares a wonderful banquet for us. He forgives us our sins, he helps us in our need. He washes us clean in the waters of baptism, and gives us a foretaste of the heavenly banquet by feeding us with his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.
So, let’s commend our prayers to Jesus, and persist in prayer, and yet at the same time, we should prepared to learn whatever wonderful lesson he will gracious teach us along the way. Because when we think we are not being listened to or heard when we pray, when we think Jesus is being aloof or distant, it is not the case. He is in actual fact our Good Shepherd who is leading us closer and closer to himself, and who is shaping us and forming us according to his will and his heart. Wait for the Lord! He will make his reasons and his purposes clear in good time. In the meantime, let’s trust in him for everything, for our salvation, our spiritual health, for our physical health, and strength, and energy, and encouragement, and even when we see people in need who are troubled, let’s also trust in Jesus to provide for those whom we love, our family, our children and friends. And so, we commend ourselves, our needs, and the needs of others, into his hands, and to his mercy. Amen.
And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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