Lent 2
– February 20/21, 2016 – Matthew 15:21-28
In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
If you
would understand the battle our Lord wages against Satan this Lent,
indeed, if you would understand the Christian faith, you need to have
your pride kicked out of you and be made humble. This is what we see
in our Gospel lesson today, for if you view your life and the world
with eyes that are proud and self-focused, you will miss, you will
fail to see your humble Lord Christ Jesus and the salvation He wins
for you. I know this is a bold statement, but what we see in our
text is the second half of a comparison, a comparison between the
pride of the Jews, on the one hand, and the humble faith of the
Canaanite woman on the other.
Before
we look at our Gospel text, we need consider what happened before
hand – after all, our lesson starts, “and
Jesus went away from there…” Away
from where? Well, Jesus was in Judea, and if you read chapter 15
from the beginning, you see that Pharisees and Scribes from Jerusalem
had come up to Jesus and started grilling him about commandments and
tradition. Now, we are not going to look at the first 20 verses in
detail, but what we see in them is pride. You have this pride that
these Jewish leaders show in their heritage, in the fact that they
are Jews. You have pride in their works, how good they are, how
obedient they are. In fact, when Jesus responds to them and teaches
them, they get offended – the disciples actually come up to Jesus
all worried because He said something that offended such good, fine
Jewish folks. The disciples too hold on to their Jewish pride a bit
too much – they too view themselves as good people because, after
all they are nice Jewish folks who try their best to follow all the
commandments and rules.
So
Jesus leads them away from Judea, and He “withdrew
to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman
from that region was crying, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of
David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.’”
So they leave the Jewish lands behind, and suddenly this foreign
woman shows up begging for mercy. First, let’s consider this. At
that time Jewish men didn’t like non-Jews, by in large. Jewish men
didn’t like women, by in large. So basically there is no sort of
type of person that a guy holding onto Jewish cultural pride would
disdain and despise more than a Canaanite woman. Just would be
repulsed by her. So here you have a contrast between the “Good”
Jewish folks and the despised Canaanite woman. Bear this in mind.
And this woman comes up and begs for Jesus to help her daughter who
is possessed. And she asks beautifully. First, she calls Jesus
“Lord” – calls Him God. She calls Him “Son of David” –
not only God but also the One who by rights should be the earthly
ruler, the Ruler who should dominate and crush her own people. When
she calls Jesus the Lord, when she calls Him Son of David, this is a
powerful statement of who Jesus is. True God, true Man. So this gal
is spot on theologically. And as Christ comes to fight off Satan and
to destroy His power, casting out the demon that is bothering her
daughter is right up His wheelhouse – simple, easy, knock this one
out of the park.
“But
He did not answer her a word.” Jesus
doesn’t say anything. Now, a lot of people will make this the
focus of the text – and their sermons on this text will become
sermons on how we should be persistent in prayer, how even when it
seems like God doesn’t answer us we should keep on praying. And
that is true – be persistent in your prayer. But I’m going to
say that Christ isn’t quiet here in order to teach us to pray more
– He’s quiet to drive home a point with the disciples, with us.
So there Jesus is, just letting this woman wail at Him, and finally
the disciples intervene. “And His
disciples came and begged Him saying, ‘Send her away, for she is
crying out after us.’” And the
disciples fail miserably. They give the world's worst prayer. Send
her away. Not “please heal her quickly, Jesus.” Not, “Hurry
Lord, and beat down Satan.” So strong, so powerful is the
disciples’ self-pride, and so powerful is their disdain of this
woman that they beg, beg Jesus to send her away. Send her away, cast
her away from us as though she herself were a demon, not a mother
pleading for aid against a demon.
Jesus
will now throw the disciples’ pride right back in their face. “He
answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.’”
Note, Jesus isn’t talking to the woman here – He’s answering
the disciples. Alright disciples, you think you are so high and
mighty because you are Jews, you think you are the only ones worthy
of interacting with the Messiah – fine, I guess I can’t deal with
her since she’s not as cool as you – you’ll just have to put up
with her begging, because if I'm to be the pious jerk of a fellow
that you want me to be, I'll just have to ignore her. Jesus just
throws their pride and arrogance right back at them.
Then a
thing that is wondrous happens. “But she
came and knelt before Him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’”
The woman is adamant – she knows that Jesus is the One who can
help her, and so she is going to keep on seeking His help. Excellent
on her part. But before He aids her, Jesus is going to have her help
in teaching the disciples. “And He
answered, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw
it to the dogs.’” That answer is
true – I mean, if any of you let your children starve because you
gave their dinner to the dogs, well, that would just be horrible.
But the answer, well, if you imply that a woman is a female dog, that
was just as insulting in Jesus’ day as it is in ours. And remember
what I had said earlier – the Pharisees had been offended by what
Jesus had said earlier in this chapter – if anything then we should
expect this woman to be offended, to say, “How dare you Jesus.”
Her pride would surely be thoroughly cut by this statement.
But
it’s not. Her pride and arrogance are already done for. “She
said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from
their masters’ tables.’” Jesus
says to this woman, “you are lowly and you do not deserve My help.”
And the woman says, “You’re right, Lord, I do not deserve your
help – I am a lowly dog, but masters care for their dogs, so I know
You will care for me.” Do you see what happened? Because the
woman isn’t trying to defend her own ego, because the woman isn’t
concerned with her status or how respected she is, because she does
not act in pride, she sees Christ Jesus for who He is. He is the
gracious master who cares even for one as lowly as her.
And we
know what happens next. “Then Jesus
answered her, ‘O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as
you desire.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.” The
woman understands. When it comes to her faith, to her relationship
with God – it is not determined by how wonderful she is. She can
claim no noble birth – she’s not from the right family. She
doesn’t point to her works. She doesn’t say that she’s been a
good little girl who deserves blessings. Rather this – her eyes
are focused in humility upon Christ and who He is. She simply
confesses that He is God and that He is gracious – and so she sees
and understands. By faith she sees Christ.
Dear
friends, I cannot overemphasize how dangerous pride is, how dangerous
a reliance upon works is. Whenever we start thinking prideful
thoughts, be it pride in our heritage – why we were born and raised
in this Church – or pride in our works – why, I’m a pretty good
person and I do things pretty well – whenever we think along these
lines we put our faith in jeopardy. Why? Because thoughts like
these focus us upon ourselves. I was raised rightly, I’m from a
good family, I do good stuff. I, I, I. And it’s such a false
focus. Who cares if you were raised right if you are doing
wickedness and foolishness now? Who cares if you came from a good
family if you disdain God now? Who cares that you are nice – we’re
supposed to be perfect – nice doesn’t cut anything. And yet, in
sinful pride, we can want to focus on ourselves, and we forget God,
we write Him off, we don’t see our need for His mercy, for His
forgiveness. This place, this service becomes less and less
important – we start thinking we don’t get anything out of it…
which is really saying that we think the forgiveness of sins is
worthless, that we don’t really need it. That we don’t really
need God, who comes here to be present for us. And pride crushes and
tries to kill faith.
Our
pride is a problem, and so Christ Jesus calls us to repentance, calls
us to humility. He calls us to not think highly of ourselves, but
instead to confess that we are both lowly and in need. To confess
that we do not deserve any benefits from God, that God doesn’t owe
us anything. But rather, simply because He is good, because He is
full of love, because Christ Jesus stands and pleads for us, because
of these reasons we seek forgiveness and mercy from God, and God does
give His forgiveness to us.
It is
a beautiful contrast we will see in Lent, in our Lord’s Passion.
We can be so proud, we struggle with this pride, we can easily
disdain folks and applaud ourselves. But in contrast to this, in
contrast to our sin and failure, consider Christ Jesus and His
passion. Where does His pride enter in? It never does. Even though
He is true God, God Almighty, the very Word which called forth all
creation into existence – He lets Himself be arrested, even though
legions of angels would come at His command. He lets Himself be
mocked and beaten and sorely abused, even though lighting or
brimstone could come at His whim and smite those who abused Him. He
is not worried about His dignity, but is instead nailed naked to a
cross, exposed to the elements for all the world to see, and is left
to die. But there, His thoughts are not about His own pride and
dignity – His thoughts are upon you, upon wining Salvation for you
and forgiveness for your sins of pride and all your sins. That is
our Lord’s great humility, His great love for you.
With
humility, humility that God brings forth in us by the power of His
Word and Spirit, we are taught to see this, taught to believe this.
We learn more and more to call out to God, “Have mercy upon us” –
knowing that He will have mercy, not because of our goodness, but
because of Christ Jesus’ goodness. We know and believe that Christ
does not hold Himself aloft and away from us, but He Himself comes
down under humble, simple elements of bread and wine, and in His
Supper He comes to give us His true Body and Blood for our
forgiveness. Pride would have us ignore these mysteries and wonders;
pride would have us find better things to do – but Christ Jesus is
indeed Your Lord, and He has given you the gift of faith, and He
forgives you your sin and gives you strength through His Word and
Supper so that you might learn more and more to beat down pride and
all sins, and rather to ever more see His love for you more clearly.
God grant such grace to us all. In the Name of Christ the Crucified
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1 comment:
Spectacular Sermon!
-cbburhop Sault Ste. Marie, MI
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