1 Thessalonians 4.1-7 + Matthew 15.21-28
Reminiscere, the 2nd Sunday in Lent
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear Christian, you know that you have many enemies in this life. You have the devil as your opponent. We heard about this in last Sunday’s gospel and Wednesday evening’s lesson. He wants to sift you like wheat so that your faith fails. Along with the devil you also have the world and your very own flesh as opponents. Both tempt you to sin, to conform your thinking to sinful thinking, and thus to erode your faith, leading you into hypocrisy or apostasy. It is with these enemies in mind that St. Paul writes to the Ephesians, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:11–12). We equip ourselves with the armor of God. We use the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, His word, the “it is written,” to defend ourselves. By faith in God’s word is how we wrestle against these opponents who want to prevail against us.
In today’s gospel lesson, the Canaanite woman who approaches Jesus has been wrestling against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age in a very tangible way. Her daughter is severely-demon possessed. A devil has set up residence within her beloved child, and by doing so, has set up set up residence in the woman’s conscience. For the demon terrorizes her daughter, which terrorizes her conscience as she must helplessly watch the demon afflict her dear child. Having wrestled against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age in such a heart wrenching and tangible way, the news that Jesus has come into the region of Tyre and Sidon, gives her hope. Even in this region, north of Galilee, outside the ancient boundaries of Israel, she has heard the good report about Jesus, that He has power to cast out demons, and that He is merciful to the afflicted. This Canaanite woman has heard these things and believes them, even that Jesus is the Son of David, the Messiah of the world. Although Jesus had entered a house and wanted no one to know it (Mk 7:24), everyone knows it. Armed with this faith in Jesus, she seeks Him out, for He can wrestle this demonic opponent of hers to the ground and drive it out of her daughter.
But when she finds Jesus, she finds an unexpected opponent. She cries out, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.” Her prayer has everything. She confesses Jesus to be the Lord and Messiah. She makes her request known to Him. She asks Him to mercifully come to her aid, defeat her opponent who tyrannizes her. But He answer her not a word. He ignores her. His disciples urge their Lord to sent her away, “for she cries out after us.” He tells them, but so that the Canaanite woman can overhear, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” She had come to Jesus for help but finds an opponent in Him instead. He slips out of her hold by making it clear that He hasn’t come to help those not of Israel.
But the Canaanite woman, being thrown off, doesn’t give up. Even though God Himself has become her opponent, she engages Him and begins to wrestle with Him for the blessing she came for. She came to Jesus for mercy. She came to Him for help. She falls down at His feet in humble supplication and cries out, “Lord, help me!” She grapples with Jesus and will not Him go until He gives her His mercy, His help, and His blessing. But Jesus evades that move as well, using a stronger version of His first countermove. “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” It was as if He were saying, “I have come to give the children of Israel the bread of life. You are not a daughter of Jacob, so to help you would be no different than taking what was meant for the children who sit at the table and give it to the house dogs.” For most, the match would be over at this point. Most would see Jesus as their enemy, as One who will not help, as one who does not want to help. They would tap the mat and surrender.
But not this Canaanite woman. She engages her opponent yet again; despise the pain his last move may have caused. She says, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master’s table.” She does not give up. Not only does she not give up; she takes the words of Jesus and uses them against Him. She takes the words of Jesus, even the His words comparing her to a little dog that doesn’t get the children’s food and runs with it. She admits that she is not a child of Jacob. She knows He is right. She doesn’t have a seat at the table with the children of Israel. She is a little dog. But even dogs get the crumbs which fall from their master’s table. Whatever crumbs Jesus allows to fall, she will snatch up as her own. She may not have a set at the table, but she’s not leaving the dinning room until Jesus drops a morsel of mercy and a crumb of compassion.
And at that, it’s her opponent who surrenders. He answers and says, “O woman, great is your faith!” He submits and praises her tenacious trust that believes He will give her His mercy, His help, and His blessing. “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as your desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour. She did not allow her daughter’s affliction to deter her. She did not allow Christ’s silence to stop her, or her own unworthiness to unnerve her. She took Jesus at His word, first, at the word which she had heard about Him, then His words spoken specifically to her. She takes His word that she is unworthy, that as a Canaanite she is comparable to a little dog and uses that word to prevail against her opponent. And that is why Jesus gave her His word. He is the opponent who wanted her to prevail against Him by using His word in faith.
In this she shows that, though she is not a flesh-and-blood Israelite, she is more Israelite than most biological sons of Jacob. Jacob wrestled with God Himself at the fords of the Jabbock River in Genesis 32. His brother Esau was approaching Him with four hundred men, and he had no idea what Esau intended to do. Jacob had done all that was in his power. The Angel of the Lord—the preincarnate Son of God—wrestles with Jacob throughout the night. Jacob wrestles to get a blessing from God because God is the One who told Jacob to return to His home. When the Lord saw that He did not prevail against Jacob, touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him (Gen 32:2). Even that did not stop Jacob, so that God had to say, “Let Me go, for the day breaks” (Gen 32:26). But Jacob would not let the Angel of the Lord go until He blessed him, until He answered his prayer. And Jacob prevails. Not because Jacob was stronger than God—he wasn’t—but because God wanted Jacob to prevail by faith. This Canaanite woman is more an Israelite than most Israelites in Jesus’ day.
Jesus praises the woman’s faith— O woman, great is your faith! —because He wants to draw your attention to it. This faith of hers, which trusted the good news about Jesus—the gospel—made her a spiritual daughter of Jacob, even as the faith which He has created and sustains in your hearts makes you true Israelites. St. Paul teaches in Romans 9:8, “Those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.”
But Jesus also praises the Canaanite woman’s faith to strengthen your faith as well, so that in affliction you wrestle with God in prayer and do not give up, despite tears and pain. He wants you follow this woman’s example, so that when you feel your unworthiness—and we are all unworthy for the things for which we pray—you give thanks that despite your unworthiness, He wants to you to pray. He gives you the Canaanite woman’s example, so that when it seems that God is silent to your prayers, even that He is your opponent, reminding you that you are but a little dog under the table, you remember what kind of opponent you’re dealing with. The devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh do not want you to prevail against them. They desire your defeat, and they work tirelessly and shrewdly to bring your faith to ruin. But God is the opponent who wants you to prevail against Him with faith that He hears you, with faith that He only gives good things to His children, and with faith that wrestles with Him until He give you the help, aid, and blessing you need. Amen.
May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds Christ Jesus. Amen.
