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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
We see right and wrong divisions in our society over all sorts of things, including such things as politics and “race”, what is arguably a social construct based on physical attributes such as skin color: for example, no matter your politics, it is hard to imagine that there were not wrongful divisions in the selection of the Democratic nominee for Vice President announced this past week, since the top criteria were sex and skin color. Similarly we see divisions in today’s Gospel Reading: for example, those over family lines, those descended from Adam and Eve’s son Cain, in contrast to those descended from Adam and Eve’s son Seth, especially those through Seth’s descendent Abraham and through his descendant Jacob, who is also called Israel. And, we see division in our Pilgrim congregation, too: for example, over such things as the use and nonuse of facemasks and social-distancing and perceptions, right or wrong, of some as having lesser faith and others as having greater faith. In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus to some extent transcended differences of family lines, calling the Canaanite woman’s faith “great”, seemingly for overcoming three obstacles and being content with the “crumbs” falling from the Master’s Table, and, in our Pilgrim congregation, our divisions can be healed by and we benefit in other ways from reflecting on today’s Gospel Reading in view of the theme “Great faith and Gospel crumbs”.
Today’s Gospel Reading gives us the setting for Jesus’s encounter with the Canaanite woman, the extended conversation consisting of both four statements addressed to Jesus and His “responses”, and the conclusion of the encounter. Jesus’s first three “responses” are said to create obstacles to the woman’s faith and make us surprised when Jesus’s fourth “response”—the only one that St. Matthew says is directed to her—finally grants her request. (Davies and Allison, ad loc Matthew 15:21-28, pp.541.) With Jesus’s responses viewed as the obstacles to her faith, less critical is whether the disciples wanted Jesus to send the woman away with or without her request’s being satisfied; if they wanted her sent away without her request’s being satisfied, perhaps the disciples thought that she, as a Gentile, was not worthy of Jesus’s help, and Jesus’s “response” then seemingly affirmed that she was not part of His being sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Of course, probably most if not all of us are Gentiles by our family lines, so we also can be said to stand in that same relationship to Jesus’s being sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Or, like the Canaanite woman, we may have members of our families whose health and well-being we are concerned about and for whom we seek the Lord’s help, even if they are not demon-possessed. Or, like the disciples, we may be judging between people on a wrong basis; even though I have been saying for months that we should not unnecessarily judge either those who do wear facemasks in church or those who do not wear facemasks in church, some are doing precisely that kind of judging over facemasks, or dividing people over whether or not they are social‑distancing. Yet, some judgment may be necessary for those whose fear of the coronavirus and its potential temporal death eclipse their fear of and faith in God, Who gives eternal life. One way or another, all of us by nature are lost sheep headed for eternal destruction. As today’s Epistle Reading put it, (Romans 11:1-2a, 13-15, 28-32), God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all. In the end, then, arguably the only division that has a Biblical basis is that division between those who do not repent of their sin and trust God to forgive their sin and those who do repent of their sin and trust God to forgive their sin. Which are you?
When, enabled by God, we repent of our sin and trust God to forgive our sin, then God does forgive our sin. God forgives all of our sin, whatever our sin might be. God forgives our sin not because we have great faith or even because we have faith at all, but God forgives our sin for Jesus’s sake. In the Gospel Reading, Jesus may have “withdrawn” to the district of Tyre and Sidon in order to have prevented His death right then (confer Gibbs, ad loc Matthew 15:21, pp.782, 785), but, when His hour came, Jesus did not withdraw but went to Jerusalem to die on the cross for the sins of the world, including your sins and mine. As the Canaanite woman confessed Him to be, Jesus is the Son of David, Who, like His ancestor was born in Bethlehem and entered Jerusalem to rule. God loved us by sending Jesus as the Good Shepherd to seek and save the lost (Ezekiel 34:16; Luke 19:10), by laying down His life and taking it back up again (John 10:17-18). On the cross, Jesus died in our place, the death that we otherwise would have deserved. Both Jewish “children” and Gentile “dogs” have their place, but God’s grace ultimately extends to both (Michel, TDNT 3:1104). Jesus may have called the Canaanite woman’s faith “great” because it saw the greatness and fullness of God’s grace extending to Jew and Gentile (Franzmann, Follow Me, 142; confer Davies and Allison, ad loc Matthew 15:28, p.556). Whether born of a Jewish line or of a Gentile line, all who repent of their sin and trust God to forgive their sin for Jesus’s sake are spiritual descendants of Abraham and true Israelites. Either way, we end up with the bread or its crumbs; either way, we end up with Jesus.
When it comes to the Gospel, no amount is so small as to be insignificant! The Canaanite woman, who must have heard about Jesus from others, came to Jesus crying out, “Have mercy on me, O Lord!” She worshipped Him saying, “Lord, help me!” The highest way of worshipping Christ is by seeking and receiving the forgiveness of sins from Him (Apology of the Augsburg Confession, IV:154-155, 310), and God gives that forgiveness of sins through the ministers whom He sends’ using His Word in all of its forms: read and preached to groups like this, and applied to individuals with water in Holy Baptism, with the pastor’s touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine that are Christ’s Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. According to His own mercy, God saves us in Holy Baptism’s washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). In Holy Absolution we are sent away in peace, with our request granted, the sins that we privately confessed forgiven by our pastor as by God Himself. And in the Sacrament of the Altar, no matter how much or how little bread or wine we receive, we receive all of Christ’s Body and Blood given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Like the Canaanite woman, we overcome whatever obstacles we must overcome in order to receive here even the smallest pieces of the bread that is our Lord Jesus Christ.
God’s Word and Sacraments not only forgive our sins, but they also do so much more. They strengthen and preserve us in body and soul to life everlasting. They help us battle our fears of things like the coronavirus and its potential temporal death. They help us deal with the obstacles to our faith, whether what seems like God’s delay in answering our petitions or an answer that is not what we wanted. They strengthen our weak faith so that it is stronger. They help us bear with those whose faith is weaker. God’s Word and Sacraments not only forgive our sins, but they also help us forgive our brothers and sisters in Christ who sin against us, and so they help us live together in the forgiveness of sins. Oh, how we hurt ourselves when we do not come to receive them, and, oh, with any faith, what great crumbs we receive!
In society, some political division may be necessary, but division over physical attributes such as skin color is not necessary, for we all descend from Noah and before him Adam. In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus to some extent transcended the division between Jew and Gentile, as God intended already in the Old Testament, including today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 56:1, 6-8). And, in our Pilgrim congregation, as we have considered “Great faith and Gospel crumbs”, God’s forgiveness of sins should help heal divisions we see here, for we are one in Christ. And God, Who at times may seem to be hidden from us as if behind a mask, as we sang in today’s Psalm (Psalm 67; antiphon: v.5), makes His face shine upon us. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +