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INJ
St Matthew 15:21-29
'Faith and Prayer'
Divine Service
The 2nd Sunday in Lent, Reminescere | February 17, 2008
Dear Saints,
Today we hear about faith and prayer, and what happens when it seems like God does not hear or answer our prayer.
First we hear about it in the Old Testament lesson from Isaiah 40. The Lord's people are growing weary waiting for the Lord's promises to come to pass. They were saying, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God.” [Isaiah 40:27] “The Lord isn't listening to me. He doesn't care about me. He hasn't heard my prayer.”
But listen to how Isaiah responds to this accusation,
27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God"? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
Even when it seems like there is a wall between us and heaven, and like there is a glass ceiling, that our prayers aren't getting through. But Isaiah says, “Look, the Lord is listening. He created the world, He doesn't get tired. He's not taking a nap. He knows best, better than us, and it is given to us to wait for Him and trust His promises.”
Isaiah gives us over to waiting, trusting in the Lord, knowing that our lives and all things are in His hands. “But I'm tired of waiting. Here I am, suffering, waiting to die, praying night and day with sighs and tears and Isaiah, you come and tell me to wait!” Yes, wait, with faith. And to keep us in this faith the Lord gives a promise,
29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
This promise is for you, all you who are weary and heavy laden, all of you who are crying out to the Lord and waiting for His answer to your prayer, the Lord promises that He will increase your strength. He will give you endurance. He will lift you up.
We have this beautiful picture of what this looks like: you shall mount up with wings like eagles. Remember a couple of months ago we had a devotion on this promise where we compared the wings of the eagle with the wings of the chicken, and I think this comparison serves us by showing the difference between our own works and faith.
When we are striving and working and laboring to get to heaven or ascend to God, we are like chickens squawking and flapping with feathers flying out everywhere just to get to the top of a fence-post. There is something ridiculous about a chicken in flight. And imagine the chicken who sets his eyes on the eagle, and says, “I want to fly up there with them.” And then pushes off the ground and flaps and flaps and flaps and then falls to the ground exhausted.
But the eagle serves us as a picture of faith. No flapping involved, the eagle simply finds an updraft of warm air and spreads out their wings. The eagle is a picture of resting, waiting, trusting. Instead of flapping our chicken wings the Lord sets us to wait, trust and rest in His promises, even through the seeming “no” or silence from God.
When we turn to the Gospel lesson we see this in action. Jesus and the disciples are in the north-east corner of Israel, and a Canaanite woman whose daughter is demonized comes to Jesus and begs Him for mercy, that He would heal her daughter.
And look how Jesus responds: “23 But he did not answer her a word.” [Matthew 15] Silence. Not a Word. But if you think that that is bad, the disciples come and try to compel Jesus to send her away, and then Jesus answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” This woman was not of the house of Israel, far from it. Being a Syro-Phonician (St Mark tells us), she was part of the pagan people whose elimination the Lord commanded to Joshua and the Israelite armies. Everything in her background made her an outsider, and the disciples show some of their Israelish sinful racism as they want her cast out.
Jesus doesn't want this, He doesn't want her far off. Jesus wants to answer her prayer and give he all that she needs, but you can't tell that yet. He says that He came for Israel, and this looks like a snub. But Jesus didn't say, “No,” so this faithful woman presses on. “Lord, help me!” And Jesus answers, “It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” Yeouch. First silence, then the Israel-only, and now she is called a dog.
Many commentators on this text point out that the Greek word here is “house dog” as opposed to the dogs that wandered the streets. They try to soften the blow, to take away some of the offensiveness of Jesus' words, but in the Bible being called a “dog” is never a good thing. But while the commentators sensibilities are offended, and perhaps even you and I are taken back by the harshness of Jesus' words, there is one person who doesn't seem offended at all, and it is this dear woman who desires that the Lord would heal her daughter.
Instead of being turned away by that word “dog” she has it as her most precious and treasured gift. “Lord, if that is Your word for me, then I'll take it. Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table. Am happy to be a dog in Your house, under Your table, and all I'm asking is for the dog's food, the crumbs that fall from the table.” She is not turned away by the Lord's words, but she trusts them, believes them, and clings to them in faithful expectation that the Lord would keep His word with her.
Luther, who loved this text, speaks of this woman: “She catches Christ with His own words, and He is happy to be caught.” [Complete Sermons of Martin Luther, 5.325]
If Jesus wants to confound someone, He can do it. We see it over and over again in His contests with the Pharisees and the Scribes. But here Jesus is leaving a loop hole, a hidden “yes”, a promise underneath troubling words. And it is the same for us.
The preaching of the Gospel comes first with the terribly insulting business of us being sinners, unworthy, unholy, unclean. But we are not turned away by this, but rather, we say, “Yes, Lord. I am a lost and condemned sinner. And You have promised that the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost. So seek and save Me.” Rather than being offended at the Lord's Word, we cling to it and hope in it, and even when it seems like the Lord's answer to our prayer is silence, we push through, persevering in prayer, and listen to His Word until He says, “Yes. Your sins are forgiven. My life is yours.”
28 Then Jesus answered her, "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly.
May the Lord continue to grant us such faith through His Word and Spirit. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO