Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 17, 2008
The Rev. Charles Henrickson
Jesus and the Canine-ite Woman (Matthew 15:21-28)
How is it with your faith? Do you have a strong
faith, strong enough to persevere, in spite of
obstacles? Or is it a faith that easily gives up?
How is it with your faith? Or to put it another way:
How do you view God? Do you see him as holding out on
you? As being stingy with his gifts? Unwilling to
help? Or do you see him, rather, as rich in mercy,
abounding in grace, ready and willing to help? What
kind of faith, in what kind of God--that is the
question for today. And our text today will enable us
to give an answer. What kind of faith? Persevering
faith. What kind of God? A merciful Lord.
Persevering faith in a merciful Lord--thats what we
find in the story of Jesus and the Canaanite woman.
The story begins with Jesus going up to the district
of Tyre and Sidon. Tyre and Sidon are cities that are
outside the boundaries of Israel--theyre up north,
along the coast. This is Gentile territory that Jesus
is entering. The people who lived there were not
Jews; they did not follow the religion of Israel.
They were Gentiles--pagans, we might say.
A Canaanite woman from that region came to Jesus, it
says. Its interesting that Matthew uses the word
Canaanite to describe her. We sometimes call her
the Syrophoenician woman, based on how Mark
describes her in his account. But Matthew calls her a
Canaanite. Thats an old-style word, an Old
Testament word for the people who were living in the
land of Canaan back when the Israelites moved in. The
Canaanites were Gentiles, pagans, outside of the
covenant the Lord had made with Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. Yet they were in close enough contact, close
enough proximity, to have some knowledge about the
religion of Israel.
And this woman apparently did. For she comes to
Jesus, crying out, Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of
David. Notice the title she uses, Son of David.
Thats a messianic term. The Messiah whom God had
promised would be the Son of David--a physical
descendant of the great King David, and the greatest
one of all, even greater than David himself. The Lord
had promised David that one of his sons would reign on
his throne forever. And this Son of David, this
Messiah, this Christ, would usher in a glorious reign
of blessing for Israel and--and this was the point
that was often forgotten by Israel--a glorious reign
of blessing for all the other nations, too. When
Messiah comes, his blessing would extend to the
Gentiles as well as to Israel. The nations would come
running to Israel in those days, to receive the Lords
blessing--much as this Canaanite woman is doing now,
in coming to Jesus.
So this woman must have known the prophecies about the
coming Messiah, the Son of David. She knew something
of those promises, and it gave her faith. She was
waiting and looking for the coming of the Christ. And
she recognized in Jesus the one who was fulfilling
those prophecies. She saw in him the promised Son of
David. Faith looks to Jesus as the fulfiller of Gods
promises. The Canaanite woman must have heard what
Jesus was doing, his healings, his miracles, his acts
of mercy. That emboldened her now to come forward
with her request.
Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter
is severely oppressed by a demon. Lord, have
mercy. Several times in the gospels we hear people
crying out to Jesus with those words. Blind men
asking for their sight. A father seeking help for his
demonized son. And this woman, a mother seeking
similar help for her daughter, who was suffering
terribly.
Suffering can either drive us to despair or drive us
to our Lord. One of the benefits of suffering,
strange as it may seem, is that it can lead us to seek
the Lord and his mercy. When life is going smoothly,
and all is well, we might forget about the Lord and
take his blessings for granted. But when suffering
comes, and we have no one else to turn to, nowhere
else to go--thats what it may take to get our eyes
fixed on the Lord. It doesnt have to be that way.
We can certainly praise God and give him thanks when
all is going well. But when trouble comes, God says,
Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver
you, and you shall glorify me. Thats what this
woman is doing when she comes to Jesus. Its her day
of trouble, and shes calling on God for help.
She cries out, Lord, have mercy. Kyrie, eleison,
is the way it reads in the Greek. Thats the cry of
the church in all ages. We say it at the beginning of
the Divine Service, dont we, in the Kyrie: Lord,
have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us. Kyrie, eleison! The Kyrie
is the church calling on her Lord and asking for his
mercy. We come before God with all these needs, you
see. All kinds of suffering and misery in our lives
and in the world. We need Gods help, we need his
mercy.
And that is what God gives us--his mercy. Gods power
is made known chiefly in showing mercy, which is why
Christ came. All the misery we pile up in this
world--sin, sickness, death, a guilty conscience--the
answer to all of it, ultimately, is in the mercy that
took Christ to the cross. By his all-availing death
you and I will be delivered, finally, from all the
misery that there is.
The mercy of God is his answer to our misery. Those
two go together, you know, misery and mercy. His
mercy is that he takes pity on us in our misery. He
visits us in our distress and gives us relief from the
ravages and after-effects of sin in the world. This
world is in a mess. Human beings are suffering, in
misery. Thank God that he has mercy on us! He wants
us to call upon him in our day of trouble, like the
Canaanite woman did. Kyrie, eleison! Lord, have
mercy.
Now notice Jesus response--or I should say, his lack
of response! But he did not answer her a word.
Thats surprising. Thats not what we would expect.
He did not answer her a word. Whats going on here?
Is Jesus being rude, cold-hearted? How do we explain
his silence? Come to think of it, how do explain the
silence of God in our lives? Sometimes when we pray
to God in our distress, we dont get the answer were
looking for. Weve been praying for Edna to recover,
but Friday she died. Did God not hear our prayers?
Were met, so it seems, with the silence of God. This
is a mystery to us. But sometimes God moves in a
mysterious way, his wonders to perform. The seeming
silence of God is not his cold-heartedness but rather
our inability to see and hear what God is doing.
Maybe he has a better plan in store than the one we
have in mind.
At first the Canaanite woman is met with silence. He
did not answer her a word. The timing isnt right,
not quite yet. Jesus is waiting a bit before he
answers. He wants this woman to exercise her faith,
to stretch it out a bit. And maybe he has something
he wants to teach his disciples, too. The disciples,
you see--maybe there is a little cold-heartedness in
them. They dont understand what Jesus is wanting to
do. So they say, Send her away, for she is crying
out after us.
At first it seems that Jesus is going along with that
line of thinking, which would say, Get lost, a lousy
Gentile like you doesnt deserve any help. For Jesus
tells her, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. And that is true. In his earthly
ministry, Jesus the Messiah was sent principally,
primarily, to the house of Israel, that is, to the
Jews. The lost sheep of Israel needed to be gathered
in. For the Lord had made a covenant with Israel, and
Jesus was sent to fulfill it. His ministry, for the
most part, was among the Jews. Long ago the Lord had
promised to bless the descendants of Abraham, and now
Jesus was keeping that promise. To the Jews first.
But the promise of blessing to Israel when Messiah
comes--this would not exclude those Gentiles who come
into contact with Israel. They can rub up against
the blessing, so to speak. Thats what this Gentile
woman is doing. Jesus came for the lost sheep of
Israel, yes, and it was not until after his
resurrection that the mission would be expanded in a
major way to the Gentiles. But even now, even while
he is busy ministering to the Jews, Jesus will not
withhold his blessing from this Gentile woman.
Although, for a moment, it looks like he will. For he
says, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house
of Israel. But Jesus is just making clear that hes
not going to change the focus of his ministry and
shift his turf up to Tyre and Sidon and the Gentile
regions.
In spite of this seeming rebuff, the Canaanite woman
persists. She perseveres. She kneels before Jesus
and says, Lord, help me. But again, another
obstacle is placed in her way. Jesus replies, It is
not right to take the childrens bread and throw it to
the dogs. That is to say, Its not right to take
the blessings promised to the children of Israel and
give them to the Gentiles, i.e., the dogs.
Oftentimes the Jews referred to the Gentiles as
dogs, as a term of disrespect, a derogatory insult.
However, theres something interesting in the way
Jesus says it. In the Greek language, there are two
words for dog. The most common one is the word that
Jews would use to insult Gentiles. But thats not the
one that Jesus uses. Instead, he uses a word that can
be translated as little pet dogs, doggies. An
affectionate term, used for dogs who got to live in
the house and were taken care of. Thats the word
that Jesus uses, a kind and inviting word. And the
woman picks up on it. Yes, Lord, she says, yet
even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their
masters table. Aha! Shes got it! Faith hears
what the Lord is saying and latches onto it. Jesus
was not putting her off.. Rather, he was giving her a
word she could cling to.
The woman came, not claiming anything as her right,
but simply throwing herself on the Lords mercy. She
was willing to be a dog that eats the scraps off the
table. Thats why I call her not just the Canaanite
woman but the Canine-ite woman. The Canine-ite
woman: She was ready to be a little dog, if it meant
being around the Lords table. For thats where the
blessings are. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
blessed are those who hunger and thirst, blessed are
those who come as beggars--or even dogs--before the
Lord of all mercy.
The Canaanite woman did not give up when obstacles
were placed in her way. She perseveres. Luther says,
she battles Christ: She catches the Lord Christ in
his own words. Yes, still more, with the rights of
dogs she gains the rights of a child. Now where will
he go, the dear Jesus? He has caught himself and must
help her. But know this well: He loves to be caught
in this way. If only we had the skill of this woman
to catch God in his own judgment and say, Yes, Lord,
it is true. I am a sinner and not worthy of your
grace. But you have promised forgiveness and did not
come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.
Behold, Christ must then through his own judgment
have mercy on us.
The Canaanite woman is not deterred. Think of the
obstacles that her God-given faith fought through:
She was not deterred by Jesus initial silence, when
he did not answer her a word. She was not deterred by
the comment of the disciples, Send her away. She
was not deterred by Jesus comment about being sent
only to the lost sheep of Israel. Nor by his remark
about the dogs eating the bread of the children. This
woman simply does not give up. She perseveres. Her
faith--again, God-given faith, produced by the Spirit
working through the word--her faith overcomes all
these obstacles.
And, my friends, God wants to give you that same kind
of faith--persevering faith in a merciful Lord. God
wants you to come to Jesus, time and time again, in
spite of any obstacles you may face. It is so easy to
give up. People do it all the time. When there is
suffering in their life, they give up and think that
God is uncaring. When something goes wrong in their
life, people give up and stop coming to Jesus. When
something at church doesnt go the way they like,
people give up and stop coming to church. But God
does not want you to give up. He wants you to
persevere, in faith, like the Canaanite woman did, and
to seek--and find--his mercy and blessing.
The Canaanite woman did not give up. And Jesus
commends her faith: O woman, great is your faith!
Jesus grants her request. Her daughter is healed.
How is Jesus able to do that? What gives him that
authority? Because he is the author of life. Christ
is the victor over sin and death and the devil. He
has authority over the demons of hell. Jesus, our
Savior, won that victory for us in a most mysterious
way. Moved by his divine mercy, the Son of God came
down into our mess and suffered our misery with us.
He entered into it, fully. He suffered the anguish of
all the ravages of sin when he was nailed to the
cross. Jesus himself suffered the silence of God,
when he cried out, My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?
The demons must have had their laugh when Jesus was
crucified. But their laughter was short-lived. For
by dying as the sacrifice for the sin of the world,
Jesus took away the power of the devil. The devil was
shorn of his strength by the death of Christ. And God
then vindicated his Son by raising him up from the
dead. God has shown his mercy in the greatest way.
His mercy in Christ forgives our sins, delivers us
from the power of the devil, and gives us the sure
hope of everlasting life. His mercy endures forever.
Today, my friends, God is strengthening you in your
faith. He is building in you a faith that perseveres.
Faith like that of the Canaanite--or
Canine-ite--woman, who was willing to come like a
little dog to eat at the Lords table. Great was her
faith because great was her Lord, the one who called
forth that faith. He is a Lord who has mercy on us,
even when it looks like he doesnt. Persevering faith
in a merciful Lord. Kyrie, eleison.
Charles Henrickson
4749 Melissa Jo Ln
St. Louis, MO 63128
(314) 845-8811 (home)
(314) 779-8108 (cell)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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