“Great Faith in Jesus Receives Gracious Gifts from Jesus”
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
Dear fellow great-faithed recipients of Jesus’ gracious gifts,
grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
[Amen.]
“Then is our comfort this alone
That we may meet before Your throne;
To You, O faithful God, we cry
For rescue in our misery.
“For You have promised, Lord, to heed
Your children’s cries in time of need
Through Him whose name alone is great,
Our Savior and our advocate.”
(Lutheran Service Book, © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO.
615:2-3)
Gospel
Reading......................................................................................
St. Matthew 15:28
Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you
as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
Prologue: Maybe some of you remember that I talked about
prepositions in a sermon quite awhile ago. Let me briefly review.
Prepositions play a prominent role in our English language as well as the
Biblical languages of Hebrew and Greek. They are words that get us past an
obstacle that’s blocking our path. We can go over, around, by, through,
under, above, etc. that obstacle to get to the other side of it. Those
words and others like them are prepositions.
Prepositions are also very significant in Bible passages. One of
the best examples of such is the statement by Saint Paul: “By grace you have
been saved through faith.” (Eph 2:8 ESV) God’s grace is the active agent
that rescues us fallen sinners from eternal damnation and that grace flows
to and into us through Spirit-given faith in Jesus Christ. And that brings
us to today’s sermon theme, namely, …
“Great Faith in Jesus Receives Gracious Gifts from Jesus.”
Well, here we are already a week-and-a-half into Lent. Perhaps
this is as good a time as any for us to review the meaning and significance
of this forty-day liturgical season (not counting Sundays) that leads up to
Easter. Information contained in the Treasury of Daily Prayer devotion book
tells us: “This forty-day preparation was first prescribed for baptismal
candidates and became known as Lent (from the Old English word for
“spring”). Later, these forty days were associated with Jesus’ forty days
in the desert prior to His temptation ([which we heard in last weekend’s
Gospel Reading according to] Matthew 4) and with the forty years the
children of Israel spent in the wilderness (Numbers 14:34) and became a
period of preparation for every Christian.”
As such, the number forty in the Bible signals a time and activity
of repentant cleansing. Another example of it is the flood waters that
continued for forty days and forty nights at the time of Noah. They
eventually covered the whole earth and cleansed it of all the
sinfully-rebellious people who refused to honor the one true creator-God.
That then left only faithful Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives
to repopulate the world. Unfortunately, due to their sinfulness sin rapidly
displayed its ugly face once again in God’s cleansed world.
In addition, “Ash Wednesday begins the observance of Lent. The
placing of ashes [in the shape of a cross] on the forehead [as we did in our
setting two Wednesdays ago] is a sign of penitence and a reminder of human
mortality. [In fact, that ash cross reminds us that Jesus died on Calvary’s
cross for our sins and in Holy Baptism God assigned to us what Jesus did for
us and when the sign of the cross was made on our forehead and heart we
were marked as redeemed by Christ the crucified.] The Sundays during this
season are not ‘of Lent’ but ‘in Lent.’ Thus the Sundays retain an Easter
tone and may be less solemn than the midweek services that congregations
typically offer. The observances of Lent are concrete reminders of the
greater solemnity of this season, yet [we] Lutherans emphasize the Gospel of
Christ as central even to this penitential season.” (Treasury of Daily
Prayer. Copyright © 2008 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO. Page
10.)
In summary, Lent is a time to review and rehearse repentance that
consists essentially of heartfelt sorrow for sins and belief in the Lord
Jesus Christ as God’s only Savior from Satan, sin, and eternal
death-separation from God in hell’s fiery pits. Today’s Gospel Reading
reveals an important element of repentance, namely, …
I. A Desperate Heartfelt Plea for Mercy. (21-24)
21Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.
22And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying,
“Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed
by a demon.” 23But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came
and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.”
24He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
This Canaanite woman knew that she had no inherent claim whatever
on the healing power that she believed Jesus possessed since she was not of
the Jewish race. Nevertheless, she boldly approached Him with her urgent
faith-based request. She did so in behalf of her severely demon-oppressed
daughter, prayerfully begging Him for mercy. Her impelling plea placed
herself at and, at the same time, showed her trust in Jesus’ power and
compassion. Today’s Gradual speaks wise counsel to her and our
life-situations: “The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my
distresses. Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my
sins.” (Ps 25:17-18 ESV)
There’s a certain connection to us today in what I just said about
that Canaanite woman. First of all, due to our nature of original sin and
our resulting sinful uncleanness, we don’t have an inherent claim on the
forgiveness of sins, salvation, and eternal life that Jesus possesses. In
fact, we are poor miserable sinners who deserve nothing but God’s temporal
and eternal punishment as we confessed a few minutes ago. We don’t have any
merit or worthiness whatever that we can use to bargain with God for His
good gifts.
In light of that utterly dismal reality, we prayerfully begged for
ourselves (even as the Canaanite woman did for herself) in the ageless words
of the historic liturgy: “I pray You of Your boundless mercy … to be
gracious and merciful to me, a poor, sinful being. Lord, have mercy upon
us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us.” (Lutheran
Service Book. Page 186.) We did so with Spirit-given confidence in what we
sing in the Divine Service Setting I Lent verse: “Return to the Lord, your
God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in
steadfast love, and abounding in steadfast love.” (Ibid. Page 157.)
You see, that’s what gives Lent its meaningful and blessed
substance. Realizing our utter depravity, we recognize that Lent simply and
yet so significantly emphasizes what Jesus did for us. It’s all about His
holy life He lived for us, His innocent suffering He suffered for us, and
His crucifixion death He died for us. As we meditate on and contemplate our
Savior’s passion in preparation to joyfully celebrate on Easter Sunday (and
every Sunday for that matter) His resurrection from the dead, we gratefully
recognize that by the Holy Spirit’s power we possess …
II. A Willingness to Accept the Least of God’s Grace (25-27)
25But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26And he
answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the
dogs.” 27She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall
from their masters’ table.”
The Canaanite woman’s abject humility before Jesus was met by Him
with what G. Jerome and Michael J. Albrecht tell us “may sound like an
insult and a total repudiation of her request. Jesus compared her to a dog!
But his words were not an insult at all. The word he used for dog referred
to little lap dogs such as children would have in the house as pets. The
woman understood that and felt encouraged rather than rebuffed.” (G. Jerome
Albrecht & Michael J. Albrecht in People’s Bible Commentary: Matthew.
Copyright © 1996 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO. Page. 229.) To
that Donald Guthrie added: “Jesus’ words, however, did not suggest contempt.
His purpose was to draw out the woman’s faith.” (Donald Guthrie in Jesus the
Messiah: An Illustrated Life of Christ. Copyright © by The Zondervan
Corporation, Grand Rapids, MI. Page 160.)
You see, God’s grace is not so much about quantity as it is
quality. That is, the amount of God’s grace is not the issue. Rather, the
excellent purity of God’s grace is the all-important certainty. A small
amount of God’s grace is the same as a large amount of His grace because His
grace knows no boundaries of height, depth, width, weight, volume, or
whatever. Grace is grace is grace!
The fact of the matter is that “God's truth abounds to his glory”
(Rom 3:7 ESV) and His Gospel truth is that we “are justified by his grace as
a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward
as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” (Rom 3:24-25 ESV)
(Notice the prominent prepositions there and in the next statement!) Today’s
Epistle Reading carries forth that message: “Therefore, since we have been
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which
we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Rom 5:1-2 ESV)
Indeed, that message rings out loudly and clearly in God’s
Spirit-inspired Holy Word, His divinely-ordained Blessed Sacraments of Holy
Baptism and Holy Communion, and His comforting gift of Holy Absolution. It
does so because those are His means of grace. Whether a small or large
amount of natural water is used in Holy Baptism, or a small wafer or large
chunk of unleavened natural bread … or a sip or gulp of natural wine is
received in Holy Communion, Christ Himself is supernaturally present in
those Blessed Sacraments, “And from his fullness we have all received, grace
upon grace.” (St John 1:16-17 ESV) The Canaanite woman knew and believed
this wonderful truth and, therefore, was not discouraged by receiving crumbs
of grace … and neither should we.
Okay, the bottom line is simply and yet so very profoundly this
statement laced with two significant prepositions …
“Great Faith in Jesus Receives Gracious Gifts from Jesus.”
In the aftermath of the tornados that recently struck here and
elsewhere and in the context of the reconciliation Bible study in which many
of us have participated and are participating as an integral part of the
CARE process currently underway in our congregation, hear what the Reverend
Rudolph F. Norden wrote in a devotion entitled “Spiritual Giants” based on
this sermon’s focus-verse: “Physically we may be weak, but God’s strength is
made perfect in our weakness. Our reliance on Christ increases our capacity
for bearing heavy burdens, for overcoming personal problems, for conquering
sinful passions, for befriending people undeserving of love, for loving even
our enemies. Such a giant accepts what life brings, not only bearing the
load courageously but also turning it into a spiritual plus.” (Rudolph F.
Norden in Each Day with Jesus: Daily Devotions through the Year. Copyright
© 1994 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO. Page 98.)
So, let’s all of us strive to turn our challenging loads into
spiritual plusses (even as the Canaanite woman did) by sounding forth …
I. A Desperate Heartfelt Plea for Mercy. (21-24) Let’s do so recalling
today’s Introit, from which we get today’s liturgical sub-title
“Reminiscere”: “Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for
they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my
transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake
of your goodness, O Lord!” (Ps 25:6-7 ESV) and praying today’s Collect: “By
Your mighty power defend us from all adversities that may happen to the body
and from all evil thoughts that may assault and hurt the soul.”
Then let’s bask in the bright warm sunshine of God’s bountiful
goodness with …
II. A Willingness to Accept the Least of God’s Grace (25-27) the example
of which we gain from today’s Old Testament Reading: “Then [God] said, ‘Let
me go, for the day has broken.’ But Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go
unless you bless me.’ And [God] said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he
said, ‘Jacob.’ Then [God] said, ‘Your name shall no longer be called Jacob,
but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.’
Then Jacob asked him, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But [God] said, ‘Why is
it that you ask my name?’ And there [God] blessed [Jacob].” (Gen 32:26-29
ESV)
Fellow redeemed children of the heavenly Father, please don’t leave
this Divine Service early and thereby miss out on receiving God’s
Benediction-blessing.
God grant it all for the sake of Jesus Christ, His humble Son, our
holy Savior. [Amen.]
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
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