14th Sunday after Pentecost [Pr. 15] August 17, 2008 “Series A”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Lord, through the sacrament of Baptism, you have reached out to us and embraced us as your own, a child of your kingdom. You have revealed your love and redeeming grace to us, through the life, death and resurrection Jesus, your beloved Son. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, working through your church, you have nurtured us in faith. Help us to realize that you also love and care for those whom we often ignore. Give us courage to reach out to those outside the church, and extend tot hem your redeeming grace. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
Our Gospel lesson for this morning gives us a glimpse into the life of some unknown Gentile woman from Canaan. We don’t know her name, for it is not mentioned in either Matthew or Mark, where this episode in the life of Jesus is recorded. And yet, her story is not unlike yours and mine, as we seek to know the grace of God in Jesus the Christ. So let us step into this story, with boldness of imagination.
Matthew tells us that after Jesus had finished teaching a large crowd, and then, having to explain his teachings to his disciples, Jesus left that place and went to the district of Tyre and Sidon. As we progress through these pages of Matthew’s Gospel, we see an increasing effort on Jesus’ part to gain some rest and time for meditation and renewal. Since this was a gentile, or non-Jewish region, we can assume that Jesus was hoping that at last he could gain some time alone.
But as Jesus and his disciples were walking through a village marketplace, the streets seemed to come alive with talk about him, and his reputation as a man of God, who could not only teach with authority, but also that he forgave sins, and healed the sick. Word of Jesus had spread beyond the Jewish settlements of Galilee, even to this small, Gentile village.
Here in lies the first lesson of our text. People are genuinely hungry to hear the Word of God. We, like children, not only need to know the expectations of human behavior that identify us as members of God’s family, but we need to know that we are loved, and can be forgiven when we err. Jesus embodied this message, and his word spread, even beyond the Jewish community.
We might assume, then, that this Canaanite mother had heard stories about Jesus, especially about his ability to heal the sick and cast out demons. For you see, her daughter suffered from what she believed to be a demon. Oh, some days her daughter would be well, playing with her dolls, making believe that she was a good mother. But every so often, she would get a glazed look in her eyes, fall to the floor, and thrash her arms and legs in a violent rage. It was as if something took hold of her body and simply tormented her.
Of course, most of us in today’s modern society with the advancements in medical science and technology that we have experienced over the past century, don’t give much credence to demons. Today, we would say that this woman’s daughter suffered from epilepsy. Nevertheless, when you think about it, isn’t epilepsy, like several other diseases now identified by modern medicine, characterized as if something took control of one’s body, and disturbed their normal behavior?
Well, this woman from Canaan had watched her daughter, who was so bubbly and full of life, suffer far too often, from the torment that this demon inflicted upon her. And hearing that this stranger in town was Jesus, this Jewish rabbi, whom she had heard so many reports about his ability to cast out demons, she couldn’t restrain herself. Out of love for her daughter, she, though a gentile, though a woman, dared to speak up and plead for Jesus to heal her daughter.
Here in lies our second lesson for today. It takes courage to embrace the Word of God. The Jewish people of that day usually ignored the gentiles, and especially the women, who had little status, even among their own religious family. But this woman, this mother of a daughter who was possessed by a demon, would not be silenced. She had the courage to seek the healing power of God’s living Word.
Perhaps she didn’t understand the total significance of who Jesus was, and from whom she was seeking help. It could be that she didn’t even care. All she knew was her need of the saving and redeeming grace of God, whom Jesus was reported to represent. And so, trusting in his ability to heal her daughter, she persisted in shouting out to Jesus, as he and his disciples walked through the street. “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; for my daughter is tormented by a demon.”
But Jesus ignored her plea. After all, even though he was God’s Son, Jesus was truly human, in all that being human entails. Perhaps it was because he didn’t want to ruin his opportunity for rest and recuperation. Perhaps it was because, as a human being, raised in the Jewish culture, he was conditioned to ignore the gentiles, especially the women. But I must admit, that I offer these comments, as a means of trying to understand and put into perspective, the rather harsh rejection that Jesus and his disciples first took toward this pleading mother.
Yet, there is a strange sequence of sentences that is puzzling, in this story. Jesus’ disciples, after putting up with this woman’s screams for mercy to their limit,, say to Jesus, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” But according to Matthew, Jesus doesn’t turn and say to this persistent woman, “Enough is enough! Go away!” This would have been what we would have expected Jesus to do, given all of the circumstances that led up to this event. But, Jesus says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
As I think about this statement, in which it appears, I am convinced that Jesus, in spite of his humanity, came to realize, that although his mission was to redeem Israel, the gift of God’s redeeming grace that came to this earth through his incarnation, reaches across political and religious borders.
Thus, as this woman knelt before Jesus in desperation, pleading for the healing of her daughter, she pleads just for a crumb, a morsel from God’s table of grace that Jesus has been proclaiming. And as a result of this woman’s plea, and Jesus’ healing of her daughter, the Good News of the Gospel has come to be realized not only by those whom God has originally chosen to be his people, but also by all who come to faith in Jesus as the Christ.
Here in lies, not only our last lesson from this text, but also the means by which it might be accomplished. Throughout our lives, even when we go on vacation, we might meet persons who long to hear the Word of God. And even though we might be less than willing to share our faith with others, not only when we are on vacation but at any given moment, nevertheless, as disciples of Christ, that is what we are called to do.
Jesus’ disciples would have had him dismiss this woman, and have her sent away to stop the nagging interference into their rest. But Jesus could not deny this Canaanite woman, who came to him, trusting that he could heal her daughter with the redeeming grace of God. And so Jesus again gave witness to the redeeming grace of God, through healing this woman’s daughter, whom the religious community of his day, considered to be less than human.
The lesson of this story is that we should always be willing to share the story of God’s living word in Jesus the Christ, who gives us, not only the standards by which we are to live our lives as members of God’s heavenly kingdom, but also, through the power of God’s Spirit, the healing power of his love and forgiveness.
To know God’s redeeming grace, to have realized that God not only gives us a standard of behavior which can identify us as his children, but also, through the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, a realization that we are totally loved and forgiven, is not something that we can keep to ourselves. Nor could Jesus!
If we truly want to see our congregation grow, we should all pray for the power of God’s Spirit to light within us the message that is contained in our lesson for this morning. For only God’s Spirit can help us understand the meaning o9f the Gospel. And it is only the Spirit of God that can give us the courage to embrace the Gospel in such a way that will enable us to share it with others.
Amen.
