In Jesus Holy Name August 16, 2020
Text: Matthew 15:28 Pentecost XI - Redeemer
“Faith vs. Distractions” Part II
Matthew has another great story for us this morning. Matthew tells us about the faith of a Gentile woman. It is a lesson for us about over coming distractions, which Peter failed to do when he tried to walk on water. Both Peter and the Canaanite mother faced distractions.
Peter took his eyes of Jesus because he was distracted. His faith then faltered. Matthew wants to show us another individual who when confronted with distractions reacted differently.
After the miracle of feeding more than a stadium filled with people with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish….along the shore of Galilee; after Jesus and Peter walk on the stormy sea of Galilee it was time for a break. Matthew writes: Leaving that place Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon, modern day Lebanon.
Jesus ventured outside the confines of Israel and entered the Gentile region, but even here the stories of a prophet named Jesus was not a secret. Word had spread far and wide that Jesus had supernatural power to heal the sick and raise the dead. Even in this Gentile territory, people knew about His ministry, and that’s why one particular woman came to see Him.
She is called a Canaanite, meaning she descended from the Canaanites in the Old Testament who were mortal enemies of the Jewish people. She had many things going against her that day. She was not Jewish. She was a woman. But her daughter was very sick.
Every parent can understand this. If you have a sick child, how far will you go to help your son or daughter? To ask the question is to answer it. It’s not a matter of time or distance or money. When your son is sick or your daughter is ill, nothing matters except getting them well again. When your child is sick, you don’t care about test results, x-rays, percentages, new medicines, research protocols, or anything like that. “People just want to know one thing: ‘Is my child going to be all right?’” Nothing else matters.
We love miracle stories because they have happy endings, but this one starts in a strange way. Jesus’ response to this woman seems peculiar and perhaps even cruel. Did our Lord not believe her story? Did he not care about her daughter? (from a sermon by Ray Pritchard Matthew 15)
When the woman came up to him begging for help, he refused to answer her:
Matthew writes: “Jesus did not answer a word” (v. 23).
This woman is about to be overwhelmed by distractions. Nothing terrifies the soul like the silence of heaven.
1) Jesus did not answer a word….
2) That did not stop her. She kept crying out and begging for His attention. She is then confronted by 12 disciples who keep pushing her away. The scene was like any secret service agent who has the responsibility to stand between the President and the crowd. Don’t get too close!
3) The disciples are frustrated… “Jesus, she keeps crying out after us.” Just send her away…. She is not Jewish…. She doesn’t deserve your kindness.
4) Now Jesus speaks but they are words meant to distract.
a. “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
b. She is not distracted by words of refusal… she gets in His path and kneels in front of Jesus, grabbing His attention.
Nothing terrifies the soul like the silence of heaven.
It happens to all of us from time to time. We wait and pray and seek the Lord, and yet the heavens are silent. When that happens, you must not let your feelings rule your heart. Jesus did not speak immediately to this Canaanite woman, but he heard everything she said. Jesus is making a silent statement about faith. In the end, she got what she wanted, and her suffering daughter was healed.
God's silence does not always mean God's refusal. His "no" doesn't always mean "no." It often means "not this, not now, not yet." In this case, Jesus wanted to bring out the woman’s faith, not only for her benefit but also for the disciples who were watching. …. “Peter are you listening?” There is a reason Matthew wants to contrast the faith of Peter who doubted when distractions confronted him, and this non Jewish woman whose faith was not distracted.
As far as the disciples were concerned, she was just some strange, sad, pagan woman who kept on bothering them. They had little use for a Canaanite woman. But every time they told her to “Hush!” she kept on crying out for mercy for her daughter. The more they brushed her off, the more determined she became.
We can turn the question around this way. Why doesn’t God always answer our prayers the first time we pray them? If we always got immediate answers, we would soon take God for granted, as if he were nothing more than a celestial genie who granted our every wish. (from a sermon by Ray Pritchard Matthew 15)
James 5:16 reminds us that the “fervent” prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective. It means to have your soul so stirred up that you can’t think of anything else. Who understands this better than the mother of a sick child? She will stop at nothing, she will not take no for an answer, she will carry her daughter from one doctor to another, she will ask her friends to pray, she will write about it on Facebook, and she will beg God with tears to work a miracle from heaven.
Peter was distracted so easily by his surroundings when he took his eyes off Jesus. Not this woman…. No harsh words. No brush off by the disciples. Nothing was going to distract this woman from seeking a miracle for her daughter.
“Lord help me!” Again. Jesus provides a distraction. “It’s not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” Pretty sarcastic! In other words…. It is not right to give God’s grace which is meant for His chosen people, Israel to non Jewish people. That is what His offensive words means. This is not a compliment. No one wants to be called a “dog”. Most people would just be filled with anger and turn away. Not this woman. She is not distracted.
The woman doesn’t dispute what Jesus said, She agrees with him.
She could have become indignant and said, “Don’t talk to me that way. I’m no dog! I’m a human being. But she did not. She agreed with Jesus.
It is true that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. He came as the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises made to Israel. That’s why Jesus said He was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Paul alludes to truth this in Romans, where he talks about the gospel being offered to “the Jew first.” Jesus came first for Jews because of his promise to Abraham.
In Romans 9 Paul laments that he would be willing to give his own life if it would save more people” of his own race”….. In Romans 10 Paul writes: “My prayer is that God would save the Israelites …..they have tried to obtain righteousness by keeping the law but righteousness is by faith.” (Romans 10) God always intended to include the Gentiles in His plan of salvation. God starts with the Jews, but He does not stop there. It was the responsibility of the Jews to be a blessing to all nations. Their theology had become self centered.
This woman knew that she did not have any claim on the goodness of God. No one deserves heaven. That’s been a major problem from the beginning. We all think we are better than we are. We like to compare ourselves to the fellow down the street whose sin seems worse than our own. But God does not grade on the curve.
The words of Jesus…to this Canaanite woman is a way of asking “Do you understand you are completely outside the covenant of grace and that you have no claim on me, the Jewish Messiah?”
Here is the truth. You and I are like the Canaanite woman. We are outside the grace of God. Like the Jewish Pharisees our own works of righteousness fall short of earning God’s grace. We are dogs. You might be a poodle, I might be a basset hound, but we are dogs nonetheless, underserving sinners. Our broken commandments keep us separated from the holiness of God. Paul reminds us that we are just like this non Jewish woman. She powerless to heal her daughter. We are powerless to provide our own key to the gate heaven.
I love this story… she provides a powerful lesson for us. She is not distracted.
“Yes, Lord, but even dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Yes, I have no claim to your grace. “Then Jesus answered her, ‘O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.”
Everyone knows how this works. Dogs hang around the dinner table. Their eyes begging for a morsel of food. After the family eats, the dogs get the leftovers. The dogs may be dogs. But they get fed. So we too have been given the grace and mercy of God. Paul writes: ”we have been justified through faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” who died on the cross and rose from the grave. Through Him we have gained access to His grace, by faith. You see, at just the right time when we were still powerless …Jesus died for us. (Romans 5)
Do not get distracted by cancel culture. Do not get distracted by a pandemic. Do not get distracted. Keep your eyes on Jesus.
