Sunday, March 17, 2019

Sermon for 3/17/19: Second Sunday in Lent

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Faith Beyond Sight

 Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.


“Seeing is believing,” or so the old saying goes. But on this side of heaven, your eyes, ears, and all your senses will let you down. They are tainted with sin; they can’t be trusted. Take the Canaanite woman, for example. She will not be turned aside by Jesus despite His seeming cruelty toward her. If she believes only what her senses tell her, she would go home, her need unfilled. But this woman is the example of faithful prayer because she will not give up. She knows who Jesus is and what He has come to do, so she approaches Him and wrestles with Him—verbally, anyway—until He blesses her by granting her request.
Her daughter is severely demon-possessed. And yet it looks, sounds, and feels like Jesus is the one playing the devil. Three times He insults her. First He ignores her prayer and great confession. Then, in her hearing, He tells the disciples she is not worth His time. And finally He calls her a little, yapping dog.
Despite all appearances, she persists in her prayer. She does not give up. She won’t let Him go—not just because she’s desperate, but because she insists that only Jesus can help her. She trusts that, no matter what Jesus says, no matter what He throws at her, He will ultimately help her. In fact, she believes that even His insults, even His torments, are somehow, in some mysterious way, part of the Lord’s help that she so desperately desires. She overlooks what she sees, hears, and feels, and forces Him to be the loving Lord she knows Him to be. She knows He’s the Messiah, God in the flesh, David’s son and David’s Lord. She believes He was sent to the lost sheep of Israel, and she knows that, somehow, He can bring her into that fold.
The Canaanite woman is also fully aware of who she is: that every answer, every seeming insult, every apparently hurtful word that Jesus says is true and deserved. “Yes, Lord,” she says. “I deserve to be ignored by you. Yes, Lord, I am not worthy of Your time because of my many sins. Yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master’s table. So I believe that, even though everything You say is true, even though I deserve much worse than Your scolding and insults—nevertheless, in the end, You will not turn Your mercy from me.” And in a way known only by faith, the woman knew that He would not just treat her like a dog, but like a member of the family, sitting at the table with all the others.
Sometimes, when you are in a hard part of your life, bombarded by temptations, suffering under your sins and the sins of people around you, it is difficult to tell the difference between God and the devil. But never does our Lord turn you away; never will He give up on you. He pushes you to the point where no one can help you but Him. He gives you painful crosses, but only so that you have eyes for His cross alone. He is the Messiah, come to take your place so you can have His. And because He has gone the way of His cross and death, He always leads you through your cross and suffering, until finally He leads you to His glory. He raises you up to new life in His own resurrection by the washing of Holy Baptism. He raises you up by faithful preaching and His Word of forgiveness. He raises you up by feeding you to bursting on the crumbs of His body and blood. Jesus loves you; He wants the best for you. Come as little dogs, begging for a scrap from your Lord’s Table. He will give His mercy and forgiveness in greater measure than you either prayed for or expected. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.

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