Sermon for Pentecost 12: "Persistent Faith" (Matthew 15:21-28)

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God the Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

“O woman, great is your faith!” (Matthew 15:28). With those words, Jesus healed this woman’s daughter instantly.

 

But it wasn’t easy. Oh no! It wasn’t easy for this Canaanite woman! Sometimes what we ask of God in our prayers also isn’t easy. “O Lord, please heal me!” “O Lord, please heal my loved one!” We want our prayers answered. We desire our prayers to be answered. But sometimes we forget that our prayers are not about our will, but His will. Sometimes, we get silence. No answer. And you may even wonder, “God, are you even listening to me?”

 

This morning on this 12^th Sunday after Pentecost, Jesus and His disciples travel north of Galilee and into the district of Tyre and Sidon in what is modern Lebanon. This is Gentile territory. This is not a Jewish territory and has never been Jewish territory. Jesus and His disciples are well beyond the historic borders of the Kingdom of Israel.

 

So, why is Jesus and His disciples in a Gentile territory that has never been a part of Israel? Well, it appears that they did not go there to engage in any compassionate ministry. It appears that they weren’t there to preach or to heal. So, why are they there? Well, they are there because things were getting a little too hot for comfort due to Christ’s recent confrontation with the Pharisees. So, they’re there to take a breather.

 

But could there be more to just taking some time away? Jesus is beyond the historic Jewish borders for a reason.

 

“And 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’” (Matthew 15:22).

 

Now, you may recall that the Jews and the Canaanites have a history. A history that goes all the way back to Moses. You see, Israel was ordered by God to exterminate the Canaanites, because of idol worship (Deuteronomy 20:17). That clearly did not happen, because we have a Canaanite woman coming up to a Jew. What is going through her mind?

Well, clearly, she knows who Jesus is. She has heard about Him. His fame had spread even past Galilee and into the Gentile lands. But this woman doesn’t just know of Jesus, she also believes in Him and His power. She trusts in Him. She believes in Him to be the promised Messiah and Redeemer from sin and the devil’s power.

 

Although she was a Canaanite and not a Jew, she believed in the promise of the Gospel. She believed that the Promised Messiah didn’t only come for the Jews, but even for her, and all people like her. She believed what Isaiah recorded from God: “The foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to Him, to love the name of the Lord … these I will bring to My holy mountain … for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:6, 7).

 

She believed she was included. She believed in God’s promise to Abraham: “In your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 22:18).

 

You see, this woman’s faith rested upon these promises. Her faith was not in herself. She knew that she could not possibly save her daughter. Instead, she clung to the promise that God’s offspring would be the Savior for all people – for all sinners, including her. Her faith rested upon that promise. This was the only thing that could give her any hope.

 

But to her cry for help, Jesus did not answer her a word. Jesus stood there in silence. 

 

I thought Jesus was our friend. We just sang how great a friend Jesus is! I thought He was faithful! Jesus what happened? Why are you silent?

 

Is Jesus denying her request? Is Jesus denying her faith? Is Jesus denying her prayer?

 

Sometimes, we think God is not listening to our prayers as if we are all alone and He doesn’t care.

 

But then it appears to go from bad to worse for this woman. To end this awkward silence, the disciples beg Jesus, “Send her away! Just give her what she wants so she’ll leave us alone!”

 

To that request, Jesus says to the disciples, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). This is Jesus saying, “O, you my beloved disciples, I am not here for your convenience or to be a wandering miracle worker. I wasn’t sent for her.”

Jesus wasn’t sent for this her? This is the friend we have in Jesus? Some friend He is! How can we say that Christ loves this woman and her daughter, considering what she is experiencing? But Jesus knows this woman’s heart. He is treating her this way to know the true nature of her heart. Where is her faith? Who is she trusting? Through these afflictions, her faith is turning from self-reliance to only Jesus Himself.

 

As this woman overheard Jesus say that He didn’t come for her, she persists as she kneels before Him – she worships Him – and says, “Lord, help me” (Matthew 15:25).

 

Now, Jesus speaks. But if His words were harsh before, they are even worse now. “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs” (Matthew 15:26). Yes, you heard that right, Jesus is calling this woman a dog. Here, Jesus is making a distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles. The Jews are called “children” and the Gentiles are called dogs.

 

But how does this woman respond? Does she get defensive saying, “How dare you!”? No. She actually agrees with Him. “Yes, Lord, I am a dog.” She receives His word and simply agrees.

 

“Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table” (Matthew 15:27).

 

She believed. She agreed with Jesus. “You’re right Lord, I am a dog. I am a sinner. I don’t deserve Your help. I have no right to ask You for help. But if it is Your will, You are my only hope. I will never let go. For without You, I have no hope.”

 

To this, Jesus says, “O woman, great is your faith” (Matthew 15:28) and her daughter was healed instantly.

 

This Canaanite woman was persistent. But it wasn’t her persistence that necessarily got the results. It was her faith. Her faith was great because the object of her faith was Jesus and His saving word. Jesus was not being mean to this woman. He was treating this woman this way to reveal the true faith in her heart.

 

You see, the struggles that we face day after day with our sin and our constant temptations from Satan, the world, and our very nature, are used by God to draw us away from relying upon ourselves to relying upon Him. Faith believes in the Gospel and cries out to God for help.

 

So, we do have a friend in Jesus! He did come for this Canaanite woman and her daughter. He came for you and for me!

 

So, yes, God is listening to your prayers! And He doesn’t just listen. He also answers every single prayer with His good and gracious divine will. But like the Canaanite woman, yours and my prayers are not always answered immediately. It may appear as if God isn’t listening, but He is. He reveals His will to you and to me as yes, no, or not yet though His Word. He speaks to us and answers us in His Holy written Word. So, if it appears He isn’t listening, maybe it’s not Him who isn’t listening, but you. Yes, God can work miracles outside of His Word, but it is always best to look where He always promises to be found: in His Word and His Sacraments.

 

The good and gracious will of God is that all people would be saved from their sins. The good and gracious will of God is that all people would come to His house of prayer. But for that to happen, humanity would have to be brought back to God. Jesus who came for the lost sheep of Israel, also came for the dogs. He is the Savior for the Jews and Gentiles alike. Jesus became man to suffer and die in our place. As poor, miserable sinners, we deserve that cross, we deserve that pain, we deserve that death. We deserve all that because we have turned from God and to sin. But God would not have all of humanity perish. God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the Man Jesus Christ, who gave Himself as a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:4-6).

 

The Canaanite woman is an illustration of how we all ought to be. We also ought to have a persistent faith. We ought to have faith that loves God’s Word. The faith that clings to God’s Word. The faith that clings to His Sacraments. For there is no hope for us apart from God and His Word and Sacraments. 

 

Like the Canaanite woman, our access to God is not dependent on our merits. She had no merits. She was an outsider. She was a sinner. Even so, she prayed. She prayed relentless. She would not let go but held fast in worship to Jesus. May we follow her example as we lay our burdens before Christ focusing on Him alone as the object of our faith. Amen.

 

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

 

+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +

Sermon for Pentecost 3: "God's Plan for Abraham" (Genesis 22:1-14)

 

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

Today, we begin the second week of our ten-week exploration of God’s Word. Each week we will look at a real, historical event in the Bible and how it teaches us about God’s Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior, the beginning, center, and end of human history.

Last week, we saw the first humans, Adam and Eve, ruin God’s perfect creation by eating the fruit He had forbidden them to eat. That rebellious act set devastating effects in motion throughout creation. Disease, famine, pestilence, and extinction were unleashed throughout the planet. And hatred, mistrust, war, crime, and death came upon Adam and Eve and their descendants—our whole human race.

We are all impacted by the Fall into sin. We experience it in our lives, the things we do to one another, the hurtful things done to us. We see it on the news and in social media, especially these last couple days with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. As Satan deceived our first parents, he continues to deceive so many into believing that abortion is pleasing. Sin separates us from God and from each other. But with every sin, there is forgiveness through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. You see, sin is at the core of the distrust and unrest that fills our nation and world and is the cause of every problem that plagues us.

But God did not abandon His creation. He promised that one of Adam and Eve’s descendants, His own Son, would crush Satan’s head—freeing humanity and all creation from the curse of sin and death.

Adam and Eve were separated from God and each other by their sin. By nature, they and all of us—their children—are hostile to God and to one another. Only God could bridge that separation by His promise of the coming Savior. All those who believed God’s promise could know peace with God and with their neighbors. But those who rejected God’s promise could not.

That difference quickly demonstrated itself when Adam and Eve’s firstborn son, Cain, offered an unacceptable sacrifice to God. It was unacceptable because he offered it out of obligation rather than true repentance and grateful faith. In contrast, his brother Abel offered a sacrifice in sincere faith and trust.

Cain was angry that God rejected his sacrifice but accepted Abel’s. Though God warned him not to let his anger master him, and promised to accept him if he was repentant, Cain murdered his brother Abel. When God offered him protection and forgiveness, Cain spurned God’s grace, turned his back, and went to live his life without God. Sadly, most of Adam and Eve’s descendants followed in his footsteps.

God kept His promise alive through Abel’s younger brother Seth who believed and taught God’s promise to his descendants. But over time, as new generations came, more and more of Seth’s offspring began to follow Cain, and the number of true believers dwindled. In time, only one family was left, headed by Noah, a believer from the line of Seth.

God was deeply grieved by the violence and hard hearts of Adam and Eve’s unbelieving descendants. They abused one another and the creatures He had entrusted to them. God determined to send a world-wide flood to wipe mankind off the face of His earth. But He had compassion on Noah and his family. He warned him of the coming flood and instructed him to build a large ark in which his family would be preserved, along with representatives of all the animals that would otherwise be destroyed by the flood.

Noah obeyed God and built that ark, gathering the food and supplies and receiving the animals into the ark which God brought to him. The world faced an early Judgment Day that day. It is a preview of the Judgment Day God will bring on this world on the Last Day. God faithfully protected Noah and his family and all the creatures in the ark, and He will faithfully protect you and all those who cling to Jesus in faith on that Last Day.

After the flood, God blessed Noah’s descendants and sent them to multiply and refill the earth. But among those descendants of Noah, a similar pattern established itself as we saw with Adam and Eve’s descendants. More and more rejected God and forgot His gracious promise of a Savior. Once again, the number of believing descendants was diminishing. Since God had promised Noah that He would never destroy His creation through a worldwide flood again, He instead chose another man, Abram, and his wife Sarai. Abram lived roughly two thousand years before Christ lived on this earth. From this elderly couple, He would raise up a new nation. Their descendants would not only preserve God’s original promise of a Savior from the Garden of Eden, but He would also give them new and wonderful revelations unfolding many details about the mission and work of that Savior.

Make no mistake. God was not abandoning all the nations to focus on this one. Instead, He was establishing this new nation to bless and save them all.

God called Abram to leave his fatherland and go to a place God would reveal. So, Abram travelled southwest to a land that joined the three continents—what we know today as Africa, Europe, and Asia. And there in the land possessed by the Canaanites, the Lord would do great things for Abram’s descendants, and many people of other nations would hear of these mighty works and come to His people to learn of His great salvation promise.

Abram and Sarai obeyed God and wandered through an unfamiliar land which their descendants would possess. They raised their herds and flocks and lived in tents. But they proclaimed God’s promise of salvation to the Canaanites who lived in the land. Because God blessed Abram with great wealth, the Canaanites considered him a great prince among them.

When they had first left home, Abram was 75 years old and Sarai 65 years old. She was childless and too old to bear children anymore. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai’s name to Sarah. Finally, after waiting twenty-five more years, God sent the son He had promised them. They named him Isaac. Several years later, when Isaac was a youth, God gave Abraham a startling command:

“Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you” (Genesis 22:2).

Abraham must have been dumbfounded. Isaac was his beloved son—the son from whom God had promised to raise a nation—a son through whom the promised Savior would come. How could God command him to burn him as a sacrifice? But Abraham did the opposite of Eve. He did not question or disobey; he did not try to figure out God’s reasons for His command. In simple trust and obedience, he took Isaac and the wood and the knife for the sacrifice, and they set out together to the mountain to which God directed them.

When they arrived, Abraham tied up Isaac, laid him on the wood, and raised his knife to slay him. Suddenly Abraham heard a voice calling out,

“Abraham, Abraham! . . . Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me” (Genesis 22:11–12).

Abraham looked up and saw a ram that was caught by its horns in a thorny thicket. Abraham took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering instead of his son. He named that mountain “The Lord will provide,” saying, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided” (Genesis 22:14).

It is easy to be astonished with Abraham’s obedience and willingness to sacrifice Isaac. But we must not fail to see how God spared Isaac. He provided a ram to take Isaac’s place. It was another important revelation about the Seed of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head. He would be a substitute who would be sacrificed in our place. He would suffer and die for our sins so we could live in God’s presence eternally.

Even more pointedly, just as the ram was caught in the thickets because its horns were encircled by thorns, God’s Son, His promised Savior, would have His head encircled by a crown of thorns as He was led to the cross to be sacrificed in our place.

Little by little as the Old Testament times passed, God revealed more and more about His plan to save His fallen human creatures through in Incarnation of His Son: the birth, life, death, and resurrection of His one and only Son and how His Son will restore His glorious creation when He returns on the Last Day.

But Isaac’s sacrifice doesn’t only show us something new about Jesus’ great sacrifice on the cross. It speaks also of that Last Day when we will all stand before Jesus Christ for judgment. Abraham could have sacrificed the one thing he loved most in this world, his dear son, Isaac, but that sacrifice would not save him from the wrath of God for his sins on Judgment Day. God had to provide the sacrifice for Abraham too.

The same is true for you and me. No amount of obedience and good works or suffering and sacrifice will be enough to satisfy God’s wrath at our sins. He must provide the sacrifice.

And that sacrifice could have been none other than God’s own dear Son. God led Him here, near this same mountain, wrapped His head in thorns, and offered Him as a burnt sacrifice on the cross. Burnt not by fire, but by the pangs of hell and the blazing sun that made Him cry aloud, “I thirst” (John 19:28). The very Son of God – the Second Person of the Trinity – died that day, but He rose to life again on the third day.

God has provided the one and only sacrifice that could pay the penalty for each and every one of our sins. In Christ Jesus, you have complete pardon and peace. And when He comes again on the Last Day, He will restore your heart, soul, mind, and body, and gather all of us, His believers, to live in His glorious presence for all eternity in His perfectly restored heaven and earth. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +

Sermon for the Baptism of Our Lord: "The Best News of All" (Luke 3:15-22)

 

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

[Intro]

We have all heard this saying: “The only news is bad news.” It is likely that you have said the same sentiment. Each time we open a newspaper, turn on the television news, or read the news online, we see a “crisis” in every headline or lede. Each day, we learn of the newly discovered ways that we are going to die: through war, crime, weather, terrorist attacks, the food we eat, the medicines we ingest or inject, and on and on.

We like to blame the news industry for holding back the good news. We like to imagine that there is a grumpy editor who uses his power to rain woe, grief, and despair on us all. But the thing is, the news publishes and broadcasts bad news, because it sells. As a former journalist, I know this to be true. If the news business thought a story about Sally getting a pony on her birthday would bring in revenue, they would publish it above the fold on page one or as the leading story on the evening news.

You see, the news business gives us what our old Adam – our old sinful nature – wants. Our sinful nature actually enjoys news about death, war, and famine. We want to read the stories that reveal the sickness of human nature first, and that’s why it’s always the top story. We revel in sickness, disaster, and death.

Ever since sin was unleased, man’s evil state has never changed. The Psalmist David wrote: “The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one” (Psalm 14:2-3).

You see, on our own, we can’t change our evil and sinful condition. This is because the enduring reality of our existence is that we are sinful. Though sin is not part of the very essence of being human, it is the situation we find ourselves in for all of us who were born after the Fall with original sin – the sin we inherited from Adam and Eve. Because of this, we are sinful from the moment we first exist as human beings. Sin is in the air we breathe. We are attracted to sin. We can never escape sin in this life.

Due to sin, we live in a natural state of unbelief as we do not trust in the One true God. Due to sin, we have hardened hearts as we live in absolute rebellion against God. Due to sin, we have a stricken conscience as the Law was written on our hearts and our hearts know we’ve violated it. Due to sin, we are helpless. Due to sin, we are either left in despair – if we know our situation – or pride – if we don’t.

But when we realize the full extent of our rebellion against God, it is God’s Law doing the work. It is then that we realize that we can do nothing about our situation. Left on our own, due to sin, we get what we deserve, that is, eternal death. This is certainly bad news, but is it really news if we know in advance?

This is the situation that Jesus enters. This is what brought Jesus down from heaven. This is what caused God to become man. This is what brought Jesus to get in line to be baptized by John. John was calling sinners to repentance. He was boldly confronting people with the truth: they were sinners who needed help and rescue. They were sinners who needed to repent. But all of this seems rather strange. Why would Jesus, who knew no sin, need to be Baptized? Well, He made Himself to be a sinner, so that in our Baptism, we could be saved from sin’s power so that He might make us clean saints.

Today on this Baptism of Our Lord Sunday, the Triune God proclaims the best news of all – that through the obedience of Jesus – He has opened heaven to all the faithful through our Baptism into Christ!

[While Jesus was Praying]

Oddly enough, in Luke’s telling of this salvation event, Luke’s gospel does not focus on John the Baptist, nor does this gospel focus on the actual Baptism of Jesus. Instead, the focus is on what happened after Jesus was Baptized, while He was praying.

As Jesus was praying, “the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son; with you I am well pleased’” (Luke 3:21-22). What a sight and what a sound! Here, we have the entire Godhead revealed as heaven opened to declare that Jesus is the Son chosen to accomplish the messianic work of salvation.

Here, Jesus is named as the Christ, the anointed One, who has come to give sinful humanity – this same humanity that doesn’t seek after God and is utterly corrupt – salvation from the powers of sin, death, and the devil!

As God the Father spoke, “You are My beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22), it would be remissed not to see the sacrificial overtones in Jesus’ Baptism. Recall, God testing Abraham when He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love … and offer him there as a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:2). But unlike Isaac, who was spared, God the Father would not spare His own beloved Son.

Here, at His Baptism, as God the Father puts His seal of approval upon Him, Jesus takes our place by becoming a poor, miserable sinner as He submits to a Baptism of repentance. Through a sinner’s baptism, Jesus who knew no sin of His own, now takes humanity’s place to receive the wrath against sin that we all deserve.

From this moment, Jesus stands in solidarity with sinful humanity. He gives all sinners hope! He, therefore, stands for us under the wrath of God, the wrath that will culminate in a Baptism with fire with His bloody Baptism in His crucifixion for the sins of the world.

[Becoming a Child of God through Baptism]

In being Baptized, we experience a change! Outside the Church and to the unbelieving world, Baptism is just a mere bath. Nothing more. Nothing less. But as we know, Baptism is so much more.

We know that Baptism is a bath that is different from any other bath, since in Baptism, the water is combined with God’s Word. This water also puts God’s name on us as the pastor pours water upon the one to be baptized as he says, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” At that moment, although we can’t see it, the heavens open as God says, “This is My beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.”

Instead of washing away dirt, like a normal bath, Baptism washes away sin and replaces it with a new birth as a child of God. Baptism gives faith, and through that faith, Baptism delivers the forgiveness that Christ won for us on the cross.

Baptism changes everything! At one time, we were all dead to sin and doomed to eternal torment, because of our sinful nature. But through Baptism into Christ Jesus, God comes to us brining the best news of all since we were buried with Christ by our Baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life as God’s beloved child (Romans 6:4).

So, what do we do in this newness of life? Well, we remember our Baptism with the words “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” – the trinitarian invocation. When we use those words of God’s Name, we recall and confess before heaven, earth, and hell that our identity is in Christ and that in Baptism we receive: victory over death and the devil, forgiveness of sins, God’s grace, the entire Christ, and the Holy Spirit with His gifts.

Now that we are baptized into Christ, shall we “continue in sin” like the unbelieving world “that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1) “By no means!” says the Apostle Paul. As Christians, we are to reject the notion that we should ignore God’s will and deliberately sin, knowing that He will forgive. Instead, we live in repentance and faith in the Triune God, who made us His beloved child. We do this when we trust in God above all things and treat our neighbor – everyone we meet in our daily life – as we would like to be treated. And when we fail by not living the Christian life of repentance and faith, we ask God and our neighbor for forgiveness.

Even if we may find it difficult to forgive and forget others, God does that very act! He forgives and forgets as that sin is completely wiped away and He says: “This is My beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.”

Imagine there was a doctor who said he could save people from death, or even if the person died, the doctor said he could restore them to life and live forever. I’m sure this doctor would soon be wealthy beyond our imagination as people would flock to him. But the thing is, we have this great gift already! In Baptism, everyone receives this good news of eternal life. You see, through Baptism and faith as we live a life of repentance, we receive the medicine that utterly destroys death and preserves all people alive.

All this happened since through our Baptism into Christ, we are linked to Christ’s Baptism by John and linked to Christ’s bloody baptism as He hung on the cross. Through Baptism and faith in Christ, our condition has changed, since He took upon Himself our dirty sin and replaced it with His righteousness, so that He could make us clean saints!

We will still read and watch the bad news around us, but through Holy Baptism, we have received the best news of all that through Christ, heaven is open to you and me, since our sin is forgiven! Now set free from sin, we are now alive to God in Christ Jesus!

Our condition has changed! Because of this, God the Father now says of everyone who is baptized and trusts in His Son: “This is My beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.” Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep you hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

T SOLI DEO GLORIA T