Reminiscere (Lent 2)

Reminiscere (Lent 2) – February 25, 2024

Psalm 25; Genesis 32:22-32; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-7

St. Matthew 15:21-28

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good, For His mercy endures forever!” The goodness of God cannot be known outside of His mercy. When the pastor speaks the first part of this verse at the end of the service, it is almost as though the congregation must quickly respond to explain what that goodness is, lest anyone should think God’s goodness exists apart from mercy.

Both Jacob and the Canaanite woman are quick to respond, “for His mercy endures forever!” The Canaanite woman is not an Israelite by blood. She is outside of the people of Israel. Her people were pagan. They worshiped demons. Her people sacrifice children on fiery altars to appease their gods. Yet she identifies Jesus as the Son of David, like Blind Bartimaeus from two Sunday’s ago. Both are beggars who recognize that Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior, the Promised Son of David come to save all people from sin, death, and the devil.

At first, she cries out with formal, liturgical language. “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely demon-possessed.” Our Lord does not respond. His lack of response is a harsh, “no” to her prayer. The disciples want him to cast the woman out because she is annoying. He also does not answer their prayer.

He turns again to the woman and says, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” This is where things get interesting. The rebuke in this response is that the woman is not an Israelite, she is a Canaanite. She is not of the people chosen to bear the promise of the Savior. It is also, likely, an indictment of her sinful life. Growing up and living outside of Israel, she has not participated in the worship of the true God nor kept his commandments in her heart.

However, what does it mean to be a lost sheep of Israel? In our Old Testament lesson, Jacob wrestles with God and God gives him a new name: Israel. For striving against God and man, and prevailing, he is given the name by which Christ would identify His people. Who then is the true Israel? It is those who have faith in Christ. It is those whose citizenship is in the Kingdom of God, not of this world. It is those whose ancestral blood is the Blood of the Lamb, not the human blood of Abraham. The Church is the sheep of Israel. You are the true Israel.

Our Lord is telling the woman that He has come for her. She is one of His sheep, but He is testing her faith. He alone knows just how far He can test her faith because by testing, her faith will be strengthened. At this point, the woman drops the formal, liturgical language. Her response is simply, “Lord, help me.” She is deflated. No longer is she searching for the proper thing to say, she simply speaks from the heart. That does not make her second prayer better or more appropriate. Spontaneous prayer from the heart is no more effective to God than prepared, repeated, liturgical formulations. But it does reveal the woman’s desperate state.

Again, the Lord pushes her. “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” While Jesus does use a diminutive form of dog, that is “little dogs” or “puppies,” dogs are never a good thing in Scripture. They were not a good thing in the ancient world. They were either dirty scavenging beasts or used for work as guards. They ate scraps, were dirty, and smelled. They were either outcast or used without pay. It could be that Jesus is accusing the woman of allowing herself to be used by others. It could also be that he is simply calling her an unclean beast.

The woman catches on to the details of God’s word. The little dogs in our Lord’s response are inside the house. They are at least near the table. So she holds Jesus accountable to his word, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” She doesn’t want the children’s bread. She wants the master’s bread. She wants the Bread which only the Lord can give. She wants the Bread of Life, salvation. And she wants it for her daughter.

Jesus has pushed her enough and now commends her great faith. Finally, the prayer is answered, and her daughter is immediately healed. “O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good, and His mercy endures forever.”

God tested both the Canaanite woman and Jacob. Both came into these situations with faith. They knew to look toward God, to pray that he would deliver them, yet after their prayers, God tested them. This is the life of the Christian. You will suffer. You will suffer physically and spiritually.

Sometimes, this suffering is allowed by God and sometimes it is caused by God. The suffering allowed by God is caused by Satan. Satan hopes you will be crushed by this suffering and despair of God. This suffering is often the result of sin though it is not a one-to-one punishment. It is the suffering whose root is evil.

The suffering caused by God is a testing and strengthening of your faith. It is suffering which seems to have no cause. From our perspective, we cannot tell the difference. Both appear the same as we experience the suffering. However, in either case, the suffering is for the purpose of strengthening your faith.

The purpose of lifting weights is to cause tiny tears in your muscles. These tears are repaired, and the muscle grows. This is the picture of God testing your faith. You will suffer so that your faith will be strengthened. One theologian called such agonizing spiritual testing “a dark night of the soul.” You experience a “dark night of the soul” when you wrestle with God through the night. “Why, O Lord, have you done this to me? Why aren’t you listening?”

The fact is, God is listening. He hears the cries of His people. Even when He is testing you, He is providing you with everything you need. Therefore, Christ depicts the dogs being present at the table. He is providing the woman with the words to catch Christ in His own promise. God desires to be held accountable and He gives us His words and promises to do just that.

When Job suffered the loss of everything, children, herds, flocks, health, and his wife, he forgot the promises of God. He eventually blamed God and justified himself saying he did not deserve such punishment. Jacob and the Canaanite woman recognize they deserve everything that has happened to them. They also recognized that God has promised to bless them. In humility, they cry out for God to have mercy. Then God pushes them, testing them further. He wrestles with Jacob and derides the woman. Yet both remain firm in the faith that God loves them and will provide for them.

In your dark night of the soul, turn to the word of God. When temptation to sin falls upon you, remember the mercy of the Lord endures forever and He has had mercy upon you. Why would you drag His mercy through the mud of the sin you are tempted to commit? Rather, cry out for faith strong enough to defeat such temptation. Then receive the forgiveness promised to you by your Heavenly Father.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.