Jesus spoke to us today and said,
“O woman, great is your faith. Be it done for you as you desire.”
As we heard Jesus tell the Devil last week that “Man does
not live on bread alone”, we should not be surprised that there is no food for
this faithful woman. We should be more surprised that there is food for her,
even if it is just a crumb.
This is the nature of the Laws of God. If God says man lives
on the Word, then man lives on the Word and you should rejoice in your
starvation. If God says deny yourself, then you should rejoice in your
humiliation and oppression. If God says something, it happens with or without
your consent.
In the book of Ruth, Naomi says, “I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty” (1:21)
In this, she echoes Job’s famous saying, “Naked
I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the
Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (1:21)
Here God is working in Naomi’s life and yet she has lost
both husband and sons and all she had. These are hard words for us, because it
means that we must accept good from the hand of the Lord as well as endure the
bad. If you want God to be in control, this is how it has to be. This Canaanite
woman must be in distress, she must be vexed by this demon, and she must struggle
with the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Her table is empty by divine design. The Lord has declared
that if you do not enact all He commands and spurn the covenant, then He will
visit us with terror and what we sow will be empty because our enemies will
eat, instead of us (Lev. 26:16) and though you fight against it, your strength
will also be empty (v.20).
The earth shall be
utterly empty and utterly plundered; for the Lord has spoken this word. (Isaiah
24:3). If the Lord says the table will be empty, there will not even be
crumbs for the dogs. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
This is the Faith. This is faith in a corrupted world ruled
by the cross of Christ. Suffering abounds. In the midst of life, we are in
death. We rage against empty things but offer no solutions. We call the law of
God unfair to His face with empty threats and empty vanity.
Repent. There is nothing you can do about the corruption
around you, much less can be done with the corruption inside you. We want God
to immediately heed our beck and call, relieving us of any and all discomforts
and when He doesn’t, we call Him an evil God with no real power, not worth
worshipping.
The life of Jesus should be enough for you. He says, But the Scripture imprisoned everything
under sin…[and]…we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming
faith would be revealed. (Gal. 3:22-23) You are not the only one suffering
emptiness. God Himself was subjected to the same law and held in the same
captivity. He was imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed.
That faith, revealed as purchased and won on the cross, was
given at the Resurrection of the same imprisoned God. Our captive God, fastened
to the tree of death, has freely given life and forgiveness to all who believe
and He has given the gift of faith to all under the same bondage of sin and
death as He Himself was.
This is why St.
Paul can say, “If
Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is empty, and also your faith is
empty” (1 Cor 15:14). Empty of empties, all is empty. Empty preaching,
empty faith, empty tables all without Christ Crucified. For just as Christ
fills the cross and the tomb, so does He fill our tables.
The same Law that condemns you for leaving an empty table
for the sojourner, Jesus perfects in filling an everlasting table with His Body
and Blood. The same law that sentences this Canaanite woman to death, being
outside the covenant, Jesus fulfills offering His death for her life.
The same Law that divinely held you in futility of thought,
word, and deed has been cleared away by grace, through faith, for the sake of
Jesus Christ.
The Canaanite woman approaches a physical Jesus. The body of
a man filled with a rational soul. She sees Him, speaks with Him, and touches
Him. She approaches on bended knee, struggling with the holiness of God.
And God, in His body turns towards her, looks at hear, hears
her, and speaks to her. It doesn’t matter what He says, God is listening and
speaking! That should be enough to fill one’s soul for three lifetimes. Do you
know how many religious zealots wish their god spoke to them directly?
In the same way, you approach a physical Jesus. You bring
your empty table to the Divine Service. By the time it is your turn to come
near, you are ashamed and embarrassed. You imagine empty things for excuses.
You become angry at being forced to live a life that clears your table, instead
of filling it. You say to God, “It is unfair”.
As your sinful mouth opens in spite, the Lord simply says,
“Take and eat” and in one swoop fills your mouth and your table. At the
declaration of the Gospel, the forgiveness of sins, the Law flees to its proper
place and grace abounds. Where sin increased, grace increased all the more. At
the command to receive the forgiveness of sins by mouth, sin is silenced and
faith says, “Amen”.
Yes, Lord, I am in distress, but You comfort me with Your
afflictions. Yes, Lord, I am vexed by demons on every hand, but you bring
relief in Your Word. Yes, Lord, I am struggling with belief, but You declare
that faith can not be shaken or undone.
Not just with flowery or poetic words, but with Your true
Body and Blood. Here stands a sign that the devil can not stand. Not only are
we declared righteous in God’s sight, but to prove it, He enters us by mouth,
to make us righteous spiritually and physically.
In our sufferings, we turn in faith to the true Jesus, Body
and Spirit, and no longer find Him far away or aloof, as we do in the outside
world. But here in His Church, we find Him close, literally on the tip of our
tongues. And it is there that the promise of peace is manifested. Outside, it
is flowery words, in here it is Body and Blood.
Your earthly table is empty, by God’s design. Earth has no
pleasure I would share, you sing in your hymnals. Indeed, heaven itself would
be void and empty, if Jesus were not with us. Your heavenly table is full
because Christ fills it, arranges it, and sets it before you. Your earthly
table is now also full, because in faith everything is a gift, even the crumbs.
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