READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Genesis 32:22-32
1 Thessalonians 4:1-7
- St. Matthew 15:21-28
Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess 1)
Who speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard, saying:
“O woman, great is
your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.”
Today God puts before you this Canaanite woman in His
Gospel. He wants you to hear it, because He wants you to believe that it is
Jesus Who will be persecuted, suffer, die, and on the third day rise again.
This moves you to repentance in confessing your sins to your pastor and
receiving absolution, that is forgiveness as from Christ Himself. The entire
life of the Christian should be one of repentance, because God has come to
forgive.
But can He do so while remaining silent? As our Canaanite
woman is ignored, so too, do we feel as if God is ignoring us or remaining
silent, when we need Him. “To You I will cry, O Lord my Rock: Do not be
silent to me”, says Psalm 28, “Lest, if You are silent to me, I become
like those who go down to the pit” (Psalm 28:1).
As sinners, we struggle under this revelation and under the
command to “wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him”
(Psalm 62:5).
It is popular, American Christianity to think that when God
wants to make you great, He always first breaks you into pieces. In order for
you to really expand your horizons, give you abundance, or elevate your
spirituality, first God must bring you low. You know, to teach you a lesson, or
to teach you humility, or to just be a jerk, as our Gospel seems to present
today.
God must have great things in store for this woman,
apparently, for she is taken down not just one notch, but several. First, Jesus
ignores her, probably because she is a woman. Second, the disciples complain
about her. Third, Jesus misidentifies her as not part of Israel. And fourth,
Jesus mansplains to her, because, well, she didn’t get it the first few times.
Saying “because she is a woman” is just an excuse, however,
from both sides of those who despise God’s Word. One side tries to dismiss the
Word, saying it was for that time and place only and we know better now. The
other side tries to create dogma here: see? that is a woman’s place.
When we try to understand from some sort of Social Justice
Warrior standpoint, we lose faith. And, while we were busy with that, Jesus
moved on to a bigger point: Faith. He does this by exalting this woman. He
doesn’t do this with any of the disciples at all, but to the woman.
In this way we discover the alleged “silence of God” where
He stops talking, stops explaining, and stops taking sides. Today’s Gospel is
one example. Not only is the woman suffering, but we are suffering today,
because we are trying to find good things for our life, which exclude
suffering.
We believe God is silent when He doesn’t give clear guidance
or speak up when we feel we need Him to, so we suffer in our sin. We believe He
is silent even when He says He is not. From Psalm 50, “Our God comes; he
does not keep silence” (v.3).
But we throw examples in His face. There’s the time between
Joseph and the Exodus of 300 years where God did not speak up, even when all
those babies were being murdered by Pharaoh. In-between the Old Testament and
New Testament, there was no new Word of God for over 400 years.
Repent! You may even be tempted to conclude that this is how
God wants it. That He just traipses about, looking for broken people that He
can scam into His religion if He just breaks them down enough. And if that is
how you think, then God has done His work well, for you are to be led to
repentance.
Repentance for believing God causes suffering for enjoyment.
Repentance for believing God is silent. Repentance for not seeing Jesus in this
exchange.
Jesus is treated like the woman, like a dog. He doesn’t
mistreat the woman for fun. He treats her this way to show us how He is going
to be treated by us. At Jesus’s Word, this woman becomes a type of Christ. She
is elevated to the position of representing Christ on earth. She increases and
He decreases.
First, Jesus is ignored. He claims to be God, which is
blasphemy, and He is believed by so many people that the Jews are afraid to
oppose Him. Second, Jesus is complained about. He doesn’t wash before He eats,
He eats with sinners and tax collectors, and He interrupts Jewish business,
which they interpret as God’s business.
Third, Jesus is misidentified. He is thought of as a
fanatic, a false messiah, and an upstart trying to incite rebellion against
Rome and the Temple. Neither side wants Him, but both are willing to put Him
down for peace with the world. And fourth, Jesus gets true religion mansplained
to Him. Jesus we don’t do those sorts of things around here. Jesus, we try to
make people feel good about themselves and make them prosper, so they know God
loves them. Conform or get out.
From Dr. Luther:
Here you can see what it means to believe. It may indeed
seem an easy matter, but it is in fact a high and great art. Therefore when you
feel your sin, when your bad conscience smites you, or when persecution comes,
then ask yourself whether you really believe. At such times one is wont to run
to saints and helpers in cloisters and in the desert for succor and relief,
crying: "O my dear man, intercede for me! O dear saint, help me! O let me
live! I promise to become pious and to do many good works." That is how a
terrified conscience speaks.
But tell me, where is faith? If you believe in the words of
Christ, "None of them is lost whom Thou hast given Me" (John
17:12), then, as a Christian, you must say: "I acknowledge no saint
here. I am a poor sinner deserving of death; but in defiance of sin and death I
cling to Thee, and I will not let Thee go. I have taken hold of Thee, dear Lord
Christ. Thou art my Life, and this is the Father's will, that all who adhere to
Thee have eternal life and be raised from the dead. In the meantime let my fate
be what it will. I may be beheaded or burned at the stake."
No other life, whether it be called the monastic life or the
life of St. Augustine or of St. John the Baptist, will arm a person for
victory. Only faith in Christ can do so. (Martin Luther, ToDP, 1219)
In the decrease of Jesus, He increases, that is, His
increase is His victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil. His
increase is to suffer for the forgiveness of sins. His preaching is always and
ever will be salvation in the death and resurrection of the Son of Man.
In this way, the Lord is never silent. Sure, He may not tell
us which car to buy, which man or woman to settle with, or which path to take,
but that is only because He has already said what He is going to say about all
things in our life and His message is always the same: repent and be forgiven.
“Hearts that are secure and do not feel the wrath of God
loathe consolation”, says the Apology of our Augsburg confession (Ap
XII(V):264:51). If God appears to be silent to you, you are listening to
yourself, the world, or the devil. You need to be shaken from your sin in order
that you may be made to hear the Gospel.
“because”, our Apology continues, “the sum of the preaching
of the Gospel is this, namely, to convict of sin, and to offer for Christ's
sake the remission of sins and righteousness, and the Holy Ghost, and eternal
life, and that as regenerate men we should do good works. Thus Christ comprises
the sum of the Gospel when He says in the last chapter of Luke, “That
repentance and remission of sins should be preached in My name among all
nations.” (24:47)
And of these terrors Scripture speaks, as : “For mine
iniquities are gone over mine head, as a heavy burden they are too heavy for
me. ... I am feeble and sore broken; I have roared by reason of the
dis-quietness of my heart.” (Ps. 38:4-8)
And Psalm 6:2-3: “Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am
weak; O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed; but
Thou, O Lord, how long?” (Ap XII(V):259:30ff)
This is the constant, never-changing voice of God in any and
all situations, be they silent or chaotic: the forgiveness of sins. When you
face God’s apparent silence, He is pointing you back to where He is preaching.
When God seems to not answer, He is answering you in the Gospel purely
preached. When God appears to have left no trace of Himself in your life, He is
drawing you to His Body and Blood given and shed for you; His true, bodily
presence on earth.
St Ambrose reminds us that “It is faith that covers up our
sins” (Ambrose, De Apologia Prophetae David 13, 3). There is no benefit to
faith, if one first does not believe he is a sinner. There is no benefit to
confession, if one is not then absolved. God first is silent to His
only-begotten Son. God is first a jerk to Jesus, not a jerk, but a just and
righteous God Who punishes evil
And that evil has been found in us. Justice demands justice.
There are none good, only those who have faith and those without. “Therefore,
let pious consciences know that the command of God is this, that they believe
that they are freely forgiven for Christ's sake, and not for the sake of our
works. And by this command of God let them sustain themselves against despair,
and against the terrors of sin and of death. And let them know that this belief
has existed among saints from the beginning of the world.” (Ap XII(V):271:71)
“Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us,
that he may heal us; He has struck us down, and he will bind us up”, says
Hosea 6:1.
And
“You cause man to die and say, ‘Return, O children of
man!’”, from Psalm 90:3, showing great faith in the resurrection.
For let us imagine that love is present, let us imagine that
works are present, for this woman in our Gospel reading, for us in our lives,
yet neither love nor works can be a propitiation for sin [or be of as much
value as Christ]. And they cannot even be opposed to the wrath and judgment of
God, according to Ps. 143, 2: “Enter not into judgment with Thy servant; for
in Thy sight shall no man living be justified.”
Neither ought the honor of Christ to be transferred to our
works. (Ap XII(V):275:78)
And neither should we ever believe God to be silent on
anything, especially on our forgiveness in Christ.
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