The Tenacity of Faith

Matthew 15:21-28

Jim’s job as a land surveyor took him to a golf course that was expanding from nine holes to 18 holes. Using a machete to clear thick brush in an area he was mapping, Jim came upon a golf club that an irate player must have tossed away.  It was in good condition, so he picked it up and continued on. When Jim broke out of the brush onto a putting green, two golfers looked up at him in surprise.  He had a machete in one hand and a golf club in the other.  And behind him was a clear cut swath leading out of the woods. “Wow!” said one of the golfers.  “There’s a guy who hates to lose his ball!”

          As far as they were concerned, Jim was very tenacious.  He wasn’t about to let anything separate him from his treasured possession.  He simply would not give up.  We see a classic example of that in our text for today – the tenacity of the Canaanite woman.  Moved by the Holy Spirit, she simply would not give up on Jesus.  She considered Him her treasured possession and she kept after Him until she got an answer.  In short, she was very tenacious in her faith.

          Now, keep in mind that she was a descendant of those heathen people whom the Israelites were supposed to remove from the face of the earth, when they entered the Promised Land.  And so, to the people of Jesus’ day, she would’ve been the villain in the story.  Nevertheless, she is the one who had the great faith.  Of course, that was not her doing.  It was a gift of the Holy Spirit.  Lutheran scholars have often referred to faith as the medium leptikon, which means: ‘the hand that grasps God’s blessings.’  But even that hand is only moved and empowered by the working of the Holy Spirit.  That’s why the woman had such tenacious faith – the Holy Spirit filled her with the confidence to turn to Jesus!

          After all, look at her approach.  St. Matthew tells us that her daughter was cruelly possessed by a demon.  Now from a purely human standpoint, there were a number of options this woman could’ve taken.  She could’ve given in to despair, could’ve considered the situation hopeless and simply suffered through it.  Or she could’ve cursed God for this miserable burden and taken it out on her daughter, thereby releasing some of her tensions and frustrations.  Or she could’ve even abandoned her child, as was often done to those who were demon-possessed, since it was believed that they were being punished by God anyway.

          However, the Canaanite woman chose none of those options.  Instead, she felt that this problem was not only her daughter’s problem, but her problem as well.  So she went straightway to Jesus for help.  And when she met Him, she cried out:  “HAVE MERCY ON ME, O LORD, SON OF DAVID!”  That was a pretty amazing thing, when you get right down to it.  She was confessing Him to be the Messiah, and she was a Canaanite woman.  No self-respecting Jewish Rabbi would’ve taken the time of day to even spit on her, much less answer her request.  But that didn’t stop her.  She came to Jesus anyway.  No doubt, she had heard of the miraculous wonders that Jesus had performed.  And  convicted by the Holy Spirit she was confident that He would be gracious and compassionate enough to help her too!

          My friends, is that the way you most often approach your problems – by coming to the Lord immediately in confident, tenacious faith?  I can’t honestly say it’s the way I always approach mine.  No, I think the typical approach is to resort to one of those other options I mentioned.  Either to give in to despair and simply suffer through it, instead of trying to learn and grow from our problems, discovering what God has in store.  Or to curse God, blaming Him for our predicament and becoming angry, to the point that we lash out at our friends and family members and they have to bear the brunt of our tension and frustration.  Or we simply abandon the problem, hoping that if we ignore it, it will just go away.

          This final option was the one most favored by the apostles in our text.  When they saw the Canaanite woman tagging along after them, crying for help, they begged Jesus to send her away, to just get rid of her.  Have you ever done that to people?  To the hurting child who’s pleading for help, or the pesky neighbor who always wants some favor, or the elderly person who’s begging for a little more of your time.  You just wish them well and send them on their way, instead of digging down deep to find out what they really need and then meeting that need.

It reminds me a little bit of the guy, who was watching TV as his wife was out cutting the grass during the hot summer.  He finally worked up the energy to go out and ask his wife what was for supper. Well, his wife was quite irritated about him sitting in the air conditioned house all day while she did all the work, so she scolded him.  “I can’t believe you’re asking me about supper right now!  Imagine I’m out of town; go inside and figure dinner out yourself.” So, he went back in the house and fixed himself a big steak with potatoes, garlic bread and a tall glass of iced tea. His wife finally walked in about the time he was finishing up and asked him, “You fixed something to eat?  So, where’s mine?” “What?” he said.  “I thought you were out of town.”

          It is the natural selfish tendency of our sinful human nature to put ourselves first, and overlook the needs of others.  But our Lord Jesus doesn’t accept it or condone it.  In fact, He disciplines it with His chastening rod, because He knows that such sinful behavior will destroy us.  And Jesus simply won’t put up with that.  He doesn’t put it with sin, because He knows that in the end it will completely cut us off from Him.  For the wages of sin is death – eternal death in hell.  So instead, He comes to remove our sin and release us from its strangling grip.  You see, that’s how He dealt with the Canaanite woman – with open-armed acceptance and big-hearted love.  And that’s the same way He deals with us.  He invites us to bring our sinful burdens and lay them down at the foot of His cross.  For just as children bring their broken toys to parents to mend, so we can bring our broken hearts to Jesus, and He will repair our shattered lives, just like He did for the Canaanite woman.

          Now it’s true, He didn’t immediately answer her request.  As a matter of fact, He seemed to imply that she was a heathen dog, who didn’t deserve such an answer.  That was quite an insult, since the dogs were the unclean scavengers of the street, filthy, savage and often diseased.  But the Canaanite woman didn’t take it as an insult.  On the contrary, she realized that Jesus was testing her faith.  She freely admitted that she didn’t deserve it, but she trusted Jesus to help her anyway.  Hers was an attitude of humble dependence.  She was not ashamed to get down on her hands and knees and beg, because she knew there was no way she could help herself and no one else who could aid her.  She didn’t make demands on the Lord.  Instead, whatever He wanted to offer, she gladly accepted.

          What a beautiful example of humble submission.  Like her, we too need to realize that we are not worthy of God’s gift of mercy.  By nature we are like filthy dogs, diseased with sin and guilt.  But that does not stop God from loving us.  In His never ending grace, He gives His mercy to us anyway.  Like that woman we are unable to help ourselves, powerless to save ourselves.  So that’s why Jesus came to help us.  In fact, the word help  in our text is a military term for reinforcements – someone who rescues you on the field of battle and turns the tide.  Well, that’s exactly what Jesus did for you and me.  At the battle-field of Calvary, He laid down His life to rescue us from sin, death and hell, and turned the tide against the devil.  He conquered Satan and all his condemning accusations against us, crushed them into dust and then blew the dust away.  Jesus is our ultimate reinforcement, who gave us the victory of salvation and eternal life – victory over all our sins and fears and iniquities.

          As a matter of fact, He is the Mighty Warrior who vanquished our enemies and sent them away for good.  Instead of sending us away in anger and exasperation, He sent our guilt and shame packing.  Indeed, that verb ‘send’ in our text means: ‘to dismiss someone,’ kind of like firing a lazy employee, giving them their ‘walking papers.’  And that’s precisely what Jesus has done to sin and Satan, hell and the grave by His cleansing blood.  He has expelled them from the premises, so that they can no longer disturb or distress us anymore!  And all of that He distributes to us daily in the Means of Grace.   

          Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Canaanite woman believed that with her whole heart.  That’s why when Jesus said to her:  “IT IS NOT RIGHT TO TAKE THE CHILDREN’S BREAD AND THROW IT TO THE DOGS,” she responded in tenacious faith by saying:  “YES LORD, YET EVEN THE DOGS EAT THE CRUMBS THAT FALL FROM THEIR MASTER’S TABLE!”  She knew that she was one of those Canaanite dogs who did not deserve to eat the Bread of Everlasting Life, Salvation and Forgiveness.  But even more than that, she knew of the mercy of God.  She believed in His saving grace.  After all, even a human master loves his pet dog enough to give him a few tender morsels, even though he doesn’t deserve it.  Therefore, how much more will God give the tender morsels of redemption and eternal pardon and peace, to us, even though we don’t deserve it, just because that is the kind of loving God He is.  And He lavishes those tender morsels upon us in His heavenly supper, where He feed us with His body and blood, to acquit us of our sin and guilt and strengthen our faith!

          Most of us are familiar with the fate of the city of Pompeii; it was destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 a.d.  During recent years the ruins of that city have been excavated.  There are numerous evidences that many tried to flee from the catastrophe.  But one man did not.  At the city gate was found the skeleton of a Roman guard.  There he had remained, both hands clutched around his weapon, while the very ground on which he stood trembled and the fiery ashes were gradually burying him; after these many centuries, he was found at his post of duty.

          What a beautiful picture of tenacious love and devotion!  Dear friends, that’s the kind of tenacious love and devotion Jesus has for you and me.  He holds on to us with a love that never lets go.  That’s why He hung on the cross, so that He can cling to us and never give us up.  He is tenacious in His forgiveness and grace toward us, for by the sword of His Word He has cut down our enemies and sent them away for good.  May He empower us by the outpouring of His Spirit in the Word and Sacraments, to be equally tenacious in our faith toward Him, for our good and His glory.  Amen.