Trinity 10
Today’s Gospel is one of the most comforting to hold on to in times of trial. In it we hear of this Gentile/ non-Jewish woman whose daughter is severely oppressed by a demon. She comes to Jesus in faith for help. Notice: she doesn’t tell Jesus what to; she doesn’t tell Him to heal her daughter; instead she simply lets Him know the situation and asks for His mercy: Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon. What a tremendous faith this Gentile woman has! And it is a right/ correct faith! She, a non-Jewish woman, truly and rightly recognizes that Jesus is the true God, O Lord, and the long awaited Savior: Son of David; she recognizes that Jesus is that Savior of the world who would come from the Jewish people, something most Jews didn’t as they rejected Jesus.
In her great and correct faith, she goes to Jesus and asks for mercy, placing her need before Him. And what does Jesus do? Does He latch on to her as a great example for the Jews to follow? Does He right away answer her/ reward her faith. Absolutely not! He ignored her. And this is why this account is so comforting to us in our trials and struggles—it often seems that Jesus is ignoring us. But He did not answer her a word. But what does she do? –She doesn’t get mad at Jesus and go off in a huff; instead her faith kicks into higher gear, she doubles down her efforts and followed Jesus and the disciples who came and begged Jesus, saying, Send her away, for she is crying out after us. He wouldn’t. Instead, Jesus kept exercising the faith of this Gentile woman, throwing her faith back to the word, making this faith go back to what it heard and believes. This is what Jesus is doing when we are in trial and He is seemingly ignoring us, who come to Him in faith. He is trying/ exercising our faith. Is it pleasant? Absolutely not! –Especially when it seems that Jesus has abandoned us. But here, dear Christian, we catch a glimpse into the heart of Jesus. Here we see that through the trials we endure, far from forsaking us in them, Jesus is working mightily to strengthen and purify our faith precisely by seemingly withholding His help. After all, how weak and superficial our faith would be, if it were not exercised! This non-Jewish woman came and knelt before Jesus saying, “Lord, help me.” And He answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the [little] dogs.” Here Jesus again seems to reject her, show her that her faith is futile. But what does this Gentile woman do? She grabs on to Jesus’ word, [little] dogs, and holds Him to it: Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table. You see what faith does? –It grabs ahold of Jesus’ word and doesn’t let it go, no matter what! That’s a strong faith. That’s a faith that is exercised. That’s a faith prepared to live in this world, a faith prepared for attack by the devil and his allies.
So when we endure various trials and hardships, let us go to Jesus in faith. If He doesn’t seem to answer us/ give us help/ relief, then let us understand that He is exercising our faith in order to strengthen it. Behind each of His seeming rebuffs, let us see His smiling face, the face of our gracious God and Savior and see His merciful heart loving us and working for our eternal good—and so hold all the more firmly to His word and promise in full confidence that He will help at the right time and in the right way. And during the trial, He will strengthen us through His word and sacrament. Jesus desires to say to us, as He said to that Gentile woman that day: Great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you desire.
But in the Gospel there is that one curious line Jesus speaks to the woman that serves as a tie in with today’s other readings: I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Of course, Jesus is the Savior of the world, of all people of both Jew and Gentile/ non-Jew. But His earthly ministry was for the most part confined to Palestine, among the Jews to announce that He, the long-awaited Savior had come. Jesus lived and completed the work for our salvation within the borders of Palestine. It was the job of His apostles and His Church to go and bring this message and the saving fruit of His work into all the far corners of the earth.
That’s what our text from the OT prophet St. Isaiah tells us as the Lord says in it: And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to Him, to love the Name of the Lord, and to be His servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast My covenant—these I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Jesus’ work is not just for the Jew—although they are the ones He mostly worked with during His earthly ministry and where He carried out His saving work—but Jesus’ work is for all people and He calls all people—Jew and Gentile—to Himself, like we see with this Gentile woman in today’s Gospel. Like we heard in the epistle a few weeks ago, the Jew had great advantages over the Gentile, but Jesus and His work is for all people, including you and me!
Think of the great advantages and blessings the Jews had. God had revealed Himself to them and given them the OT law. That law was to be a constant reminder to them of who they were—God’s people. The Law was to prepare them for the Savior’s coming and make them long for it. The Lord kept sending them prophets to remind them of the promised Savior and to proclaim and explain His holy word. The Lord gave them the sacrifices to point them forward to Jesus, the Savior’s perfect once for all sacrifice. And when Jesus did come His preaching and miracles were mostly done in Palestine, as He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
God was absolutely faithful to the promise that He made to Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, that one of his descendants would be the Savior of the world from its sin, from death and devil. God did everything and gave the Jews every advantage. But, sadly, what did—and do—most Jews do? –They reject Jesus who came from them. The greater number rejected the Gospel when it was preached to them by St. Paul and others: that very Gospel which is [Rm. 1.16] the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. That’s why St. Paul writes in the epistle: As regards the gospel, they are enemies of God… They have turned a deaf ear to the Gospel which offers them the free gift of the righteousness of God; that has made them enemies of God. But then St. Paul goes on: But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers….Just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. Israel/ the Jews are both enemies and beloved. As they reject, they are spiritually dead and enemies of God—but what does God do? He shows mercy; He pours out His grace—just like He does with us Gentiles/ non-Jews. God’s door of grace is open—just like it was to us Gentiles to come to faith, just like it was to that Canaanite woman in the Gospel today. God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth [1 Ti 2.4]. By our disobedience we Gentiles were the objects of God’s mercy; by the Jews’ rejection of Jesus and the Gospel, God can show them mercy too. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all. Even though the Jews rejected and crucified their own Savior, yet God’s mercy reigns! According to the mystery we see in the Epistle, both Jews and Gentiles will be converted. Not only does God’s door of grace remain open to the end, but there will always be both Jews and Gentiles entering the Kingdom of God, the Church until the end of time. St. Paul says that he is proof of this: I ask, then, has God rejected His people? By no means! For I myself am a Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. This time of grace for the Gentiles/ non-Jews is also a time of grace for Israel.
So when we read in our text, And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to Him, to love the Name of the Lord, and to be His servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast My covenant—these I will bring to My holy mountain, we have a glorious picture of the Church. God’s Church is made up of all people, Jew and Gentile. Really when it comes down to it, it is only in the Church where there is true unity—a unity of faith, a unity in Christ, a unity because of God’s mercy to us, a unity grounded in our baptism into Christ.
Our country is dealing with all sorts of divisions between peoples based on race and other factors. But what does Scripture say about the Church? There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus [Gl. 3.28]. In the world, yes, there will be differences in race and gender and social condition. Those things remain—and differences between people are essentially good: we have been created by God a certain race and gender. It is the devil that tries to use those differences—which are good gifts of God—to work all sorts of evil and chaos. Wherever there is division and scattering, that is the work of the devil. What does Christ do instead? He unifies! He gathers us—with all our various outward differences into the Church. Our text: The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.” By the Holy Spirit at work in the word and Sacrament Jesus calls and gathers us, all people, into His Church and makes of us one people, united by faith in Him, united in Him and with each other in Holy Baptism.
Jesus does not look at the person—their race, gender, social standing, etc. but calls people simply because all people are in need of His mercy. Somehow, some way that Scripture doesn’t tell us, before this event, our Lord had called this Canaanite woman in today’s Gospel to faith in Him and worked that faith in Him in her heart. It wasn’t because she was so “worthy” or even a Jewess; He simply had mercy on her. Because the thing is, Jesus and His saving work are too great for just one people; that’s why Jesus is the Savior of all people. God the Father already says about His Son, Jesus, in the OT [Is 49.6]: It is too small a thing that you should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.
Because of Jesus and His mercy and His saving work, He is calling and gathering all peoples into His Church and into union with Him and with each other. And the foreigners [that is Gentiles, non-Jews] …join themselves to the Lord. We are joined to the Lord by Spirit-worked faith; we cling to the Lord in sincere faith. And why do we cling to Him? –In great love and in the true worship of faith to minister to Him, to love the Name of the Lord, and to be His servants. Here this sincere love flowing from faith shows itself as our Lord’s dear Christians gladly desire to do the Lord’s will: everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast My covenant. Our dear Lord graciously calls us into His holy Church—no matter who or what we are—only because He is merciful and gives us the gifts and blessings we all truly need: forgiveness of sin and eternal life. These I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer. As our Lord brings people from all nations to the Church, His household of grace, He is continually refreshing His dear Christians with the blessings of His grace and we together with all our fellow Christians, united in the same Spirit worked faith in Jesus, love and serve Him and each other. INJ Amen