Faith Has No Bounds
Pastor Mathew Magera – 8/20/17 – Sermon 241
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
Grace and peace to you from
God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Have you ever wanted
something knowing full well that you probably wouldn't get it? Something so
grand, so incredible, so over the top that you knew as many times that you may
have asked for it or dug in your pocketbook you knew you couldn't have it? When
I was young and growing up, I had something in mind. I wanted something so
grand, so incredible, so over the top that I knew as much as I asked for it I
would never get it. A snowmobile. As a kid, I always wanted a snowmobile.
Winter is my season and there were a number of snowmobilers in our neighborhood
and quite often they would have to ride past our house to get to the few open
fields and trails that we had, leaving tracks in our front yard as they passed
by. Sometimes I would just sit out in the front yard in the evening in my
snowsuit and wait for the next snowmobile to go by. Though I asked for one, a
number of times, we never got one. But, I always wondered what it would be like
if I did. What if after asking day after day, year after year, what if one day
when I came home from school I found a brand new snowmobile in our driveway?
Could you just imagine the look on a little boy’s face when his family brought
home their very own snowmobile? That’s where it ends, of course. In the
imagination. Not in reality.
I know there's something
like that for you in your mind too. It may not be as whimsical as my desire for
a snowmobile, but you have a desire that runs just as deep if not deeper than
mine did. A desire you knew you couldn't have no matter how many times you
asked for it. Maybe it was something you didn't have enough money to buy. Maybe
it was something that all the money in the world could not purchase, like the
love of another, more time with a dying loved one, relief from a chronic pain, a
retreat from a financial crisis, or a reconciled relationship. You knew you
could never have it but you wanted it anyway.
Take that feeling now and
place it into this Canaanite woman who comes to visit Jesus, wanting something
so desperately but knowing she can’t have it. In this story, Jesus is pressed
up against two very distinct and very prominent boundaries and he has to figure
out what to do.
The first boundary is a
national boundary. We know all about national boundaries don't we? I mean, when
you're driving along the road you know when you've reached Canada, right? The
traffic stops, you hand somebody your passport, you get asked a few questions
and, God willing, they let you pass and you see that beautiful red maple leaf
welcoming you into the true north, strong and free. Jesus is pressed up against
a national boundary. Matthew makes it very clear that Jesus' mission is to
Israel. His passport was stamped and his visa cleared only to bring good news
to Israel and nowhere else. So while out of his territory a woman comes up to
him begging and pleading for something that he can’t deliver. She's an outsider
to his mission. She's a foreigner. He can't do anything. He has no business
with her.
The second boundary is a faith
boundary. There is a difference between those who have faith and those who
don't. There is a difference between those who are accepted and those who are
rejected. When it comes to Jesus, if you have faith, he's going to give you
grace. If you have faith, he's going to give you mercy. How many times have we
heard of Jesus performing a miracle of sorts as a response to faith? Your faith
has made you well. You of great faith. So, this woman who comes up to him
displays great faith. So, putting the national boundary aside for a moment, as
a woman of faith, Jesus has an obligation to hear her and to respond.
Which is more important?
Being of the right nation or having faith? Does Jesus heal the woman and risk
the entire Gentile world coming to him and overshadowing his ministry in
Israel? Or does he stick to his mission and fail to reward great faith, showing
us that faith in him is worth a lot less than we thought it was? Jesus is
pressed up against both of these boundaries and you get the feeling like he’s a
tea kettle on the stove with water that is nearly ready to boil.
So, who is this woman anyway?
Who is she, this bold woman who would come to Jesus knowing full well he can’t
do anything for her? This woman who isn’t even given a name? Whoever she is we
need to keep an eye on her very closely. On the outside we know she has little
chance of being helped by Jesus. She knows that being a Gentile doesn’t give
her access to this Son of David to which she names him. But deeper still, she’s
a woman and a woman who is on her own. She has no protector which in this day
was fairly necessary. No husband. No family with her. Yet, she has a daughter.
If no family, where did this daughter come from? One could only make a few
guesses that this daughter came illegitimately. And about this daughter of
hers. If this woman had any chance of being helped, her chances were
diminishing having made it known that this daughter dabbled a bit in the
demonic. Who was going to help her? Not Jesus. So, who is she? Even without a
name, we get a pretty clear sense of who she is. She has nothing. Maybe she
steals to eat every day. Maybe she hides and runs to keep her and her daughter
safe. Maybe she has been used and thrown away. Maybe she is at the brink of
breaking down for the last time. So much identity can be given to her but we
still know that even Jesus could not help her. But, she knows who he is. She’s
heard of him. We don’t know her name but she knows his. Gossip travels fast and
that gossip was that if there was anyone who could help her it was Jesus. But,
in all she has likely been through does she have the courage, does she have the
energy, does she have the motivation to reach out yet again for help?
Well, call it courage or
call it crazy, she doesn't necessarily use the best manners to take care of
business here. As the Bible says she comes to him crying out. This is no
ordinary cry for help. This is the obnoxious cry and shouting that makes your
ears bleed. I mean, this is bad. This is screaming-baby-on-a-plane-for-several-hours
bad. I mean, wailing. You can imagine the looks on the disciples’ faces as she
approaches. And what happens next just shocks us. "Lord, Son of David,
have mercy on me!" What does Jesus do? Absolutely nothing. It's
disgusting. Someone once said that Jesus speaks through all 66 books of the
Bible but for this one woman he doesn't utter a single syllable. I mean, what
kind of manners did your mother teach you, Jesus?
We've felt like this before,
haven't we? Silence? We've sat beside hospital beds. We've prayed for cancer
patients. We've prayed for victims of car accidents. We've prayed for people
with heart problems, we've been there and we've prayed and we've prayed and
what have we heard? Silence. Absolutely nothing. Maybe you've been in the room
when somebody has died and you wonder why God is so silent, why he can't bother
to utter a single word to you. That's what this feels like to this woman. He
completely shut her out. by not saying a word to her.
If you think that sent her
away, you better watch and see what she does. She's goes to the disciples. Remember,
those guys standing there with Jesus who are probably snickering at the show
she’s putting on wondering when Jesus will have enough and show her the door. If
she can't get to the boss, she's going to go to his associates and she cries
out to them. Again, this obnoxious, baby on the plane cry that gives you
headaches. They get sick of her right away and they go to Jesus. “Send her
away!” They can’t take it anymore and they want her gone. Fast.
Finally Jesus speaks.
Finally we get to hear what he has to say but we're not going to like it. He
says, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." Now the Bible
does not make it clear whether he was responding to the woman, whether he was
responding to the disciples or whether he was just thinking out loud to himself.
Either way, really, Jesus? This is what you have to say? Jesus is establishing
the boundary which he cannot cross.
This woman has been that
crying voice from the distance, she's been up in his face and in those of the
disciples and now she is going to humiliate herself by getting down on her
knees to beg and she says, "Lord, help me." Soon, Jesus is going to see
he’s not only face to face with a national boundary but he’s also nose to nose
with her faith as well. This woman is about to break through a wall that Jesus
is standing behind. They both know there is a boundary at play here. They both
know this woman's daughter has no hope of being helped by Jesus because of that
boundary. Jesus says, "It is not right to take the children's bread and
toss it to the dogs" or said another way, it is not right to take what is
Israel's and give it to the outsiders. Do you think this shut her down? Not a
chance. She's not done with Jesus yet. She's going to fight if it means she can
find healing for her daughter. And this line she speaks is just incredible.
Jesus has just walked right into this comebacker and she tramples him with it. Jesus
says, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the
dogs.” What does she say? "Yes it is, Lord. Even the dogs eat the crumbs
that fall from their master's table." I mean, can you think of anything
better for her to say? You go girl! She's got him. Hook, line and sinker. Mic
drop. She's won.
Jesus just can't hold
himself back anymore. This boundary of nations is fading and he just can't take
it anymore and the grace just pours right out of him, I mean, it just boils
right over. He says, "Woman, you have great faith!" This woman
receives one of the greatest compliments and her daughter was healed without
even being in their presence. Faith knows no boundary when it comes to the
grace of God in Jesus Christ.
So, what does this mean for
us? What it means to us is that the faith that was given to us in our Baptism
actually comes in handy. Faith is not something to leave at home tucked away in
a drawer. It's actually useful. But, we have to know something else too. This
woman represents many of the outsiders in our midst. She may even represent
you. Often enough we have been an outsider standing and looking in. We have
been a victim. We have each gone to a hospital pleading desperately but hearing
nothing but silence. We have stood over the graves of our loved ones and we
have cried out and heard nothing. But, it doesn't remain that way. The boundary
was broken when Jesus died on the cross. Though Matthew shows Jesus as only
sent to the Jews, this all changes. We may feel like we are on the outside but
we, too, get to hear that voice of Jesus. We, too, get to hear the grace and
the mercy and we get to receive it thanks to his death obliterating that
boundary. This woman, who had been used hard and thrown away has had nothing.
She has had everything taken from her and now she was losing her daughter,
perhaps the only piece of her she had left. Jesus can't help it. He's so full
of grace that it starts to spill over and when it spills all the boundaries
begin to disappear. Those boundaries are gone now, his grace has spilled out
like a bottle of wine and his grace has stained the carpet. You are no longer
an outsider. You have access to that grace. It covers you from head to toe. There
is no more pushing Jesus' buttons. Jesus doesn't have to make a decision. We
don't have to go through such great lengths to convince him. The decision was
made. He offers that grace to you. The silence you hear when you cry out to him
is not the last word.
Now maybe you’re thinking,
well, Pastor, I had lots of faith when I asked for something, that one thing
and I didn’t get it. How do you answer to that? What I would say to that is
that I don’t know everything about how God works. All I can do is find
encouragement from this story this morning and tell you that this woman’s faith
persisted and Jesus poured out grace upon her. What’s to say that this is not
true for us too? Jesus broke down a boundary to help her, why wouldn’t he do
the same for us? I believe he would. I believe he does. We were not deserving
of his grace either but the cross changed everything.
You see, faith, the very
essence of the word is simply "hanging in there." It is believing
that Jesus is going to do something. Faith overcomes discouragement. When Jesus
appears to be against us in the silence, faith presses on. Faith never believes
that Jesus is against us. Not only are we promised that the silence will be
overcome, we are encouraged that even those who discourage us along the way
cannot shake our faith in Jesus. Faith keeps us going because we know that
grace is coming. Faith kept the Canaanite woman going through the
discouragement and Jesus couldn't hold himself back. We can battle through
discouragement because we know that our faith will not be overlooked by Jesus,
the very faith that was given to us in our Baptism, the very faith that clings
to Jesus' promise. Jesus will not remain silent. Faith knows no bounds and
faith is yours to use, to be your guide, to be your comfort, to be your
strength. To God be the glory, now and always. Amen.