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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
This past week you may have seen or heard about the trailer for writer, director, and actor Bradley Cooper’s new movie Maestro, about American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, whose best-known work may be the Broadway musical West Side Story. Bernstein was at least ethnically Jewish, and Cooper is not, and that fact was enough of a problem for some, but then, as the trailer made obvious, Cooper decided to be made-up for the movie with a prosthetic nose, which was a problem for others, who accused Cooper of perpetuating Jewish caricatures, of “Jewface”, or of “antisemitism”. Such ethnic distinctions as those between Jews and non-Jews aside, we all are members of the one and only human race, descended both from Adam and Eve and then later from Noah and his wife (Genesis 1-3, 6-9). And, even the Old Testament ethnic and/or religious distinction between Jews and non-Jews that is a factor in today’s Gospel Reading is really no longer a factor for us. Rather, as our common ancestry results in a common condemnation, God at least offers mercy to us all. So, this morning as we consider primarily today’s Gospel Reading, we direct our thoughts to the theme, “Jesus was sent to lost sheep like us”.
In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus went to the non-Jewish district of Tyre and Sidon, and there the Divinelyinspired St. Matthew directs our attention to a non-Jewish woman from that region, who came out and was crying repeatedly to Jesus for mercy. The Gospel Reading sets-up and then concludes what in between are essentially four pairs of statements to Jesus, by either the woman or His disciples, and of His corresponding “answers”, either unspoken or spoken (confer Davies and Allison, ad loc Matthew 15:21-28, p.541). Jesus’s answer apparently to His disciples mentions His being sent in order to preach and perform miracles primarily to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, although Jesus had already both been worshiped by and helped lost sheep who were non-Jews (Matthew 2:1-12; 8:513), and later Jesus would commission His apostles to make disciples of everyone: Jews and non-Jews (Matthew 28:19-20). The woman recognized the priority of Israel but knew that the Lord’s help was available to all. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther says of Jesus’s answers that they look like only “no”, but that they are only “yes”, as the woman seems to have understood (Luther, Postil Sermon on Matthew 15:2128, AE 76:381).
Do we react with such “great faith” when God appears to be different than what we might expect Him to be based on what His Word says about Him? When God tests our faith, or lets the devil tempt us, do we pass the test or give-in to the temptation? How do we react when we have asked for something repeatedly, either for ourselves or for someone we love, but the answer seems to be “no”? Do we let what looks like only “no” discourage us or encourage us to keep asking? We sin by mischaracterizing God, giving-in to temptation, reacting poorly when we do not get what we want when we want it, and by not continuing to pray as we should, as we sin in countless other, sometimes unspeakable ways, for we are sinful by nature, sometimes even given over to our sin. We may be moreinclined to identify ourselves with Jesus’s Jewish disciples in the Gospel Reading, but in many ways we are more like the non-Jewish woman, a lost sheep of the house of someone other than Israel, in her case of Noah’s cursed grandson Canaan (Genesis 9:18-27). Regardless of our respective ancestors, we all are lost sheep headed for the destruction both of temporal death and eternal torment. But, as we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (Romans 11:12a, 13-15, 28-32), God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all, and, as we heard in today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 56:1, 6-8), the Lord gathers not only the outcasts of Israel but also others, like us.
As the Holy Spirit enables us to cry out for mercy, so the Lord hears us and helps us now, in a favorable time, in a day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2, with reference to Isaiah 49:8). Regardless of to whom Jesus was primarily sent in order to preach and perform miracles, Jesus was sent to die for all (confer John 3:17). Out of God’s great love, Jesus was not only sent to the lost, but, as Jesus Himself says explicitly elsewhere, He came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10), and the lost includes us. “Jesus was sent to lost sheep like us.” On the cross, our Good Shepherd laid down His life for us, and then, with His resurrection from the grave, He took His life back up again (John 10:11, 1718). The Son of David, Jesus is God in human flesh—human flesh traced back through nonJewish women named Ruth and Rahab. Jesus’s death in our place makes us victorious over sin, death, and the power of the devil, including demons like the one that severely oppressed the daughter of the woman in the Gospel Reading. Jesus showed that He was God by healing the woman’s daughter instantly, and He instantly forgives us, whether we are old or young, for Jesus loves and cares about little children, too. Little children, even infants (Luke 18:15) also can believe in Jesus (for example, Matthew 18:6; Mark 9:42), and they are saved with a “great faith”—a faith that is “great” not of itself but a faith that is great because of the great God in Whom it trusts.
As St. Paul writes to Titus, that great God saves us according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, Whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus 3:5-6). In Holy Baptism, unclean spirits are cast out, as it were, and way is made for the Holy Spirit (confer Mark 7:25). Those who are baptized in turn confess to their pastors the sins that they know and feel in their hearts for the sake of Holy Absolution, forgiveness from the pastor as from God Himself. And, those who both are instructed and examined in private confession and then forgiven in individual absolution are admitted to the Sacrament of the Altar. At this Altar and its Rail, bread that is the Body of Christ given for you and wine that is the Blood of Christ shed for you give forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Care is taken so that, as much as possible, those who would receive the Body and Blood to their harm do not so receive it to their harm (1 Corinthians 11:17-34; confer Matthew 7:6). And, since even the smallest piece of bread is the whole Body of Christ and even one drop of wine is, as it were, all the Blood of Christ, care is taken so that, as much as possible, they do not fall from the table but are consumed as Christ intends.
God through His Word and Sacraments creates and sustains our faith. We know His victory extends over all things (Romans 8:35-39). So, we hang on to God’s promise in His Word and Sacraments, no matter how things might otherwise appear. As we prayed in the collect, in every trial and temptation, we have steadfast confidence in God’s loving-kindness and mercy. We run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2). We exercise our faith, persisting in prayer, bearing patiently under what we might think of as “delays” in God’s answering our prayers, confessing that by nature we deserve nothing but punishment. As friends of the Canaanite woman in all likelihood told her about Jesus (confer Mark 3:8; Luke 6:17), so we tell others about Jesus, how He has had mercy on and helped us. And, when we fail to do those things, as we will fail to do those things, then, like the Canaanite woman, we worship the Lord by seeking and receiving His forgiveness of sins.
Whether we are Jewish or non-Jewish, big-hooked-nosed or not, “Jesus was sent to lost sheep like us”. He saves us from our sins, and ultimately we will live eternally with Him. As we sang in today’s Introit (Psalm 28:1-2, 6-7; antiphon v.8), He has heard the voice of our pleas for mercy; our hearts exult, and with our song we give thanks to Him.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +