Reminiscere (Lent 2), 2025
Rev. Thomas Van Hemert
St. Matthew 15:21-28
Reminiscere
March 16, 2025
*This Sermon was inspired by a previous sermon for Reminiscere by Rev. James Preus. You can find it on Christforus.org.
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Last week, Satan, our greatest enemy pretended to be a friend. He offered our Lord food, the help of angels, and the kingdoms of the world and all their glory. Yet, shrouded in friendship was an attempt to destroy Jesus and us. This week, our greatest friend pretends to be a heartless enemy. Our Lord ignores and insults a woman crying to Him for help. And yet, He did this to strengthen her and our faith. This teaches us that just as silver and gold must be tested with fire, faith must be tested with tribulations, This also teaches us that only faith can defeat God in a wrestling match.
Earlier in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus asks Peter, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Yet, at the end of this Gospel lesson, Jesus says to the Canaanite woman, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” It’s quite unexpected that a great apostle would have a little faith, but a Gentile woman would have great faith. But here we see that it is no coincidence that Jesus walked by this woman’s town. His disciple Peter needed a stronger faith. We need a stronger faith. So, Christ comes to this Canaanite woman to give Peter and even us a demonstration of a strong faith in action.
Faith clings to the promise that God is willing and able to answer your prayer. The Psalmist says, “You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, Lord do I seek.’” Again, Jesus says in John chapter 16, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, He will give to you.” God promises, so faith believes the promise and acts according to it. But what if tribulation comes? What if God makes you wait? What if God is silent? What of it? Why should these things cause you to question your faith? God is omnipotent. He is all powerful. Since God is omnipotent, no trial on earth can hinder Him from carrying out His promise. God is truthful. We should never doubt that He will do as He promises, even if He makes us wait.
Jesus tries the Canaanite woman’s faith with four tests, which all Christians may endure from time to time. The first is tribulation. Tribulation is when you are afflicted with trouble and suffering. The Canaanite woman was suffering. She was suffering because her daughter was severely oppressed by a demon. We don’t know how this particular demon oppressed her. But what we know from other demon possessions, it could have made her mute and deaf, given her seizures, fits of rage, or even attempted to kill her. Tribulation might come to you in the form of great sickness or disability to you or someone you love, poverty, anxiety, conflict, guilt, terror, doubt, or any such thing. Often tribulation comes in the form of persecution, where you suffer on account of your confession of Christ, even from within your own family. But for such tribulation, Christ says you are blessed.
Yet, to tribulation Christ adds a second test to this faithful woman: silence. Jesus does not answer her a word. She cries for help, and Christ remained silent. This is not unusual for our Lord. Job complains to the Lord in chapter 30, “I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me.” And the Psalms are filled with complaints against God’s silence. “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 13:2) “O My God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.” (Psalm 22:2) “O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God!” (Psalm 83:1) And Peter surely prayed these Psalms as he waited in prison for the Lord to rescue him.
Silence can be worse than the tribulation. Silence gives ammunition to your enemies, whether they be human or spirits, to taunt you and say, “Where is your God?” Doubt wields God’s silence at your faith in an effort to knock it down. Yet, faith cries, “According to your steadfast love, remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!” God is not a liar. His promises are true. He may make you wait, but the wait is good for you. Do not mistake God’s silence for Him breaking His promises. God cannot break His promises. Even Christ Himself cried out to His silent Father from the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me!” And His Father answered Him by raising Him from the dead. So, all who trust in God for Christ’s sake have certainty that God’s silence will give way to a good answer.
Next, Jesus questions whether the promise to save is for this Gentile woman. She’s a Canaanite—an ancient enemy of Israel. not a daughter of Israel. Jesus was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. His disciples want Him to send her away. Yet, Christ, who nearly two millennia earlier wrestled with Jacob, now wrestles with this woman, so that she can prove herself a daughter of Israel, not by blood, but through faith.
There may be the temptation to question whether the promise of salvation is for you. Some argue that Christ died only for the elect. So, you must look at yourself to see if you are chosen by God. Yet, Scripture teaches that Christ died for all people. You know you are elect through faith in Christ. Faith rests on the promise that God forgives you for Christ’s sake. So, election can only be used as a comfort to those who have faith in Christ who died for all, not as a reason to doubt whether Christ died for you.
Finally, Christ questions the woman’s worthiness to receive an answer to her prayer. “It is not good to take from the children and give to the dogs.” He calls her a dog. Dogs do not sit at the table. Our sin makes us unworthy. “Is God refusing to listen to my prayers, because of my sin?” Even St. Peter himself tells our Lord, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Yet, Christ told him not to be afraid. Christ forgave his sins. And that is the promise He gives to all sinners. Though our sins separate us from God, when we listen to Him and repent of our sins with a humble heart, He will not refuse us. He came into the world to save sinners.
And so, this Canaanite woman would not let being called a dog deter her. “Yes, I am a dog, Lord,” she says, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table!” How right she is. Christ cannot withhold a dog’s portion from her. And so, we confess, “Yes, I am a poor miserable sinner. But you, O Lord, came to save sinners. I confess my sins. You came to forgive sinners.” And He does.
This is the wonderful thing about faith. Faith does not depend on our worth, but on God’s grace and mercy. Tribulation cannot conquer true faith, because God is more powerful than your tribulation. Silence cannot defeat true faith, because God is not a liar, and He will do as He promises, even if you must wait. Doubt in the promise that is intended for you cannot defeat a true faith, because faith listens to God’s Word in which the promise of salvation is universal to all who believe. Neither can unworthiness defeat true faith, because faith does not depend on worth. It depends on God’s grace. We are not saved on account of works, but on account of Christ Jesus who died to take away our sins.
And so, the woman, like her spiritual forefather Jacob did long ago, defeated Christ in a wrestling match by persistently and humbly clinging to Christ’s Word. As it was for Jacob, this trial was good for her. Christ, by trying this woman’s faith instead of immediately casting out the demon, prepared her to keep that demon away from her daughter after it had been cast out.
Faith alone conquers the devil, the world, and dare we say, even God, so that He gives us what He promises. Faith alone saves. Let us not begrudge the trials we experience which strengthen our faith, because through faith and by faith, we finally receive our promised salvation.
In +Jesus’ name.
