Jesus Fights. You Win.
Matthew 15:21-28
February 28, 2021
Last week the Devil fought Jesus. This week Jesus fights you. You might think it unbecoming of the Lord to fight, especially with you, but if you are to have true and saving faith, He must fight you.
The Lord fought Jacob. Jacob deserved a good beating. From the beginning of his life Jacob fought. Jacob was a twin with his brother Esau, the son of Rebekkah and Isaac. His grandpa and grandma were Abraham and Sarah. Jacob was born second, but he wanted to be first. He was born holding on to Esau’s ankle as if he would have pulled Esau back if he could have. Years later Jacob bribed Esau out of his inheritance. In the Old Testament the firstborn son got the majority of the estate and the blessing of HIS father. The reason wasn’t favoritism – it pointed to Christ – the first born of Mary and only begotten of the Father. If you were the firstborn you were prized, not because you were a prize, but because of Jesus.
Jacob wasn’t thinking of Jesus. He was thinking of Jacob. When Jacob’s father Isaac lay dying Jacob fought some more for himself. With his mother’s help he disguised himself as Esau and stole his brother’s final blessing from their dad. If you take something really important that belongs to your big brother he’s going to bring the hurt to you. Jacob ran for his life. He left his hometown and went to some remote place like Wadena county to live with his relatives.
Oddly, as God tends to be, He blessed Jacob with two wives, Leah and Rachel, and 12 sons, and many herds and camels. God then instructed Jacob to return home and it was on his way home, as he was about to meet his brother, that the Lord fought with him.
Why did the Lord fight with Jacob? Because Jacob needed it. He was a sinner and yet he had done well. He was afraid of his brother Esau and afraid for his family.
But here’s the twist with the Lord – and remember there’s always a twist with the Lord. If you don’t find something odd about God or a twist that makes no sense, then you likely don’t have or don’t know the God of Holy Scripture. Here’s the twist. God fights you so you win. God fights you so you lose your love of the world because the world is destined for destruction. God fights you because you’re the enemy of your own salvation. The Lord fights with you because even though you sin, He still gives you more than you deserve, so you don’t think sin matters. The Lord fights with you because you fear the president or the pandemic or your pleasure more than you fear Him. The Lord will fight you to the death of yourself so you can live in Christ. God fights so that you lose all your notions and thoughts of God and you cling to His Word alone.
Jacob could not hold God down, any more than I could beat our former Governor Jesse the Body Ventura in a cage match. With one touch of his hand God dislocated Jacob’s hip, yet Jacob held on. How did Jacob hold on to God? Because God let him. How did Jacob beat God? Because God let him. Jacob wrestled with God and forced God to say “Uncle” or in this case, “Israel.” And now Jacob need not fear his brother, or his future. He had striven with God and won. He had seen God face to face and lived. Did you notice that this God was a man? Jacob could grab Him, and give a half nelson, and put Him in a figure four leg lock. Hmmm? Who is this God who is also Man whom we can touch and see and who fights us so we can win?
We see Who in the Gospel. There again Jesus fights. This time with a woman. Women need to be beaten just like men. Did I just say that in a sermon? Let me rephrase that. Women need to be beaten by God so that they also might win. Jesus fights this woman. He ignores this woman. He resists this woman. He does not grab her and throw her down like Jacob. He fights her with His silence, His Word, and then His judgment. Jesus calls her a name, perhaps that worst name you could call a woman – you’re a dog (read 15:26).
And pardon the pun, but with those words Jesus throws her a bone. He exposes His weakness and she, in faith, grabs hold of Jesus by His Word and wins. (read 27)
Jesus could have easily cast out the demon from her daughter, but He wanted to fight with the woman so she could win something far more than her daughter. Jesus did not want this woman to pray to Him for her children. He wanted her to grab Him by His Word and hold Him by faith.
Do not be surprised when God in Christ fights with you. God knows that you must lose so you can win. Who knows what unbelieving notions this Canaanite woman had? She might have thought her daughter was her life. She might have believed God should be fair, that life was about her, that family comes first, or that God was tame. Jesus would knock all that nonsense out of you, whether you’re a man or a woman.
Christ came into this world to fight you, that you would win. He doesn’t fight fair. He knows your strengths and weaknesses, your false gods and false hopes. He’ll kick your crutches out and trip you on the stairs. He does all this so that you, like Jacob and the Canaanite woman, see God face to face in the person of His Son and hold Him down by His Word.
Christ Jesus died for your sins. Hold Him to that. By the death of His Son the Father demonstrates His love for you. Don’t let that go. Pin Him down with the cross. Even if your child died too young or your wife died too old after suffering too long. Even if you’ve been a cheat and a sneak like Jacob, even if you’ve sinned horribly against your family, even if you deserve the worst to happen to you, don’t let God go until He blesses you.
He wants to be held down. God became man because He wanted Jacob to pin Him down. He wanted the woman to grab hold of His promises and not let Him go. God became a man so He could fight you and test you and see if you’ll cling to the things that you can’t hold onto – like life, family, and riches, or if you will cling to Him and win forgiveness, life, and salvation. God grant us the strength to hold Him to His Word in the name of Jesus. Amen.