Nothing to Behold?
Matthew 15:21-28
by Vicar Luke Otten
In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. The text for our sermon today comes from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew the 15th chapter… Whenever there is the word “Behold” in the Bible, pay attention. Naturally, that’s what you should do, that’s what the word behold demands. It demands your attention. It’s telling you that something important, surprising, or worth noting is right here, look for it. Jacob flees from Esau and as he sleeps behold a latter to heaven, behold angels ascending and descending on it, behold the Lord standing above the ladder (Gen 28:12-13). Quite the sight to behold, right? Jacob works for 7 years to marry Rachel, and after the wedding ceremony and night, he wakes “in the morning, behold, it was Leah!” (Gen 29:25). Surprise, that’s not the woman he was supposed and expecting to marry. Isaiah prophecies about the Messiah saying, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14). A virgin having a child, that’s significant! And when that significant virgin-born son comes, John the Baptist points to him and says, “Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). When you read or hear the word “behold,” be prepared for something.
And lo and behold we have a “behold” in today’s Gospel. “And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon’” (vs 22). So what’s the significant thing that we are to behold? Behold, a woman is speaking to Jesus. Okay, that’s significant. A woman, a person of low status in that day and age, is trying to speak to Jesus. Or maybe, behold, she’s Canaanitic and from that region. That’s worth noting. She’s not an Israelite, and as Jesus himself says to her, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (vs 24). Yet, she has come to Jesus for help as a gentile and behold, in her cry to Jesus, she even calls him by the Messianic title, the Son of David. Now that’s significant coming from a gentile.
But notice what part of her plea isn’t noted to be beheld. She doesn’t say, “Behold my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” Is that not significant, a demon possessed daughter? Out of all the things that we were to behold in this verse, this is the thing that’s most shocking, surprising, significant to our modern ears, and it’s not to beheld? Maybe you’ve heard the saying that goes something like “One of Satan’s greatest achievements is that he’s convinced the Western world that he doesn’t exist.” Just think about it. Demon possession is treated as the stuff of horror movies and of ghost stories, not the stuff of real life. Most will say, “What the people of old called demon possession that’s just what we call today mental illnesses.” So now when we hear of a real demon possession, it is something to behold, something to pay attention to. But in reality, it really shouldn’t be. It really shouldn’t be too surprising. This woman and her daughter were from the district of Tyre and Sidon, a gentile region, a pagan place, a place where Satan and his minions rule. So really it should come as no shock, that in godless place, the forces of Satan are at work.
But it makes sense why you haven’t seen or heard of many demon possessions apart from the Bible. Europe and America have been so predominantly Christian for hundreds of years that there weren’t many people to possess. Christianity purged the devil and his false religions that plagued the lands and the people. Christianity ruled. Throughout the Middle Ages all most 100 percent of Europeans were Christians. Everyone who was born to Christians would then be baptized as Christians. And baptized faithful Christians cannot be possessed by Satan. When you were baptized your body became a temple of the Lord. You were filled with the Holy Spirit as he began to dwell in you. There is no room for any satanic spiritual forces in you, there is only room for the Holy Spirit. You can’t be ruled by Satan if the Lord already rules in you by the Spirit. And so it makes sense that in the past time when the western world was predominantly Christian, the Devil couldn’t get such demonic foothold in humans. The Lord reigned in his people.
Yet, Satan still prowled around seeking someone to devour and still does today. Many may think, “Well if Satan does exist, he can’t possess me what do I have to fear? How can he devour me?” Look around, can he still influence and oppress you without even possessing you? Satan is at his strongest at places where God is rejected, despised, and ignored, in places like Tyre and Sidon. So where are these cities in your life, where do you go where God is not? Where do you wander into the devil’s territory? The TV perhaps? Where God’s name is constantly smeared and where show after show is about adultery and affairs. Perhaps public schools, where creationism is laughed out of the room, and all that gender identity garbage is shoved down the children’s throats. How different is our land now from the district of Tyre and Sidon?
You say, “Not here, not in my house or at my school. I watch the TV, but I don’t let it influence how my family lives. I know many teachers and kids at the school, my children will make it through unscathed. It’s a good place with only little of that woke stuff, other schools though…wow.” What is this exceptionalism you have? All those shows you say you watch that for the sake of entertainment, for the drama, yet how closely has your life or the lives of your children mirrored that which you saw on the TV? Has watching those shows normalized affairs, divorce, violence, slander, and the like to the point you do them? “It’s what other people do, so it can’t be that bad.” Likewise, is it the same with schools? It’s the other schools that are devilish, not here, not in our community. Tell that to the Sartell school district where they have pornographic books in the school libraries. How different are your homes and the school districts from the district of Tyre and Sidon? Where is God in them? Apart from the Lord, the devil’s snares are abundant and his influence and oppression reign. Don’t be surprised if you go there that they take hold of you and lead you to sin and don’t be surprised that as the world becomes less and less godly and more and more devilish, that you may see and hear of more and more demon possessions as less and less people are Christians with the Holy Spirit abiding in them.
But even in the lands that have forsaken God, God still works his balm and healing. Jesus went to the pagan region of Tyre and Sidon and restored a family. Christ came and cast out the demon from the woman’s daughter; he defeated Satan there in that place.The family was broken and suffering under Satan and sin, but Jesus came to restore mankind and he did, just as he did for that family. And still today He goes out into the satanic lands of this world to do the same. For in the church, Christ comes in his word and gives you faith and all that you need to sustain that faith. He gave you the Holy Spirit in your baptism and now the holiness of God dwells in you. He gives you the crumbs from this altar to strengthen and preserve you in body and soul to life everlasting. He has brought you into the family of His holy church, the church which is a mighty fortress against the attacks of the foe. It’s a place of rest from the devil’s assaults and influences. Though the grace of God, all these gifts have been given to you, to your children, and to all fellow believers, and in them you stand. For in these gifts, the Lord has given you all you need to endure the demons of this world.
Now hear the words of St. Paul in 1 Thessalonians, “Abstain from every form of evil” or as the KJV translates it, “Abstain from all appearance of evil” (1 Thess 5:22) Shun evil in all its forms, ways and manifestations; don’t go near it. “What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” (2 Cor 6:14). You have no part with sin and Satan.Avoid the evil one and all his evil ploys, whether they be satanic TV shows or devilish schools. You are the children of the light; don’t get caught by the devil. Don’t willingly subject yourselves to his snares and invite them into your home, family, and life. Don’t purposely spurn the gifts of God and drive His Spirit from you. The Lord has made you a pure temple of his Spirit, “For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness” (1 Thess 4:7). The Lord made you holy and bright for fellowship with him, not for fellowship with the darkness of Satan. You’re God’s prized possession into eternity. May we forever be kept as such. In Jesus’ precious and holy name. Amen.