When God is Your Enemy
Matthew 15:21-28
February 25, 2024 anno Domini
Last week the Devil showed up as our friend with temptations. This week Jesus shows up as our enemy itching for a fight.
Lent is a season of spiritual combat with the pre-Lenten Sundays being bootcamp. There we were handed our weapons, that we might practice with them and be ready for the fight. Those weapons are grace alone, the Word alone, and faith alone.
The first Sunday in Lent is about our chief enemy – Satan. Goliath was a type of Satan. He was the enemy of God’s people. He instilled fear and doubt with his presence and cursing. Little David beat Goliath not with might, but with faith alone in God’s Word alone.
Normally Satan doesn’t show up as a giant, shouting curses against the Lord; He comes a friend. He’s read all the books about winning friends and influencing people. He comes to Eve in the garden as a friend. He wants Eve to have all that she’s entitled to. When he comes to Jesus in the wilderness he’s concerned about Jesus’ health. Jesus you’re hungry. Make some bread. You’re the Father’s son. He should love you. Test Him. You’re the King of the World, get some fame and fortune to help your campaign. If the Devil’s whispering in your ear he’s going to sound very friendly. He’ll tell you exactly what you want to hear and you’re going to love it.
On this second Sunday in Lent the Son of God wrestles with Jacob and the Canaanite woman battles with Jesus in her prayers. He isn’t gracious at all, but fights her at every turn. You’ve experienced the same. There was a car accident, that cancer diagnoses, an adulterous spouse, a child that died. God hates me. He’s against me. He’s not answering my prayer. Those thoughts are not foreign to being a Christian. The Psalms are full of prayers in which the Psalmist wrestles with the wicked succeeding and the righteous suffering. The Psalmist laments that God has forsaken him.
What do you do when the Devil comes as your friend and God is your enemy? Hold on to Jesus with all your might. Grab hold of God by His Son, His promises and don’t let Him go.
This is the battlefield of faith. This is the Christian life. Jesus did not call you to an easy life free from temptation and testing. When you were baptized you were drafted, conscripted. When the Holy Spirit baptized you in the name of the Triune God, He grabbed you out of the easy life or more accurately the easy way of death. You see it’s easy to die. Just follow your heart, let your conscience be your guide, look out for number one. Take care of yourself first. It is easy to dine with the Devil, but dessert is always death.
Christ’s way is to die to yourself and live in Him. His way is life and the resurrection. To live that way, to fight that fight, to wage war against yourself and believe God is for you, you need the full arsenal of those God-given weapons – grace alone, the Word alone, and faith alone.
The Canaanite woman went to Jesus with faith alone. She cried out “O Lord, Son of David.” She believed the Word of God, that the Messiah, would be a son of David. She believed that Jesus was Lord, that He was and is the very same Yahweh who visited Abraham, wrestled with Jacob, spoke to Moses in the burning bush and brought Israel out of Egypt.
She went to Jesus with faith that He would help her, that He would be gracious. Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David, my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” St. Matthew tells us this woman was a Canaanite. She should not have been born. The Israelites were supposed to destroy the Canaanites. But they failed and this woman was the result. Maybe she fooled around with the pagan habits of her ancestors. Maybe that is why her daughter was demon possessed. The sins of the mother visited on her children. This woman had nothing going for her. She was getting exactly what she deserved. I know I sound like a white Christian male of privilege, disrespecting her gender, culture, and the oppression she suffered, but I would preach the same about me and about you. Whatever we suffer we deserve. Whatever comes our way we’ve got it coming. I’ve got nothing before God except my sin, so if He isn’t gracious (and all the signs are that He is), well I’m a suffering dead man and so are you.
Before we get to the final weapon the woman used to win over Jesus, let’s consider the battle she faced from Jesus and His men.
First, Jesus was silent. In today’s closing hymn we’ll sing “Jesus loves to answer prayer.” Well, not for this woman. His answer was silence, and the disciples were worse. “Send her away, for she is crying out for us.” Maybe they even called her a Karen for making a scene.
This woman could easily have walked away. Or maybe called one of the major networks to complain about Jesus and His band of male oppressors. She could have gotten prime time on MSNBC. But that’s not how faith works because that’s not how Christ works. Christ does not go easy on His followers so faith doesn’t take the easy path.
Now Jesus speaks. I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. It sounds like Jesus is telling the woman He’s not here for her. You’re not Israel. You’re not a Jew. You’re a Canaanite. Now the woman could have claimed racism, but I’m not sure how that would have gone over. Jesus isn’t white. He’s Jewish and history hasn’t really been favorable to them on matters of race. Pretty hard to level racism against the Jews, unless you can’t remember a week of history.
The woman does not speak against Jesus in any way, shape, or form. She does not walk away. She goes toward Him, with all her faith. She’s going to get Him. She falls at His feet. It seems He has been putting her down and she’s not afraid to be put down. She kneels before him. Probably grabs his feet, “Lord, help me.”
Then Jesus kicks her like a dog. “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Do you know what faith believes? Faith believes the Word alone. Whatever Jesus says of you that is what you are. So, Jesus called the woman a dog and she takes it, grabs hold it, and won’t let it go. “Yes, Lord, I am a dog, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the masters’ table.” Where do the dogs hang out? Under the children’s highchairs. Why? Because children are careless with food. They’re not good at eating yet and if you don’t like peas, your labrador will eat them for you.
The Devil comes as your friend because he wants you to fall into sin. God comes as your enemy because He wants you to have strong faith and strength does not come without testing. So, Jesus tests this woman with silence, telling her she’s not one of his, kicking her like a dog. How easy it would have been for her to walk away, to quit praying, to stop believing. Many people give up Jesus for a lot less – the color of the carpet, the proper method for making coffee, someone sitting in the the pew, that pastor ticking me off. But she will not let Jesus go until He blesses her daughter with healing. Why? Because she heard God’s Word and in the midst of her daughter’s suffering she believed one thing. I need Jesus. The Word alone brought her to faith alone in God’s grace alone. She didn’t deserve this, but this wasn’t about her. It was about Jesus. He was no enemy, so by faith she insisted that He be who He was – the Lord who shows mercy and her daughter was healed instantly. That’s great faith, that’s fighting the good fight. In the name of Jesus. Amen.