Lent 2 — Reminiscere

Good Shepherd

2004 Pass Rd, Biloxi, MS 39531

Draft Gen 32:22–32; Rm 5:1–5; Mt 15:21–28; Ps 121; anti: 1–2   –     3/1/26

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Much of the point of the events of this Gospel reading are that you and I are meant to relate to this woman in the midst of her struggle. Why? Because we each have our own struggles every hour, every day, every year, sometimes for decades, and it seems like we’re there sitting in the dust with Job ignorant of all that is happening in heaven and just suffering, and on top of that our family, our friends, our work, and even our church fails to offer us the slightest comfort. Then, to top it all off, our prayers remain ignored. So, we should be able to relate to this Canaanite woman.

She hears that Jesus is in the region. She’s heard the stories of the great miracles He has performed for the Jews, and even some for the Samaritans, so she thinks, “Maybe, just maybe Jesus will also hear my prayer. I am weak and powerless to alleviate this problem, so maybe He who rescued others from demons will be able to rescue my daughter.” So she goes out to the road to find Him and when she does, she immediately starts begging Him, Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.

We’d think this is exactly the sort of prayer Jesus is happy and, indeed, eager to hear. For God is happy to hear all our prayers which we bring to Him in Jesus’ name, so long as they are not “overtly sinful or against His will. He delights to hear your prayers. But no matter what they are or how small they seem to you or to others, or how many times you pray them, you know for certain that He would be delighted to hear this woman’s prayer in particular” for it relates to a part of the Lord’s Prayer. Specifically the final petition, But deliver us from the evil one, that is, Satan, the very foe this woman is not strong enough to face for her daughter. This is just the sort of prayer God desires from men. We also, who have the advantage of being able to see the end of the passage, know that Jesus will praise the great faith of the woman that she would pray thus and so persistently. But in the middle of the events…

… he did not answer her a word. Rather than help this woman in great need as He has done for so many others He ignores her. He acts like she doesn’t even exist. Now, you and I know in the end that He will help her, but we need to remember she doesn’t see to the end of the reading like we get to. She is in the same position we are every day: weak, helpless, devoid of strength, and ignorant, and yet she continues crying out her prayer—the word the disciples will use to describe what she is doing indicates that she didn’t just do it once, but like Blind Bartimaeus, kept begging and begging and begging. Yet she sees Jesus disregard her utterly.

Matthew doesn’t tell us how long this went on. It must have gone on for a quite a while though since it gets to the point where the disciples take pity on her. Why do I say pity? Because rather than ask Jesus to rebuke her, as we know the Sons of Thunder, James and John were likely to do—they who asked Jesus if they should call down fire on a group of Samaritans, Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did? But He turned and rebuked them, and said, You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. (Lk 9:54–55) Rather than desire the rebuke or destruction of this pagan Canaanite, they get to the point where they can’t bare the humiliation she is enduring. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” It is as if they asked Him, Please just tell her You are not going to help, cease her humiliation. Therefore it could have been quite a while that she follows and incessantly cries out, Have mercy on me.

One of our pastors put the situation like this: She’s been crying out for a while after Jesus. “And you and I for whatever reason are there on the road, and we catch her there, let’s say after hour one, and we call her off to the side and say: What are you doing? And she says, I’m praying to Him. And then we might say, How’s it going? Is it working? Is it going to work out for the little girl? And she says, I don’t know it if is going to. He isn’t answering me right now, not a word. And we might respond to her in our own wisdom, Why are you still praying. It doesn’t seem to be working right now. If He were going to answer the prayer don’t you think He would have already. What would be the point of continuing to make the same prayer again and again. He heard you obviously and didn’t answer. And then how would she respond to our question? I am waiting for Him. I know Who He is. He is my Lord—That is what she calls Him later on. He is kind. I am calling out to Him for mercy: Lord, have mercy. I am calling out for help: Lord, help me. I know that He is kind, that He hates the demons and has come to undo their work. And so I’m going … to keep waiting for Him, come what may. There’s nothing else I can do, I’m weak, after all. I have no strength. I can’t fix this problem so I am going to wait for Him.

“And so she waits until He answers her prayer and says, Woman, great is your faith. So we can deduce something from this: She has great faith. It looks like she was wobbling around and silly in the middle of it so that we if we saw it would be judging her a little bit. … But in hindsight the Lord declares His opinion of her faith and that is that she has great, strong faith. And I deduce from that that great faith at least a part of great faith is waiting on the Lord. That’s what faith does, it waits.” (Rev. Melius, Mt Zion, Lent 2, ’25)

Now this is an uncomfortable thought for many of us to bear. No doubt some of you need to hear this today, and the rest of us will need to remember it later, that part of faith in Christ is waiting on Him to answer, and waiting in ignorance, for hours, days, months, years, and perhaps even decades. We have numerous examples of those who waited on the Lord and those who did not. Take King Saul, for instance. The prophet Samuel instructs him, by messenger, to wait to make the sacrifices before the battle until he, Samuel comes. But Saul grows impatient, worrying that the soldiers will depart, so he says to himself, ‘I must do it myself then, that the Lord’s armies can win, I can’t wait on the Lord.’ And just as he, who is not a Levite or priest, finishes the sacrifice Samuel shows up. Just another half an hour is all he needed to wait, but he pridefully took what was not his to do, stepped into the place of God, and so winds up losing the throne as a consequence. God rejects Saul because the man had no faith except in himself.

Or there are the Israelites during Isaiah’s day who are grumbling and complaining that God is not answering there prayers for deliverance. Isaiah quotes them saying, My way is hidden from the Lord, And my just claim is passed over by my God. They think God has abandoned them and forgotten them to the point that He doesn’t even see what is going on. Repeatedly throughout the prophets God instructs Israel to trust Him, to have faith, continue praying, and wait, but time and again they grow impatient and seek their own devices for deliverance, which ultimately results in the destruction of the nation, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the exile of all the people because they did not have faith to wait.

Isaiah tried to encourage Israel, tried to remind them of the One in Whom they have faith. He said, Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint. (40:28–31) God is not so forgetful of His people. God is not so uncaring of His people. Rather, God desires our well-being even in the midst of great trouble. God desires the salvation of the lost, and that the righteous stand firm, as Ezekiel repeats again and again in chapters 11 and 33. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. (Rm 8:28)

See, then, we have the example of Jacob who wrestled with God all night long, not for a few minutes, not for a hour, but, as it appears, from nightfall to daybreak. For upwards of eight hours Jacob is locked in the struggle of muscle against muscle as he grapples with the pre-incarnate Christ. The text reads, And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” While Jacob is not praying, not wrestling with his spirit, but with his heart and body, he does not cease his struggle with God. And what is the result? Blessing. And further, the Lord grants him also the safety of his family before what he had thought would be the wrath of his brother Esau.

What is the point of all this? Let’s return to the example that pastor gave us, but rather than the Canaanite woman being the one we come across in the midst of the struggle, it is you. Whatever trouble you are enduring, you say your prays, and have said them for a while, but nothing. It’s like He doesn’t hear you or care. It’s like you’ve been talking to an empty room. “So we could meet you in your struggle with God and ask you the same questions that we asked the Canaanite woman earlier. What are you doing? And you would answer, Well, I’m praying. How is that going, we might ask, is it working out for you? And you might say, It doesn’t seem like He’s answering my prayer. … Then we might ask you, Well then, why are you still praying? Why are you still doing that? Why are you still looking to Him for this? And the question here would be, Are you resolved to answer those lines of questions the same way that we think the Canaanite woman would answer them. Would you say also with here, I am waiting however long it takes, I’ll just keep waiting because I am weak and empty. There is nothing I can do. I can’t rescue myself from the demons. I can’t rescue myself from this condition. I have no strength. I’m not going to take this on myself. I must wait, therefore I will continue to wait on Him.

“Or, are your rather tempted to say, like apparently the Israelites did, My way is hidden from the Lord, and my just claim is passed over by my God.” Or like Saul, The Lord is untrustworthy. “Have you said that? Perhaps thought it in some form. You want to be aware of it if you are. The Bible doesn’t bring up things like this because it is not to be listened to or doesn’t apply to some of us. If that is you, then this word of God today would instruct you to repent, and to return again to your patient waiting upon the Lord. Keep on making your prayers, don’t give up, be like the Canaanite woman. Was He listening, He didn’t answer her a word. Completely ignored her? Was He ignoring her? He was not ignoring her. Was He listening to her? He was listing to her. Was He delighted in her prayer? He was delighted in her prayer. Did He look like it? He didn’t look like it but it doesn’t matter if it looked like it. He delighted in her prayers.” (Rev. Melius, Mt Zion, Lent 2, ’25)

Look again at the Epistle reading, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And remember again what Isaiah said, those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength. You have access to the throne of God, and you have Jesus there interceding for you ever day. Your prayer is heard, in fact, it is precious in the Lord’s ear. Your task now is to endure, but not to see your suffering, patience, and endurance as a burden, but rather we are to rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. What more is in our suffering, that when we suffer for Christ’s sake and for the sake of the Gospel, we participate in the same suffering Jesus endured for us. He not only stands beside you in your suffering and your endurance, but He prepares the glorious repayment for all you are enduring in faith.

Furthermore, did any further harm come to the woman’s daughter because of the delay? What about for Saul, would any harm have befallen Israel if he had delayed just a few more minutes? Yes Jacob has to walk with a limp but only because he was so tenacious in his faith. There will be situations every day that we are not capable of facing, where we don’t have the strength or wisdom to overcome them. And yet God is there for us for just such times: Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day (2 Cor 4:16). Turn to God in prayer, turn to His Word, make the sign of the cross upon yourself in remembrance of your Baptism, come to the table of the Lord and God renews your strength for ever trial. For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Rm 5:6) He did so that you would be made godly. Jesus has overcome the devil and his demons by the cross, and He has put them under His feet. When you wait on the Lord you are never in any danger. Wait on the Lord and He will rescue you.

Now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.