✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ
1. Thessalonians 4,1-7 1720
Reminiscere 025 Trigintatribusgesima 33 days to Good Friday and 33 to Easter
Philemon the Flute Player, Martyr 311
8. März 2020
1. O Lord, who remembers those downcast and distraught, pour out Your loving-kindness to those who are injured, sick or desperate, so that they rest secure in Your mercy. Amen. (VELKD Weekly Prayer for Reminiscere Sunday 2020, § 1)
2. »finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.«
3. Last week we heard how the Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the Devil which He began to dismantle by triumphing over the three temptations Satan put before Him. In today’s Gospel pericope the Devil afflicted a pagan Canaanite girl with demonic possession; Jesus cast out the devil and showed His authority over the devilish horde.
4. The Apostle Paul exhorts Christians to walk in holiness and to refrain from impurity. He is writing to Greeks who had recently become Christians; the Greeks were renowned for their sexual immoralities: orgies, homosexuality or other lusts of the flesh. Not every Greek held to this licentious philosophy nor partook in them, but in general such immorality was tolerated in Greek culture and society. The Romans admired the Greeks and adopted much of their culture, including the immorality. The Jews by and large were appalled at Greco-Roman immorality and this caused friction between the two cultures, particularly in Galilee and Judea.
5. The conventional wisdom in Jesus’ day was: the Canaanite girl in Matthew 15 is receiving the just rewards for her own pagan lifestyle or her mother’s. Had the Canaanites, renown idolaters, not reveled in their idolatry and morality, then they would not suffer the consequences of demonic possession. Matthew is silent as to the reason the girl had been possessed in the 15. chapter. He simply states that her affliction is severe. So severe that a pagan Gentile is willing to humble herself before a Jew and ask him to help. As the Jews saw themselves superior to the Canaanites, so to did the Canaanites see themselves as superior to the Jews. But if humbling oneself brings relief for her daughter, then this Canaanite mother was willing to do so. Much like Jacob wrestled with God in Genesis 32, so did this woman wrestle with Jesus. She would not be dismissed; she would not take no for an answer; she would not leave until Jesus blessed her and her daughter (Genesis 32,26; Matthew 15,31-28).
6. And Jesus blessed her: »O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire« (Matthew 15,28). What is the object of her faith? Does she believe Jesus is the Christ? Possibly, but probably not. Does she believe Jesus can heal her daughter? Certainly yes, for Jesus’ reputation as a healer was becoming known among both the Jews and the Gentiles. She puts her faith in Jesus to help her daughter. Jesus does not disappoint.
7. How great is your faith? This is one of the underlying themes and questions Lent makes us ponder. Are we willing to humble ourselves before Jesus? Are we willing to lay everything before Him, forsaking all, if that is the cost of our discipleship? Will we take up our cross and follow Jesus up to His? In our piety, we like to answer with an affirmative YES! But our sinful reality often results in a feeble response or outright casting aside the cross because its weight is too much to bear. We join the shameful company of all the apostles, save John, who fled and hid after Jesus was arrested and subsequently crucified. Lent reminds us that our faith and holiness falter at times when trials and tribulations become overbearing.
8. Thomas Chisholm’s hymn reminds us of a great truth: „Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father; there is no shadow of turning to Thee. Thou changest not; Thy compassions, they fail not; As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be“ (LSB 809,1). When our faith falters, Jesus does not falter. When our holiness fall short of God’s, Jesus is steadfast in His holiness. When we cannot make it up the hill to Calvary, Jesus continues onward bearing His cross to the bitter end. Jesus is our Christ because we cannot bear the awful burden of sin.
9. Jesus calls unto Him the downtrodden, the distressed, the broken and those whose burdens are weighing them down. Jesus pleads with us: »Draw near to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me that I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your lives. For My yoke is easy to bear, and My burden is light« (Matthew 11,28-30).
10. Lent’s journey is long and difficult. We may falter and stumble along the way. If we do, then repent, receive the Lord’s absolution and refocus on Jesus and where He is going. He will give us strength to reach Calvary, and if we simply cannot finish the trek, then He will pick us up and carry us there Himself. Honestly, more often than not Jesus ends up bearing us on His shoulders and places us at the foot of the cross and before the empty tomb.
11. Last week we heard how Jesus came to destroy the works of the Devil. Today we hear how He continues to destroy those works by healing a demon possessed Canaanite girl. Next week we will hear Jesus cast out a demon who was inflicting a physical element in a man. Remember that the Lord is good and upright (Psalm 25,8) who pardons our guilt (Psalm 25,11) and makes known to us His ways (Psalm 25,4). Amen.
12. Let us pray. O God, our Merciful Father; You show us Your love for us in that Christ died for us while we were still sinners, so that in believing that gospel we rejoice that You richly pour Your grace and loving-kindness upon all people. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm
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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2019 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2020 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.
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