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The Crumbs of GodPreached at St. Barnabas Church, Bellville, TX The Second Sunday in Lent, 2009 by The Rev. Stephen E. Stults Matthew 4:3 And she said, "Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table" Our Gospel selection for the day, in a moving, yet concise fashion, gives us several aspects of our relationship to God and how He deals with us. It is, in fact, a very compressed, yet powerful expression of the trials we meet in life and how our Lord meets us in them. In this particular Gospel vignette, we see Christ coming into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. Suddenly a woman, whom Matthew calls “a woman of Canaan,” meets him. More accurately, she was actually a Syrophenician, or a Gentile woman of Phoenicia.1 At any rate, she was a non-Jew, a point that Christ pointedly makes later in the passage. This woman has obviously heard of Jesus and his fame, for she calls not only Lord, but “son of David.” This is a title of great respect. It also indicates that she holds Him to be the Messiah by using this address. Note that she begs for mercy from Jesus. At this point, she asks mercy, not necessarily asking for a boon from our Lord, but only asking earnestly for His mercy. This is noteworthy, for she sees in Jesus someone who is capable of granting mercy and succor. Strangely enough, Christ answers her “not a word.” This is a silent, yet efficient rebuke to her. How strange to us, at first glance, to see our Lord ignoring this poor woman. Similarly, how strange to us that sometimes our Lord does not seem to heed our prayers, but seems to ignore them. To Christians, this is very strange, for we are told all our lives that God is love and that He is always open to the prayers of His children. Yet, in this case, evidently He is not. Yet, her pleas are so heartrending and disturbing that even Christ’s disciples plead for him to send her away. They beseech Him to dispense with her. This indeed seems to be the case, for in the statement that follows Jesus rebukes the woman as he says, (Matthew 15:24) “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Yet, she insists and falls down before Jesus, worshipping him. She says simply, “Lord, help me.” Surely this would melt the heart of anyone, when a person is a prostrate, helpless supplicant. Yet, Jesus says simply, (Matthew 15:26) “It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.” What a statement! Here is Christ, who is all compassion, all love and all caring, issuing a very strong verbal rebuke. In fact, it borders on insult. He is saying, in effect, “I am sent for the lost sheep of Israel. I am not sent for you unclean Gentiles. The children of the household deserve my blessings, as being of my flock. You, on the other hand, are not a sheep of the flock, but a dog.” This is stunning and amazing. How could Christ say such a thing?
It is at this point that Christ supposed indifference comes to an end. He exclaims, “O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt” (Matthew 15:28). Christ, himself is amazed at her faith and grants her request. St. Mark tells us, relating the same miracle, “And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.” (Mark 7:30). What lessons can we learn from this wonderful story? Is it simply that Christ wanted to “toy” with this person before grudgingly granting her request? Heaven forbid! That is blasphemous and false. Rather, this episode contains deep and abiding truth for the Christian. First, we note that the woman came to Christ in faith. She recognized His Lordship and submitted herself to it, begging for mercy. She had absolute faith that Christ could do what she needed to have done. In exactly the same way, we must submit ourselves, in absolute faith, to Christ. Not only when we have petitions of God, but every day, as we seek His imprint on our souls. Like the Syrophoenecian woman, we too must say, “Lord, have mercy on me.” Thus, the first lesson today is to acknowledge our complete submission to God and our absolute need for His mercy. We know that we need it. We also know that God graciously grants it. Sometimes, we think that the Lord doesn’t hear our prayers. We may feel as if our prayers have hit a “glass ceiling,” bouncing back and not entering into God’s ears. Like the woman, perhaps we feel we are rebuffed. “O Lord!” we cry, “Do you not hear my prayers?” Maybe God doesn’t tell us, point blank, that we don’t deserve the bread of the Kingdom, like this humble woman, but His silence to our petitions feels the same. This too is false and devilish. Christ always hears our prayers, just as He heard this woman. Yet, in His Almighty wisdom and will, Our Lord sometimes holds his peace to our petitions. At least two reasons for this are obvious. The first reason for non-answered prayer or non-reassurance is an area of unresolved sin in one’s life. The Holy Spirit may have been pointing to an area which needs cleaning up, but with our invincible will, we have ignored it. Thus, despite repeated promptings in our spirit, we have not taken the action God wants us to take. In return, God will not give us the reassurance that our prayers have been acknowledged, let alone answered. He wants us to follow His Will. In short, when we fall out of covenant, the blessings of the family are not given. The second reason that prayers are seemingly not heard is for our own growth and development in holiness. We need reminding, from time to time, of our absolute dependence upon God. God will, from time to time, withhold Himself from us until we are spiritually hungry and thirsty, even spiritually desperate for God. Just like the Syrophoenecian woman, we say with finality, “Lord, help me!” If we have sought God’s grace in cleaning up the areas to which He has pointed and we have exhausted, finally, our pride and self-sufficiency, we will receive our assurance. The more we progress down the spiritual path with Christ, the greater our dependence on Him becomes. At the same time, the greater our joy becomes too. Like the woman in our Gospel selection for the day, our joy becomes full as Christ tells us, “…be it unto thee even as thou wilt” (Matthew 15:28). As we progress in the Christian life, we joyfully accept our complete dependence on God, we joyfully accept our submission to Him, and we joyfully accept our place in His family, with its incumbent blessings.
This is the most difficult and yet most glorious part of being a Christian. There are times, when in absolute submission to God, we must simply bow our head and say, “Thy will be done.” We don’t understand why things are happening as they are, we may be puzzled and perplexed because we can’t see the outcome or even the sense of the situation, yet in faith we must cease and be at peace. We know that, in the words of St. Paul: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). This is our promise from God, that He is working things out according to His divine Will and for our ultimate good. Yet, this is tough, this is really tough. Things may not be going the way we want them to go. Instead, things are going the way God wants them to go. In the end, our hope lies in these words from Romans 8:30-32: “Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. " What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” This is hope, pure and simple. God is working all things together for His Glory and for our ultimate welfare in Christ. Please note that there are several actions, all stated or implied, in today’s Gospel reading that yield to us great benefits, both in this life and in the life to come. They are:
When we practice these acts constantly in our life, we, like the Syrophoenecian woman, will have what we desire and more importantly, what God wants for us. Could anything be more glorious? Matthew 15:28 “Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.” 1.John Gill, Exposition of the Book of Matthew |
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Yet, the woman does not take offense. Instead, she already knows her position
vis-à-vis the Jews, the Chosen People. She is aware that she is asking a famed
Jewish rabbi for mercy, and she only a
Gentile woman. While a proud spirit
could not bear such a reproof, her need
is such that she acknowledges Jesus’
point, without pride. Her humility and
importunity are such that, scarcely
without missing a beat she replies (Matthew
15:27) “Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat
of the crumbs which fall from their
masters' table.”
Yet, there is a difficult side to this
as well. Sometimes, our prayers do not
get answered, at least not to our
satisfaction. We know that our Lord and
Savior always answers prayers. It
is just that, sometimes, even Divine
Silence also is an answer. We may feel
that we are living in covenant, we may
think that we asking with the utmost
faith possible, we may even have
prostrated ourselves completely before
the Almighty, yet our prayer petitions
are simply not happening.