Matthew 15:21-28
“I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” These words of our Lord, as recorded in today’s Gospel from St. Matthew, might seem harsh and cruel, especially in the context in which he spoke them. But he was simply stating the truth, as far as his vocation as a preacher and teacher was concerned.
We do remember that God gave his only-begotten Son because of his love for the world, and not just because of his love for Israel. Jesus’ death on the cross atoned for the sins of all people, and not just for the sins of the Jewish people.
But insofar as he was a rabbi – called to preach and teach during the relatively limited time of his earthly ministry, before his death – Jesus was not given to all people. He was given and sent only to his own people – that is, to the people of Israel.
Those few occasions when he did interact with non-Jews – such as in the land of the Gadarenes; and such as in the district of Tyre and Sidon in today’s text – were incidental to his prophetic and rabbinic calling, to let it be known in the land of Israel that the kingdom of God was at hand.
With his apostles, however, it would be different. Jesus always planned to send them forth into the world – after his crucifixion and resurrection – to make disciples of all nations.
During the three years when Jesus was fulfilling his own preaching and teaching ministry, he was also serving, in effect, as a seminary professor for the apostles, getting them ready for their future ministry. And what happened in today’s text was, we might say, an example of “field work” in this seminary program.
People often notice Jesus’ seeming disdain for the Canaanite woman in today’s account. They wonder why he seems not to care about her and her daughter’s demonic oppression.
Jesus appears to be acting as if he is annoyed by her petitions, and as if he wished she would not be there, bothering him. But remember that Jesus did make a point of going to this non-Jewish region.
Why did he do this? It wasn’t on the way to anywhere he needed to be for his ministry to the Jews.
By crossing the border into this pagan territory, he had every reason to expect that he and his disciples – who were with him – would sooner or later start bumping into the pagan inhabitants of that territory. And that’s what he wanted to happen.
He was there, in this Gentile land, to give his disciples – his students – some supervised, practical experience in interacting with the kind of people they would spend the rest of their lives interacting with, once they had left the land of Israel to go to the ends of the earth with the gospel of human salvation.
This was not Jesus’ earthly mission, but it was going to be theirs. Through the experience they had with the Canaanite woman, they were being introduced to their own vocational future.
Note, too, that the woman who came up to Jesus – somehow having heard of his supernatural power – was asking him to help her daughter, who was, as she said, “severely oppressed by a demon.”
There was demonic activity among the Jews, and Jesus sometimes cast demons out of possessed Jewish people. As Jesus himself pointed out, the “power of darkness” was at work, especially among those Jewish leaders who hated Christ, and were plotting to kill him.
But the most extreme example of demonic possession that Jesus encountered, was not among the Jews, but among the Gadarenes. You remember that story – about how the “legion” of evil spirits were cast out of a possessed man, and entered into a herd of pigs – which then proceeded to hurl themselves over a cliff.
The severe demonic oppression of the daughter of the Canaanite woman was no doubt like this, too.
Among the Jews of Jesus’ time, there was a restraining influence over against Satan and his minions, due to the prominence of God’s Word – and the presence of many people who believed that Word – in Jewish society. But in the pagan nations, with their idolatry and spiritual lostness, there was no such restraining influence.
Demonic possession was much more common, and much more severe, in those lands. In his Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul describes the condition of these unbelieving, benighted peoples, as those who are
“separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”
Those were the kind of people the apostles would someday preach to, teach, and baptize, so that they would no longer be separated from Christ. On a smaller scale, those were the kind of people Jesus was interacting with in today’s text.
The plight of the Canaanite woman’s daughter was emblematic of the plight of all people who are, as St. Paul says, “without God in the world.” Even though all unbelievers are not directly possessed by the devil, they are nevertheless captive to his will, deceived by his lies, and unwitting servants of his purposes.
And many of them are not all that unwitting, either. I knew a Christian minister who formerly had been a missionary in a remote region of South America.
He was the first Christian missionary to reach a particular tribe that had never before heard the Christian gospel. He told me about how his first convert was the village witch doctor. After that, the rest of the villagers were willing to listen to him, so that they all became Christians, too.
He also described for me the depressing and frightening religious worldview under which this tribe had formerly lived, before their liberation and enlightenment by Christ. They had believed that there had originally been a good God, who created everything; but that this good God was then chased away and supplanted by the evil spirits who were now dominating their lives.
Their tribal religion consisted in rituals and sacrifices that were calculated to appease these evil spirits, and to persuade them not to harm the people. They were very much aware of the demonic world. They were immersed in it – and they were immersed in the fear, the dread, the hopelessness, and the despair that these demons produced in them.
In this context, my friend announced to these people that through the sending of his Son into the world – to vanquish the devil, and to re-establish his kingdom among men – that good God who created them, is now reclaiming them; and is putting them under the protection of his Spirit.
He announced to them that God, in Christ, is now calling them to himself; and that he is now the one who is chasing the evil spirits away, and is supplanting them. They don’t have to be scared any more, because Jesus is now with them, saying to them in his gospel: “Do not be afraid.”
Concerning God, my friend, in effect, proclaimed to them the words that St. Paul had proclaimed to the Colossians:
“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
If people in more sophisticated societies think that there is no supernatural world, and no devil, this doesn’t make it to be so. The primary evidence of Satan’s presence and influence in a society, or in an individual’s life, is not a conscious belief in Satan; but is, rather, a lack of belief in God, and in his Son Jesus Christ.
As our society is becoming less and less Christian, it is becoming more and more demonic. A decreasing interest in the Christian religion, is being matched by increased involvement with occultism and spiritism on the part of many.
When we step away from God’s Word in order to indulge our carnal passions, and fulfill our selfish ambitions, we are not thereby empowering ourselves. We are, instead, surrendering ourselves to the power of the devil.
The devil is, as it were, the “silent partner” of our sinful flesh, who cooperates with our own darker side in pulling us away from God – even as he then overwhelms us, and envelops us in his own grasp, before we know what is happening.
During his earthly ministry, Jesus was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and not to our Gentile ancestors. But Jesus’ earthly ministry, with its vocational limitations, is now over.
Since the Day of Pentecost, Jesus does come to people like us in his Word and Sacrament – as administered by his command, by the apostles and preachers he has called and sent in every generation. He comes to us, to rescue us from the power of sin and Satan, and to restore us to his kingdom of grace and truth.
Don’t underestimate the demonic aspects of the evil, the suffering, and the perverseness that is increasingly surrounding us in this world. Not being able to see something with your physical eyes, doesn’t mean that it isn’t there.
But don’t underestimate the grace and power of Christ, either. Trust in him, and remain in him, and you will be safe.
When Jesus, through his apostles, warns you to flee sexual immorality, and to flee idolatry – with all that this encompasses – then flee! Run fast and far, in the opposite direction.
Jesus knows what he is talking about, and he knows that there is a lot more going on, in the shadows of such sins, than meets the eye.
And, when Jesus invites you to come to him for safety and peace, heed that invitation, and come. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” he says.
If need be, leave all, and forsake all, to come to him, and to follow him. He also says:
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
You will never regret giving up anything of this world that you need to give up, in order to have all of Christ, all of his love, all of his gifts, all of his salvation.
Demons may still be hovering around the periphery of your life. And it’s inevitable that from time to time they will succeed in finding a chink in your armor, and in piercing through to you with a sin that wounds your conscience.
But the forgiveness of Christ is a balm for that wound. For all people in all nations – with everything that the devil and his minions have done to wound people, and to destroy them – the forgiveness of Christ has the power to heal all, and spiritually to resurrect all.
And there is a demon-free zone for you, where you can know that you are safe, and free. There are no demons in the gospel of your Lord and Savior Jesus, who tramples all his enemies under his feet.
They may be hovering around the gospel, trying to distract you from hearing it or believing it. But they are not in the gospel.
It is God who is present and speaking, when Jesus absolves you of all your sins; and when he, by the power of his consecrating Word, feeds your penitent soul, and your body, with his own body and blood.
As the daughter of the Canaanite woman was healed and delivered from the devil’s grip through the intervention of Christ, so too are you healed, and delivered, here and now. In whatever country of which you are a resident, whatever your ancestry is, and whatever your national or ethnic heritage may be, the healing of Christ is available to you. And it is for you.
Jesus is now sent to you, in Word and Sacrament, whether you are a Jew or a Gentile. Now he does come to you, in Word and Sacrament.
And now the devil flees from you, as he is compelled by your new Master to surrender you and your soul to him. You do now belong to Christ. You have been bought with the price of his blood.
And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him. Amen.