Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. Here we go. The Gospel reading for August 20, is from Matthew chapter 15, verses 21 through 28. Let's read it. And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying. Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David, my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon. But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him saying, Send her away for she is crying out after us. He answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But she came and knelt before him saying, Lord help me. And He answered, It is not right to take children's bread and throw it to the dogs. She said, Yes, Lord. Yet, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters table. Then Jesus answered her, a woman, great is your faith, be it done for you as you desire. And her daughter was healed instantly. Here ends the reading. What a story. As Canaanite woman comes to Jesus, and bags and bags and is consistent and constant in her prayer, let's take a look at it. And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. So Jesus had just been arguing with a number of Pharisees about ritual uncleanness. And he ends up talking about all the things that that come out of the body, making us unclean, the evil thoughts. And it's not the things that go into the body. So it's this idea that no food and such doesn't make you unclean. And so he withdraws from this argument with the Pharisees and goes to a Gentile area. This transition is certainly intentional. Now Jesus is out amongst the unclean people. So it goes, and behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David, my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon. First, we have to say, this is a Canaanite woman. This is a woman that whose ancestors should have been killed by Joshua and all his people. So this woman is part of the wicked people that were supposed to have been punished by Israel when they came into the promised land. But she comes up and says something amazing. Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David, wait a second. This is a Canaanite woman looking for the promises of God through the Messiah, the Lord, the son of David. She is demanding the promise given to Israel, even though she is not part of Israel. She asked for healing for the daughter oppressed by a demon. But Jesus doesn't answer her word it says, but he did not answer her word. And his disciples came and begged him saying, Send her away for her. She is crying out after us. This is interesting. It gives us the impression that the woman is constant in in this, Jesus doesn't answer and the disciples are annoyed, because she is constantly asking and they say, send her away, and he does nothing. Verse 24, he answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Notice that this response isn't in response to the woman's crying out but to the disciples. So she's, he's just letting her go on. And when the disciples talk to him, then he responds. Now she overhears this, and verse 25. But she came and knelt before him, saying, Lord help me. So she's still doing this. Verse 26, and he answered, It is not right to take the children's bread, and throw it to the dogs. Now, we might have in our head, this idea of the word that we might use for a woman that is associated with a dog, like what is Jesus doing? Is he insulting her? Is he looking at her and being terrible? We're, we're taking some of our own cultural baggage being brought into this perhaps, we don't really know exactly what the cultural baggage is about. children and dogs and all that I think the image is seem pretty simple. Israel are God's chosen people. They're the children of dog of God. And then the dogs are part of the family. But you know, they're just sort of not they don't get food from the table, right? And so he's saying, I've been sent to Israel. But she replies in verse 27. Yes, Lord, yet, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters table. She is not fighting the idea that she is not part of God's chosen people. She is simply saying, You Jesus have the power to save. And I am clinging to that she demands God's promises. And Jesus responds positively, oh, woman, great is your faith, be it done for you as you desire, and her daughter was healed instantly. Now, if you've been following the readings throughout the Sunday, they are all about incorporating the foreigner, the outsider, the person who is unexpected into the kingdom of God. And it leads up to this reading about Matthew, where Jesus marvels at the woman's faith, similarly to the centurion early on, who had great faith that he comes up to Jesus and says, Jesus, you don't need to come to my house. Just say the word and it'll be done. And this woman says yet even the dogs eat the crumbs, demanding the promises of God. And sometimes that is what we need to do to turn to God and ask for what he promises and say, give me what you promised God and wait for him to give it in faith. The joy of that is that on Sundays in the divine service, God gives us all of his promises through His Word and Sacrament. And we don't need to beg. It is always there. But you can go and claim it. So hopefully you will see you on Sunday Bye.
That's the end of our reading today. Hopefully we'll see you on Sunday.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
