Sermon manuscript:
All three of our readings today deal with something that is
important for us to understand. I have to warn you from the outset, though,
that it is a hard thing to learn. Here is what we can learn: Although there is
sadness in all three readings, that sadness was for the good. All the
Christians involved ended up praising their God who laid these burdens on them.
So first let’s look at the sadness in each of the readings.
In our Old Testament reading Jacob is being put through the wringer. He’s so
frightened of his brother Esau coming and slaughtering his family that he
splits them into two groups. The thought is that while Esau and his men are
slaughtering the one group the other group, would be given enough time to run
away. Can you imagine the anguish involved with such a decision? He has already
given up half his family as being as good as dead.
Shouldn’t this be enough trouble for anyone? But we’re not
done yet. Then this mysterious man shows up in the middle of the night who
tries his darndest to kill Jacob. They wrestle with each other to the point of
exhaustion. The man does what seems like a cheap shot. He touches Jacob’s hip
and puts it out of joint. I don’t know what it feels like to have your hip bone
pulled out of its socket, but I can’t imagine that if feels good. Still the
wrestling goes on until it starts to grow light in the east.
Then Jacob does something so wonderful. The man tells him to
let him go. Jacob, who had to have been exhausted beyond words, refuses. He
knew that he was not wrestling with just any ordinary man. He was going to
demand a blessing from him before letting him go. And so the man gives Jacob a
new name, a name that stuck. He was now going to be called Israel, for he
wrestled with God and man and prevailed. Jacob, for his part, gave that
location a new name. He called it “Peniel,” which means “face of God.”
He knew that he had been in God’s presence and survived to tell the tale.
Now you might be wondering, “What’s so sad about this
story?” It’s only sad from a certain perspective. It’s sad if you understand
that life is supposed to be about having fun, of minimizing pain and of maximizing
pleasure. With that perspective what happened to Jacob is exhausting at best
and probably more like torture. But this is eliminating from the consideration
what gives Jacob joy—and that is the relationship that he has with God. He came
to know his God better, to rely on him more, and to love him more.
Let’s see what is sad in our epistle reading. Paul says
something nonsensical to the pleasure seeker: “We rejoice in our sufferings.”
The verb there is actually a little stronger in the Greek. Perhaps the
translator was a little timid. The word that is translated as “rejoice” is
normally translated with “to be proud of,” or even, “brag.” So then the
sentence would read: “We boast in our sufferings…” We are not normally
proud of the things that we have suffered. If anything, we tend to be ashamed
of them.
The sufferings that Paul has especially in mind are the
things that he has lost for the sake of the Gospel. He lost friendships. He
lost his good name. I’m sure that he lost business. He was beaten, stoned, left
for dead. Are not these sad things? Are these things that you would want to
have happen to you? At best they seem to be things that one should just grit
his teeth and bear. They certainly do not seem to be things that one should
brag about.
And, again, if these things were considered just on their
own, without reference to God, that would most certainly be true. But as Paul
also says in our reading, he knows that he has peace with God, having been
justified through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Just before he says that he
boasts in his sufferings he says that he boasts in the hope of the glory of God
that he has because of that relationship with God. He uses the same word. He
boasts about his hope of glory. He boasts about his sufferings. They are
connected. The things that he has suffered has worked endurance, character, and
hope, because the love of God has been poured into his heart by the Holy
Spirit.
Finally, what is sad in our Gospel reading? This is easy to
see. This Gentile woman, this Canaanite, whose ancestors should have been wiped
out with Joshua’s conquest of the Promised Land, is put off again and again by
Jesus. He acts as though he doesn’t hear her. He tells her that he wasn’t sent
for the Gentiles like her. He was sent for the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. He even implies that she is a dog when he says, “It is not right to
give the children’s bread to dogs.” I’m sure that you can sympathize with
this woman, who only wanted help for her demon possessed daughter, not even for
herself.
In fact, some commentators on this text have so much
sympathy for the woman that they claim that Jesus was sinning against her in
this exchange. Allow me to go on a little bit of a tangent concerning people
who teach that Jesus was a sinner. Such people are either very foolish—not
knowing anything about the Scriptures, or, more likely, they are wolves, false
prophets, veritable agents of Satan. Anybody who teaches that Jesus was a
sinner is not a Christian. Such a person is an antichrist. To be sure, Jesus
became sin, as Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians 5, but as Paul says in that very
verse, he became sin, but it wasn’t with his own sin. The verse reads, “God
made him, (that is, Jesus) who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that
we might become the righteousness of God in him.”
If Jesus himself was a sinner, then he cannot be a Savior.
He himself would be in need of a Savior, an atoning sacrifice. We poor sinners
would have no hope of forgiveness in him. And this is precisely the end point
towards which all of Satan’s temptations are directed. He wants everyone to
have no hope, but rather despair, just as he himself has no hope and only
despair. So if you hear anyone claim that Jesus was sinning against the
Canaanite woman because he was not “nice,” mark that person as an agent of
Satan and have nothing to do with them. Believe me, there are such fools or
devils running around, masquerading as Christian preachers!
You yourselves, unless you are blind, should be able to see
that Jesus is not sinning against this woman. So what if Jesus is not “nice” to
her. It is obvious to anyone who has ears to hear that he loves her. He says, “O
woman! Great is your faith!” There is a lot of emotion in those two words,
“O woman!” It is obvious that this woman has completely captured Jesus’s
heart. He loved her all the way along, just as he also loved the Apostle Paul
with all his troubles, and Jacob with all of his troubles.
The woman, for her part, also loves Jesus deeply. This, too,
is obvious. If she were some brat, like most modern people are when it comes to
God, she would have gone off in a huff with the first rebuff. She would have
said, “I’m not going to take this from him! Who does he think he is?” Modern
people are so quick to judge God. This is why the Bible is a sealed book for
them. When the God of the Scriptures does not match up with the indulgent
Grandma of a god that they have cooked up for themselves in their heads, they
self-righteously declare that God is “not nice.”
Well, they aren’t the first ones to claim that God is not
nice. I know of a creature once who said in a Garden somewhere that it’s not
nice for God to forbid anyone from eating from a tree that they might want to
eat from. That’s not nice. Ever since then it seems that we sinners have been
long on niceness and short on love. Being nice is often a cover for not giving
a rip about the other person. If you gave a rip about the other person you’d
actually act towards them according to what they need. That might very well
mean that you won’t be “nice” to them. Love sometimes requires us to wound so as
to heal. Sometimes the boil needs to be lanced to let all the puss and filth drain
out. Pampering and keeping the boil intact is exactly the wrong thing to do.
We know this to be true with our human interactions with
each other, and we are sinners. How much more is it the case, then, that our
great Physician knows how to work with us? He knows how to wound, and he knows
how to heal. He knows how to afflict, and he knows how to comfort the
afflicted. Does he do these things because he hates us? Of course not. Jesus
speaks about the Christian life as being one of taking up our cross and
following him. Crosses hurt, in case you didn’t know. Perhaps we have a lot of
boils that need lancing? Perhaps we have a lot of dross that needs to be burned
off?
The apostle Peter says in his epistle: “Do not think that
it is strange when the fiery trial comes upon you so as to test you, as though
something strange were happening to you.” Those whom God loves, he also
chastises. Being disciplined is never pleasant for the moment, but we all know
that loving discipline is one of the finest things that good fathers and
mothers can do for their children. If this is something that is true for us
sinners, then how much more wholesome might the discipline be that comes from
our wise heavenly Father? As we’ve seen from our readings, when God does this
there is sadness, but the Christians end up praising God who laid these burdens
upon them for their good.
Now there are some very practical things that we can take
from this. When calamity or sadness or affliction strike you, do not be like
the huge unbelieving horde who imagines that this is just a matter of being
unlucky. God is the Creator. He does all things. Being lucky or unlucky is just
a quick and easy way to put one’s conscience back to sleep.
Instead we must learn to read to the signs of the times.
When you are struck by evil, see whether this just might be God lancing a boil
that you have. See if God might be saying to you “Repent, lest worse things
should happen to you.” Turn to the one who has stricken you, like a child
who has been spanked. Ask the God of all comfort to comfort you in your
afflictions. Help will not be long in coming to such a prayer, although it
won’t necessarily be the help that you expect to come. It may mean more trouble
ahead as you make your way from the broad and easy road that leads to
destruction to the narrow and hard way that leads to eternal life.
As our guide in this journey that all Christians must make,
we must use the Word of God. The events themselves might serve as a wake up
call, but they won’t inform us much beyond that. In order to learn, to grow, to
receive forgiveness, to become more holy, there is no substitute for God’s
commandments and promises, his instructions on what is good and evil. So if you
receive one of these wake-up calls, do not harden your heart or go back to
sleep. Use it as an opportunity to learn more. Start reading your Bible. Pay
attention at church. Tto help people to learn and grow is also why God has put
me here as your servant. I’m happy to do that formally or informally, in class
or in person, at church or in your home, lecturing or simply having a
conversation with you.
It is obvious from the Scriptures that the way that God
works with us poor, miserable sinners, so that we do not end up in hell, is not
with kid gloves. Perhaps if we were good, if we actually gladly heard and
learned his Word, we wouldn’t have to be treated as roughly as we are. As it
is, our Physician knows what he is doing. We should not be worried when trouble
and sadness come our way. If anything we should be worried when everything is
coming up roses, for God certainly can quit knocking at our door when we refuse
to listen. Then we will be given over to the vain imaginings of our own heart,
instead of being filled with the Word of God that gives true wisdom.
God already is wrestling with each one of us. Perhaps hips
are being put out of joint. Perhaps we walk with a limp. Imitate Jacob, that
wonderful man, and don’t let God get away without blessing you first.
No comments:
Post a Comment