WEBVTT 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:22.160 Well, our gospel reading today is a very controversial passage, actually, to modern readers, which I'm sure as Steacon Jane was reading, you may have been curious about this dialogue between Jesus and this Canaanite woman. 00:00:23.839 --> 00:00:34.880 Modern interpreters who even go so far as to have racist or sexist overtones in this dialogue between Jesus and this woman. 00:00:35.679 --> 00:00:57.359 A lot of these readings do create what I believe is a foil out of the dialogue in this encounter, a foil out of Jesus, that is who Jesus actually is, who we know Jesus to be just thus far in Matthew's gospel, the way he relates to outsiders, to non-Jews, and to women. 00:00:58.399 --> 00:01:07.040 And it also creates a foil of this Canaanite woman and the concerns that are actually bearing out. 00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:29.920 I think actually, whenever we read this encounter between Jesus and this Canaanite woman, that we see it in the context of the drama unfolding in Matthew and in just the larger history of Israel, that what comes to the surface is actually more controversial than what a modern reading would be. 00:01:30.159 --> 00:01:40.319 It's controversial in regards to the claims that are being made about faith here, the power of faith. 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:48.799 Faith is everything in the Bible, especially the New Testament. 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:58.640 If you see Jesus' ministry just in the Gospels, Jesus will actually praise faith more than he'll praise love. 00:01:59.680 --> 00:02:03.040 And Jesus is very serious about love. 00:02:03.920 --> 00:02:23.280 And when Jesus praises faith and he sees faith, faith seems to be very rare, which may sound odd to us, but Jesus will speak, and it's as though faith and Jesus' ministry is as powerful as it is rare. 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:33.919 Which is odd considering people are walking around, there's angels and demons and spirits and praying, and yet so little faith. 00:02:35.039 --> 00:02:36.560 Isn't that wild? 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:44.639 And I think in our times, times modern, though for different reasons, faith has come on hard time. 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:55.120 But here in the ministry of Jesus, faith is often portrayed as as powerful as it is rare. 00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:57.199 And we use this word right all the time. 00:02:57.360 --> 00:03:01.039 We describe ourselves as a faith community, a family of faith. 00:03:01.199 --> 00:03:03.199 We're a people of faith. 00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:08.080 And this is because we're born out of the new covenant, right? 00:03:08.240 --> 00:03:16.719 The new covenant that was prophesied by Jeremiah, Jeremiah 31, 31, that Paul speaks about in 2 Corinthians 3. 00:03:17.039 --> 00:03:22.000 This new covenant people, or New Testament people, it's the same word. 00:03:22.159 --> 00:03:25.599 New Testament, New Covenant, it's just a Latinization. 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:35.120 But the New Covenant, as is attested to in Scripture, is not like the Old Covenant, in that the New Covenant is not written down. 00:03:36.319 --> 00:03:42.479 It's not codified in any written catalog or system of laws. 00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:52.000 What we call, right, the 27 books of the New Testament, this is not the codifying of the new covenant law. 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:53.439 That's not what this is. 00:03:53.599 --> 00:04:06.879 It's the scripture, the inspiration, commentary on the testaments of old and how this new covenant is made manifest in Jesus and how that's working out in the community we call church. 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:28.879 But what the new covenant is, the new covenant is a work done by God, by the Spirit, whereby God transforms individuals and whole communities such that they would be capable of delighting in the blessings of the covenant. 00:04:29.439 --> 00:04:47.199 This is what the new covenant is it's a work of God by the Spirit, where people, individuals, communities are transformed such that they can delight in the covenant blessings of God, promise to Abraham long ago. 00:04:47.920 --> 00:04:51.759 The height of this blessing is peace. 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:54.560 It's a deep, profound peace. 00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:59.199 It's a peace with God, with each other, and with the land. 00:04:59.360 --> 00:05:01.600 That's the vision in the prophets. 00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:13.439 But it's this incredible blessing that's poured out on individuals and communities such that they can experience the blessings of the covenant across generations in real time. 00:05:13.759 --> 00:05:32.879 And what this means is that God has uprooted hatred and envy and fear and guilt out of our lives and has made mercy and forgiveness possible, has made friendships possible with God, each other, our neighbor. 00:05:33.519 --> 00:05:34.959 This is the vision. 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:45.040 But what we see in the New Testament is the way that this new covenant is manifest and accessed and actualized, is faith. 00:05:45.759 --> 00:05:49.600 It's the X factor, it's everything. 00:05:49.839 --> 00:05:58.000 This is why Paul says, right, the righteous, uh, in repeating the old covenant, the righteous shall live by faith. 00:05:58.480 --> 00:06:14.079 This new mark of the covenant, just as the covenant of old was marked out through circumcision, the covenant, the new covenant spoken by Jeremiah, fulfilled in Christ by the Spirit, is marked by faith. 00:06:14.399 --> 00:06:30.399 And faith is ubiquitous, it's universal, it's egalitarian, meaning rich people can have faith, poor people can have faith, men can have faith, women can have faith, children can have faith, uh, slaves can have faith. 00:06:30.879 --> 00:06:33.680 Jews, Gentiles can have faith. 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:38.639 All kinds of races can have faith, all kinds of cultures can have faith faith. 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:47.920 Faith is this thing that levels the playing field and is at the same time opening up God's blessing to everybody. 00:06:48.160 --> 00:06:49.519 This is the power of faith. 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:52.480 This is how Paul understands faith. 00:06:54.240 --> 00:07:06.240 And this is the faith that we see that it's brimming over in this dialogue with Jesus and foreshadowing the fullness of the new covenant that's coming. 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:14.319 It's the faith that Isaiah in our reading today is speaking about with this inheritance of eunuchs. 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:29.839 So eunuchs, right, are castrated males who are not able to participate in Israel's system of circumcision that was linked to families to keep your name in the land and to have an inheritance in the promises. 00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:37.040 So they're actually in the law, they were precluded from being in the assembly. 00:07:37.360 --> 00:07:40.639 And yet Isaiah imagines a future, right? 00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:47.839 Where eunuchs who by faith keeping Sabbath will have an inheritance in the promises of God. 00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:54.319 That's an inheritance that Isaiah says is greater than sons and daughters. 00:07:54.800 --> 00:08:00.079 This is actually wild talk from a prophet. 00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:02.319 It's absolutely wild. 00:08:02.560 --> 00:08:15.439 And this is foreshadowing, right, what we see with the Ethiopian eunuch in the book of Acts, who, upon hearing the message of Messiah, asks, Well, what's preventing me? 00:08:15.839 --> 00:08:20.480 And the answer implied in the narrative is, oh, nothing. 00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:21.600 Faith. 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:23.519 Okay, move on. 00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:28.480 Get baptized, the spirit comes, the fullness of the presence is poured out. 00:08:29.199 --> 00:08:42.960 Well, here in this encounter with Jesus and this Canaanite woman, Jesus is approached by this woman whose daughter is suffering from a demon possessing her. 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:50.960 And she is asking Jesus to step in and intervene to heal her daughter. 00:08:51.759 --> 00:08:55.279 And Jesus' words might strike us as really odd. 00:08:55.440 --> 00:08:57.440 You might even think cold. 00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:08.000 But Jesus tells her that he's come, he's been sent, actually, we know this by the Father to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:10.879 What does this mean? 00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:17.759 Jesus' three-year ministry is not his running about all throughout the Mediterranean. 00:09:17.840 --> 00:09:22.799 He's not going into Africa or in India or up through Europe. 00:09:23.039 --> 00:09:28.879 No, Jesus' ministry is actually focused to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:33.759 And finally and fully his face will be set to Jerusalem for the passion. 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:50.240 When Jesus says it's not right to take the bread of children and throw it to dogs, Jesus is not saying, look, Jews have more dignity and worth than Canaanite women, than Gentiles. 00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:54.799 Or Jews are the good guys and Gentiles are the bad guys. 00:09:55.600 --> 00:10:18.399 No, what Jesus is saying in this very extreme metaphor that Jesus is pulling here is that the purpose of Jesus' ministry is set in this direction, and what this woman is calling Jesus to do is on the opposite side of where Jesus is actually headed. 00:10:18.639 --> 00:10:30.240 So Jesus uses this example to speak of the divergence of the purpose and intention and direction of Jesus' ministry and what she's actually asking him to do. 00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:33.840 She's asking Jesus, in other words, to take an about face. 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:53.440 And what's extraordinary here is that Jesus, in talking to this woman, her response after Jesus says, You don't take the bread of children and throw it to dogs. 00:10:54.159 --> 00:11:03.120 This woman says that, well, even the dogs will eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table. 00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:10.159 It's one thing that this woman is not a Jew, right? 00:11:10.240 --> 00:11:15.919 She's a Gentile coming to a Jewish rabbi who is the Messiah of Israel. 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:18.639 But she's not just any Gentile. 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:21.679 This is a Canaanite. 00:11:22.399 --> 00:11:34.559 And if you're uh conjuring up the history of Israel, you realize that this woman bears in her history, in her body, and her name a tortured history, right? 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:40.879 Violence, conquest, genocide, ethnic cleansing. 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:44.399 This is Israel's historic enemy. 00:11:45.039 --> 00:11:48.639 These are the thorn in Israel's side. 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:53.759 This is why they can't pull the conquest off and get into the promised land. 00:11:54.080 --> 00:11:58.399 Because these Canaanites dragging everything down. 00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:03.519 This woman is Israel's historic enemy. 00:12:04.159 --> 00:12:17.120 And what we see is Israel's enemy coming to Jesus, coming to Israel's Messiah, asking for the blessings and the power of the God of Israel to be poured out in her household. 00:12:19.600 --> 00:12:29.679 And what's incredible, and what needs to be absolutely seen in this encounter, is that Jesus does not refuse her request. 00:12:31.600 --> 00:12:47.440 This is foreshadowing the fulfillment of all the covenant blessings between Jews and Gentiles, between the whole world, the peace that is to be brought to fruition in the Prince of Peace, Jesus. 00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:56.559 But what's astounding is that Jesus, one does not refuse her, but we might ask why. 00:12:57.519 --> 00:13:00.639 The story seems to suggest because of faith. 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:07.919 Well, what I want us to do is see what is what does faith mean in this story of the Canaanite one. 00:13:09.360 --> 00:13:12.639 I think it's two things that we see. 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:26.320 That faith is a deep humility that is in union with trust in Jesus of Nazareth. 00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:30.240 This is what the Canaanite woman displays. 00:13:30.399 --> 00:13:31.600 This is what faith is. 00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:33.120 What is faith? 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:36.000 The rare but powerful faith. 00:13:36.480 --> 00:13:46.559 Faith is the mingling of humility with faith directed to Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. 00:13:47.919 --> 00:13:50.799 This is powerful faith. 00:13:51.200 --> 00:13:54.559 This is rare faith in the Gospels. 00:13:55.200 --> 00:14:00.480 This is so powerful, and again, I'm just preaching the text. 00:14:00.720 --> 00:14:03.279 This is why I said this is controversial. 00:14:03.600 --> 00:14:16.799 This is so powerful that this faith from a Canaanite woman, this faith can occasion something of a detour for Jesus. 00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:19.039 That's what happens. 00:14:21.200 --> 00:14:22.720 Now think of that. 00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:24.159 Oh my word. 00:14:25.759 --> 00:14:32.639 The mingling of humility and this utter faith in Jesus occasions, right? 00:14:32.799 --> 00:14:34.240 We're uncomfortable with that. 00:14:34.480 --> 00:14:39.759 We're uncomfortable with Jesus saying, it's not right to do X. 00:14:41.039 --> 00:14:45.840 Only moments later for Jesus to do X. 00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:50.320 What's the difference between the two? 00:14:52.320 --> 00:14:53.279 Faith. 00:14:54.799 --> 00:14:56.159 I mean, this is powerful. 00:14:56.320 --> 00:15:00.080 It's so powerful, Jesus will even say elsewhere, right? 00:15:00.639 --> 00:15:06.480 Just the faith, the size of a mustard seed, can move mountains. 00:15:06.799 --> 00:15:10.399 It's how powerful it is, faith. 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:21.519 This is not right, name it and claim it, prosperity, gospel, faith. 00:15:22.320 --> 00:15:30.399 Which I think one way that we can kind of scrutinize that is faith that's void of humility. 00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:31.279 Right? 00:15:31.519 --> 00:15:37.039 This kind of uh pretentious um expectation. 00:15:37.600 --> 00:15:40.159 That's not this woman at all. 00:15:40.480 --> 00:15:48.639 This woman actually believes that the bread of Israel, the bread of blessing, that just the crumbs are sufficient. 00:15:50.559 --> 00:15:53.759 This is the faith that we're called into. 00:15:54.159 --> 00:16:05.519 This is the faith I'm convinced that when Jesus says, right, if two or three of you gather in my name, and whatever you ask, it'll be done. 00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:11.120 Like that's the image you see, humility, faith, and deep desire. 00:16:11.679 --> 00:16:14.000 What does Jesus say after she says this? 00:16:14.159 --> 00:16:23.360 He says, Oh my word, woman of great faith, may it be done to you as you desire. 00:16:25.519 --> 00:16:26.159 What? 00:16:28.159 --> 00:16:28.799 Desire. 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:38.720 And we see the merging of humility, trust in Jesus, and our deepest desire. 00:16:39.519 --> 00:16:40.799 That's faith. 00:16:41.039 --> 00:16:45.360 That's what it means to come to faith in Jesus. 00:16:45.759 --> 00:16:48.559 This is the faith that can move mountains. 00:16:48.639 --> 00:16:56.000 This is the faith that if we ask of the Father, Jesus says, Yeah, he'll do it. 00:16:56.639 --> 00:16:58.000 He'll hear that. 00:16:59.679 --> 00:17:03.679 Jesus himself will say, Go. 00:17:04.880 --> 00:17:07.119 May it be done as you desire. 00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:20.720 This mingling of humility, trust, and desire, I think, is what the Lord is certainly beckoning me into. 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:27.599 A deeper, deeper affection, deeper abandonment to Jesus. 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:33.359 And that this is the faith in which the seeds of the kingdom grow. 00:17:34.160 --> 00:17:34.799 Amen.