Abundantly More Than Crumbs

[00:00:08] How do you like those words from Jesus today? [00:00:13] How can he say that to her? [00:00:18] Did you catch it? [00:00:20] He called her a dog. [00:00:33] A woman comes to Jesus asking for mercy, 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. [00:00:48] Listen to that. Begged him, saying, send her away, for she is crying out after us. [00:00:55] 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. [00:01:06] And he answered, it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. [00:01:15] She said, yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table. [00:01:21] Then Jesus answered her, Ah, we can all take a deep breath. [00:01:28] O woman, great is your faith. [00:01:31] Be it done for you as you desire. [00:01:34] And her daughter was healed instantly. [00:01:38] So it all turns out alright. [00:01:41] There's a period there where she's thrown into great well, she's put in a situation where she's tempted to doubt and to give up. [00:02:00] And Jesus put her in that situation. [00:02:06] Have you ever been put in a challenging situation? [00:02:09] Found yourself in a situation that's confusing or difficult? [00:02:18] That's life. We just sang it in the hymn when life's dark maze I tread. That's how life is described. A dark maze and griefs around me spread When. [00:02:32] When griefs around me spread. [00:02:35] Be thou my guide. [00:02:37] Bid darkness turn to day. Not that circumstances all just become rosy Bid darkness turn to day in the midst of the circumstantial darkness Wipe sorrow's tears away Nor let me ever stray from thee. Aside, this is actually the shape of life following Jesus. [00:03:00] The hymn really starts out that way. [00:03:03] My faith looks up to thee, thou lamb of Calvary. [00:03:08] My faith looks up to thee. Jesus bleeding and dying on the cross. [00:03:15] That's what we look up to throughout life. [00:03:20] Jesus challenges the woman, calls her a dog, an outsider. [00:03:33] That challenge isn't anything new. [00:03:35] It's in all the stories that we remember best in scripture. [00:03:43] Think of Abraham. [00:03:46] Great God gives Abraham a son miraculously, and then he says, sacrifice your son. [00:03:56] He tells Abraham to sacrifice his son. [00:04:01] That's a moment of challenge. [00:04:03] How can God say that? It's kind of the same question here as with the Canaanite woman. [00:04:09] Abraham is put into such a difficult spot. [00:04:15] Imagine the inner anguish. [00:04:20] Yet the book of Hebrews tells us that Abraham believed that God could raise Isaac from the dead. [00:04:28] God has promised Abraham that through his offspring, all nations will be of last, and that that offspring is Isaac. And so, in the midst of the darkness, when it looks like the circumstances aren't what they should be, Abraham hangs on to God's promises in spite of what God's telling him. [00:04:51] It's like God's word against God's word. [00:04:55] He holds on, and through it, God strengthens Abraham's faith so that Abraham learns to cling to God's promises in spite of everything else. [00:05:12] Same thing with Noah, building an ark. [00:05:17] How about Daniel? [00:05:20] Daniel is just doing what's right. He's not going to stop praying to God, and yet he's threatened with death by lions. [00:05:38] He gets thrown into the den of lions and God rescues him. [00:05:47] He hangs on to God by faith, despite the circumstances. This Canaanite woman, she has to hold on to what she knows about Jesus, what she knows about God's grace in the face of what Jesus is saying to her. [00:06:14] It's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. [00:06:19] It's like she's thrown into darkness so that there's nothing left. She can't hold on to her reputation, how people think of her. She can't say, like, look, I'm not that bad. [00:06:32] Take me in. [00:06:34] She has to accept being a dog and recognize that there's always grace. There's always more. [00:06:47] Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table. [00:06:54] I think she's rejoicing in that. I don't think she's saying, oh, but even I don't know. I think actually there's a textual reason. A professor at the seminary said the word for. Yet there. [00:07:08] It's never ever translated yet in the Bible. Like it's the word gar, which is like for, or because it's like she's saying, yes, Lord, you don't have to throw the bread to the children. [00:07:25] Yes, Lord, for even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table. It's like she knows the game. [00:07:34] I don't know. That's how I imagine it. I don't imagine her struggling too long with that one. [00:07:40] Because she knows God's grace. She knows that there are crumbs, that there's margin, that there's extra. [00:07:49] Always. [00:07:50] That's the nature of God's grace. His gifts aren't carefully calculated to be given just the right amount. [00:08:00] There's just always abundance. There's always more to be had. You can count on that. [00:08:08] This difficult situation she's thrown into, you know, the collect of the day gives us a hint, I think, at how we're supposed to read this. [00:08:20] Almighty and everlasting Father, you give your children many blessings. Even though we are undeserving, there we are in the place of the Canaanite woman, right in every trial and temptation. Grant us steadfast confidence in your loving kindness and mercy. [00:08:43] And you know where that trial came from? [00:08:46] It came from the Lord. [00:08:50] And the Lord doesn't like. The Lord doesn't give challenges so that you'll fail, so that you'll fall. [00:08:58] He doesn't tempt, he doesn't test somebody more than they can handle. I'm using those words interchangeably because they're the same word. [00:09:07] He doesn't test somebody more than they can handle, but he does it for our good. In fact, the challenges that we face, whatever they are, and they do, come when we're surrounded by griefs in life's dark maze. [00:09:33] We're being conformed to Christ in his death, we're sharing in Christ's sufferings. [00:09:42] We're becoming nothing in him in order that he might become everything. [00:09:51] It's the same pattern of the apostles as they give up everything for Christ's sake and receive everything. [00:10:02] My faith looks up to thee, thou Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine Now hear me while I pray Take all my guilt away O let me from this day be wholly thine. [00:10:22] What does it mean, wholly to belong to Jesus? [00:10:29] To be completely taken up into the reality of our baptism, being united to Christ in his death and united to Christ in his resurrection. [00:10:45] When that challenge or difficulty comes up, are we surprised? [00:10:52] Is this anything that Jesus didn't experience? [00:10:57] Only without sin, it can all be taken up in Jesus suffering, so that in the midst of that difficulty, we can look to the Lamb on Calvary, the one suffering ultimately, and take comfort in him. [00:11:18] In fact, as the things of this world are taken away from us, as we're plunged further into darkness, the light of Christ comes clearer. [00:11:33] When there's nothing else to hold onto. [00:11:38] Perhaps that's when our faith can cling most firmly to Jesus. [00:11:59] It isn't easy. [00:12:04] It's humbling. [00:12:10] Our life together is one of continual repentance. [00:12:15] As soon as we rise up and think we're doing okay, that we're an insider and not an outsider, that's when we're most liable to fall. [00:12:32] God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. [00:12:38] So for the humble, that's good news. [00:12:43] And for the proud, well, Then comes the humbling which we build into the structure of our service. [00:12:57] We confessed Our sins. This morning we said words that do the great leveling out. [00:13:04] It's like whatever we built that doesn't fit in the mind of Christ. [00:13:10] That's not looking at us accurately from Christ's perspective. [00:13:16] It gets flattened. [00:13:22] It also unifies us in that you and I, we're all the same in that we need God's mercy and have nothing to offer of ourselves. [00:13:36] And we're all the same in that we have received Jesus forgiveness, his life, that our life is no longer our own. We are wholly his by faith. [00:13:55] And it doesn't mean the reversal of all our difficult circumstances. [00:14:00] It doesn't mean that now things are going to start looking up necessarily. It might go the other direction. [00:14:08] In fact, for all of us, it will end in death unless Jesus comes back first, which is like the slow or quick loss of all earthly things. [00:14:22] We can see that as also being taken up by Christ in his death. [00:14:33] And we're taken up into Christ also in his resurrection. [00:14:39] And that means it's a bit of a mystery, actually. The hymn ends that way, with mystery. What does that mean? Blessed Savior, then in love, fear and distrust remove, oh, bear me safe above a ransomed soul. [00:14:57] There are lots of ways you could express that. [00:15:02] Try and picture that. [00:15:06] What does this mean, Christ? [00:15:11] Well, it happens earlier in that verse too, when ends life's transient dream and then comes something even more real, when death's cold sullen stream shall o' er me roll. [00:15:26] It's all said in kind of poetic, experiential language because, yeah, it's a mystery. [00:15:37] It was a mystery to Abraham. How's this going to turn out? [00:15:42] It was a mystery to Daniel. How is this going to turn out to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? How's this going to turn out to the apostles? How is this going to turn out? [00:15:55] Except you can see it in Jesus. [00:15:58] He rose from the dead victorious. [00:16:01] He ascended into heaven and he said, I'm coming back to raise the dead, bring you all with me. [00:16:09] And then we get visions, like we said, like we heard yesterday at the funeral for Ruth. [00:16:17] Vision of to John in Revelation of those coming out of the Great Tribulation, having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. They're praising God constantly in his presence. [00:16:35] And all the challenge is over. [00:16:40] The ending has come, that good ending toward which we're headed, following Jesus. [00:16:47] We're in life's dark maze, but the light is there the whole time. [00:16:55] Jesus Christ is the light, not any of those other lights that pop up that you might want to follow, turn aside because they look shiny and promising. [00:17:10] It's not the turning around of your life circumstances that is ultimately the fix, the solution of our problems. [00:17:21] It is Jesus Christ who pursued death. [00:17:27] See the challenge that we're put through in faith that all the saints were put through in faith that Adam and Eve were put through getting kicked out of the garden and given death and all of us given death in them. [00:17:43] That challenge itself is one that Jesus received also as a human being to the greatest degree in going to the cross and came through it. [00:17:58] He came through life's dark maze. Does it feel like a dark maze? [00:18:06] It felt like a dark maze to Jesus. [00:18:09] He's the only one who could find his way through the labyrinth and take us with him to the other side. [00:18:18] And in him we'll be okay. [00:18:22] So let's pray that collect of the day again together using the bulletin. [00:18:29] Or if on the fly, get it on the screen. No, no. Yeah, grab your bulletin, turn to the collect of the day.