Reminiscere – The Second Sunday in Lent
KJV 1 Thessalonians 4:1 Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. 2 For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: 4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; 5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: 6 That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. 7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
KJV Matthew 15:21 Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. 23 But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. 24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. 26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. 27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. 28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
TLH Hymns
387 – Dear Christians One and All (Luther)
292 – Lord Jesus Christ, With Us Abide (Selnecker, Concordist)
142 – A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth (Gerhardt)
413 – I Walk in Danger (Brorson)
God’s Wisdom or Man’s
Luther summarized the public ministry of Jesus thus – He granted every single request brought to Him in the Gospels.
One is tempted to begin by saying how difficult this particular lesson is, since Jesus treats the Canaanite woman so roughly:
1. He is silent about her requests at the beginning. The disciples want her sent away.
2. He rejects her by race, secondly, saying He was sent to the lost sheep of Israel.
3. Finally, He uses a common and offensive comparison, asking if it was right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.
Let’s look at a similar passage.
KJV Luke 18:1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; 2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: 3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. 4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; 5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. 6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. 7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
The point of each passage is that we should never grow tired of praying to God.
In the miracle story, an actual event, Jesus acted out the experience of most people. They pray to God but seem to find no answer for their prayers, as if God is utterly silent. Then they conclude that God’s grace will not come to them since it is meant for others. Finally they conclude they are little more than dogs and not worthy to have a request answered.
In the parable, the one receiving the requests is an evil judge who did not believe in God and was not fair to man. The parable in Luke uses the familiar Jewish comparison, from the lesser to the major. If something is true on such a small scale, how much more true will it be on a large scale? So, if an evil judge listens to the cries of a woman for justice, then God Almighty will definitely listen to His own people when they cry for justice as well.
Both passages teach faith in God’s mercy, goodness, and power. They do not teach the virtue of the individual but the reason why people should have faith in God.
What is faith but trust in God in spite of all experiences and human reason? The reason we have so many timid clergy and Machiavellian laity is their lack of faith in God.
Man’s wisdom is the opposite of God’s wisdom. God has given us the power of reason with many practical advantages. Confronted with a problem like how to move traffic under or over a river, man can come up with ingenious engineering answers. Strangely, many people give no credit to God for their ability to figure these things out. They give all the credit to themselves.
Man’s reason is limited to the everyday, material world. Nevertheless, God can overrule these laws since He established them in the first place. In the medical field, the best doctors are often dismayed at their failures and overjoyed when dire predictions do not come true.
Children have no trouble with the miracles of Jesus. When I ask them how Jesus could walk on water, they say, “Because He is God.” But gather a bunch of academic theologians together and they will say, “He only seemed to be walking on water. He was really walking on sandbars or along the shore. The disciples thought they saw Jesus walking on water, but he wasn’t, because no one can do that.” The vast majority of academic theologians are apostates can talk about a topic they no longer believe.
The Canaanite woman never disputes the power or mercy of God. She continues to ask Jesus.
The Silence
We think God is silent because He works on a completely different scale than man. As Luther suggested, He is an old man who has run things rather well for a long time. We should trust His management skills. Paul said that no one is God’s counselor. In other words, God is so far beyond our comprehension that He can only be revealed, not explained. The Scriptures reveal the nature of God so that we trust in Him and see Him as He is, but we are very limited.
God allows us to think of Him as silent to strengthen and purify our faith. Those who keep an infantile perspective of God will turn away from Him for being God rather than an instant gratification machine.
Recently I have been reading about Jews of the early 20th century, as they moved to America. Many had ancient fables and superstitions embedded in their lore. For instance, one boy was told that bread dropped into the ocean would stop a storm. The father knew this was true because it worked for him once. The son tried it during a storm on the ocean and saw no results. That made him start to doubt how God worked. But God does not need amulets, tokens, and other objects to work. Instead of saying, “This is magic and wrong,” the superstitious person is inclined to say, “There is no God.”
How is this different from the Pentecostalism and Church-Growthism of today? They say, “Do this and God will give you what you want.” When people are disappointed, as they must be over time, they turn away from God, not from the frauds.
Waiting teaches us to be patient when God appears to be silent. Parents do the same thing in love. Their children demand something, harshly. No response. “Didn’t you hear me?” The father or mother says, “I am deaf until I hear the word please.” Repeated bouts of deafness teach children to use the word please.
I tried the same with my granddaughters. I insisted on “please” at the beginning and “thank you” after I said yes. For some reason, they were confident I would always say yes. The result was every request beginning, “Please and thank you…”
God’s apparent silence should not make us think God wants evil to come our way. Luther used his dog Blockhead as an example of prayer. A dog never expects any answer except yes and never becomes discouraged.
Our two Shelties, Precious and Treasure, assume that every meal includes tidbits for them. Even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table. They assume a posture of extreme alertness whenever food is available. They wait for their treats with extreme patience and a friendly attitude.
And yet human literature is filled with examples of, “I prayed for this and did not get it, so I stopped believing in God.” Sommerset Maughm, who wrote Of Human Bondage, is one. Ted Turner is another. I have never seen a dog turn bitter and angry over waiting for a treat. If anything, they pour on the charm and grin even more.
The Miracle is For Another Group
It is easy to assume from the Bible that those days were full of miracles, that ours are not. Or one denomination will claim to have cornered the market on miracles.
A Roman Catholic showed a Lutheran woman a room full of crutches thrown away at their miracle center. Asked what she thought on radio, she said, “I don’t believe a word of it.”
Pentecostals claim all the miracles, spawning growth in another area – occultic religion. The occult religions in Asia claim that spirits will give humans whatever they want, as long as the claims are specific. That is the basic theology of Paul Y. Cho, who is a Church Growth hero. WELS Pastor James Witt (D.Min. in Church Growth, Concordia, St. Louis) bought a case of Cho books and passed them out at a WELS conference promoting cell groups. Doubtless he has repented by now.
Miracles happen all the time, to believers and unbelievers alike. Given the sinfulness of human nature, we should assume that the entire world would fall into chaos without the constant intervention of God. Look at what bankers all over the world did to the financial system! They did that with computers, CPAs, financial wizards, controls, oversight committees, state owned banks, central planning, and so forth.
All the New Testament passages about prayers are accompanied by verses praising God for His goodness and mercy. For example –
KJV Romans 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. 26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
The Canaanite woman’s story says to us – We may think miracles come to everyone but us, but still we pray in faith, knowing the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.
Take from the Children, Give It to Dogs?
The last apparent rebuke for the Canaanite woman speaks to the feelings of unworthiness felt by those whose prayers seem unanswered. Why would God answer my prayers?
"What God Ordains Is Always Good"
by Samuel Rodigast, 1649-1708
1. What God ordains is always good;
His will abideth holy.
As He directs my life for me,
I follow meek and lowly.
God indeed in every need
Doth well know how to shield me;
To Him, then, I will yield me.
2. What God ordains is always good.
He never will deceive me;
He leads me in His own right way,
And never will He leave me.
I take content What He hath sent;
His hand that sends me sadness
Will turn my tears to gladness.
3. What God ordains is always good.
His loving thought attends me;
No poison can be in the cup
That my Physician sends me.
My God is true; Each morn anew
I'll trust His grace unending,
My life to Him commending.
4. What God ordains is always good.
He is my Friend and Father;
He suffers naught to do me harm,
Though many storms may gather.
Now I may know Both joy and woe,
Some day I shall see clearly
That He hath loved me dearly.
5. What God ordains is always good.
Though I the cup am drinking
Which savors now of bitterness,
I take it without shrinking.
For after grief God grants relief,
My heart with comfort filling
And all my sorrow stilling.
6. What God ordains is always good.
This truth remains unshaken.
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
I shall not be forsaken.
I fear no harm, For with His arm
He shall embrace and shield me;
So to my God I yield me.
Hymn #521
The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Deut. 32:4
Author: Samuel Rodigast, 1675
Translated by: composite
Titled: "Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan"
Composer: Severus Gastorius, 1681
Tune: "Was Gott tut"
http://www.lutheran-hymnal.com/lyrics/tlh521.htm
Another, even greater hymn, from Paul Gerhardt:
"If God Himself Be for Me"
by Paul Gerhardt, 1607-1676
1. If God Himself be for me,
I may a host defy;
For when I pray, before me
My foes, confounded, fly.
If Christ, my Head and Master,
Befriend me from above,
What foe or what disaster
Can drive me from His love?
2. This I believe, yea, rather,
Of this I make my boast,
That God is my dear Father,
The Friend who loves me most,
And that, whate'er betide me,
My Savior is at hand
Through stormy seas to guide me
And bring me safe to land.
3. I build on this foundation,
That Jesus and His blood
Alone are my salvation,
The true, eternal good.
Without Him all that pleases
Is valueless on earth;
The gifts I owe to Jesus
Alone my love are worth.
4. My Jesus is my Splendor,
My Sun, my Light, alone;
Were He not my Defender
Before God's awe-full throne,
I never should find favor
And mercy in His sight,
But be destroyed forever
As darkness by the light.
5. He canceled my offenses,
Delivered me from death;
He is the Lord who cleanses
My soul from sin through faith.
In Him I can be cheerful,
Bold, and undaunted aye;
In Him I am not fearful
Of God's great Judgment Day.
6. Naught, naught, can now condemn me
Nor set my hope aside;
Now hell no more can claim me,
Its fury I deride.
No sentence e'er reproves me,
No ill destroys my peace;
For Christ, my Savior, loves me
And shields me with His grace.
7. His Spirit in me dwelleth,
And o'er my mind He reigns.
All sorrow He dispelleth
And soothes away all pains.
He crowns His work with blessing
And helpeth me to cry,
"My Father!" without ceasing,
To Him who dwells on high.
8. And when my soul is lying
Weak, trembling, and opprest,
He pleads with groans and sighing
That cannot be exprest;
But God's quick eye discerns them,
Although they give no sound,
And into language turns them
E'en in the heart's deep ground.
9. To mine His Spirit speaketh
Sweet word of holy cheer,
How God to him that seeketh
For rest is always near
And how He hath erected
A city fair and new,
Where what our faith expected
We evermore shall view.
10. In yonder home doth flourish
My heritage, my lot;
Though here I die and perish,
My heaven shall fail me not.
Though care my life oft saddens
And causeth tears to flow,
The light of Jesus gladdens
And sweetens every woe.
11. Who clings with resolution
To Him whom Satan hates
Must look for persecution;
For him the burden waits
Of mockery, shame, and losses,
Heaped on his blameless head;
A thousand plagues and crosses
Will be his daily bread.
12. From me this is not hidden,
Yet I am not afraid;
I leave my cares, as bidden,
To whom my vows were paid.
Though life and limb it cost me
And everything I won,
Unshaken shall I trust Thee
And cleave to Thee alone.
13. Though earth be rent asunder,
Thou'rt mine eternally;
Not fire nor sword nor thunder
Shall sever me from Thee;
Not hunger, thirst, nor danger,
Not pain nor poverty
Nor mighty princes' anger
Shall ever hinder me.
14. No angel and no gladness,
No throne, no pomp, no show,
No love, no hate, no sadness,
No pain, no depth of woe,
No scheme of man's contrivance,
However small or great,
Shall draw me from Thy guidance
Nor from Thee separate.
15. My heart for joy is springing
And can no more be sad,
'Tis full of mirth and singing,
Sees naught but sunshine glad.
The Sun that cheers my spirit
Is Jesus Christ, my King;
That which I shall inherit
Makes me rejoice and sing.
Hymn #528
The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Rom. 8:31-39
Author: Paul Gerhardt
Translated by: based on Richard Massie, 1857
Titled: Ist Gott fuer mich, so trete
Composer: Melckior Teschner, 1613
Tune: Valet will ich dir geben
Gerhardt’s hymn combines the greatest Gospel proclamations with his faith in God’s goodness.
Gerhardt was an usually gifted hymn-writer and theologian, firm in his opposition to Reformed doctrine but gentle in his personality. He deserved none of the abuse he endured throughout his life. And yet it was out of this tribulation that the most influential of all hymn-writers came.
After all, how many prosperous and plump, devious and devilish church politicians ever wrote a hymn worth singing? One person just noted that the newest LCMS hymnal is loaded with hymns from their own bureaucracy, just as the WELS feminist hymnal is. But will they last any longer than a July frost? Can anyone imagine the head of East Indian missions dying while singing the WELS hymn on Management by Objective? No?
The head of East Indian missions, C. F. W. Schwartz, did die while singing “O Sacred Head Now Wounded,” surrounded by his Indian converts. Supposedly a German chorale is deadly and should be rejected by all other cultures. But one man died singing, with his foreign pupils:
10. Be Thou my Consolation,
My Shield when I must die;
Remind me of Thy Passion
When my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee,
Upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfold Thee.
Who dieth thus dies well!
The Lutheran Hymnal
Hymn #172
Text: Is. 50: 6
Author: Paul Gerhardt
Based on the Latin poem "Salve caput cruentatum"
By Bernard of Clairvaux, 1153, asc.
Translated by: composite
Titled: O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden
Composer: Hans L. Hassier, 1601
Tune: Herzlich tut mich
