The Tenacious Faith of a Dog

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins in salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the 15th chapter, verses 21 -28.

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Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

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A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to Him crying out, Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!

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My daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession. Jesus did not answer a word.

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So His disciples came to Him and urged Him, send her away! She keeps crying out after us.

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He answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. So then the woman came and knelt before Him.

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Lord, help me, she said. He replied, it's not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs.

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Yes, Lord, she said. But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.

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Then Jesus answered, woman, oh woman, you have great faith. Your request is granted.

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And her daughter was healed from that very hour. This is the Gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus.

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All right, there are many threads that we can pull on in this story. But before we do that, let's get a little bit of backstory.

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I think it's going to help here. Now, this woman who came in desperation to seek help for her daughter from Jesus was a

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Canaanite. Those were the people who possessed the Promised Land prior to Israel's arrival 40 years after the

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Exodus. Listen to these words from the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 34, verses 10 through 16 reads,

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And he said, this is the Lord saying, Behold, I am making a covenant before all your people.

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I will do marvels such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation.

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And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.

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Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I, God, will drive out before you the

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Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

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Or like I used to say to my kids, and the Balletites and the Uptites, right? So God's going to drive them out.

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Notice that on the list was the Canaanites. So take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst.

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You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars, cut down their asherim, for you shall worship no other god.

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Asherim, these are Asherah poles, fertility goddess, right? For the Lord, whose name is

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Jealous, is a jealous God. Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods, and make your sons whore after their gods.

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Pretty strong language. And by the way, in the Old Testament, over and again, idolatry is likened to spiritual prostitution, okay?

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This is how God is speaking. These are not the words of men. This is the word of God. And so he's describing those who are chasing after false gods, religions of their own making, as whores, okay?

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So, yeah, try preaching this in polite company, like I'm doing. It's a little difficult, okay?

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So, think of this. In the end, Israel actually didn't do their job of driving out the

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Canaanites, and in the Old Testament, we read how their daughters, yeah, the daughters of the

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Canaanites, and their idols, the idols of the Canaanites, Baal, Asherah, Molech, became a snare to Israel.

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This ultimately culminated in the Babylonian exile of Israel as a punishment for their idolatry, because they wouldn't repent, and only a remnant survived.

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90 % of Israel was destroyed because of their idolatry, because of God's punishment.

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So, after returning from exile, the Jews who lived, and the

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Canaanites, well, let's just put it this way. They weren't exactly on talking terms. Israel was in no hurry to go back and recommit the sins of their fathers, and it got kind of hostile.

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In fact, it was so bad that Jewish rabbis called the Canaanites dogs.

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And think of it this way. For that time in history, it didn't get much lower than that.

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Dogs were not domesticated. You didn't buy them at the local pound, or at the local pet shop, or anything.

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They were mangy, dirty, garbage -picking scavengers, okay? To call somebody a dog is like, well, back in those days, close to the ultimate insult.

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So, the rabbis called the Canaanites dogs. Now, to say, then, that the Jews and the Canaanites didn't get along, well, that would be an example of gross understatement.

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Yeah, they didn't get along, right? So, this is kind of the backstory that you need to know.

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So, in our story this morning, this Canaanite woman, okay, not just Canaanite, but Canaanite woman, yeah, not only do

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Jews not have dealings with Canaanites, but women are not permitted in this time to address men in public.

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So, this woman is breaking every rule known to humanity at this point, right? Why? Well, her daughter is severely demonized.

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This is what the Greek says. It says she's severely demonized. Now, have you ever seen one of those scary movies that depicts paranormal experiences with demons?

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Okay, the exorcism of Emily Rose, the exorcist. I know this is a genre that not a lot of people like, okay?

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But think of it this way. This wasn't fiction. This was her life, okay?

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It doesn't tell us how her daughter became demonized, whether it was through idolatry, practicing the occult.

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It doesn't say. But we know that she is, at this point, demon -possessed, and it's a severe possession.

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And believe me when I tell you, demons are things you don't want to mess with. And then you're gonna, some of you might be going, really, you believe in demons,

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Pastor Rose, bro? Yeah, I do, because Jesus cast them out. If Jesus believed in them,

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I'd be kind of silly to not believe in them. You know what I'm saying? I'm gonna go with Jesus on this, okay? Notice that Jesus' response to her wasn't, oh, demons don't exist, just get over it.

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It's a figment of your imagination, okay? Come on, get with the times. We live in the modern era. I mean, it's, at this point, you know, what, 30

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AD? I mean, you're still believing in demons? Okay, notice the facetiousness right there.

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So demons are real, they're not a myth, and this woman had been living in a bona fide -for -real paranormal nightmare, which culminated in her daughter being possessed by a demon.

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So we now have kind of the backdrop. Here she's coming, she's breaking all the rules, why she's desperate, and this is why she's doing this, and she's trying to get the attention and help of the

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Jewish rabbi, Jesus, who happens to be visiting town, right? He's outside of Israel, he's in Tyre and Sidon.

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So here's what she does. She cries out, listen carefully to what she says. Have mercy on me,

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O Lord, Son of David. Did you hear that? She called

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Jesus both Lord and Son of David. Now, Son of David is

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Messiah talk. Here's this Canaanite woman who's recognizing that Jesus is the

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Messiah of Israel. How odd is that? But notice that she says, O Lord.

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She's actually invoking Jesus as if he's God. She knows who he is.

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So she called Jesus both Lord and Son of David. And then she says this. My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon, okay?

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Severely demonizes, what the Greek says. And here's Jesus' response. He ignores her.

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He doesn't answer her. Now, if Jesus were doing this today, I'm sure being the popular pastor that he was at this time, the paparazzi would probably be following him around, right?

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So as soon as they see this story beginning to unfold, this woman screaming out, calling him

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Son of David and calling him Lord, and Jesus is ignoring her, everybody in that region knows the prejudices against the

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Jews and Canaanites. It's similar to what the prejudice of Jews and Muslims today, right?

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So they know there's a story. So if the paparazzi were there today, quick, get your camera, get your notepad out.

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They've got a story about ready to unfold here. So things get so bad, because this woman, she's persisting.

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Things get so bad, the disciples can't bear it anymore. And his disciples came and begged Jesus saying, send her away, for she's crying out after us.

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This is embarrassing, right? So he doesn't even address the woman. He's talking to his disciples and he says, yeah,

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I was sent only to the last sheep of the house of Israel. Now comes the fun part.

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She sees that Jesus is talking about her. So she breaks through the crowd.

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She came and the text says knelt before him saying, Lord, help me. But it's actually a lot stronger than that.

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Knelt is too weak of a translation. The Greek here is proskuneo. And it means that she is on her face, prostrating herself before Jesus, okay?

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So spread eagle on the floor, face down, and she's crying out,

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Lord, help me. Now this proskuneo, this prostrating oneself, I'm absolutely convinced

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Americans are incapable of this maneuver. Something about our culture kind of makes that impossible for us.

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But here she is, she's totally humbling herself before Jesus. And this is to express an attitude of complete dependence or submission to a high authority.

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That's what she's doing here. She's basically, I'm in complete submission to you. And she's crying out with her face on the ground,

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Lord, help me. Again, calling him Lord. So she has no intention of leaving.

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And now think of it this way. The only way to get rid of her would be to pick her up and carry her away. This is getting really awkward.

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But just when you think it can't get more awkward than this, Jesus opens his mouth and addresses her and you won't believe what he said.

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Here it is. It's not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs.

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Yep, that's right. Jesus called this poor woman who was only seeking help for her daughter, he called her the D word.

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Called her a dog. Now, this is a public relations nightmare. If this happened today,

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Jesus's face and his words would be all over the media and social media. Could you just see the tweets and the

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Facebooking things going on right now? Talk radio would be abuzz with people weighing in and talking about how mean, how cruel, how racist, how bigoted

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Jesus is. Headline, Jesus calls

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Canaanite woman dog. Prime Minister of Israel in special cabinet meeting looking to figure out how to undo the damage, right?

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So here's the question, are you offended? Are you ready to leave the church and huff and go find a more respectable savior?

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I mean, what kind of savior is that? Kind of savior who calls women dogs, right?

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So here's the question, how can Jesus be good? How can Jesus be God by treating a woman this way who's in need?

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Now, before you write Jesus off, let me remind you of a parallel story from the Old Testament, the story of Joseph.

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It actually kind of comes into play here. You remember the story of Joseph? Joseph, he had these dreams from God and he told these dreams to his brothers and to his father and mother.

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Oh, dreams like sheaves bowing down to his sheaf and the sun, moon, and stars bowing down to him.

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And his brothers, of course, loved him so much that they wanted to kill him, right?

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And they plotted to kill him, but one of his brothers basically stepped in and convinced them not to kill

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Joseph. And so they did the next best thing, they sold him into slavery, right? So they sold him into slavery and they sent him off to Egypt.

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He was at Potiphar's house. Potiphar's wife had the hots for him. He wouldn't give in to her advances.

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So she told a lie about him and he ended up in Egyptian prison. Now, rumor has it that Egyptian prison during the

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BC years is not nearly up to standard as our federal prisons are today, okay?

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Just think about this. So he spends 12, 13 years in prison and God miraculously rescues him and makes him second in command of all of Egypt and then uses him to save Israel and Egypt from a famine, a seven -year -long famine that he was gonna send.

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Remember the story? Well, when the famine struck, Joseph's brothers came from Israel, from the

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Promised Land, actually it's Canaan at the time, and came to purchase grain from the

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Egyptians. And who was it that they ran into? Their own brother, but they didn't recognize him, right?

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And if you read the story, Joseph is actually quite terse, a little bit blunt with his brothers, a little bit mean, right?

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And all the while he's doing this, okay, it's tearing him up inside. In fact, as it gets closer and closer to the time that Joseph reveals who he is, okay, finally he's got them in his house for a meal and there's a series of events where he was actually kind of mean to his own brothers, but he needed to do that because he needed to see what was in their hearts, right?

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And we'll learn more about this when Sunday School comes up because we're gonna be working through the book of Genesis this fall, right? So Joseph, when he's being mean in this way, he has to go into another room and he weeps and he cries because it's just tearing him up that he has to do this.

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And finally, when he reveals himself, who he is, I mean, it's this great story of reconciliation. And in the

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Old Testament, Joseph is one of the key types and shadows of Jesus himself. So in a sense, think of what

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Jesus is doing here as similar to what Joseph did to his brothers in the Old Testament. He's being harsh with this woman, but remember,

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John chapter two says that, let me read this for you, John chapter two. Now, while he was in Jerusalem at the

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Passover feast, many saw the miraculous signs that Jesus was doing and believed in his name, but Jesus would not entrust himself to them for he knew all men and he did not need man's testimony about man for he knew what was in a man.

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Jesus knew what was inside this Canaanite woman. And although he's being harsh with her, it's harsh with a purpose and it's for us that he did this, believe it or not.

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So Jesus knew what was in her heart and he's about to draw it out into the open for the whole world to see, especially us.

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So, and what is it that this woman has in her heart? She has faith. She has faith.

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From the first words out of her mouth, it is clear she has faith in Jesus. She invokes him as God.

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She invokes him as the Messiah. And so Jesus is gonna draw this out. She already confessed that Jesus is the

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Messiah and Lord because she had faith in Jesus. She didn't see Jesus's statement that it's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs as an insult.

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Oddly enough, she did not see it as an insult. Her faith saw in those words a promise in them and her faith grabbed onto that promise that was sitting right there in the middle of that awful slur, the word dog.

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Believe it or not, there's a promise right there in that word dog just for her. It's the most insulting word in the passage and right in there, there's actually kind of a hidden promise.

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She said, get this, yes, Lord. She confessed, she's right, you're right,

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I'm a dog. Jesus wasn't wrong in saying that, you're right,

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Lord. Yet, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.

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Yes, Lord, I might be a dog, but even dogs eat the crumbs that fall.

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Now Luther, when he preached on this text, here's what he said. What a superb and wonderful object lesson this is.

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To teach us what a mighty, powerful, and all -availing thing faith is. Faith takes

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Christ captive in his word when he's angriest and makes out of his cruel words a comforting inversion as we see here.

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You say, the woman responds, that I am a dog. Well, let it be, I'm glad to be a dog.

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Now give me the consideration that you give a dog. She thus catches Christ with his own words and he is happy to be caught.

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Very well, she says, if I'm a dog, I ask no more than a dog's rights. If I am not a child, nor am

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I of Abraham's seed, but you are rich, and you are a rich Lord, and set a lavish table, give me your children's bread and a place at the table,

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I do not wish that. Let me merely, like a dog, pick up the crumbs under the table, allowing me that which the children do not need or even miss.

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The crumbs and I will be content therewith. So she catches Christ, the Lord, with his own words and with that wins not only the right of a dog, but also that of the children.

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Now then, where will he go, our dear Jesus? He let himself be made captive and he must comply.

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Be sure of this, that's what he most deeply desires. I think Luther's right on this. This woman catches

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Jesus in his own words and says, if you call me a dog, yes, then I'm a dog and I want the rights of a dog.

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So then Jesus' response then, oh woman, great is your faith, and the text says, oh woman.

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It doesn't say woman, it says oh woman. That's actually a statement of honor.

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This is what Jesus calls his own mother, oh woman, right? Great is your faith, be it done for you as you desire.

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And her daughter was healed instantly. Great is your faith.

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Jesus says about a Canaanite woman that her faith is great. Remember two weeks ago when we heard about Peter's lack of faith and how he doubted

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Jesus' word while walking out to him on the water, right? And Jesus rebuked him, oh, why did you doubt, right?

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So here we've got a pagan, here we've got a Gentile, not even a Jew, this is not a woman who attends synagogue on a regular basis, she's a

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Canaanite. Everyone calls her a dog as a Canaanite, and she has great faith.

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Peter, who grew up in Israel, yeah, not so much. So this woman, who now is honored by Jesus, her faith in Jesus never wavered, unlike Peter's.

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Even when Jesus turned his back on her and ignored her and rejected her, her faith in Jesus never wavered, even in the midst of all of that.

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Think about it. Peter's walking on the water, his faith wavers when he sees the storm and the waves, right, and the wind.

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This woman, her faith in Jesus doesn't waver even when he turns his back on her and rejects her.

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That is huge faith. Now this gives us a glimpse, then, of faith's tenacity, and I believe it aids us in our prayers.

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Oftentimes, it seems that God does not hear us, nor does he answer our prayers the way we want him to or in the time that he wants us to answer them, but faith keeps clinging to Jesus even when it seems like he has turned his back on you.

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The psalmist knew all about this. If you've ever read Psalm 13, it's a pretty potent psalm.

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Let me read it to you. The psalmist writes, he says, "'How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever?

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"'How long will you hide your face from me? "'How long must I take counsel in my soul "'and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

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"'How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?' How many days did he pray that prayer?

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You think about what David went through. He's the anointed king of Israel, and yet he's got the present reigning king of Israel out to kill him, right?

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Chasing him down, hunting him down like a dog. So he prays this prayer, "'How long,

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O Lord?' But listen, this is not a prayer of despair. This is a prayer of faith. And so he says, "'Consider and answer me,

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O Lord, my God. "'Light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, "'lest my enemies say I have prevailed over him, "'lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

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"'But I have trusted in your steadfast love. "'My heart shall rejoice in your salvation, "'and

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I will sing to the Lord "'because he has dealt bountifully with me.'" Wow.

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I don't know about you, but I would have a tough time praying such a prayer in the midst of a season where I felt that God had turned his back on me.

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But see, tenacious faith, even when it seems like Christ has turned his back on us and rejected us, clings to the promises of God because they are sure and certain, and they're not based upon what our experience is of it.

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So the psalmist, even in the midst of this time, feeling like he's been neglected by God, can still say, "'I have trusted in your steadfast love, "'and my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

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"'I will sing to the Lord "'because he has dealt bountifully with me.'" I think Psalm 13 is a perfect example of the same type of tenacious faith that we see in this

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Canaanite pagan woman. So Jesus answered the woman, "'Woman, you have great faith.

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"'Your request is granted.'" That's all it took. Yeah, nothing fancy. Didn't have to go grab some holy water.

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Her head didn't spin around, and there was no projectile vomiting. Just Jesus said, "'Go, your request is granted.'"

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Jesus is the ultimate exorcist, right? No drama, just his word, and it's done.

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So, this woman's dealing with Jesus, if you really think about it, was for the sake of Jesus' disciples.

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And I'm not only talking about the 12. Talking about us.

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Jesus wants his disciples to know what great faith looks like. Yep, notice

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I said he didn't, he wants, not he wanted, he wants his disciples to know what great faith looks like.

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So, one of my fathers in the faith, Pastor Bill Swirla, he put it this way. "'Jesus is teaching the disciples, "'and he's teaching us, to hang on to his words, "'and trust them, and look for the promise in them, "'and not trust our feelings, "'or even how

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God seems to be treating us. "'Cling to Jesus' words, and run with them.

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"'If he says, you're nothing but a hound dog, "'then embrace it, and run straight to his table, "'for the richest crumbs that fall from it.

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"'And if he says, you are a dog of a sinner, "'and a sinner in need of forgiveness, "'then like the

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Apostle Paul, "'claim the top dog status, and be the chief of sinners, "'because that's what you are, "'and then come to the word of forgiveness, "'and the

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Lord's table, and receive not crumbs, "'but the bread of life, and wine from heaven, "'and the body and blood of him, "'who went to the dogs to save you.'"

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It's a story of great faith. Lord, grant us this faith, that we may cling to your words, even when it seems like you've turned your back on us.

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In the name of Jesus, amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota, 56744. And again, that address is,

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota, 56744. We thank you for your support.

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