 | As I might have guessed, the pastor’s message did have some reflections on current events; namely Hurricane Irma. Even though today’s text from Matthew 15:21-28 at first seemed totally unrelated, Pastor Ellery was able to draw some unique insights from the scriptures that were very relevant in light of last week’s storm. In the first portion of chapter 15 we see Jesus once again being drawn into a debate with the Pharisees and scribes over ceremonial rituals. After speaking the truth and thereby offending the religiously pious, we read that Jesus and His disciples leave there and go to the region of Tyre and Sidon. |
This was the equivalent of traveling from the posh neighborhood of the religiously affluent down to the slums, the rough part of town that everybody is wary (even the people that live there would know not to go out after dark!).
They are approached by a Canaanite woman who pleads with Jesus for mercy for her daughter who was relentlessly vexed by a demon. This was scandalous on several levels, for a woman to approach a man and publicly address him in this manner was unheard of. And first century Jews saw the Canaanites as one of their most notoriously pagan enemies. She would be considered the lowest of the low. So this was an immediately awkward social interaction, which the disciples were definitely not comfortable with. They told Jesus in essence “Tell her to go away, she is annoying us with her crying”. But even after hearing Jesus reply that He only came to minister to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, she insisted for His help to the point that He insulted her by saying it wasn’t right to give the provision meant for Israel to the dogs. Yes, Jesus - the Son of the Most High God, the Word Himself - called this woman a dog. Yet she did not deny it; she actually owned it, she let her situation make landfall, stating that even dogs get crumbs from the master’s table. Impressed by her faith, Jesus grants her desire. So what does all this have to do with us and a hurricane? She received mercy only when she let it make landfall, when she did not deny her lowly standing or her problem, but instead pleaded for mercy in her difficulties.
They are approached by a Canaanite woman who pleads with Jesus for mercy for her daughter who was relentlessly vexed by a demon. This was scandalous on several levels, for a woman to approach a man and publicly address him in this manner was unheard of. And first century Jews saw the Canaanites as one of their most notoriously pagan enemies. She would be considered the lowest of the low. So this was an immediately awkward social interaction, which the disciples were definitely not comfortable with. They told Jesus in essence “Tell her to go away, she is annoying us with her crying”. But even after hearing Jesus reply that He only came to minister to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, she insisted for His help to the point that He insulted her by saying it wasn’t right to give the provision meant for Israel to the dogs. Yes, Jesus - the Son of the Most High God, the Word Himself - called this woman a dog. Yet she did not deny it; she actually owned it, she let her situation make landfall, stating that even dogs get crumbs from the master’s table. Impressed by her faith, Jesus grants her desire. So what does all this have to do with us and a hurricane? She received mercy only when she let it make landfall, when she did not deny her lowly standing or her problem, but instead pleaded for mercy in her difficulties.
Yes, Lord,” she said, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table!” - Matthew 15:27
As we all were watching the track of Irma it became clear that the best thing for it to do was to make landfall so it would weaken. If the eye had skirted up Florida on either coast it would have completely devastated the entire state. Please don’t take this wrong, it still caused an incomprehensible amount of damage, but if it had stayed over the warm waters that gave it its strength and traveled up one side of the state or the other as a Category 4 or 5 storm, the entire state could have been essentially scrubbed clean as easily as one could wipe clean a cluttered chalkboard with an eraser. But once the eye moved on land it lost its power source and rapidly weakened.
Our failures, sins and even the difficult places we walk through can be just like that hurricane. If we ignore or try to hide them it only strengthens them and the control they have over our lives. We need to own our failures, sins and difficulties. It's only then will they lose their power over our lives. Once we admit that we need to be fixed, we surrender to Jesus to fix us, because He is the only one who can. Jesus does this because in His love of us, He owned it for us. He allowed our sin, death and the judgment of the cup of God’s wrath to make landfall upon Himself. In doing so, He paid the ultimate price that we could never afford to pay. Death, judgment and sin lost their power over us when Jesus died for us and was buried. And He left those things buried when He rose to life on the third day.
So when we find ourselves being battered and torn by the uncontrollable tempest of our sins or the difficulties we find ourselves in, we need to do the only sensible thing: own it, confess to Jesus that we are in over heads, that we have sinned, and accept His forgiveness and declaration of us as righteous. And then we will be amazed as the gift of His righteousness overcomes the storm that we were never able to control.
Our failures, sins and even the difficult places we walk through can be just like that hurricane. If we ignore or try to hide them it only strengthens them and the control they have over our lives. We need to own our failures, sins and difficulties. It's only then will they lose their power over our lives. Once we admit that we need to be fixed, we surrender to Jesus to fix us, because He is the only one who can. Jesus does this because in His love of us, He owned it for us. He allowed our sin, death and the judgment of the cup of God’s wrath to make landfall upon Himself. In doing so, He paid the ultimate price that we could never afford to pay. Death, judgment and sin lost their power over us when Jesus died for us and was buried. And He left those things buried when He rose to life on the third day.
So when we find ourselves being battered and torn by the uncontrollable tempest of our sins or the difficulties we find ourselves in, we need to do the only sensible thing: own it, confess to Jesus that we are in over heads, that we have sinned, and accept His forgiveness and declaration of us as righteous. And then we will be amazed as the gift of His righteousness overcomes the storm that we were never able to control.
John Clark
John Clark is a husband to Julie, a father of one son living in Valrico, Florida. He has an Associate Degree of Theology from Life Christian University, and serves at Life Center of Brandon where he is a teacher and writer