What Does Saving Faith Look Like?

Text: Matthew 15:21-28

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

I want to point something out to you this morning.  Do you realize that everyone who cried out for mercy to Jesus in the Gospels, did so out of desperation, helplessness, and deep need?  That is right; everyone who cried out to Jesus for mercy had no other hope.  They had no other answers.  They had no illusions of self-sufficiency.  For example, several weeks ago we heard about the blind beggar crying out for mercy. And then there is the father of the demon-possessed boy, the tax collector in the temple, the leper, and in our reading today from the Gospel of Matthew – the Canaanite Woman.  All of these individuals have a consistent pattern – they are helpless, unworthy, desperate, and in great need.  

Now, as we read about these individuals crying out for mercy, I do not think we Americans can fully understand the weight of those cries for mercy.  You see, in America we tend to be numb to suffering.  Now, I do recognize that many individuals in America truly suffer; however, as a whole, we do not struggle with suffering as people did in Biblical times.  In other words, a disease like leprosy meant social death.  Blindness meant permanent poverty.  And demon possession – was unsolvable and terrifying to say the least.  In other words, in America, our modern medical surgeries, medical pills, technology, and social systems often keep us from experiencing the tremendous suffering that can come from these raw struggles.  So, when we read these stories in the Bible of those crying out for mercy, we often don’t feel the urgency or dread behind their cries.  Instead, their cries for mercy become little more than pious sayings in our ears.  That is to say, their cries for mercy become polite or poetic religious expressions.  We fail to realize that their cries for mercy come from the depths of their personal and urgent desperation.  For example, in our reading from the Gospel of Matthew, the Canaanite woman cries out so loud that she sounds like a shrieking raven.  And, I might remind you, she didn’t do this once but did it over and over, to the point that it made the disciples very uncomfortable.  Think about that for a moment… her scream for mercy was like the cry of someone drowning in water.  

And so, when we consider these cries for mercy in the Bible and when we sing them in our liturgy and pray them in our prayers, we are uttering the words of spiritually dead, morally bankrupt, and desperate persons in need of the Lord’s favor.  I cannot stress to you enough, how deep and how sober and how weighty their cries for mercy actually are.  

But truth be told, we modern Americans not only have a tough time understanding their cries for mercy, but we would rather not cry for mercy in the first place.  You see, for you and me – and the average American – to cry out for mercy is risky business.  Let me be blunt, it is very uncomfortable to cry out for mercy the way that the Canaanite Woman did in our Gospel reading.  The reason being, to cry out for mercy actually: 

(1) Strips away our illusion of control. To cry for mercy is to say, “I can’t fix myself.”  And to say this?  Well… it is terrifying for someone who wants to believe that they can manage life’s problems and believes that they can control their destiny.  

(2) To cry for mercy also says, “I‘m not enough.”  This is a hard pill to swallow in a culture of performance and self-validation, where everyone shouts, “You’re enough, Be strong, You have what it takes!”  

(3) And to cry for mercy means that you have no leverage in life, that you have to throw yourself entirely at the feet of someone else with nothing to twist their arm to act for you.  With all of our resources and rights in America, we really don’t know what it is like to cry for mercy before someone else with nothing to give or nothing to offer.  

Again, crying out for mercy is very scary because it forces you and me to face hard truths about ourselves: that we are not in control, that we are not strong enough, and that we cannot save ourselves. This is profoundly unsettling and scary for you and me, especially when we live in a world that teaches us to be independent, competent, and self-sufficient.  

So, considering this, perhaps the world is right.  Maybe the blind man, the father, the tax collector, the leper, and the Canaanite woman crying out for mercy are a bunch of losers.  After all, they were all basically marginalized burdens on society with no economic value, ceremonially unclean, socially dead, and inconvenient annoyances.  Indeed, in the eyes of the world, they are not winners, not influencers, not models of success.  They don’t cut it socially, morally, and religiously speaking.  But… truth be told, contrary to the values of the world, they are precisely the kind of people Jesus receives. 

Dear friends, listen up right now!  Do not let this point escape you. According to the world, the blind man, the father, the tax collector, the leper, and the Canaanite woman are all a bunch of losers; however, Biblically speaking they are confessed and portrayed in the scriptures as people of great faith.  That is right!  They are commended!  They are commended not for their background, morality, or strength but because they recognize that they are great sinners crying out to an even greater Savior – Jesus Christ.  

And so, mark this, these beggars for mercy are living pictures of what justification by faith alone looks like.  These beggars do not say, 

Look at what I’ve done! 

I’ve tried my best! 

God owes me! 

I am special!

No, they cry,

Have mercy. 

Lord, help me.

Be merciful to me, a sinner.  

Dear Friends, this is what saving faith looks like: not climbing up to God but being brought low and clinging to Christ alone who comes all the way down to save sinners.  

Baptized Saints, you cry out every Sunday, “Lord have mercy!”  We sing this and speak this not because it is a pious religious saying or a nice musical tone.  No!  We cry out for mercy because we are no different than the blind man, the father, the tax collector, the leper, and the Canaanite woman.  We are poor miserable sinners who have offended God and justly deserve His temporal and eternal punishment.  We are beggars that cry out, 

“I am heartily sorry and I sincerely repent and I pray You of Your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor sinful being.”

Now, let me be brutally honest, if you cannot say this about yourself – if you do not see yourself as a sinner in need of mercy with the Canaanite woman today, then you are rejecting the very reason why Jesus came to the Cross.  In other words, if you trust in yourself, Jesus has nothing to offer you and it makes no sense why you are in this church today.  In fact, if you do not see yourself in need of mercy, the Lord God opposes you, for He opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.  

Ah, but today, if you are brought to the end of yourself, and you have beaten your breast, knowing that you are a sinner – having your soul laid before God with nothing to offer but a laundry list of failures from this past week, then take comfort dear friends, for where the world sees losers, Christ sees His beloved.  Where the world discards, Jesus hears.  Where the world avoids mercy, Jesus gives it freely.  Listen to this right now, the heart of God is to forgive sins and to save through His Son – Christ Jesus.  Indeed, listen to Holy Scripture, 

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”  (1 Tim. 1:15)

He saved sinners crying out for mercy like the blind man, the father, the tax collector, the leper, the Canaanite woman, and you.  

Baptized Saints, there is a lot of confusion in today’s society on what the church is supposed to be and do.  However, the Gospel lesson today about the Canaanite woman and the Gospel lesson about the blind man several week ago, as well as all the lessons that we will encounter in the upcoming weeks leading to Holy Week make it abundantly clear that everything St. Paul’s Lutheran Church “is and does must be directed towards this: that sins may be forgiven [in Christ], and that consciences may be comforted”  through the promises of the Gospel, because this is exactly what Jesus did and continues to do for those who cry out for mercy.  Baptized Saints, if this does not happen, we will stop being a true church, and we might as well just shut the doors and save a bunch of time and money.  

Baptized Saints, hear this loud and clear: Christ is merciful to you.  There is more grace in Christ than sin in you, which is why we can vulnerably and boldly cry out for mercy, with the Canaanite Woman – week after week after week.  

In the name of Jesus the merciful one. Amen.