PRAYER IS FAITH SPEAKING
Prayer: Almighty and everlasting God, the Strength of the sorrowful and the Consolation of the weak: Although our sin and unworthiness can make us timid to approach You, we pray for Your Holy Spirit to strengthen our hearts and confirm our trust in Your grace and mercy, so that, following the example of the Canaanite woman, we may hold fast to Your grace, and in every trial and temptation find You a present help and refuge. Amen.
The Sermon Text, St. Matthew 15:21-28 (v. 21-23a). Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.” But He answered her not a word.
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Let Your Word lead us to pray with believing hearts to You. Amen.
Dear people loved by God in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God the Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Faith isn’t only in the heart. Faith speaks.
First, faith speaks in the form of praise, to praise God and confess Him, to speak this faith out loud. Thanksgiving is part of it: you’re thankful that you have such a God who saves you, so that you can’t help speaking it, to spread it, to tell others, it bubbles up out of you. Just as shepherds saw the Christ child and “made [it] widely known … praising God for all that they had heard and seen” (Lk 2:17, 20). And just as the apostles said to their persecutors: “We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Ac 4:20).
But second, faith speaks in the form of prayer. This is almost immediate. As soon as children learn about Jesus and about God, they pray to Him. It’s really the first fruit – direct result – of faith: to pray. Not just speaking of God, but talking to Him. This is really the first language we have: direct speech, talking to someone, so in this case not to speak of God but to talk to Him.
This gospel lesson is a story about faith: at the end Jesus says to the Canaanite woman, “Great is your faith!” But what she was doing the whole time is praying. So it’s also a story about prayer. The two are very connected. What is prayer? It’s faith speaking – directly to God, to Christ.
This woman was a Gentile. The “region of Tyre and Sidon” was on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, in Phoenicia. It was not only a Gentile area, but very pagan. Mark says she had “heard about Him,” probably heard of Jesus’ kindness and also that He healed the sick and cast out demons. This is important. You can see here in Matthew that she knows enough about Jesus to bring her need to Him and have some expectation that He’ll help her.
The crisis that caused her to come to Jesus, as she says in her words to Him, is that her daughter is “severely demon-possessed.” Her little girl wasn’t herself, she was in the power of demons. Picture what the days and nights are like, how this momma can’t sleep, can’t eat, she’s on constant watch, beside herself and sick with worry. Her house is in disarray and her appearance disheveled because she let it all go, what else matters? But she comes to this Jewish rabbi, when all the Jews sheknows would sneer at her, call her a “Gentile dog,” resist making eye contact and avoid talking to her.
Luther says the reason for prayer is (1) God’s promise and (2) our need. She does come (1) because of the promise, what Jesus could do for her, and (2) because of her great need – her child’s well-being – this desperate trial.
And what is prayer? Prayer is just asking God. She comes to Jesus and confesses Him to be God, the promised Christ; she calls Him by His title as Israel’s Messiah – “Lord, Son of David!” She believes Him to be for her, too. It’s amazing, this Gentile says the right words. But more amazing, she believes the words. She speaks the true faith, as her faith. This is the work of God, to believe in Him whom the Father sent. It’s the miracle of faith.
Then her faith speaks. She prays. She asks Jesus. Her first prayer is just: “Have mercy on me!” She doesn’t ask Him a specific thing, just places the need before Him. In our prayers, that’s all you need: to say what’s wrong. Jesus then tests her faith: “He answered her not a word.” We don’t know why He would do this. But we experience this in our prayer life, that often God doesn’t answer right away, or as we want, but He’s silent.
Then Jesus’ disciples make it hard on her. She heard them telling Jesus, “Send her away, for she cries out after us!” Whether it’s the world around us, or even people in the church like the disciples, the devil can use others to discourage our faith, and instead of praying for us and supporting us, instead they complain about us. People in the church are not angels, but we are all both sinners and saints all the time. We have to keep our eyes on Jesus and keep our ears hearing His Word and His promises, not what other people say.
Jesus’ response is to make it sound like she’s excluded from His mercy: “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” He says. Now, she believes she is not excluded, or she wouldn’t have come to Him. He makes it sound like she’s excluded – but notice, He doesn’t actually say that she isn’t included. This brings forth her next prayer, and it’s even simpler: “Lord, help me!” Sometimes that’s the best prayer: “Jesus, help!” (J.S. Bach)
But Jesus responds, “It is not good to throw the children’s bread to the little dogs.” The “children” are the children of Israel – so, not her. But when He says “little dogs,” she perks up. Israelites called Gentiles like her “dogs” – as in street dogs. But they also had little pet dogs that sat under the table to get crumbs. When Jesus mentions the “little dogs,” she rejoices that she isn’t on the outside but inside. She uses the “table language” that’s His own: “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” She claims a place at His table. It’s about being in His house, at His table, the supper of the Lamb. She claims the promise as her own. That’s faith.
Jesus now answers her prayer: “Be it to you as you desire.” Her daughter was healed “that very hour” – right away when Jesus spoke these words.
What do we learn from this? Are we learning about faith or about prayer? It’s both. But it’s about faith and prayer in the midst of crisis and trouble.
This is a different way to think about faith and prayer. Sometimes in the church, we only deal with it on a doctrinal level, teaching what the thing is.
First, concerning faith, we learn from the Bible that we can’t believe by our own reason or strength, that faith is the gift of God, that comes by hearing the Word of God. We receive saving faith by the washing of water and the Word, in Baptism. We receive faith by hearing the Gospel. If it’s hard to believe or hard to trust, you need to hear the Gospel. God will give you faith.
Then, concerning prayer, we learn that it’s a fruit – a direct result – of faith. You believe, then you pray. God speaks to you in His Word, then you speak to God in your prayers. Prayer is asking Him. Through Jesus, you have access to God, to be able to pray to Him whenever you need to. Little children pray.
All this is the correct doctrine of faith and of prayer. Sort of a classroom-level way of discussing it, where everything is nicely organized, simple. But what about when you’re plunged into chaos? The devil loves to do that, you know. In a moment, your life can go topsy-turvy – a loved one’s health crisis, a death, a loss of income or job security, being sinned against or left all alone, or something else that devastates you. It becomes hard to believe or to pray.
Our problem is that we judge the way things are from what we see or feel, from looking around. We have “look-around-ism.” So our faith starts to be defeated by what we experience. This is when our prayers turn into, “Why, Lord?” prayers. But what is faith? It isn’t based on what we see. Faith is about things “not seen,” as it says in Hebrews 11; and as Romans 8 says, “hope that is seen is not hope.” This is why God shows us this Canaanite woman, who didn’t see anything good happening – not only the evil being done to her daughter, but then when Jesus appeared to be turning a cold shoulder to her.
What were her prayers? They were “although” prayers. Although it looked this way, she still believed the promise that brought her to Jesus, that He is a God of mercy and that He would listen to her plea and help her. This “although” comes from the Gospel. It comes from seeing with eyes of faith, and this faith comes from the Word. We have to learn to mistrust what our eyes see and what we experience and what we feel, and instead to trust only what God declares in His Word, His promises of grace and blessing. It’s true that in our prayers we often have to wait, but that’s what faith and prayer is: waiting on the Lord. While we wait on the Lord, we stay in His Word.
We need our prayers to be “although” prayers! Like Job, who said, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (13:15). And so many of our Lutheran hymns have beautiful “although” prayers embedded in them:
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
I shall not be forsaken. (ELH #519 v. 6)
And
Those who love the Father,
Though the storms may gather,
Still have peace within. (ELH #263 v. 6)
And probably my favorite one of these:
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. (ELH #517 v. 10)
Will we be good at this? Will we have the great faith of this woman? The issue isn’t how we will be. It’s hearing how good Christ is to us – and by grace believing it. You hear this in His Word. As you read the Bible, be looking for His kindness, which is what mercy is. Then your prayers can turn into “although” prayers: the chaos the devil puts in your life meets the “although” – the promises from God’s Word.
We pray because we trust His mercy. Amen!