Busting Down the Walls ~ Matthew 15:21-28 ~ Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
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| Image courtesy of dan at Freedigitalphotos.net |
This was an African American congregation in a blighted neighborhood of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
But it wasn’t just the race of the people that made the
worship experience unique and memorable.
There was the upbeat Gospel music; worshippers clapping hands, dancing
in the aisles, shouting “Amen” and “alleluia!”
The sermon lasted about forty minutes, but at no point could I call it
boring. (The preacher probably burned
five hundred calories with his booming voice and animated body language.)
What stands out most in my mind was the sharing of the
peace. Everyone hugged each other. They hugged me and Elizabeth—including people
who weren’t sitting anywhere near us.
That love and hospitality was so incredibly genuine. For as different as I was, I was one of them
that Sunday morning.
But Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words still ring true today:
Sunday morning at 11:00 is the most segregated hour in America. And it’s not just race and class and denominational
differences that divide us. So many of
God’s children aren’t worshipping in any church. Many simply don’t know Jesus. Some do believe, but going to church
is like going to the moon. In sum,
there’s a lot of faith outside the church—perhaps more than what’s inside the
church. The only difference is that it
hasn’t yet been sparked.
2,000 years ago, there was great faith outside of the Holy
Land. Jesus knew this—which was why he traveled
to foreign lands, like the region of Tyre and Sidon…
Great faith began shouting from the sidelines, “Have mercy
on me, Lord Son of David. My daughter is
tormented by a demon.”
Of all the terrible things that could happen to a person,
this was the most violent and horrific. And
Jesus’ answer to her was as uncharacteristically cold. At first he doesn’t even acknowledge her; and
when he finally does, he says “I was sent only to the lost sheep of
Israel.” In other words, “I wasn’t sent
here for you.”
But she doesn’t take “no” for an answer…
She doesn’t beg Jesus for the world; just a few “crumbs” of
mercy. Then, Jesus commends her for her
great faith, and her daughter is instantly relieved of her demon.
What was this great faith?
1.
She knew that Jesus was the
Son of David
2.
She knew she had no right
to ask Jesus for anything, since she wasn’t a child of Israel. But she sought him anyway, as the only hope for
her daughter.
3.
She was bold and persistent.
In those days, a woman would never approach a rabbi the way she did. And the fact that she knew she was a
Canaanite—she had no right to ask him for anything. But she did anyway—because her need was so
great, and because she believed in Jesus.
Remember—faith isn’t something people do… God gave her the faith to cry
out to Jesus for mercy, trusting his grace will be sufficient to meet her
need. The Holy Spirit brings this whole
meeting together for the sake of the woman and her daughter—and for the sake of
everyone who was looking on, so that they would believe that Jesus’ saving work
was not confined within the bloodline of Israel. This gift of faith opened everyone’s eyes to
the power of Christ bringing salvation when it was needed most… With faith came transformation…
It’s all happening—because God is busting down
boundaries.
God is still doing this today. The challenge, however, is that we’re not so
quick to give them up. Boundaries give
us security and comfort. They keep us in
the familiar. They protect us from
trouble. This is chiefly why Christians
don’t give generously, or go out of their way to put Christ first. This is largely why churches are
shrinking—because we’re not comfortable going out, meeting
strangers, and speaking openly about our
faith. At the same time, there are
un-churched Christians out there who feel as though they’re outside the
boundaries of what it takes to belong to a church, because of who they
are or what they’ve done.
The devil loves building up walls to cut God’s people off
from God. But grace tears them down.
One thing all of us have in common with our un-churched
neighbors and the Canaanite woman is that we are so hungry for spiritual
transformation. We need the power of
grace in our lives—but it won’t happen unless we take the grace we’re given and
bust down the walls that confine us in what is comfortable and convenient—and
bind up the gospel. We always ask, “when
will new members come through our doors.”
But the question we should be asking is: “why aren’t we going out of our
doors?”
When faith breaks boundaries, transformation happens. Lives are transformed as dramatically as for
the Canaanite woman and her daughter. The
transformation you give in Christ’s name is almost always the transformation
you get. Sometimes, the boundaries we
are most determined to protect are the ones that need to be busted down most.
A way we can know what boundaries exist is to ask: what is
it about a life of discipleship that gives you heartburn? What people do you try and avoid, rather than
serve? Where are you most resistant to
change? Would you say “no” to Jesus, if
he called you to pray aloud with someone?
Talk to a stranger about your faith or invite them to church? Would you say “no” if he called you to
rearrange your plans for the weekend to worship him on Sunday? Would you say “no” if he invited you to
tithe, even with all the uncertainty in the economy?
All of these things may give us heartburn, but the reality
is that they are invitations to be transformed by grace. When walls and boundaries come down, new life
rises up. That’s something the whole
world could use right about now…
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