Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text is the Holy Gospel reading which has already been read.

Dear friends in Christ, preparing a sermon is a lot like the account in our Old Testament reading of Jacob wrestling with God, who had appeared as a Man (Genesis 32:22-32). God comes to me each week in the Scriptures, and I have to wrestle with His Word. I need to be trying to pin down its meaning and how it should be preached to call God's people to repentance and faith. As I struggle with God's Word, my approach has to be like Jacob's: "I will not let you go until you bless me," that is, bless me with some Good News, the Gospel.

You see, the real temptation for the preacher is to give up the fight, to take the easy way out by giving a superficial reading of the text, which almost always makes the text into Law, moral example material, stuff "you gotta do." Before I wrote this sermon, I read a bunch of sermons and commentaries on this morning's Gospel reading about the Canaanite woman, and here is what I got out of most of them: the moral of the story is to keep on praying, keep being persistent, even in the face of God's silence and apparent rejection of our petitions.

I don't want to dismiss that conclusion too lightly. I'm perfectly willing to grant that we can learn persistence in prayer from the example of the Canaanite woman, but that is not the real blessing we can get from this text. In many other places the Scriptures teach us to be persistent in prayer, so that should be a given for the Christian life. Doesn't God tell us in the Old Testament (Psalm 50:15) to call upon Him in the day of trouble (which is really every day, every minute even)? Doesn't Jesus tell us in the Sermon on the Mount to "keep on asking…keep on seeking…keep on knocking"? Didn't Jesus begin Luke chapter 18 by telling the disciples a parable that teaches that we "ought always to pray and not lose heart"? Doesn't St. Paul tell us to "pray without ceasing"? And then, on top of all those commands, doesn't Jesus give us this marvelous promise: "Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you" (John 16:23)? Yes, yes, yes, and yes!

So, by all means, be persistent in prayer (like the Canaanite woman). However, the real blessing from our Gospel reading is not going to be found in a "Little Engine that Could" moral example. Rather, the real Gospel blessing of this text is in discovering: What made the woman's faith great?

If we look carefully at the text, the woman's faith did not appear great the first time she approached Jesus. She was a Gentile, not a believer in the LORD, but she had heard of Jesus (Mark 7:25) and so she sought Him out. But a lot of unbelievers have heard of Jesus and seek Him out, without having a right faith in Him. The most natural thing for unbelievers to do once they've heard a bit about Jesus is to identify him as another god to hit up for the things they need help with. In the Old Testament, the children of Israel didn't ever completely reject the LORD-they just tried to supplement Him with other gods when He wasn't producing the results they were looking for. Polytheism is intrinsic to sinful human nature.

Of course, the woman's cry to Jesus sounds faithful and monotheistic: "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon." We should not question the sincerity of the woman's pleas. What situation is more desperate than having an afflicted child? But the woman's desperation only underscores why she would be willing to try out any god or miracle-worker that might be able to help. She poses as a Jew when she calls out to Jesus, "O Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me" because perhaps that's the mantra she picked up from what she had learned about Jesus; that's how a follower of Jesus might have addressed Him. But just because she was using the right words does not mean that she yet has a right faith in Jesus, a faith that confesses with the Small Catechism, "I believe that Jesus Christ…is my Lord." At this point in the story, the woman is after Jesus because she wants something, not because she trusts in Him as her Lord and Savior. She reckons something like this: "If He thinks I'm one of His Jewish followers, surely I'd be entitled to His help."

So Jesus answers her not a word. You can't butter Him up with just the right words-or bribe Him with your heartfelt sincerity; if you approach Him just for what you can get out of Him, then you are still in unbelief. Jesus sees right through that and refuses the false claim of entitlement that this woman presents to Him.

But even the silence of Jesus toward this woman is not a total rebuke, because He doesn't tell her "No! Go away!" Jesus knows what He is going to do for this woman, and He won't stop until He's pulled her all the way to the point of faith, so that she can say "Jesus Christ is my Lord!" in the sense of the Creed or the Small Catechism. As the woman stood there before Jesus, at least she was in the right place, even though her faith was false, and Jesus did not want to drive her off. The Lord knows those who belong to Him, as Jesus said, "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out" (John 6:37).

And then in Christ's words to His disciples He showed that He wasn't done with her yet. He said to them, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." At first glance, it looks like Jesus is rejecting the woman and all other Gentiles, that He came only to seek out and save lost Jews. But any faithful Jewish disciple should have known that the Old Testament predicted a day when the "house of Israel" would include not only Jews but also Gentiles, who would be brought to faith by the Lord. The LORD said in Isaiah, "The foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants…these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer…my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples" (Isaiah 56:6-7).

So when the LORD Jesus came to seek out the lost sheep of the house of Israel, He did not have in mind only Jews, but also the Gentiles. He came to seek and to save the lost, and the way He would do that was by laying down His life as a ransom for the masses-for Jew and Gentile alike-for Gentiles like you, for the forgiveness of all of your sins. Jesus answered for the guilt of all people on the cross, suffering God's wrath against sin and dying for you, and then after rising from the dead, He sent the apostles out to preach the Gospel to all creation, to make disciples of all nations by Baptism into His death and resurrection and by teaching them His Word. In that way He would rebuild the house of Israel in the Christian Church, gathering in all His lost sheep and being their Savior, your Good Shepherd.

And in this Canaanite woman we see a glimpse of the future mission of Christ's Church to deliver the Gospel to all nations. So Jesus follows through on what He says to the disciples by speaking to the woman directly for the first time. The woman came and prostrated herself before Jesus and said, "Lord, help me." And Jesus replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." Jesus now goes one step further in wiping out her claims of entitlement; He demolishes any idea that she has a right to His help. "Claims are based on what is fair, on what is right" (Norman Nagel). Jesus shows the woman where such claims end up: "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." And at that point, it seems the woman's hopes are completely crushed.

But at that same point, we see Jesus throw the woman a bone; we see that Jesus has pulled this woman out of hopelessness to faith, true faith, saving faith in Jesus as Lord. Because she responds with the most remarkable confession: "Yes, Lord," she says. "Yes, Lord. You are right that I have no business asking for your help. You are right that I am unworthy to sit down at the table in the house of Israel and partake of Your grace. Yes, Lord, I am a dog-yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."

And Jesus replied: "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly.

It all happens so fast, you'll miss the Gospel crumbs if you don't listen carefully. What was so great about the woman's faith? It was great because she took Jesus and His Words absolutely seriously, as absolutely true-she heard and believed Him and applied His Words to herself. She did not superficially interpret Christ's words as all Law and rejection and then become dejected; rather, she listened carefully and would not let go of His Words until Jesus blessed her with Gospel in them. And by calling her a dog under the table in the Lord's house of Israel, He was telling her that she was in the saving presence of the Lord who is the Bread of Life who has come down from heaven. And just as little house dogs hungrily lap up every crumb that falls from their masters' table, so this Gentile woman was glad to lap up the Bread of Life as He fell down to her in His Words to be received by faith.

We don't have a dog, but Heidi's parents do, and so when we go visit Grandpa and Grandma Miller, the kids love to play with little Rosie. They get the biggest kick out of dropping crumbs of food during dinner onto the floor for Rosie. And the Millers like how Rosie laps up anything that falls from the table-it's like having a free vacuum cleaner. Of course, we could put Rosie in the back yard and forbid her from having scraps, but where is the joy in that?

As Jesus dealt with this woman, He set up a scenario in which the woman could find herself as a little dog under the table in God's household. Dr. Luther comments on this verse that the woman takes Jesus captive in His Words, and He loves to be taken captive that way. The woman held Jesus to the scenario he set up by drawing out the natural thing that a dog would do with crumbs. She placed herself on the floor as a beggar, not entitled to anything at all, with no claims on the Bread, but delighted whenever that Bread fell from above. She hungrily and joyfully lapped up everything Jesus let her eat.

And so the woman's faith was great because of what Jesus had said to her and done with her. He had wiped out her false notions of entitlement by His silence and His Word of Law, but then He had created faith in the woman's heart with His glorious Word of promise, the Gospel that promises adoption into God's household. And so now when she calls Him "Lord," it is in the sense of the Creed or the Catechism, "Jesus Christ is my Lord!", my Savior from sin, death, and hell.

If Jesus had granted the woman's wish by healing her daughter right away when she came to Him, she would have been extremely grateful, but she would not have come to faith. But Jesus through His Word gives not only healing for her daughter, but also eternal life in the Bread of Life, Himself, the One who would go up to Calvary not much later and die for the sins of this woman, her daughter, and all of you, too. In His death He would release all of us who are severely oppressed by Satan as he accuses us of our guilt through the Law. And when the Law does show us our sins, when it does wipe us out and say: "You unworthy, poor, miserable sinner-you don't deserve even a crumb from Jesus, but you deserve hell." You can respond with faith like the woman did, "Yes. True. But I know by the Gospel that I have been chosen by my Savior Jesus to be part of the house of Israel, to lap up the Bread of Life as He comes to me with forgiveness of sins, eternal life, salvation, and strength to resist the devil's attacks. He has given me His Word to cling to." A great faith is one that clings to the Word of Jesus alone.

So when everything in your life seems to indicate that the Lord has rejected you, forgotten you, cast you aside, then remember the Words that your Lord has spoken to you, and know that by these Words you can hold Him captive, and say: "I will not let you go until you bless me!" In Baptism, God has said to you: "I have adopted you as my child in Christ; you are beloved to Me!" In Absolution, He says, "I forgive you all of your sins." In the Lord's Supper Jesus says, "Take and eat of the Bread of Life, given into death for your sins; take and drink of My life-giving blood, shed for your sins." And in these precious Words from Jesus, you have far more than just crumbs, but you have the whole Bread of Life-Jesus Christ and His salvation for you-and you aren't just a little dog, but truly a child of God and an heir of everlasting life. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.