"A fighting faith that conquers God" Reminiscere 2025

16. March 2025

Reminiscere

Matthew 15:21-28

But He answered her not a word […]But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” […] But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs” (Matthew 15:23, 24, 26)

This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.

For Jacob and the Canaanite woman, Jesus is most present and intimate. He is most engaging and demanding. But He also seems the most against them. From their perspective, He’s dismissive, hostile, and even violent. But Jesus is working confidently in faith in Him and His promises. Anything and everything that gets in the way of full and complete fear, love, and trust in Jesus is defeated. While it may seem that He is against them, Jesus reveals to them that He is most certainly for them. And in the same way, Jesus is most for you when He seems most against you.

Faith made true does not simply survive. It does not merely conquer its own demons like an alcoholic. Nor does faith only conquer Satan, the ruler of this world. Faith conquers God. God lays heavy burdens, struggles, tests, trials, pain, and loss on us. But God delights in having us defeat our experience with the Word of His promise, by faith given by the Spirit. This struggle is repeated time and time again in the Scriptures (and coincidentally is the topic of our ongoing Sunday Bible Study.)

Jesus cannot hide His tender mercy from you when you overcome Him with beautiful and confident faith. “You are a dog, the bread of the sons does not belong to you!” There can be no greater “No” from Jesus. But against Christ Himself (who is the promise of God), the woman does not yield but opposed Him saying, “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.” In one Word, from faith and for faith, she defeated the omnipotent God and was victorious! And for that, God made flesh declares, “O woman, great is your faith!”

Jesus did everything He could to hide from her, but nothing worked to His own delight! How fantastic! He first hid in the house she had no access to (according to Mark’s account). But she entered anyway. Then He hid behind the curse, refusing to answer her a word. Yet she did not shy away or leave defeated. As Luther reminded  his students, “If Christ thinks of leaving, keep following… if he does not want to listen, knock at the door…[if He can’t hear] then raise a shout! [Do not] cease praying and seeking until we conquer Him.” (AE 6:140)

We confess with the Apostle that “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4). In Christ, the Law cannot take from you His promise. The heavy burdens our fathers could not stand, demanding that Moses veil his face, find their end in Jesus. Even when your whole life and experience seem to contradict faith, we know and believe that Jesus has bound Himself to His promises and pledges His faithfulness with an oath—“He who believes and is baptized will be saved!” (Mark 16:16).

Whether Jacob, the Syro-Phoenecian woman, or you, dear Christian, God does not want to be your God except in the preached Word of the Gospel, the free and full forgiveness in Jesus Christ. For this reason, faith is always a struggle. Faith holding to Jesus’ promise is active, fighting, and never sleeps. Jacob had stolen the birthright from Esau, grabbing his brother’s heel. Now God is saying, “No!” and “not good!” But hidden yet is the promise and Jacob desperately holds onto it. God Himself exercises it by entering into the ring and contesting with it. In Christ, He has already surrendered for you, but delights for you to conquer Him in the fight. Jacob even gets a new birth and new name after his battle, Israel, which means, “Conquerer of God!”

The woman’s faith is great because it is a fighting faith that conquers God. But this fight does not follow the world’s way of achieving greater power by overcoming weaker power, a master over a slave. Again from Luther, “He is not conquered in such a way that He is subjected to us, but His judgment, or His wrath and fury and whatever opposes us, is conquered by us by praying, seeking, and knocking, so that from an angry judge, as He seemed to be previously, He becomes a most loving Father and says (Matt. 15:28; Luke 7:50; cf. Matt. 8:13): “O woman, great is your faith. Your faith has saved you. As you have believed, so be it unto you. Oh, how you hurt Me with your cry!” It is the fullness of consolation that God exercises us in such a way and exhorts us to fight and shows that it is to Him a most pleasing sacrifice to be conquered by us” (AE6:141).

We learn that God tests and tries us (tentatio) where we shudder at God’s wrath and terror. It seems He’s out to kill us, and everything is black, cloudy, gloomy, antagonistic, agonizing, and sorrowful in heaven and on earth. Then the hard-fought blessing of faith is given! And the blessing comes in His promise proclaimed week in and week out by His apostolic preachers. You are baptized into Christ! You are God’s son, heir of the promises. He will not leave you or forsake you. You are forgiven. You are loved. Nothing can separate you from Christ, not even sin, death, and hell.

As we sang yesterday, “The fight is fierce, the warfare long, [but] steals on the ear the distant triumph song. And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.” The promised blessings are this contest's joyful, playful climax and all of God’s seeming hiding from you. God in Christ returns you from hell to heaven, from death to life. Faith grasps tightly onto the promise, and even when tempted to give up, it cannot! To be taught by God means that even if God Himself should come and tell you that promise no longer holds, you fight Him and demand He keep His promise because He is faithful and true and cannot lie.

Be like Jacob and the Canaanite woman, following Jesus through even the valley of the shadow of death, pressing on Him until He finally gives you His promised absolution, life, and name. “O [Christian], great is your faith.” And let Him say of you, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed” (Gen 32:38).

This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School - Sherman Center
Random Lake, Wisconsin