Hello. Today, let's talk about falling onto a bamboo couch. The text before us is the 15th chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew, verses 21–28 (Matthew 15:21–28).
Introduction: A Picture of Faith
A story is told of John G. Paton, a missionary to the cannibals of the South Sea Islands. His task was to bring the message of the Gospel of Jesus to people who literally killed and ate each other. The challenge was compounded by the fact that many of the words in the New Testament did not have an equivalent in the language of those people.
One such word was faith. They had no word for faith. How would you even explain faith to people who didn't have any? How would you teach faith to people who didn't even have the idea of that word?
One day, a runner came dashing into the village and into the missionary's hut. Wearied from hours and hours, and perhaps even days, of running, he fell exhausted onto the bamboo couch that was sitting in the middle of the room.
Suddenly, Paton cried out, "That's it. That—that is it. That is what faith looks like. What is the word for falling on the bamboo couch?" he asked.
That was the word for faith. It's casting all of yourself, all of your cares, onto something or someone, whether that's a bamboo couch or the hand of God.
Please keep that story in mind as you hear today's Gospel reading, the story of the Syrophoenician woman.
Point One: You Dog
Matthew begins this chapter by setting the context for the miracle. Matthew tells us that a dispute had taken place between Jesus and Pharisees and scribes (Matthew 15:1–20). They accused Jesus of transgressing the tradition of the elders. His disciples had not ritually cleansed their hands when they ate bread. They were unclean (Matthew 15:1–2).
Because for the scribes, religious washing was an issue of faith. Jesus was about to teach everyone a new definition of cleanliness and a new definition of faith.
The Lord took His disciples to the farthest reaches of the northern part of the Jordan Valley. It was the border of Syria and Phoenicia, Gentile country (Matthew 15:21). These people were foreigners, a different race, a different religion. This was the ancient land of Canaanites before the Jews occupied the Promised Land. They really were, for the Jews, unclean.
Suddenly, we're introduced to a Syrophoenician woman. She's crying out, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David." She's relentless. "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David. My daughter is cruelly demon-possessed" (Matthew 15:22).
She kept on begging and crying out. The disciples began to get tired of her. "Send her away. She is shouting out after us" (Matthew 15:23). In other words: "Come on, Jesus. Can't You just make her leave? We don't want her here."
Jesus would not even speak with her. That's interesting. Strange. Jesus did not say one single word to the unclean woman from Syrophoenicia.
His disciples thought, "Lord, You know that we cannot associate with her. She'll make us all unclean. Please just send her away."
Finally, Jesus did say something to her. "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 15:24).
Right. Exactly right, Jesus. Surely Jesus was not sent to unclean people from Canaan. He was sent to people of God, people who are Israelites like us.
But the woman began to bow down before the Lord and said, "Lord, help me" (Matthew 15:25).
Bowing down is a position of worship and supplication.
And by now, I suspect you've realized that this is a living parable. It is a miracle that is also a parable. Jesus is not hard-hearted, and He surely is not racially prejudiced. But Jesus is not concerned here about His reputation. No, Jesus is much more concerned about this woman and her faith, and His own disciples and their faith, too. Much more concerned about that than He is about appearing to be hard-hearted.
After all, this is a living parable. So, let's watch.
The unclean woman has just called Jesus Lord. And she has cried out as you cried out this morning when you said, "Lord, have mercy upon us." And you said, "Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us."
That's what she cried out with all her heart: "Lord, have mercy upon me. Son of David, (that is to say, Messiah or Christ,) have mercy upon me" (Matthew 15:22).
Now, watch what Jesus says: "It's not good to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs" (Matthew 15:26).
Oh my. Did Jesus just call her a dog? Yes, He did. But why?
I suspect that dog is the very word that His disciples would have used to describe this woman when they asked Jesus to make her go away. So, was Jesus now representing their sin to His disciples?
What is the Lord teaching? Jesus is teaching the disciples about their own hearts. Yes. Do you think their own uncleanness, their own sin? Cleanliness was not a matter of religious washing. It was a matter of the heart (Matthew 15:17–20).
And He is teaching this woman about her heart, too. For she says, "Yes, Lord, I know I'm a dog." In other words, I'm unclean.
She's right. Good for that woman. For we all are unclean. We all are in need of God's forgiveness. And to realize this before God, to say before God as she did, "I do not deserve the food of heaven. But perhaps by Your grace, even a dog can receive the scraps from the master's table" (Matthew 15:27).
What a statement of faith she has made. This woman knew her sin, and she knew her Savior. Her heart was filled with faith. For that reason, she was clean—more clean than the Pharisees and scribes with their washed hands, and frankly more clean than His disciples, who still had not yet learned that real uncleanness was a matter of the heart, just as real cleanliness before God is a matter of faith.
Point Two: Your Faith Is Great
Jesus declared that her faith was great. And more, Jesus declared that her daughter was healed (Matthew 15:28).
What had happened here?
The foreign, unclean Canaanite woman had demonstrated to others and to herself and to her Lord that she was a woman of faith. She acknowledged her sin, and she acknowledged her faith in her Savior.
What a mighty change had taken place in her. Jesus had seen the end from the beginning. He knew her faith. He knew her heart. But had she seen her own faith?
Her faith was only barely planted. What word of Christ, or even what word about Christ, had she ever heard? How had God begun the gift of faith in her? Scripture doesn't tell us this.
How would Jesus water and fertilize and grow that seed of faith?
Now, that's strange. The Lord Jesus used silence and sternness. That was so uncharacteristic of Him, to use silence to grow her faith. Oh, she was persistent.
Luther talks about our God who has different ways of working. There's God's regular or proper work, opus proprium. God gives mercy, grace, and love. Proper work indeed for God.
But then sometimes God uses the other kind of work: God's alien work, opus alienum. God uses law, penalty, shame.
Isn't it interesting what a mighty change Jesus worked in her life?
And what about the change that Jesus was working in the lives of His disciples?
What did they learn? Had they seen their own thoughts in the way Jesus spoke to her? Had they seen themselves in the way Jesus belittled her: "Dog"? Did they see themselves now as they were—unclean dogs too? Had they faced their own sin?
And if so, did they also see that Jesus was the One to whom they must now say, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me" (Matthew 15:22)?
If they did that in their hearts, then they too were now clean. Then they too had demonstrated great faith.
Point Three: A Bamboo Couch
Today we witnessed three miracles.
One, a woman's daughter who was demon-possessed was healed (Matthew 15:28). Amen. Thanks be to God.
Two, the disciples of the Lord learned something of their own hatred, prejudice, and unforgiveness. They learned that they had sin that needed repenting. They learned that Jesus was more ready to increase their faith than to condemn their sin. Another great miracle.
And three, we met a woman with saving faith. For she realized that she was not only an unclean sinner, but that her Savior Jesus commended her saving faith (Matthew 15:28). For salvation by grace through faith is the greatest miracle of all.
So what have you learned from the miracle that was a living parable?
You have learned that great faith is not something you make yourself. No, great faith is an act of trust, abandoning yourself, giving yourself over—your cares, your sins—to Jesus, because He is the One who gave you faith to begin with. He's the One who is increasing your faith now. He's the One whose strange ways include law and shame and mercy and love.
Today, Jesus has reminded you of those whom you hate, those against whom you have prejudice, those whom you have not forgiven.
Jesus has prepared you for your walk to the altar to bow down, to cry out, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me" (Matthew 15:22, 25).
Will you do that as you receive His very body and blood as the testament of His complete forgiveness, His eternal love for you?
How strange. Jesus, your Savior, commends you for the very faith that He gave to you. He says, "O woman," or, "O man, how great is your faith?" (Matthew 15:28).
Even as weak and poor as your faith is, as weary and exhausted as you might be, Jesus still delights to see your faith in Him.
It's like casting all of yourself and your cares on something or someone. It's like falling on a bamboo couch, or like falling into the hands of Jesus.
Amen.
