May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession." Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said. He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." "Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour. (Matthew 15:21-28)

In Christ's name and to his glory, dear friends: As you can see, our central thought today is IN THE PRESENCE OF GREATNESS. We could say that the greatness in this story is the woman and her faith, for Jesus says to her, You have great faith. As soon as we hear Jesus say that, our eyes turn to her to learn of her for we too would like to have Jesus say this of us. But the true greatness in this story (and even this woman would agree) is the Lord Jesus. He is the greatness in whose presence the woman, you and I, and all believers long to be. I guess we could compare the woman of great faith and Jesus to the moon and the sun in the sky. The full moon on a clear evening is breath-taking and dazzling. But then we remember that all the moon's brightness is but reflected light. If the moon could speak he would say, My brightness is not so great; turn your eyes to the sun; there is the great one that gives us all light. And so we spend some time with this little Gospel for here is our Great Jesus and there we long to be-in the presence of greatness.

This Gospel continues the picture of Christ's greatness that we saw last week. Then we saw Jesus walking on the water. That story showed us Christ's omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence. Today we see how that greatness touches the life of one individual woman and take courage that Jesus always uses his greatness for our good and blessing.

We see here that Jesus is concerned about every single sinner. Things are not always as they appear. At first reading we might get the idea that this Gospel tells us the opposite. It appears that Jesus is giving this woman a hard time, ignoring her, saying why she does not deserve to have the benefit of his greatness. How harsh those words seem to us and to her, at first-I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. This woman is not of Israelite blood. I was not sent to her. It is not right to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs. But if we will watch and listen closely we will see that we have misjudged Jesus if we think he is being unkind.

What we actually see here is that Jesus is the perfect great One who knows how to speak in such a way as to draw us to himself in faith. A breath of air can blow out a birthday candle. But also the same breath of air directed toward a smoldering ember can enliven a fire and give it oxygen for it to burst into flame. So Jesus the great Author and Perfecter of faith (Hebrews 12:2) blows at this woman's faith to make it burn more brightly. He makes her hunger for what she wants and needs all the more by first denying her request. And hunger of God's help is exactly what faith is. As it says of Jesus in Isaiah, A smoldering wick he will not snuff out. (Isaiah 42:3)

We should also notice that Jesus statement about the dogs is not as harsh as it first seems. First, Jesus uses the endearing diminutive, like our word puppy, not the crass word for a wild dog. What he is saying to the woman is that compared to the blessed Israelite nation from which Jesus would come she is but a puppy. The inference is that, at least, she has a place in God's family, even if that place is but a puppy in the house. And the woman humbly accepts that truth, and understands that to be a puppy in God's house would still be a great blessing. She humbly accepts her Lord's assessment of her-that's what faith is. At the same time she rejoices that God has made room for even puppies in his family. This too is what faith is-knowing that God accepts us despite our unworthiness. So you can see that Jesus' remark about the little dog was also the Great One awakening faith in the heart of the soul of this woman.

We see here that Jesus can help in our greatest need. Let us not forget that the woman's problem was that Satan was ruining her family. Evil spirits physically possessed her daughter. And that physical possession was tangible evidence of the trouble that Satan brings on all humanity. He is the great Accuser and Evil One against whom we are no match. And our greatest sins are those in which we fail to understand how truly helpless we are before our God because of Satan's control over us. And even when we see that God has come to our rescue, as he has in the person and work of Jesus Christ, we fail to depend on him, trust him, seek our all in him. The fact that God must woo and draw us to faith shows us what pathetic, godless, weak folk we are. We ought to be able to say, God has come to my rescue and be filled with hope and joy in every circumstance. But what is the case? We brood. We say, we don't deserve to have God. We say this even when God has said to us, I forgive you. You are my child. I will not leave you. My victory over Satan is yours. Oh, how Satan still controls even the children of God!

But this makes the brightness of God's greatness shine all the more for us. We see in this little Gospel how Jesus will not give up on us despite our stubborn doubts. He is the Great One who always perfectly trusted his heavenly Father, and still died the death of the cursed. Why?--For our damnable doubts. So now with this rescue to hold on to we shine like the moon shines with the light of the sun. In a phrase, The Great One Jesus Christ is greater than our doubts and unbelief. He will find his way into our hearts and stubbornly stick there. For that is where he graciously wishes to be. And how blessed we are to have him want us and our souls forever!