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Just because we struggle doesn’t mean we should stop hoping in God. Just because we can’t always see God’s goodness doesn’t mean God has turned his back on us. 

 The way life goes, sometimes, it’s easy to think that God is cold and distant and just doesn’t care. 

 You know, like when you can’t catch a break. Maybe you were diagnosed with cancer, and you received treatment, and it worked. And just when you think you’re in the clear, you get news that the cancer has returned, or you find out that something else is wrong, and that you’re going to have to go through it all again. And you can’t help but think, “Did God heal me just so that I could get sick again? All this time I thought God was on my side and was going to give me what’s good, but maybe I was just fooling myself.” 

 Or we pray to God time and time again, and nothing changes. We pray for our children to get on their feet and they continue to struggle month after month, year after year. Or we pray that God would give us a job that would let us pay the bills and get ahead at life so we’re not always chasing, but nothing changes, and our prayers don’t seem to be doing anything. God seems silent and life just goes on as before. And we can’t help but wonder, “Does God even care? Or is God just indifferent altogether? Have I been fooling myself by praying day in and day out all these months, all these years?” 

 Or we pray to God time and time again, and we only get the opposite. Someone we love gets sick, and we ask God to spare their life. But they end up getting worse, maybe even dying. And we can’t help but wonder whether we were fooling ourselves in thinking that God actually cares, that God actually wants to help us. 

 The way life goes, sometimes, it’s easy to think that God is cold and distant and just doesn’t care.  

 But just because we struggle doesn’t mean we should stop hoping in God. Just because we can’t always see God’s goodness and mercy at work in our lives doesn’t mean God has turned his back on us. No matter how cold and distant God may seem, no matter how hard it is to see God’s goodness, we know God’s heart for us in Jesus. And Jesus, well, Jesus can’t help but give us what is good! That’s just who Jesus is. 

 Take our gospel reading today. This mother came to Jesus convinced that he would help her, and she didn’t let go no matter how cold and harsh Jesus seemed. And for whatever reason, Jesus was as cold and harsh as a person could be. 

 At first, it seemed like Jesus didn’t want to help her. Her daughter was severely oppressed by a demon. And she must have heard that Jesus is the person who would do something about it, because when she heard that he was in town, she went out to him crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” But Jesus didn’t answer her a word. He was silent. 

 We would probably give up at that point. We ask God once, we ask God twice, and nothing happens, and we’re quick to think that this means that God doesn’t want to help us. We think that God’s silence means he doesn’t care and we should give up. But not this mother. Maybe she thought about all the times people came to Jesus in need and he couldn’t help but have compassion. Like the time he was trying to get away from the crowd and he got into a boat and crossed the sea of Galilee. But the crowd was so desperate to find him that they walked around the sea and were waiting for him when he got to shore. And when he saw the crowds, he couldn’t help but have compassion on them and heal their sick. If this is who Jesus is, it can’t be that he doesn’t want to help. And so rather than take his silence as a sign that he didn’t want to help, she took it as a sign that she needed to cry out all the more! 

 But even then, it seemed like Jesus couldn’t help her. When the disciples became annoyed at the woman, they asked Jesus to send her away, and he said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” She was a Canaanite woman, a gentile from Tyre and Sidon, and not one of Jesus’ own people. And it’s true, to a point. Jesus hadn’t gone to the Gentiles. He had only gone to the villages of Israel. Even when he sent his disciples out, he made the boundaries clear, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Look, I can’t help you. It’s against the rules. 

 But since when did the rules stop Jesus from helping someone? I mean, what about the time when Jesus was teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath, the day when you’re not supposed to do anything but rest, and there was a man there with a withered hand. And to trap him, the Pharisees asked, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” And Jesus said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then he told the man to stretch out his hand, and when he did, it was healed. For Jesus, what’s even more important than keeping the rules, is having mercy on those in need. So, this Canaanite woman didn’t take no for an answer. She kept at it. She fell at Jesus’ feet and placed her need in front of him. “Lord, help me.” 

 And here is where Jesus became as cold and harsh as a person could be. He answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” You’re not worthy of help. You’re a sinner who doesn’t deserve help, a filthy gentile dog. But the woman wasn’t thrown by it one bit. “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.” She might be a dog, a filthy gentile sinner, but she knows the goodness and mercy of the God of Israel. She knows the abundant mercy and goodness of God that, when it shows up, overflows even to the dogs. As if to say, “Yes, I’m a dog. What of it! You came so that even the dogs may eat.” 

 And she’s right! The mother came to Jesus convinced that he would help her, and she didn’t let go no matter how cold and harsh Jesus seemed. And she was right! Jesus said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” She’s right, no matter how cold and harsh Jesus seemed, he can’t help but give us what is good! That’s just who Jesus is. 

 This mother knows what we often forget—that just because we struggle doesn’t mean we should stop hoping in God. Just because we can’t always see God’s goodness doesn’t mean God has turned his back on us. 

 When we just can’t catch a break, or when we pray and pray and nothing seems to change, or when we pray and pray and we only seem to get the opposite of what we’re asking for, we’re quick to jump to the conclusion that God doesn’t want to help us. We read into it and take it as a sign that God just doesn’t care, and so we should give up on hoping that God is going to give us what is good. 

 But why should we jump to that conclusion? Why should we give up on God? We know what God is like. We’ve seen God’s heart in Jesus. And Jesus is the one who can’t help but give what is good. That’s just who Jesus is. 

 So no matter how much we struggle, no matter how hard it may be to see the goodness of God at work in our lives, we can keep on hoping, keep on praying, keep on expecting God to give us what is good. We may not get exactly what we want in the time that we want it. But look, God has bared his heart to us in Jesus—the one who has compassion on the needy, who desires mercy, not sacrifice, the one who throws out all the rules to bring the love of God to a broken, backward, out of joint world. And so we can be sure that God will give us what’s good in his time and in the way that seems best to him. We can wait on God with patience, confident that everyone who trusts in him will not be put to shame. 

 In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. 

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Today’s Reading…

Matthew 15.21-28

²¹ And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. ²² And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” ²³ But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” ²⁴ He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” ²⁵ But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” ²⁶ And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁷ She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” ²⁸ Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.