The Pagan Woman and her Demonized Daughter

Father, we think we know our hearts, but we don't really.

We keep surprising ourselves.

And Father, we don't always know how we have unworthy thoughts of you.

And we don't always realize how proud and self-centered we are.

We don't always realize, Father, how easy it is for us to think that we are your judge

and that you do not measure up to our standards.

So, Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would do a wonderful work in us this morning,

that your Holy Spirit would use your word to reveal our true hearts to ourselves.

And as you revealed our true hearts to ourself,

Father, may you bring Jesus close to us, ever closer.

May you bring his word close to us,

that he might form our hearts, heal our hearts,

so that we might perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name.

And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

So, we have a text that seems to talk about demons.

Not seems to, does in fact talk about demons.

And it seems as if to Canadian,

and I think I know we have at least one person from the great United States of America with us.

I think for most Americans, most Canadians, probably anybody from any of the Western world,

it seems in this story as if Jesus is rude, ill-mannered, unfeeling,

and it's very troublesome to us.

If you think about it for a second,

if I was to give you as an assignment

that you had to share this text with your next-door neighbors,

or your co-workers,

or some of the people you go to school with,

it would be something that you wouldn't actually look forward to doing,

because it's a text of the Bible

that doesn't seem to put Jesus in a very good light,

and it would put us sort of on the wrong foot.

So, we're going to look at the text.

But just before we look at the text,

there's a couple of things that we need to sort of clear out of the way.

And the first one is,

so it's in Matthew chapter 15.

Matthew 15 · chapter mention

It'd be good if you could find it in your Bibles.

It's the very first book in the New Testament,

Matthew chapter 15, verse 21.

Matthew 15:21

Matthew 15, 21.

And the first thing to remember about this

is that what we're reading here

is it looks all fancy like it's a Bible,

but it's an eyewitness biography of Jesus.

That's what this is.

It's an eyewitness biography of Jesus.

If you could put up the first point, Andrew,

that would be very helpful.

Matthew was a very, very bad man.

He would be,

if you could just imagine

that you found out,

basically what he did is

the Romans had invaded

and taken over the Jewish people,

and they needed some Jewish people

who knew how Jewish people thought

and how they hid money

and who had money and who didn't

and how to know if somebody had money

and how to know if they didn't.

And so they would get Jewish people

who could figure that stuff out

and they would hire them

to help them collect taxes from people.

And the Jewish people

that they put in this position

to collect taxes for the Romans,

the Romans basically knew

that they'd be very greedy.

And so what they basically said is,

listen, you have this territory,

let's say it's Jerusalem,

and let's say we need a million dollars

in taxation from Jerusalem this year,

but all we care about is a million dollars.

If you collect 1.5 million

or 2 million or 3 million,

the rest of it's yours

as long as we get our million dollars.

And that's what the tax collectors would do.

They would figure out who had the money,

they would use the force of the state

to collect the money,

but they'd always collect more money

than the Romans asked for

and they would pocket it themselves.

So they were basically making money

for their oppressors

and pocketing lots of money for themselves.

And that's who Matthew was.

Matthew was a person who had done that

for his living for quite a few years

until one day he met Jesus

and his life was completely

and utterly turned around.

And what we're reading here

is an ancient biography

written by an eyewitness

while eyewitnesses were still alive.

And so Matthew in his claim,

there's some people in our culture,

I can think of many people

that I have conversations with.

If I was to look at this text,

beyond the apparent rudeness of Jesus,

their eyes would roll up like this about demons.

And I'm going to talk about that in a moment.

But the main thing we have to understand

is that what Matthew was claiming

is that he is writing

a true story about Jesus

and a real miracle.

That's the very first thing

we have to understand.

We might think he's wrong,

we might think he wrote it

because he was smoking drugs

or something like that,

but his claim is

that he is writing a true story

about Jesus

and a real miracle.

And just as a bit of an aside,

if you go back,

if you go online

to look at Dig and Delve,

the webpage,

and you go to the very first year,

there's a man by the name of Craig Evans.

And one of the things

that he shared with us,

this isn't actually very well known.

When you see things in the newspaper,

on CBC,

or in blogs or whatever

about how the Bible

is just so stupid

and the New Testament's all wrong

and it's all not history,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

One of the things

that he shares

is he gives a list

of the important

Jewish archaeologists

who use the New Testament

to make archaeological discoveries

in Israel.

Not Christian archaeologists,

Jewish archaeologists,

because the Jewish archaeologists

have found

how accurate

the New Testament is.

So they'll read the New Testament

not to learn about Jesus,

but to look to see

where a gate should have been

or where this might have been

or something.

And they use it

to actually make

archaeological discoveries.

And it's one of the many reasons

that from a scientific

and historical point of view,

we can believe

that this is actually

an eyewitness testimony

of Jesus

and what went on.

Now,

we'll start to read.

Actually, no,

we won't start to read.

If you could put up

the next image, Andrew,

that would be very, very helpful.

One of the things

we have to understand,

that's a picture

by Caravaggio.

I don't know

if I'm pronouncing this correctly.

Another thing

that helped us

to understand

the importance

of the fact

that Matthew here

is claiming

to write an eyewitness testimony

that he'd been

a very bad man

whose life was changed,

is that

to the extent

that we know anything

about what happened

to Matthew,

Matthew was not only

an eyewitness

of these different miracles

that happened,

he was also an eyewitness

of Jesus' death,

so to speak.

He knew that Jesus

was crucified.

He was an eyewitness

of the resurrection.

He was an eyewitness

of the ascension.

And that was all part

of the thing

which completely

and utterly

changed his life.

And Christian tradition,

which goes back

very, very long,

said that Matthew died

celebrating communion

in Ethiopia,

that he actually

was so concerned

to tell people

about who Jesus is

and what he'd accomplished,

he took the gospel

all the way to Ethiopia

and while he was

in Ethiopia

at the order

of the king

of Ethiopia,

he was stabbed

to death

while he was presiding

at the Lord's Supper,

something that we'll be doing

in a few moments.

And this, of course,

this isn't an actual

depiction of it,

it's an artist's rendering

from around the year 1600.

Just a little aside,

the painter who painted this

painted himself

as the one

who's doing the murder

of St. Matthew.

Well, let's look at the story

and if you turn

in your Bibles

to Matthew 15,

Matthew 15:21

verse 21,

here's how the story goes.

And Jesus went away

from there

and withdrew

to the district

of Tyre and Sidon

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.

Now there's a couple

of things here,

just pause

in the reading of the story.

So one of the things

I'm not going to do today,

I'm not going to give you

an argument

as to why you should believe

that demons exist.

We know that this is

an eyewitness,

Matthew is writing

an eyewitness biography,

a woman came

and said that her daughter

was oppressed

by a demon

and we're going to see

what Jesus does

about that.

So just a couple

of things though,

I'm going to be

preaching on the story

of Jesus

and the Gadarene demoniac

in a couple

of weeks time

and at that point in time

I'm going to say

more about demons.

But what I want you

to understand is this,

the Bible believes

that demons are real,

Jesus taught

that demons are real.

When I talk to people

who say that science

and medicine

has proven

that demons

don't exist,

I always tell them

that's completely

and utterly not true.

It's completely

and utterly not true.

They get very offended.

I say, no, no,

they assume

that demons don't exist.

They've actually never

tried to prove that they don't exist.

In fact,

they couldn't prove

that they don't exist.

But they just assume

that they don't exist.

To assume they don't exist

is a very different thing

than to prove

that they don't exist.

And the fact of the matter

is that there are scientists

and doctors

who do believe,

like most Hindus,

most Muslims,

most Buddhists,

most people

who practice

traditional religion,

most Canadians,

that in fact

demons are real.

And so we have here

a story

about a demon.

All I'll say

is that it's only

in the Bible

that we really understand

who demons are.

The Bible claims

that demons

are in a sense

pure spiritual beings

that are evil,

that at different times

interact with us

human beings

to harm us.

And so most of the depictions

in movies and television

about demons

are wrong

because they try

to connect them

with forms of energy

and matter

and that's just not,

doesn't actually

make any sense

if you really

think about it.

But that's what's

being portrayed here,

that there is in fact

an entity

like a demon

that can in fact

interact with human beings

and they only interact

with us human beings

in a way

that's going to harm us.

But they're pure spirit.

And what's happened

is that this young woman

has,

is being oppressed

by a demon

and her mother

comes to Jesus.

She's not going

to one of the shamans

or the local priests

or to heal the daughter.

She comes to Jesus.

Now there's a couple

of other things here

which are very important.

We're just very used to

when we watch a movie

or read a book

that there's certain things

that a movie director

will do

to help us

to understand

the character.

They might use it

to play with us

a little bit.

Often in movies

they'll either use

a visual cue

or some type of music.

They'll use music

to understand

that as you're walking

towards that door

there's something evil

at that door.

The music,

they use the camera angle

for the slow motion,

maybe something

a little bit out of whack.

The music comes

and as soon as we hear

the music emotionally

and imaginatively

we know that there's

something evil

which is going to be

going on there

or something wrong

which is going to go on

there.

And that's not just

a modern invention,

it's gone on throughout

as long as there's been

people writing

there have been

things like that.

And so one of the things

that Matthew does here

which doesn't do anything

to us but would have been

very important to his

early readers

is he says that she's

a Canaanite

and he says where she is.

And for the Jewish readers

who would have been

reading this for the first time

what they would have

instantly gone is

a Canaanite,

the ancient enemies

of the Jews.

So Jesus has gone

to the land

of the ancient enemies

of the Jews

and he's having

an interaction

with a person

who is one of the

ancient enemies

of the Jews.

It doesn't necessarily

mean she is

but that's

what it would be like.

It would be as if

you were watching

a movie set

in the 1940s

or 1930s

or 1950s

and you see

a black man

or a black woman

and they leave Detroit

or they leave New York City

or they leave Chicago

and they go to Alabama

into an area

which is all white.

And all of a sudden

you see the black man

and you see a group

of white men

coming towards him

and if you're watching

that movie

you start to feel

tension immediately.

And Matthew

is trying to communicate

that to us.

We've lost the sense

of imagery

but that's what

the original readers

they would have tensed

Jesus is being approached

by a Canaanite woman

and he's in

Canaanite territory.

In fact,

one of the things

that would be going on

in the Jewish person's mind

just as if we're

watching a movie

of somebody leaving

a safe area

in a big northern city

to go to Birmingham,

Alabama

which had

the highest number

of lynchings

and unsolved black murders

of any of the southern

states and cities.

Huge,

racist

stronghold.

And we would wonder

why are they even

going there?

And the readers

are wondering

why is Jesus

going there?

A Canaanite,

woo,

they get worried.

And she makes this call

and I'm not going to,

we've already said

much I'm going to say

about demons.

So what goes on?

What happens?

How does Jesus respond?

Does he run away?

Does,

well what happens?

Verse 23 and 24

tells us what happens next.

So she's calling out my,

and the original language

call out means,

I tried to imitate it

when I was reading it earlier

that she calls out

really loudly.

You know,

she's in a sense yelling,

have mercy on me,

O Lord,

son of David,

my daughter,

severely oppressed

by demon.

Verse 23,

but Jesus did not

answer her a word

and his disciples

came and begged him

saying,

send her away

for she is crying

out after us.

And then this next

little bit's very puzzling

because it's actually

not clear who he's

speaking to,

but what we see

is that Jesus speaks

and what he says

is,

I was sent only

to the lost sheep

of the house of Israel.

Now this is,

for us Canadians,

a very disappointing answer.

In fact,

if you read

the scholarly literature

on this subject,

believe it or not,

many of you

will maybe easily

believe it,

there's a whole range

of scholarly opinion

that believes that

this woman is

confronting the racism

of Jesus.

And that's completely

wrong,

by the way.

As you'll hear

the rest of the thing,

they're misreading

the text.

In fact,

they're actually

failing to read the text

and see what's actually

going on here.

But we see this

very, very disappointing

answer.

I mean,

on one level,

all of a sudden,

I mean,

we're basically

sympathetic with this woman

whose daughter

is in trouble.

And we expect,

I mean,

let's just be honest,

we expect that

when somebody

comes to Jesus

crying out

for their daughter,

that Jesus

will at least

answer her,

that he'll at least

speak to her.

And then it's

very troublesome

that the disciples

just want her

to go away.

And then,

when Jesus

finally starts

to speak,

we think,

okay,

well,

here's going

to be something

good,

but instead,

he seems to say

something which

completely and utterly

dashes her hopes

and crushes her.

This statement,

I was sent only

to the lost sheep

of the house of Israel.

On one hand,

this is a very

powerful story

for all of us

because every

single one of us

here,

maybe not right now,

but at some time

in our life,

those of us

who are Christians,

we have puzzled

over the silence

of Jesus

in our prayers.

Like,

it's a very common

Christian experience,

often not talked about,

why the way it is

that we call out

to Jesus

and call out

to Jesus

and call out

to Jesus

and he just

seems to be

completely

and utterly

silent.

And in a sense,

you see that

being acted out

right here.

Jesus is silent.

And even when

he answers,

he doesn't say

something like,

well, demons

don't exist,

it's just a type

of mental illness

or he just

makes this

cryptic comment

that doesn't

really satisfy

his disciples

and you'd think

would be very,

very crushing

and insensitive

to the pagan

woman.

Now,

one of the things

which I didn't

mention earlier

but it's very,

very significant

in this whole text,

it's a puzzling

thing about this text.

I mean,

not only is it puzzling

that she's come

to Jesus

not to one of the

priests

of her own religion

or not to one of the

shaman of her own religion,

not to a doctor

of her own religion

but to Jesus,

but one of the things

which is also

very puzzling

about this

is that she gives

Jesus the title

of the Messiah

of the Jewish people

which is the significance

of her calling him

Son of David.

In our language,

we would say

that she's affirming

or acknowledging

or addressing him

as if he is the Messiah

of the Jewish people

and he responds

this way.

So how does she respond?

How does she respond?

You know,

it's very interesting

in a lot of the ways

that we try to talk

about how this,

what goes on

in the dynamics of this,

we project things

from our culture

onto her

and in our culture,

we get in his face

and say,

how come you're talking

to me like that?

You can't talk

to me like that.

You're in my country.

Why are you talking

to me like that?

You know,

she'd be assertive.

She'd be direct.

She'd be clever

or she'd be cunning

or whatever it is

that we'd try

to put something

where,

into it

where she's going

to respond to Jesus.

We're uncomfortable

with the apparent rudeness

of it

and some way

we want to sort of say,

go for it, girl.

You go.

You get it.

And she does something

almost to get something

over on Jesus

and that's sort of

what emotionally

we want to have happen

but what actually happens

is once again

very, very disappointing

to us.

Look what happens

in verse 25.

But she came

and knelt

before him

saying,

Lord, help me.

And his response

is unbelievably puzzling

to most Canadians,

most Americans.

He answered,

it is not right

to take the children's bread

and throw it

to the dogs.

rather than being

a feminist hero,

she falls on her knees

at Jesus' feet

and she calls out

for mercy

and he looks at her

and said,

it's not right

to take the children's bread

and throw it

to the dogs.

And for almost

every Canadian,

we would want

to say,

time out,

Jesus,

can we do a,

like,

can we do a do-over

for that?

Like,

that's not the way

you handle

this situation.

If we're honest,

emotionally,

that's how we react

to his response.

By the way,

the word for knelt

in the original language

in almost all

of the New Testament

is usually used

as a reference

to a way

of humbly bending

the knee

to pray to God.

And that's the word

that's used for knelt.

And there is something else

in this,

in the original language

which isn't captured

in the English.

There's basically

two words

that are used

for dogs

in the ancient language

which this was written in.

And generally speaking,

the most common word

for dog

was the word

for,

like,

mongrels,

scavengers,

wild dogs.

Dogs,

I guess,

had escaped

and they just roamed

in cities

and in the countryside

and they would

often have rabies

and be diseased

in other types of ways

and they would steal food

and they were a bother

and they were a hindrance.

And, of course,

to call somebody

that type of dog

was a great insult.

But the word for dog

which is used here

throughout the story

is a different word

for dog.

It can sometimes

be translated

as little dog,

sometimes it can be

translated as house dog,

but fundamentally

it's a pet.

So what Jesus

is saying to her

is it is not right

to take the children's bread

and throw it

to the pets,

which still

has a great deal

of a sting to it.

How does she respond?

But,

actually,

before we read anything,

I was talking about

this sermon

with somebody

just last night.

We had some company over

and they asked me

what I was preaching

on today

and I told them

and they said,

oh, that's a very

interesting story

and they began

to give me,

one of them began

to tell me

how they interpreted

the story

which actually

had a lot of the fact

that the woman

was able to sort of

do something to Jesus

and be assertive

and she really liked

how she was really assertive

and I didn't tell her

that's actually not

what the Bible text

actually says

that she falls on her knees

at his feet.

But, you know,

the thing I said about it

is it's really hard for us.

I mean, here we were

at our house

and if you know

my wife at all,

when my wife invites

people over for supper,

she needs to always make

at least enough

for twice the number

of people who come

that actually come.

So we'd had potato chips,

we'd had carrots,

we'd had hummus,

we'd had wine,

there was pop,

then there was barbecue,

we had lots of hamburgers

left over,

there was piles of salad

that didn't get eaten

and after that

there was blueberry pie

and vanilla ice cream

and there was enough

for seconds

and half the ice cream

went back in the freezer

and I just said,

you know,

when we read a story

like this,

when Jesus says

it's not right

to give the bread

to the children

and we're sitting here

at a meal like this,

like every single one of us

could have had

another hamburger

and we couldn't have all

had another piece

of blueberry pie

but if we divided it

we would have all

been satisfied.

In fact,

one of the people

did have a second piece

of pie.

We could have all had

at least a second

scooping of ice cream

and I said,

when we read a story

like this,

we don't really understand

but for most of the world

that's not what

a meal time is like.

For most of the world

at the time of Jesus,

in fact,

the entire world

at the time of Jesus,

they were one bad harvest

away from starving to death.

One bad harvest

away from dying.

That's,

and throughout most of the world,

even today,

you don't have three

or four or five meals

and you don't have a choice

as to whether you're

going to have a paleo diet

or this diet

or that diet.

You're just hoping

there's enough food to eat

and if you are in a world

where there's enough food,

see,

at our supper table last night,

Louise,

in fact,

Louise did feed the dogs

before she fed us

but not only do we have

all that food,

I mean,

the fact is we have

freezers full of food.

We could have just kept

cooking and cooking

for quite a while

just with the stuff

that we have in our house

but for much of the world,

that's not what life is like.

And if you are in a situation

where there's very little

in the cupboard

and you hope you get paid,

you hope that the landowner

that you're working for

doesn't stiff you

and not pay you

and you hope

that there's enough grain

and there's going to be

enough food

but you have enough bread

for today,

if you're in that type of world,

you definitely want to make sure

that everybody in the family

gets fed

before you start giving it

to the animals.

We emotionally,

because we are so

ungratefully wealthy

that we can't read

the Bible text

and understand

the reasonableness

on one level of what,

I mean,

still an insult

to many of us

about dogs

but still the reasonableness

of what he said,

just normal wisdom.

How does the woman

respond to it?

Well,

let's look.

that's verses 27 and 28.

It's the end of the story.

She said,

look,

she agrees,

right?

Just as I said,

we can understand that

if you have so much blueberry pie

that people can have seconds

and half the tub

of the vanilla ice cream

went in the freezer.

But she says,

yes,

Lord,

yet even the dogs,

even the pets,

eat the crumbs

that fall from their master's table.

And Jesus answered her,

oh woman,

remember she's a Canaanite.

she's the person

the scary music is about.

His response is,

oh woman,

great is your faith.

The only person

in the book of Matthew

who's told

that they have great faith

is this woman.

Only person.

Only person.

Read it,

go back and read it

from Matthew 1 to the end.

She's the only one

that he says this about.

Great is your faith.

Be it done for you

as you desire.

And her daughter

was healed instantly.

Just as a bit of an aside,

just to start to try

to change the mood

of this story,

just ask yourself right now.

Some of you

have been going through

a very hard time.

Some of you are going

through a hard time right now.

Can you just imagine

right now

if Jesus was to show up

and in front of all of us

say to you,

oh woman,

great is your faith.

How would you view

your suffering?

If right now

in front of all of us

Jesus showed up

and said,

great is your faith.

Your faith is so great.

See,

critics who talk

about the racism of Jesus,

all they show

is they don't know

how to actually

read a story.

Ten PhDs,

I mean,

they don't,

but lots,

and they can't read a story.

They just can't.

So let's sort of bring this

even more home to us.

See,

the importance of this

is you read a story

and you read the whole story

to understand

what's actually going on in it.

You see,

one of the things,

remember,

some of you were here

when we were talking

about Jonah 3

just a couple of weeks ago,

the story of Jonah.

And in the story of Jonah,

and this is a very,

very common thing

in the Bible,

it seems as if

Jonah goes into Nineveh

and says,

in 40 days,

God is going to destroy

this city

just like he destroyed

Sodom and Gomorrah.

And he goes

and he proclaims this

and proclaims this

and it sounds as if

there's no hope

for the people,

but the king

orders that everybody fasts

and he says,

we're just going to

throw ourselves

on the mercy of God.

We're going to

humble ourselves,

we're going to stop

the evil

and the injustice

and the violence

and we're just going to

throw ourselves

on the mercy of God

and God in his mercy

sees their repentance

and they are not destroyed

like Sodom and Gomorrah was.

And in this story,

this woman who hears

this statement about Israel

and there's a little chink in it,

but she throws herself

on the mercy of the Lord

and her faith is great.

If you could put up

the next point,

here's some of the things

which is going on

in the story.

Salvation is from God

through the Jews

for the world.

Salvation is from God

through the Jews

for the world.

That's what this,

one of the many,

many things

that this story

powerfully brings home

to us in the shock.

If you go back

and you read Genesis chapter 12,

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

which is the beginning

of God choosing a people

for himself

and him choosing Abraham,

Abraham,

who was a worshiper

of the moon god,

that's who Abraham is.

He worships the moon god

and God chooses

this unlikely person

and says to him,

I'm going to make

a great nation out of you

and you are going to be

a blessing to the entire earth.

And if you go back

and read the Old Testament

time and time and time

and time and time again,

you see that God

is calling a people

for himself,

but he's not calling

a people for himself

just for himself,

but that through him,

through these people,

the entire world will know.

And so one of the things

that John,

you know how if you watch something,

I was just watching something,

a series the other day

and I was saying to my wife,

you know,

I sure hope that,

like why is this in it?

Why is this in it?

Why is this in it?

I sure hope that this

is a good series

that's going to tie

all of these things up.

And then when the series

was over,

as it's coming to the final chapter,

you go,

oh, that's why

it prepared us with this.

Oh, that's why

it prepared us with this.

And so if you go back

and you read

the entire gospel of Matthew,

how does the gospel

of Matthew end?

For evangelicals like us,

it's one of the most

important parts of the Bible.

The message of the Matthew

ends,

the final words are,

Jesus appears

after he has died,

he's resurrected,

he appears to all

of the disciples

and he says,

go into all the nations

and make disciples,

teach in them

to obey all

that I have commanded you.

And lo,

I am with you

to the end of the age.

And he,

and they're going to go,

Jesus went

to the Canaanite land.

He commended

the Canaanite woman

as being a woman

of unbelievable faith.

He was preparing us

for this remarkable claim

that we are to go

even to our historic enemies

and tell them

about Jesus.

And that some of them

are going to respond

and believe

and we are going to have

to get over the fact

that they are

our historic enemies.

Jesus,

in this little statement

to the Canaanite woman

embedded in a story

which we miss

because we're so concerned

about the rudeness,

which I'm going to talk

about in a moment,

he is helping us

as all stories

to enter emotionally

and imaginatively

in to not only

summarizing the entire

Old Testament,

but he's prefiguring

and preparing us

for Matthew 28

and the book of Acts

and all of the epistles.

And the fact is this,

at a political level,

yes,

we should be worried

about North Korea

and Iran.

We should be.

But you know,

as Christians,

we're not just Canadians.

You know what we should

also be praying?

That the gospel

will go to Iran

and North Korea.

That's what we should

be praying.

That should be our heart.

The world will have enemies

and divide the world

and we are to view

an enemy group

would be as wise

as a serpent

and his innocence

but our heart

is to break.

I think it is

a great,

wonderful

thing

of the humor

of God

that he would

put our office

and our ministry space

in the gay village.

Every day

I walk down Bank Street,

I am reminded

all the signs.

I go into the stores,

the rainbow.

I am to pray

that many people

who identify

in such a way

will come to know

Jesus as Savior and Lord.

They're not my enemy.

They're not the other.

I'm not to be afraid of them.

I am to pray

that they will come

to know Jesus

and so are you.

Salvation

is from God

through the Jews

for the world.

One of the things

which is very interesting

about the Jewish people

is that

if you were to go back

to the time of Jesus,

all the smart people,

you go to the

Oxford of the day,

you go to the

University of Toronto

today,

you go to the Yale

and Princeton of the day

and what do all

the smart people know?

There are gods

that exist.

That's what all

the smart people know

and not just the smart people,

the dumb people know that.

Everybody knows that.

There's only one people

on the entire planet

who are so stupid

that they don't know

what all the smart people know.

There's one people

that God has provided

through the prophets

and through the Old Testament,

what we call

the Old Testament,

through the law

and through the history

and through the prophets.

They've come to disbelieve

in the existence of gods

to understand

that there is only one God.

And in a sense,

all of the gods

of the ancient world

were like superheroes today.

It's a very,

very interesting thing.

You know,

we have all these

superhero movies.

They make billions

and billions of dollars

and then,

of course,

there's a small subcategory

of superhero movies

that try to imagine

what it would be like

if there really were superheroes

and in most of those ones,

people actually

don't like superheroes.

Why?

They keep wrecking

all the buildings.

They wreck the road.

They call all sorts of,

they cause endless

collateral damage

and if we actually

lived in a world

where all of a sudden

there's a superhero

and wham,

all of a sudden

they take the roof

off of this place

and some of us

are all captured

with the rocks falling on us.

We're all beat up

and banged up.

We'd say,

you know,

maybe there shouldn't be superheroes.

Like,

maybe we want to make

Ottawa a superhero-free zone.

So most,

you know,

when you actually look at it,

so here's the thing.

You have this people

who are trained

to understand

that there are no superheroes.

They're the only people group

who understand

that superheroes

are an invention

of the imagination

and now you have

a man who comes

and walks among them

and he can be standing there

and if you were there

you might see

the flakes of pita bread

in Jesus' beard

and you might see

that there's a little bit

of humus

right over here

that he didn't take away

and none of the other guys

said,

by the way,

Jesus,

you got humus,

right?

Right here.

Some tabouli in his teeth

like he's human

and by a mere act

of his will

he casts a demon out

and banishes it

and gives her peace

just by a mere act

of his will.

See,

the story

is teaching

deep theology.

If you could put up

the next point,

Andrew,

what this story

is teaching us

is only one

far greater

than a demon

can merely

will

the demon's

banishment

and bestow peace.

That's what happens

in the story.

It's done

and it's gone.

Who is this guy?

They of all people

would get

what we don't get

because we just think

it's just religious,

it's just spiritual.

But remember,

that's why I went on

at the beginning

of this thing

about what Matthew

is claiming

is that he's writing

an eyewitness biography

of what really

happened with Jesus

and if this really

happened to Jesus,

if Jesus merely

by willing it

can banish a demon

and bestow peace,

who on earth is he?

And what on earth

does it mean?

And it also

brings out to us

something a little bit

about our emotional

response to the

things that he says.

Bob Dylan had

two Christian albums.

I mean,

some people just

can't stand Bob Dylan.

If you can get over

his voice

or if you like his voice,

you should go listen

to his two Christian albums,

Saved and Slow Train

coming,

it's amazing

how good the theology

is in it.

And in one of the songs,

he has a line

that God is not

the errand boy

for our wandering desires.

God is not

the errand boy

for our wandering desires.

You see,

why are we bothered

with Jesus?

She wants to speak

to Jesus.

Jesus isn't speaking

to her.

We want him

to deal with

the woman right away.

He's not dealing

with her right away.

We want him

to say certain things.

He doesn't say

those certain things.

We want him

to not say certain things

and he doesn't say

those certain things.

And we just think

it's all appropriate

for us to have

that response to him.

But just think

for a second

if you saw me

treat Louise this way.

Louise?

Whoa,

I spoke to you.

Come back here

right now

and speak to me.

Whoa.

You'd all be shocked.

You'd all be shocked.

And then if

Louise said something

and I said,

whoa, whoa, whoa,

Louise,

you're not allowed

to say that.

And I did that

in front of you.

How would you react?

You all know

how you'd react.

So why is it

that I'm not allowed

to speak like that

to Louise

but it's all right

for us to

treat Jesus

that way?

You see,

in our heart,

the God

that we want

to have exist

is the errand boy

for our wandering

desires.

Jesus,

right now,

I'm snapping

my fingers.

Hurry up!

You can do it!

But the fact

of the matter is,

such a God,

why would we ever

worship?

On one hand,

we want God

to be the errand boy

for our wandering

desires,

yet at the same time,

we would despise

such a God.

So what we see

in this story

is one far greater

than a demon

can merely,

only person,

only one far greater

than a demon

can merely will

its banishment

and bestow peace.

And what we see,

if you could put up

the next point,

Andrew,

is what we're prepared

for is through

the series of stories

and through these

series of miracles

which are revealing

not only our heart,

and how we treat God

and how we think of God,

that we are over him,

that we are his judge,

that we want him

to be our errand boy.

And Jesus keeps being revealed

in ways that we can,

like in Colossians

and in Hebrews,

it gives you abstract

philosophical statements

of the truth,

but this story

is communicating

through story

at an imaginative

and emotional level

who Jesus is.

And what it's revealing

is that the Lord

has invaded

his demon-infested

creation

to begin

to put things right

and deliver

his fallen image bearers.

The world

has been invaded,

but not by,

in a hostile takeover,

but to restore order,

to bring back

healing and deliverance.

And with all of these things,

you know what,

if Jesus is revealed

as invading

his demon-infested creation

to put things right,

then how shall you

or I live

but secure in the gospel

to begin to try

to do the same thing?

to our Muslim

and Hindu

and Buddhist

and secular

and spiritual friends

who've gotten

entrapped

with spiritual forces

that are hostile

to them

and they don't know

what to do,

we are to pray for them.

I have a friend

who shared with me,

I kept mistaking

that he was

some type of a person

who didn't believe

in spiritual things,

and I discovered

that he in fact

believed the demons

are real

and it came up

in conversation

that he was experiencing

demonic oppression.

So I prayed,

get away.

Not because I have

any powers.

I have no powers.

Neither do you.

You and I

are all hopeless.

But we have

a great God.

We have a Lord

who has invaded

his demon-infested

creation

to begin

to set things right.

And in his name,

we can pray

into those situations

and should.

If you are here

and you believe

that you have

any type of

demonic presence

in your life

that needs to be

dealt with,

you should speak to us

and we will pray for you.

And you see,

the fact of the matter is,

is if

one far greater

than a demon

can merely

will its banishment

and bestow peace,

then how on earth,

how on earth

could someone like that

die on the cross?

And that's why

every miracle story

points to the fact

that the only thing

that can account

for Jesus dying

on the cross

is love.

His love for you.

His love for that

Canaanite woman.

If you could put up

the next point,

Andrew,

in the death

and resurrection

of Jesus,

he disarmed

and defeated

all demons

and he defeated

death

to deliver you.

In the death

and resurrection

of Jesus,

he disarmed

and defeated

all demons

and he defeated

death

to deliver you.

just in closing,

one of the things

I tried to talk

about last week

is how we

in our culture

get faith

all wrong.

And Christians,

we get caught up

in all the time.

We think about

how weak our faith is,

how impure our faith is,

how intermittent

our faith is,

but the thing

about the Bible

is that the Bible

is acting as a corrective

to help us

to understand

that what matters

isn't the purity

of our faith,

the constancy

of the faith,

the power of our faith.

What matters

is what we put

our faith in

or who we put

our faith in.

We have Matt

here in the congregation

who does climbing

of rocks

and all that type of stuff.

I'm afraid of heights.

But if I finally

ever agreed with him

to go and actually

try to climb

a rock face

and he sets up

all the ropes

and hooks me

into things

and helps me

to get up,

the fact of the matter

is it doesn't matter

if the entire time

I am so terrified

I'm hoping

I don't pee my pants

in front of him.

I have virtually

no faith.

What matters

is the strength

of the rope

and the strength

of the connection.

I know people