Sunday, August 16, 2026
Twelfth Sunday of Pentecost
Text: Matthew 15:21-28
Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” – v. 28
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Lead In – As the Maker of heaven and earth our Triune God is the Author and Director of Life’s story as it is presented for us in Scripture, God’s Word. He not only is the author and director, He is also the main Actor in the narrative. The spotlight is on Him. We are to read ourselves into God’s story, but never in anything approaching something like the lead role. So, it is noteworthy in our Gospel Reading when Christ calls our attention to a seemingly minor character. A nameless Canaanite woman. He calls our attention to her, and commends her faith as being great! An accolade from Jesus! This is worth paying attention to!
- This Kind of Commendation Happened Twice!
Jesus acknowledged the role that faith played a number of times in the Gospel Accounts. Faith is how the gifts and blessings of God are received beneficially by a person. It is the hand that receives the gift. Two examples demonstrate this point. In Matthew 9 a woman with an issue of blood touched the fringe of Jesus’ garment hoping that in doing so she would be made well. We read this in Matthew 9:22, “Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.’ And instantly the woman was made well.”
And in Mark 10 we read about blind Bartimaeus. Outside of the city of Jericho Bartimaeus cried out “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” Bartimaeus appealed to Jesus to have his sight restored. And Jesus responded to him in Mark 10:52, “‘Go your way; your faith has made you well.’ And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.”
But there are only two times that Jesus extolls the faith of someone who had come to Him, and in both instances, they were Gentiles! Of a Roman Centurion, a Commander in the occupying Roman Army, Jesus said, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.” And then of course in our present lesson Jesus says of the Canaanite woman, a woman from a pagan nation, “O woman, great is your faith!”
By way of contrast, Jesus is constantly chiding the Twelve disciples, “O, you of little faith,” or “have you no faith?”
- The Tribute Does Not Negate Faith as a Gift
Before we take a closer look at the Canaanite woman’s commendable faith, we need to remind ourselves of a couple of things that remain true. This woman was a fellow sinner along with the rest of us. It is not to her credit that she has the gift of saving faith. Like the rest of us she was born tainted with sin, which at its roots means without a proper fear, love, and trust in God. Romans 3:10-12 speaks of our condition, “as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’”
Saving faith that receives from Christ the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life is a gift of God. This is especially made clear in Scripture in a passage like Ephesians 2:8-9. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” And the gift of saving faith comes to us by means of God’s Word. We heard these words last Sunday in the Reading from Romans 10, in verse 17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
You may be saying to yourself where did the Word of Christ come to this Canaanite woman? It is very unlikely that a formal sermon was spoken to her. But she obviously had heard about Jesus. She had heard enough to know that Jesus was, in her words, the “Son of David”. That is, in the line of David from whom was to come the Messiah. She obviously had heard of the healings, exorcisms, and mighty works Jesus had been performing. She had received word of Jesus’ teachings, His claims, and His promises. Indeed, the Word had come to her, and it had, along with the help of the Holy Spirit, gifted her with faith.
- The Gift of Faith Is Meant to Be Exercised
Friends, when we receive spiritual birth in baptism, in the words of Luther’s Small Catechism, “a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” This is the new nature spoken of in 2 Corinthians 5:17. This new nature, however weak, actually trusts in what God commands, instructs, and importantly what He promises. This new nature actually wants to obey God and to love and do good. When this new nature first comes to reside in us, it is in its infancy and is weak. With the help of the Holy Spirit through the nutrition of God’s Word this new nature, this new self, grows and matures.
And as you well know, in this life we continue to battle the flesh, our old sinful nature. It has been condemned to death, but it hangs around. And it has had plenty of experience in bossing us around.
The saving faith along with the new nature that has been gifted to us by God is to be exercised. There is even some urgency here. If this gift is not exercised it can lose its influence and begin to fade away. It can even be forfeited and lost.
Perhaps we can think of it this way. Your legs were given to you and are meant for walking. But without exercise the muscles begin to atrophy. In time you will not be able to walk at all. Rehabilitation may still be possible, but not without assistance and exercise. The gift of faith and our new nature can be thought of this way.
Of course, having legs to begin with is God’s doing. They are a gift. And even the exercise program, for both your legs and with faith, has been designed by God. And the nutrition needed by both is a gift of God. With our faith the nutrition is God’s Word.
For our purposes this morning, we will concentrate on the truth that the gift of faith is to be exercised. And it is instructive to take stock of the way it was exercised by the Canaanite woman.
- What the Exercise Regimen of Faith Looks Like
Four things stand out to me in this woman’s exercise of faith. And the first is how the woman responds to Jesus seemingly ignoring her. She cried out to Jesus, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” But Jesus did not answer her a word!
Have you ever felt God was deaf to your prayers and cries for mercy? That He was silent in answering your pleas? Perhaps you were turned down for a job offer? Or someone you were praying for did not get well? It can be very discouraging. Well, the Canaanite woman is not deterred when she receives no reply!
And that brings me to the second thing that stands out. The woman persists in her request. She keeps following after Jesus and crying out for help. Scripture encourages all of us to be persistent in prayer. We read in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
Jesus also tells a parable in Luke 18 of a widow who persisted in begging for justice from and uncaring and ungodly judge. She wore down the judge with her persistence and received what she begged for. Of course, in our case we are not wearing God down. Rather, our persistence is having a beneficial effect on us. It humbles us and strengthens our faith.
The third things that stands out is the woman’s persistence in the face of God working in a strange way. Luther actually provides a term for this. He called it God’s ‘alien work’. This is when God judges, disciplines, or brings calamity on His own people. It is alien in that it goes against His natural, proper desire to show mercy, heal, and save. And yet, God’s alien work often serves to make possible His proper work. Think of it as plowing or harrowing the ground before the planting of seeds.
The Canaanite woman was not put off by God’s alien work. Even with the insinuation that she was a dog; she humbly begged to be fed the scraps of the children’s food that fell from the Master’s table.
Oh, the mysterious ways of God! We read in Romans 11:33, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”
That brings us to the fourth thing that stands out in the commendable exercise of faith. And that is the unwavering trust in God’s goodness and mercy. To take God at His word. The Psalmist declares in Psalm 23:6, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” And in Lamentations 3:22-23 we read, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” And the Canaanite woman knew she was unworthy of this goodness and mercy, but she appealed to her trust that God was indeed full of unending goodness and mercy. That is a great faith!
And Now for a Final Word – God has always intended to save the world. And His plan to do so has worked its way through a special people, Abraham and his descendants. Jesus was born in that line, and even specifically through the tribe of Judah and the kingly line of David. The concentration in the Old Testament and in the four New Testament Gospels had been on Israel and the physical descendants of Abraham. But after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the true children of Abraham would be those who exercised a faith like Abraham’s. In this morning’s incident with the Canaanite woman, a Gentile, there is a jumping the gun at what is coming down the pike with the Gospel preaching of the Apostles. Truly, salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone for both Jew and Gentile. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard and keep you in the true faith unto life everlasting. Amen.