Second Sunday in Lent

Matthew 12:38-42

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

Last week in our Gospel lesson, Satan (who was tempting Jesus for forty days in the wilderness) wanted Him to demonstrate that He was really the Son of God. That’s what someone who isn’t acting as one of God’s people, isn’t apparently one of Jesus’ followers, does. Someone who isn’t exhibiting that he or she is being led by the Holy Spirit does that.

The opposite is the case with you. In Baptism (or through the hearing of God’s Word) the Spirit made you well aware of who your Savior is, and without any need of Him demonstrating it through some sign (It’s demonstrated in His Word!). Your faith in it, is living and active. It moves you to come here on a morning like this, and confess your sins, and hear the absolution of God’s grace extended to you in Christ your Savior. It moves you to want to gather with other believers like these, to hear the Word that strengthens, sing hymns of faith, receive the Supper that nourishes like no other meal ever could—this food and drink that are joined mysteriously with Christ’s true body and blood for the remission of your sins!

One of the things that comes up a lot in the accounts of Jesus’ ministry is the questions of who really are God’s people, and what it is that makes one that.

As far as Jesus’ disciples are concerned, the woman who comes to Him in our Gospel lesson doesn’t fit the bill. She isn’t even Jewish, like them; she’s a Canaanite woman—a Gentile. Her daughter is being possessed by a demon (Wonder what she did in order to bring that about!—they were probably whispering to each other). Good people aren’t possessed by demons (they were probably thinking to themselves). When she asks for their help, they’re begging Jesus to get rid of her.

Jonah had thought similarly about the Ninevites, to whom God had sent him to deliver His message of repentance (Jesus mentions them in our text). They too, weren’t even Jewish. They were Gentiles, and had a horrible reputation. In the LORD’s sending of Jonah, He said: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” Of course, Jonah, who couldn’t even believe God was sending him there, made up his mind not to under any circumstances go there (didn’t work out that way for him).

Again, those questions: Who really are God’s people; and What it is that makes one that?

Jesus mentions the queen of the South in our text too—another who wasn’t even a Jew. What’s remarkable about her, and about the Ninevites (Jonah’s audience), is that both who weren’t God’s people according to blood, weren’t among the covenant people of Israel, heard His message and humbled themselves before Him. The queen of Sheba came and sought out the wisdom of God’s prophet Solomon. The Ninevites repented at hearing Jonah’s message.

That text from Jonah’s third chapter says, The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” And at their repentance, the LORD who had sent His prophet to say, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”—relented, and did not send the disaster of which He’d warned. The people’s humility before Him is what God was seeking. That that’s what He wants from all people is evident in His words through the prophet Isaiah:

But this is the one to whom I will look:
    he who is humble and contrite in spirit
    and trembles at my word (66:2).

Jesus is seeing something other than that in our text. The men He is speaking to, want Him to demonstrate that He is really the Son of God. Their case is a little different from Satan’s in last week’s Gospel lesson that we talked about, in that Satan knows Jesus is the Son of God, and was challenging Him to prove it so that He would choose some self-serving avenue aside from God’s will (Of course, Jesus proved that He couldn’t be made to do that). The scribes and Pharisees in our text simply don’t believe. They have known the words of the prophets, heard Jesus’ own preaching seen many signs from Him, but in the face of clear evidence, have refused to humble themselves before God, before His Messiah. Instead, they were envious of Him. They didn’t like that people were gathering with Him (instead of them), and they were proud, they imagined themselves their own saviors.

When the apostle Stephen is about to be stoned by people like these to whom Jesus is speaking in our text (recorded in the book of Acts), he says these words that would apply also to Jesus’ audience: “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

So, these who are God’s covenant people according blood demonstrate that they really aren’t His people when it comes to inheriting His kingdom. They aren’t humble before Him as He requires.

On the other hand, look at the Gentile woman in our Gospel lesson. She comes to Jesus for His help. She knows He’s the one who can help her. Jesus has been demonstrating it all over the place. He cares about people, and He can do amazing things to help them. She even calls Him Son of David; so she knows (even though she isn’t a Jew) the Scriptures that have foretold Jesus’ coming. She calls Him by the Name the Savior is to be called by. And she is so sure that Jesus will help her, that she pushes past His disciples’ resistance. She keeps asking until they finally make Jesus aware of this irritation they are currently enduring from this Canaanite woman.

And at first He seems to be going along with them on it. He challenges her to keep on—even if it seems for a moment like Jesus isn’t the one she’s read about, the one she’s heard about, the one she knows. So, in response to His statement about it not [being] right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs, she says the thing that indicates true humility before God: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” She’ll take whatever mercy God is willing to give. What other help will she have? To Whom else is there to go? She has humbled herself before God by hearing His Word and believing it. You can tell she believes it because she has come for help to the One God has provided.

There was a faculty meeting this past Friday. To open the meeting Principal Dale read the Monday evening prayer from p.168 in the front portion of the hymnbook (there are prayers there for every morning and evening of the week, by the way). One line in the prayer says, “Let me always draw near to You with a broken heart.” It refers to one of the Psalms: The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise (51:17). “Let me always draw near to You with a broken heart.” That’s what God always wants from you. He wants there never to be any other agenda than coming before Him humbly to receive His mercy for your sins.

But isn’t it true, that the last thing your nature wants is to humble itself before anyone. The world is very cooperative in this. “You don’t have to humble yourself before anyone!“ Your nature wants to be the Pharisee, that even looks at God’s own Son, and says, “Who are you again? Ah, could we see a little evidence of this? Because last time I looked there’re a lot of things about this life that I wish were different. I don’t have enough of anything I want. Isn’t that the way of your nature, to lack humility, to lack contentment with what God has given, to insist on your own way, to accuse God of shorting you in some way, to be proud and unapologetic to the One Who requires a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, to be a Pharisee who insists that God prove Himself to you? The end of all that is God’s forsaking.

But glory be to God, that He forsook in your place His own Son, Who was humble even to the point of death on a cross. Since there was never a time when He failed to humble Himself, His blood makes payment for every failure of yours. Since He was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, your death is now an entrance to eternal life. Your sins are forgiven. You have come to the right place to receive the help that you need. What other help will you have? To Whom else is there to go? You have humbled yourself before God by hearing His Word and believing it. You have come for help to the One God has provided. Praise be to God. Amen.