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Can a dog have faith? Yes, in that they put their trust in their owners to care for them.
Recently, I've seen an interesting program on the cable television. We do not own dogs, and we never will — too many allergies. Our boys — and their parents — make enough messes, thank you very much. But the program starring one Cesar Millan, the “Dog Whisperer”, is fascinating to watch. He knows the psychology of these animals forward and backwards and knows exactly why a dog behaves the way it does. He is called into peoples' homes to help them with their wayward dog.
Millan talks about the dog in very human terms. The dog thinks, communicates, acts, behaves, believes, trusts. By the end of the program, he has reformed the dog out of any bad behavior one can think of by proper training. The most interesting thing is that he always has to teach the human owners their proper roles as humans. They fall into bad habits that ruin the dog's behavior. He retrains the dog to be a proper dog and the human to be a proper human. At least, as the person behaves in caring for their dog.
Here, we have Jesus today dealing with this Canaanite woman. She is begging for His mercy on behalf of her daughter. The disciples are wanting to shew her away as a bothersome mutt puppy who is nipping at the heels. Harmless, but beneath us to even give it the time of day. It is not right to take the bread from the children and throw it to the dogs. God has no business giving of His bountiful mercy and grace and throwing it to this sinner.
Jesus is absolutely right. This woman deserved nothing at all. She was, no doubt, outside of Israel by birth. Her name's sake, Canaan, the grandson of Noah, had been cursed for his father's lack of fidelity to the Patriarch. They were gentiles for sure, the woman and her daughter. Strike one.
Some other questions about this woman: Just exactly how does one's daughter become demon possessed? What exactly was this woman and her daughter into?
Do you remember the movie “The Exorcist”? I don't watch horror films, but I know it depicts a Catholic priest exorcising a demon from a girl. Apparently, the book and movie are based loosely on a real story. It turns out that the actual parents of the demon possessed child the story is based on were Lutherans who failed to regularly attend Divine Services, but nevertheless asked their pastor for help. They received the help from the pastor. By prayer and the Word of God — like any of our rites — the child was relieved of the demon, and there was one prescription to keep it away. They did not follow through. They went back to their old ways of staying away from God's Word and Sacraments. The demon came back to the child, so the parents, then, tried Roman Catholic priests since they felt the Lutheran exorcism did not work. Thus you have the inspiration for a book and a movie.
The story is instructive. Where the true worship of God is not, where one refuses to receive the means of Grace from God's giving hand in Word and Sacrament, there the devil is. No ritual said for the sake of ritual, will get rid of Satan. He always attacks, like a roaring lion, seeking those whom he might devour. I can think of no other explanation for outright sin. God's Word is so clear, inviting to us to live a real life in Christ. Yet how often do people — how often have you — inexplicably thrown so much away to satisfy the sinful flesh? It is the work of Satan. It is we sinners turning our heads and hearts from God's Word of real life in Him and real selfless love for our neighbors.
Whatever the circumstances for this woman and her daughter, they had been attacked by Satan and were ill–equipped. Their faith towards God alone was not there at some point. Satan took over. Strike two.
Where was this woman's husband? Perhaps she was a widow. But we can think of darker scenarios based on life's realities. Perhaps the husband was shirking his responsibilities to be the God–given spiritual head of his family. Perhaps the woman had forsaken her husband. Perhaps both. Perhaps there was never a husband. However the story actually went, sin had reared its ugly head. Sin, death, and devil fight against whole families as God has ordained them to be. Sin, death, and devil are always destructive to the bodies and souls of families. Strike three. This woman and her daughter were in grave trouble.
You are in no better position than the Canaanite woman. You too have three strikes against you, especially on your own account, as this woman and her daughter. You are not worthy of the bread of God's table. You are sinful and unclean, polluted in mind and soul, black with sin in the heart. You were born as demon possessed as this woman's little girl — a captive to Satan due to your inherited sinfulness. If you choose to remain outside of God's family, if you choose to stay captive to the sinful flesh, you will remain his captive for all eternity.
Listen carefully to today's Introit antiphon, those thematic verses that get repeated at the end after the “Glory be to the Father…” part:
Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.
Let not my enemies exult over me. Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.
And then, the first verse of the Introit:
To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame.
Can't you just see in these verses that Canaanite dog of a woman, that puppy who kept nipping at the heels of her master, asking, seeking, knocking on God's door, relentlessly seeking to hold God to His Word, relentlessly seeking to hold God to His reputation and to His promises?
Sometimes, it takes the desperate and terrible circumstances of life — those attacks by our mortal enemies of sin, death, and devil — to turn us in faith to the promises and mercy of the one, true God, who alone has one, true mercy, one true love for us dogs. I wish it were not that way, that we need to be trained by the effects of the Law. But the Law of sin and death sometimes is brought to bear upon us, to discipline us, towards greater faith and trust in the Lord of Life alone. Sufferings produce endurance; endurance, character; character, hope. Hope in God — hope in His Son, Jesus Christ — does not forsake us, does not fail us.
All other places to put your hope and trust in will fail. All other people, including and especially yourself, to put your hope and trust in will fail. Tiger Woods was way off base last week. There is no hope in Buddha, no hope in improving himself through therapy or inner meditation or any other idolatry. There is no “Human Whisperer” who can come in and solve your problems and get you back on track through your own efforts.
There is only one man who fought off all of the temptations of Satan. There is only one man who perfectly served God and neighbor with selfless, no–strings–attached love. There is only one man, the new Man, the God–Man, Jesus Christ. He never fails. You might call Him the “Cross Whisperer”.
It is not right to take the bread from the children and throw it to the dogs, Jesus said. God has no business giving away His bountiful mercy and grace and throwing it to sinners. Well, He was right. But that way of showing no mercy is the way of sin, death, and devil being parodied by Jesus. That's not God's way. That's not the way of His Gospel, of a selfless, totally giving love. God's way is to heal creation, to love creation, to restore the woman and her daughter, to heal and restore you.
He took your demon possessed, selfish, broken flesh, all of the sin, all of the shame, all of the hurt, all of the pain, all of the ugliness and all of the death and journeyed with it all the way to Jerusalem and to the cross and suffered all of the punishment there for you, in your place, in exchange for you and for me.
Can a dog have faith? Yes, especially ones redeemed by Jesus' blood. Now, today, turn in faith to Jesus Christ as the Canaanite woman did and relentlessly hold Him to His promised salvation. Nip at his heels, you dogs at God's table, who are so much more than that — you sons and daughters of God. He hears your pleas and loves to show you His greatness, even through your sufferings.
Hold Him to His promises in Holy Baptism, where He saved you by the washing of His own blood in the water of the font, where He gave you His Name and made you a co–heir with Him of our Heavenly Father, where He exorcised the demon from your flesh and replaced it with His Holy Spirit.
Hold Him to His promises in His Holy Supper, where He feeds you with the bread from His Father's table, the Body and Blood that He has placed there as your ransom from sin and death and devil, that gives you forgiveness and strength for the journey and the battle against Satan.
Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.
Let not my enemies exult over me. Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.
To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame.
He has remembered and will always remember His mercy and steadfast love for you. You are not put to shame. His cross and empty tomb on Easter morning are the proof.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
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