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Text of the page (random words):
or otherwise from the table surprisingly rather than be insulted the woman accepted her place outside of god s promises to israel but she also recognized the fact that there is plenty of god s love and provision left over even after god has fulfilled his promises to israel carla works says her statement is striking she places hope in what others have discarded this son of david has so much power that there is enough power for the house of israel and more than enough left over for her she is not trying to thwart his mission she just wants a crumb recognizing that even a crumb is powerful enough to defeat the demon that has possessed her daughter 4 and after she said this jesus praised the woman for her great faith and he tells her that he has just healed her daughter and in looking at these two stories side by side the one of the pharisees and the one of the canaanite woman we can see how jesus was using this contrast of clean vs unclean to teach the disciples a lesson by all accounts this woman was unclean a gentile an enemy of israel not an heir of god s promises to israel and yet she recognizes jesus as messiah she is respectful and reverent she believes that jesus can heal her daughter and she is humble not at all put off by jesus insultingly calling her a dog in short she shows exactly the kind of gentle and faithful spirit that comes from a heart that is aligned with god s heart here she becomes a contrast to the pharisees who though they were ostentatiously clean were obsessed with appearances and were not actually living their faith the disciples were ready for jesus to tell this woman to take a hike they were annoyed by her persistence and her plaintive approach and just wanted her gone jesus needed to show the disciples that the pharisees who were ritually clean were actually far from the kingdom of god and that this woman who was an outsider unclean and the child of enemies of israel was exactly the kind of person that god is looking for and so jesus saw and responded to her great faith and sent a message to the disciples and to us that what appears to be clean isn t always and what appears to be unclean may be exactly the person whose heart looks like god s heart scott hoezee says matthew wants us to see that even though we may think we know exactly what and who needs to come first in our ministries the main thing is to remain open to the people god sends our way we too may think that when it comes to first things first taking care of in house folks has a higher profile than reaching out to the community but if we like the lord jesus are going to be open to god s spirit then we need to be willing to change everything if that s what it takes to be loving toward everyone we meet 5 and so in today s lesson we need to get past the appearances of jesus being rude or dismissive to our canaanite friend and we need to understand the fact that she has helped jesus teach the lesson that in god s kingdom appearances count for nothing and that those who are called by god are those who have allowed him to create within themselves a heart that looks like god s heart who are we turning away from today who are we assuming to be unclean or unworthy who are the inhabitants of paganland that god is sending our way if god didn t send his son to condemn the world and if we are called to be christ like then we are not being sent to condemn the world either but instead we are being sent so that the world should be saved by jesus through us that idea of god working miracles through us has been a common theme over the last few weeks and so my dear friends let us let god work those miracles through us let us always be gracious let us not be fooled by appearances but let us accept with love all who god puts in our path let us allow god s miracles to work through us as we work to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth 1 stanley p saunders preaching the gospel of matthew proclaiming god s presence pg 135 2 scott hoezee cepreaching org commentary on matthew 15 10 20 21 28 3 allan bevere preacherslectionarynotebook substack com from clean hands to clean hearts 4 carla works workingpreacher org commentary on matthew 15 10 20 21 28 5 5 scott hoezee cepreaching org commentary on matthew 15 10 20 21 28 tags bible christianity faith god jesus posted in uncategorized leave a comment that sinking feeling august 9 2026 august 9 2026 mattthew 14 22 33 i think that there is a conventional wisdom surrounding today s lesson it s a conventional wisdom that says that i should preach about having enough faith to step out of that boat i think it s a conventional wisdom that says that i should preach about believing and not doubting because if peter hadn t doubted he wouldn t have sunk he could have frolicked on the water to his heart s content but i don t think that that is what i m being called to talk about this morning and i honestly don t believe that that is what today s lesson is really telling us because i very much believe that today s lesson is a continuation of last week s lesson where jesus used the miracle of the five barley loaves and two fishes to teach the disciples and to teach us how god wants us to be participants in his miraculous kingdom how jesus wanted to show the disciples and us that god s power can work through us and that miraculous things can be accomplished by those who allow god to incorporate them into his plans and so let s look a little deeper into today s reading and see how it is that peter s stroll on the water relates to a miraculous meal today s lesson begins immediately after the end of that meal of barley loaves and fishes in last week s lesson jesus had been trying to find some solitude some away time so that he would be able to spend some time in prayer and communion with his father and also to have some time alone to grieve the loss of his cousin john the baptist who he had just found out had been murdered by herod but an enormous crowd of people had gathered jesus had compassion on them and spent the entire day healing the sick and eventually miraculously feeding that crowd of 10 000 or more people and we spoke about how jesus incorporated the disciples in every step of that miracle which is something that we will spend a little more time with later when our reading tells us that jesus made the disciples get into the boat it doesn t convey the force of the greek text strong s tells us that the word that matthew used is ἀναγκάζω hahn aaghn kà zo which means to force by threat or persuasion i don t think the disciples actually wanted to get on that boat without jesus but jesus commanded it in no uncertain terms likewise the word that matthew used to describe jesus sending the crowds away was the word that the ancient greeks used for divorce and so that was a forceful sending also and finally after a day s delay after sending everyone away jesus was able to get that solitude that he so seriously needed while jesus was alone praying our story tells us that the disciple s boat was a considerable distance from land when they began to be buffeted by waves because the wind was against them john s gospel tells us that they had rowed 3 to 4 miles before the storm arose and i ve spoken before about the geography of the sea of galilee and how storms can arise very quickly for such a relatively small lake the sea of galilee can have disproportionately fierce storms with strong winds that are intensified as they pass between two mountain ranges and these winds can produce up to twelve foot waves on that little lake in 1992 a storm on the sea of galilee caused 50 million worth of damage to the town of tiberius so some of these storms can be quite severe and even though several of the disciples were experienced fishermen these storms could be dangerous even for them and in the midst of this storm while the disciples are fighting the wind and trying to get to shore they look up and they see someone walking towards them on the water terrified they assume that it is a ghost but jesus immediately calls out to them saying take courage it is i don t be afraid but there is more to this statement than just jesus reassuring the disciples that it s him english syntax requires us to translate the greek into the words it is i but in the greek jesus words were ἐγώ εἰμι ego eye my which is literally i am and were we to translate those words into the hebrew we would end up with yahweh the name with which god identified himself to moses at the burning bush this wasn t so much jesus identifying himself as it was jesus making a declaration jesus was telling the disciples that in spite of appearances to the contrary they were safe in god s hands now the story of peter asking to come out and walk on the water is a pretty well known story but i think that a lot of times when we read this we are thinking that peter is testing jesus that peter is frightened and is asking for proof that it really is jesus who is walking towards them if you are really jesus let me walk towards you but peter s words would better be translated since you are jesus let me walk towards you here osborne paraphrases peter s comment as since you are lord over creation tell me to participate in your miraculous power 1 and interestingly when peter says this to jesus the word he that chooses that we are translating tell me is actually a greek word that was used to describe a proclamation that was made by a king peter is recognizing the authority of jesus to command him to do something impossible something miraculous my lectionary commentary says peter does not so much ask for supernatural powers as he asks to recognize that whatever jesus commands jesus makes possible the commands of jesus taken seriously create miracles they open an incredible reservoir of divine resources 2 peter along with the rest of the disciples had just been participants in something that was unmistakably a miracle the feeding of 10 000 or more people with five barley loaves and two fishes and so here we have peter who was probably still processing what it meant or how it felt to have jesus miraculous power working through him and peter very possibly wanted to see the limits of what god was capable of doing through him and here is where peter s failure becomes a powerful lesson for us our story tells us that peter initially does walk on the water that he is initially empowered to do the miraculous but as he walks on the water he sees the wind and the waves and he begins to sink and for the third time in our reading today we see that word immediately as jesus reaches out to save him and once again our english words fail us as jesus appears to reprimand peter for his lack of faith but that is not at all what jesus really did when jesus said you of little faith why did you doubt what jesus was saying really wasn t a rebuke you of little faith is from the greek ὀλιγόπιστε ooli gó peace tōs which is a compound word containing the words oligos which means low in quantity and pistis which means faith so jesus isn t commenting on a deficient faith from peter he is saying that peter s faith is still small not yet big enough to utilize the extent of the power that jesus will eventually through the holy spirit show through peter let s not forget that jesus once said that faith the size of a mustard seed could move mountains and let s face it peter did have enough faith to step out of that boat next when jesus asked why peter doubted jesus wasn t accusing peter of doubting him again the greek word used and i apologize for the abundance of greek lessons today but the word used was διστάζω dee stáh zo and διστάζω literally means to think two things at the same time strong s describes it as shifting between two positions or uncertainty at a crossroads peter was caught between an exercise of faith where he honestly believed that he could do anything that jesus commanded and the reality of the fact that what he was actually doing was flat out impossible he was walking on the water for goodness sake and not only that but don t forget that the storm was still raging and peter may have been contending with waves that were twice his size the break in his concentration was fully understandable but was also the reason for his sinking osborne says in the feeding miracle jesus wanted to involve the disciples in his authoritative act and this continues here when peter asked to walk on the water that was the response that jesus was looking for as long as peter focused on jesus he was able to take step after step on the water however when he turned to consider the earthly situation he failed and began to sink into the depths the entire new testament builds on this as victory over sin and temptation is completely related to the degree to which we are centered entirely on christ peter is the model disciple even in his failure he is an all too human figure struggling with his growing awareness of christ as do we all 3 as jesus led peter back to the boat and they both got in the storm subsided as quickly as it had begun and our story tells us that the disciples in the boat worshiped jesus saying truly you are the son of god we don t discover who jesus is in a day or a month or a year jesus revelation to us of who he is requires a lifetime of abiding in him but bit by bit experience by experience and miracle by miracle jesus reveals himself to us as the divine son of god and as we begin to understand who jesus is jesus will begin to use us he will begin to work through us he will begin to incorporate us into god s plan and the miracles that will result from that the miracles of changed lives the miracles of healed souls and bodies the miracles of compassion and kindness and generosity and justice will happen through us saunders asks us if we can sustain the imagination of god s new world 4 are we able to imagine what it is that god is capable of doing through us and if we can are we willing to let god use us as a part of his quest to reconcile the world to himself twice in the last two weeks we have read about things that were done that should have been impossible to do and yet they were done and the truly amazing thing is that they were done through the disciples jesus started with five loaves and two fish and then he empowered the disciples to hand out the bread and the fish and to keep handing out the bread and the fish until 10 000 or more people had eaten all that they could eat peter stepped out of a boat and walked on water in spite of gale force winds and waves that were breaking far over his head paul wrote to the church at philippi i can accomplish all things through christ who strengthens me all things the holy spirit is waiting waiting for us to ask god to incorporate us into his will waiting for us to believe that god can accomplish miraculous things through us waiting for us to imagine ourselves as a part of god s new world with god s power working through us to bring his love his peace his hope and his justice t...