Preparing for Worship - August 20, 2023

The Scripture readings this week make it clear that God’s love in Christ is for all people and not just limited to God’s Old Testament Jews. The Old Testament lesson is from Isaiah 56:1, 6-8. Earlier Scriptures seemed to say that non-Jews could only enter one limited part of the temple in Jerusalem. Now, though, God says through Isaiah that His house would be a “house of prayer for all people” and that “foreigners” (non-Jews, Gentiles) could also “be joyful in His house of prayer” and even their “sacrifices would be acceptable on His altar.” The Lord said, “I will gather yet others, besides those already gathered,” as My people. This was all fulfilled in Jesus, who said, in John 10:16, “I have other other sheep that not of this fold (of the Jews). I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” This would be the flock of all who trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior.

The psalm is Psalm 67, predicting that “our gracious God” would make His “saving power known among all nations.” Then, “all the peoples could praise Him.” “His way may be known on earth” and “all the ends of the earth could fear Him” and love and trust Him, as “He makes His face shines upon us.” Again, this happened through Jesus and His saving sacrifice on the cross for the sins of the whole world, and His call to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19-20).

The Gospel lesson is from Matthew 15:21-28. (John the Baptist had been killed; religious leaders had come from Jerusalem to attack and argue with Jesus; and He then “withdrew” to where He rarely went, outside of Israel, “to the district of Tyre and Sidon.”) There, a Canaanite woman asks for His mercy and help in freeing her daughter from a demon. Jews normally hated Canaanites, as they hated Samaritans and many other non-Jews. Jesus’ disciples wanted to get rid of the woman, and Jesus ignores her and then seems to treat her badly. He is actually growing the “great” gift of faith in her, until she is willing to have just a few “crumbs” of His mercy and that would be enough. Jesus’ mercy is always enough, and her daughter is healed instantly by Him.

The Good News of Jesus as Savior is now to go to the whole world. “God so loved the world” (John 3:16). In the Epistle Lesson, Romans 11:1-2a, 13-15,28-32, Paul also reminds, though, that God still loves His Old Testament people of Israel, and wishes salvation for them, as well. He says, “At the present time there is a remnant (of the Jews), chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise, grace would no longer be grace” (Romans 11:5-6). Paul himself is one of those “Israelites, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin” and brought to faith through the risen Lord Jesus Himself. Paul knows that he has been called especially to be an apostle to the Gentiles, and he “magnifies his ministry,” in hope that his fellow Jews would notice and that “some of them also might be saved.” All people, including Jews are in “disobedience” on their own, and need to “receive God’s mercy” and “life from the dead,” which comes now only through faith in Jesus as their Savior.