Genesis 45:1-15 Psalm 133 Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 Matthew 15: 10-28
Summary: This is a very disturbing story where a woman, at her wits end, was actually ignored by Jesus, who favoured the Jews. Why? God ticks Jesus off here. Did Jesus sin here? It certainly needs investigation.
This sermon was delivered to the congregation in St Oswald’s, in Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 28th August 2011. (A Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries)
Prayer: I the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, let these words speak for you, Amen.
Today’s Gospel reading is taken from Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28.
Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them, "Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles." Then the disciples approached and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?" He answered, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit." But Peter said to him, "Explain this parable to us." Then he said, "Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile."
Jesus left Gennesaret and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon." But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, "Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." He answered, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly.
We have just heard a very disturbing story in the gospel this morning where a woman at her wits end, because of her demon possessed daughter; was actually ignored by Jesus in favour of God’s chosen people, the Jews. This therefore needs some serious investigation.
Is there anyone in your life who is so inconsequential that they are beyond helping? This is a tough question, and I think it needs to be answered, if not openly, answer it quietly within yourself. Is there anyone one to whom you would stay well clear off? No. let us clear things up a bit.
When Jesus was confronted by this woman, He responded in a way that is most uncharacteristic, it is not like any response has made in the past; in fact, his response is in direct opposition to his teachings. Ok Jesus can be a bit severe sometimes, but the results are always worth the severity as he always heals, delivers and restores; yet not in this case.
Let us look at the background and set the scene. Jesus and his disciples had just survived the storm on the Sea of Galilee. When landing on the shore, Jesus came into disagreement and conflict with the Pharisees who were always out to discredit Him; so Jesus and the disciples left the ever-growing crowds in Galilee, and went off into the land of the Gentiles, the land of Canaan, for a bit of respite; and for a space in which to breathe and regroup.
Here there they could be away from all of the so called “faithful Jews” who gave them no rest or peace; either wanting or demanding miracles; or for calling Jesus out for failing to live by the letter of the Law or trick him into saying something in which he could be held accountable.
The land of Canaan was founded by Noah’s son Ham and do you remember Him? Ham was one of Noah’s three sons, the one who was ostracized by his own family after he "saw" Noah drunk and naked one night.
This is quite a complex story, (a story of sexual depravity), but it ended with Noah cursing Ham so much so that Ham changed his name to Canaan and moved away, but Noah followed him and vowed that Canaan and his descendants would always be slaves to the descendents of his brothers.
Thus the people of Canaan were thought of as cursed, and were treated beneath the lowliest of the low; the dregs of society.
So Jesus now in Canaan has this woman hounding him for help. She is yelling at Him incessantly, to “have mercy on her", as her “daughter is tormented by a demon!” We can therefore conclude that this was a bad and intense situation.
The disciples usually in this type of situation try to quieten the bothersome person down and push them away; and then Jesus usually intervenes, gives the disciples a row, shows the person compassion and then, heals them.
But not here; here, the woman yells and pleads for help, and Jesus does what? He IGNORES her.
Jesus the Good Shepherd; Gentle Jesus meek and mild; Jesus, the compassionate lover of souls; the Lamb of God; the King of Kings IGNORES her; but wait, it gets worse. When she persistently harps on at Him, He doesn’t even say something we are used to like “your prayers have been answered" or "your faith is strong" or "go in peace”; no, when she asks for His help, Jesus tells her, “It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.”
This is harsh, Jesus is angry here and he does not want to help. Jesus knows what His ministry is, and His ministry does not include this woman, her demon-possessed daughter, or any other gentile.
She is not one to whom He came to save; in fact, to a Jew at that time she is not even a “who” but a “what.” She was an animal without a name, worthy of nothing from the Children of Israel, the chosen people of God.
Was Jesus teaching her a lesson as some commentators suggests; well it’s a bit severe as the women is reminded of her feeble existence, but that’s not what is happening here?
This story lets us see the human side of Jesus, the side in which he was brought up as a Jew, and in doing so, it was instilled in him that that Canaanites were totally unworthy, and as so, his first reaction was to reject this woman; but then his father, through the Holy Spirit intervened, and taught Jesus the lesson here first. In this passage we actually see Jesus being redirected from his human objectives to his divine objectives, and God’s ultimate purpose, and that included this Canaanite woman, and every other gentile.
Jesus was actually being ticked off here, because up to this point his mission had been to care for the children of Israel and to try to bring them to the fulfilment of their destiny as God’s chosen people. No other race or tribe was considered at this stage.
Jesus was fully human, but Jesus was also fully divine, so for the fully human Jesus, like us, His ministry unfolded in front of Him.
His father must have suddenly stopped him and I can just hear the voice of the Father in His ear, “Wait a minute Jesus”, “I made this one, just the same as I made all the others; including you”. “They are all my children; they are all worth the same”.
So Jesus suddenly stops ignoring her and listens with those compassionate ears we’re used to; and then He hears the words, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David”. This woman actually recognises his authority and is asking for help, not for herself, but for another, for her daughter.
She went on to say when ignored, “Lord, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table”. She still recognises his authority, and is not asking for equality, or the same status with the Jews, “just the crumbs off the table”
Then He suddenly sees her for what she is, a child of God who is faithfully praying for help, and in do so, he helps her, and her daughter.
There are many lessons to learn from this story but we shall look at two.
1. The first is that we are accustomed to recognising the fact that any human being on earth can be a Christian. How it was done is well documented in the bible, especially by Paul and John in the New Testament; but the first mention of Christianity being available for everyone takes place in this Gospel story. This is where God corrected Jesus, and shows us that every human being on earth is his creation and as such are entitled to call on the name of Jesus.
In fact it was so successful that the Jews themselves felt rejected by God. Paul himself said so in his letter to the Romans this morning:
“I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite … God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew”.
2. Secondly, we must identify exactly who are the dogs in our lives. Make no mistake, we all have them. The dogs are the people we prejudge as less than ourselves simply because of some characteristic about them that either: we don’t like; or don’t approve; or don’t understand.
It maybe people of different ethnic background. Have you ever told or laughed at a joke that makes fun of someone else’s ethnicity in a cruel or demeaning way? Of course you have, the Scots are mean, the Irish are thick, the Hispanics are lazy, we have heard them all, we’ve probably told them; but this is no different from Jesus calling this Canaanite woman a dog? Aren’t both therefore dehumanizing?
How about people who are socially different than us? What about people who have a lot of tattoos, or piercings? You know the ones, they have partially shaved heads and what hair they have is coloured; what about them? Have we ever treated such a person differently than we would a friend? No, what if they’re dirty, homeless, foul mouthed or drunk drugged or doped; what if they’re openly gay? Are they any different from the Canaanite woman in this story?
What about the Muslims? Especially those in Afghanistan or Iraq; what about them? Are they different than this dog of a woman from Canaan who came to Jesus?
“Dogs” are all around us, and anyone can be a “dog”, all you have to do is take away someone’s humanity; and once someone has been reduced to the anonymity of dog status, then it is incredibly easy to treat them any way we want, without consequences.
Jesus told the disciples, (and us), to love our neighbours as ourselves, as it was that teaching that flooded through Jesus as He answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”
We live in an increasingly anonymous and fragmented world. More and more, every day we are being isolated from the rest of humanity. We travel in cars; we live in homes with less people in them, homes that are separated from other homes by gardens and fences. We, (or the younger generation), speak to each other by grunts and groans, text-message, and maybe by telephone and the internet, but less on a face-to-face level.
People generally avoid eye contact these days; anonymity is the name of the game, and on top of that, we’re constantly being told that we should fear or hate everyone who doesn’t look or think the way we do. For example are illegal aliens not people; are queers and bi-sexual not people; are Christians, not people.
We can only start treating people as children of God when we get to know them as children of God. We can only begin to treating people with the love of a neighbour that Jesus called for, when we get to know them as human beings first and then as a neighbour.
The message I want you all to take home today is simple: it’s all too easy to mistreat people when we have dehumanized them; it’s harder to treat someone as a dog if we know his or her name, if we know about their family and their lives.
We are all different, but we can be good or bad different. I know bad Christians but I also know good Muslims. I know homosexuals who are discrete and are trying to be an asset to the community and others whose activities are a total disgrace.
God made everyone of us, and loves each of us as we want to be loved; as parts of a wonderful creation.
Those who deserve to be feared and ostracized will prove it over time; but until you get to know them, you’ll never know which ones are worth saving. So try not to make anyone a dog, because they may turn out to be a child of God like ourself. Until we know differently, we need to assume they deserve the same respect we do; if they don’t, you’ll soon know it; but more will deserve respect than those who don’t.
We are all God’s children; and we must act like it’s so. Everyone in the world has the ability to be a Christian and follow Jesus, so who are we to decide otherwise.
To finish I will show you two passages in the New Testament where today’s teaching is particularly relevant, the first is in Acts 2, verse 21 “that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
The word whosoever includes everyone; the Jews, the Gentiles, the Greeks and the Romans; it also includes the Arabs, the Chinese, the smallest of tribes from the deepest parts of Borneo, and even the French.
Our last scripture is from Matthew 28:18, the great commission, where Jesus said that “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”
This great commission which is aimed at us would be worded so differently; had Jesus rejected this woman’s plea for help. Just how would things be today in this world, if only a select few were allowed to follow Jesus?
Amen; let us pray!
Let us pray,
Father we thank you for Jesus. We thank you that he was human and that his ministry unfolded before him.
Father we ask too that our ministries be opened in front of us. We have all different skills and qualities, and therefore a place in this world to do your will.
Father I ask you today to show us exactly where you want us to be. Give us that peace of knowing that we are doing your will and serving your almighty purpose.
We ask also that you may bless others through us, and that many will come to know Jesus through us and our actions as stated in your great commission.
We ask in the name of Jesus, that we serve you with joy in our hearts.
Amen.
