[Linda Begins]
The comedian Jeff Foxworthy became famous with his routine, "You might be a redneck if . . .” You know the ones. Like:
You might be a redneck if you took a fishing pole to Sea World.
or
You might be a redneck if your dad walks you to school because you’re both in the same grade.
What you might not know is that there are redneck churches too. You might be in a redneck church if:
• People ask when they learn that Jesus fed the 5000, whether the two fish were bass or catfish, and what bait was used to catch ’em.
• When the pastor says, "I’d like to ask Bubba to help take up the offering", five guys and two women stand up.
• Opening day of deer season is recognized as an official church holiday.
• A member of the church requests to be buried in his 4-wheel-drive truck because "It ain’t never been in a hole it couldn’t get out of,"
• Baptism is referred to as "branding."
• High notes on the organ set the dogs to howling.
• The collection plates are really hub caps from a ’56 Chevy.
We could do the same things with Pharisees. You might be a Pharisee if:
• You pray in public, but not in private (Mat 6:5)
• You judge people by the company that they keep (Mat 9:11)
• You think that if somebody else does something good, they must be involved in some sort of scam (Mat 9:34)
• You think that it is bad to do good on the Sabbath (Mat 12:2)
• You think that your traditions and observances, not your character, determine your purity (Mat 15:12)
• You like to teach the law to others, but do not follow it yourself (Mat 23:2)
• You think that tithing is more important than justice (Mat 23:23)
[Tim interrupts]
Hold on there. I represent the PADL that is the Pharisee Anti-Defamation League. The PADL is tired of you preachers giving Pharisees a bad name. If any of you in this room had been around in the first century, you would have thought of Pharisees as the most honorable and respectable of all people. They were among the most powerful and influential religious leaders of their day.
The term “Pharisee” means separate one. During the period of Greek occupation of Israel, the Pharisees were the ones who encouraged the people to remain true to God and to reject Greek culture, Greek philosophy, and Greek religion. Without the Pharisees, the Jewish faith might have disappeared. Their concern for the purity of ritual and religious tradition continued into the first century.
The Pharisees had great respect for religious tradition, for scripture, and especially for the law. During the time of Jesus, they were thought of as the foremost authorities when it came to understanding what the law taught.
Pharisees were generous in their giving. They were tithers. They prayed several times each day, often in public so that they could serve as an example to others. It was incredibly difficult to maintain ritual purity, and yet they never shirked from the task.
Anyone of us would have admired the faith and devotion of these holy men – probably holier than any of us. They obviously had deeply held beliefs that they practiced with faithfulness, sincerity and discipline. The Pharisees have gotten a bum rap.
[Linda resumes]
What you are saying may be true, but it misses the point. The Pharisees taught a faith that was all about the external observation of a collection of rules. It is impossible for anyone to obey all the rules all the time, so the Pharisees set up a different standard. They sought assurance of their own righteousness by comparing themselves to the sinfulness of others. Instead of accepting others as fellow children of Abraham - who were also God’s chosen, they saw themselves as the true and faithful remnant of the people of Israel. They had to maintain a separation from those around them so that they could avoid infection and remain pure. They saw God as a judge who might not find them sinless, but who would judge them to be superior to others. They actually delighted in the failures of others because it made them feel more secure in the comparison. Sort of sounds like Junior High doesn’t it?
Because their faith was external, it ignored their character. Hatred, envy, or lust did not matter if they weren’t acted upon. That is why Jesus called them “white washed tombs” – beautiful on the outside, but utterly full of corruption.
This alone would have been bad enough, but there was something far worse that they did. They taught others that the only way to be acceptable to God was to emulate them. They imposed a religion of external faith. Anyone who listened to their words was led away from a relationship with a loving and forgiving God. The Pharisees knew a lot about God but they didn’t really know God.
It is true that they were seen as the most holy of men in the first century. That is precisely why Jesus makes an example of the folly of people relying on their own righteousness rather than on a relationship with a loving and forgiving God. It’s not enough to study religion or even to study the Bible. We must respond to God Himself.
The Pharisees were blind to God’s truth, to the message of a personal relationship with Him. Even today not all religious leaders clearly see God’s truth. Sometimes our leaders get so bogged down in worrying about offending someone that they water down the Gospel. Jesus didn’t worry about offending those who disagreed with him. He did it all the time. Not to be rude or demeaning to them, but to expose them to the absolute truth of God’s message - that He created us and that He loves us. The Pharisees had faith in the religious system, Jesus pointed to God, who was beyond the system.
In Acts 10 Peter learns that everything God made is holy. That included the Gentiles, the outsiders. You see, God loves us all, just exactly the way we are. We are invited to come to him, dirty, broken, polluted, ugly and incomplete and He cleans us, fixes us, purifies us, beautifies us and completes us through a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.
While the Pharisees in our story represent the height of human purity, there is another character in our story that represents the precise opposite. By the rules of first century Jewish faith, there was no one further from God than the Canaanite woman we read about.
Her first problem was that she was a woman. Women were little more than property. There was even a special court in the Temple that was called the Court of the Women because women had to be kept far from the holier parts of the Temple. They were considered to be incapable of understanding the teachings of the law. They were never allowed to discuss religion with the Rabbi’s or the teachers of the law. Instead, they were to learn what they needed to know from their husbands or fathers. Boy, wouldn’t the Pharisees of had a cow to see Mary seated at the feet of Jesus learning and discussing scripture.
Still worse, this woman was not even a Jew. She was a descendant of the Canaanite people who were thought of as cursed by God. After all hadn’t God chosen to take their land and give it to the Israelites as the Promised Land? These were the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Surely God had good reason for rejecting these people. They and all their descendents were cursed for eternity. These were the enemies of Israel.
Notice that the disciples themselves had bought into their culture’s view of the woman. They don’t bring her to Jesus and ask Him to help her. They come to Jesus to tell him that this woman is bothering them and they want Jesus to send her away. Not only do they not want to help her child they don’t even want to share the message of God with her. They think she is too far outside the reach of God to believe in the God of Israel. To have faith that Jesus can heal her child.
Okay, so what is Jesus reaction to her and to the disciples? His immediate reaction is one of silence. Why would he be silent? What is He thinking?
Here the passage becomes very difficult for us to understand. We see the woman as a sympathetic figure, and Jesus seems unimaginably harsh. First he states that He was sent to the House of Israel and then he compares the woman to a dog. What are we to make of this?
One would think that the Creator would not be easily impressed. But something about this woman probable brought at sparkle to God’s eyes and, most likely, a smile to his face. This woman is desperate. Her daughter is demon-possessed. This Canaanite woman has no right to ask anything of Jesus. She is not a Jew. She is not a disciple. She offers no money ….But that doesn’t slow her down. She persists in her plea. “Have mercy on me!” Matthew is the one who tells us that Jesus is silent. I think that he was admiring her. I think that it did his heart good to see some spunky faith for a change. I think that it refreshed him to see someone asking him to do the very thing he came to do – give great gifts to unworthy children. How strange that we don’t allow him to do it more often for us.
You know, it’s funny how the Jews had an air about being the chosen ones. Jesus came first for the Jews because God wanted them to love Him so much they wouldn’t be able to hold back their excitement about sharing His good news.
I think that Jesus is taking advantage of this moment to teach a lesson to the disciples. Could it be that Jesus is speaking tongue in cheek? Is it wry exchange in which God’s unlimited grace is being highlighted? Could Jesus be so delighted to have found one who is not bartering with a religious system or proud of a heritage that he can’t resist a bit of satire?
He knows he can heal her daughter. He knows her heart is good. So he decides to engage in a humorous moment with a faithful woman. In essence, here’s what they said: “Now, you know that God only cares about Jews,” he says smiling. And when she catches on, she volleys back, “But your bread is so precious, I’ll be happy to eat the crumbs.” In a spirit of exuberance, he bursts out, “Never have I seen such faith! Your daughter is healed.” This story does not portray a contemptuous God. It portrays a willing One who delights in a sincere seeker. Aren’t you glad he does?
There is true wisdom embedded in the woman’s response when she talks about scraps falling from the master’s table. What is the nature of leftovers and scraps in the light of God’s abundance? Remember that this passage occurs in a section that began with the feeding of the five thousand. How much was left-over there? Five loaves and two fishes were distributed to the children. The scraps from the Master’s table filled twelve baskets. There is no end to God’s abundant love. One can never give too much of it away. God’s scraps are a banquet feast.
In the end Jesus commends the woman’s great faith and heals her daughter. In all of the Gospels, Jesus only uses the phrase “great faith” twice. Once he is describing the faith of a Roman Centurion (Mat 8) and the second is here. Isn’t it odd that “great faith” is mention in relationship to outsiders?
The entire passage represents a faith turned utterly upside down. The most righteous of the children of Israel are called blind guides and condemned. The one furthest from ritual righteousness is commended for her faith. What does this say to us? With whom should we identify? Are we more like the Pharisees or the woman?
We began with “you might be a Pharisee if” lines. Do you remember? Does this sound like people in church? Do we pray in public, but not in private? Do we judge others by the company that they keep? Do we value our traditions and our rituals more than we value good character? Do we set standards for others that we fail to follow ourselves? And most importantly, have we lost compassion for those people whom we know who are far from God? You know the ones that I’m talking about. They might be your neighbors or your coworkers or even members of your own family. Have we created a church that passes communion wafers but fails to offer the Bread of Life to those outside? They are not dogs. They are God’s children.
Max Lucado writes: “The Father sighs because he has a dream. ‘I have other sheep that are not in this flock, and I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd.’ God has only one flock. Somehow we missed that. Religious division is not his idea. Franchises and sectarianism are not in God’s plan. God has one flock. The flock has one shepherd. And though we may think there are many, we are wrong. There is only one. Never in the Bible are we told to create unity. We are simply told to maintain the unity that exists. Paul exhorts us to preserve ‘the unity which the Spirit gives.’ Our task is not to invent unity, but to acknowledge it. When I see someone calling God ‘Father’ and Jesus ‘Savior’, I meet a brother or a sister – regardless of the name of their church or denomination. By the way, the church names we banter about? They do not exist in heaven. The Book of Life does not list your denomination next to your name. Why? Because it is not the denomination that saves you. And I wonder, if there are no denominations in heaven, why do we have denominations on earth? What would happen (I know this is a crazy thought), but what would happen if all the churches agreed, on a given day, to change their names to simply “church?” What if any reference to any denomination were removed and we were all just Christians? And then when people chose which church to attend, they wouldn’t do so by the sign outside …. They’d do so by the hearts of the people inside. And then when people were asked what church they attended, their answer wouldn’t be a label but just a location. And then we Christians wouldn’t be know for what divides us; instead we’d be known for what unites us – our common Father. Crazy idea? Perhaps. But I think God would like it. After all it was His idea to begin with.?
