Matthew 15:10-28
The Old Turtle and the
broken truth. I asked Beth to read this book as the children’s message this
morning specifically as an introduction to this morning’s scripture. The story
of a world holding up the mantra You are Loved, sounds amazing, sounds
peaceful, sounds Holy, and it is, but it is not the whole message.
You are a child of God.
It’s an amazing, peaceful, Holy thing. But it’s not the whole truth, not by a
long shot.
Let us listen for the
word of God.
Read Matt 15:10-28
10 Then
he 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 that place 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.
The Word of God, for the
People of God.
I have struggled and
wrestled and fought with this scripture so much this week that it has seeped
into my relationships with other people. I’ve talked about this scripture with
friends and family. I’ve fought about this scripture with my Mom, and blessed
the truth of these verses and found agreement with my brother. I even
considered naming this sermon “Going to the Dogs” but couldn’t bring myself to
be bold enough to put it in the bulletin.
I love and have loved
this passage of scripture. It is an honest, clear theological debate between
Jesus and a woman. And, like most of us in this world, my ears perk up when
someone I perceive as “like me” is mentioned in scripture. I’ve had an affinity
with this persistent, loud mouth woman who refuses to give up. I’ve admired her
tenacity, her spirit. This woman, who gets in a theological debate with the
Messiah, has always been my hero.
But there’s been a part
that is unsatisfying about her story. Most of my life I have heard it interpreted
in this manner.
Jesus is with the
disciples, perhaps tiered in spirit if not physically, and this annoying woman
makes her plea. Jesus ignores her, then denies her to test her. If she passes
this litmus test of faith, her daughter will be healed. If not, well, let’s not
think about this too much.
When viewed from this
perspective, the woman, and her sick daughter, are turned into an object lesson
with little to no actual value of their own. And that bothers me.
It bothers me because
it doesn’t jive with the way Jesus acts in the Gospels in general and in
Matthew specifically. It bothers me because it dismisses the experience as
nothing more than a training exercise. It bothers me because the langue of test
is nowhere in this scripture. It bothers me because it isn’t true, to the
character of Christ, or to the witness of scripture.
Too often this story is
read in isolation, which is why I choose to add verses 10-20 to our reading
today. Context is key.
This section comes at
the end of a discussion about the Pharisees and their purity culture obsession.
They were so concerned about remaining pure and clean that they created an
entire system of dos and don’ts and ins and outs. These laws and systems had
become oppressive, rather than life affirming. They had been twisted and turned
to keep people down instead of uniting God’s people under a shared identity.
They had become tools to harm rather than signs of holiness.
Jesus argues against
such systems, using words that would make any little boy giggle, saying that it’s
not what you put into your body that makes you unclean, it’s what comes out of
you that is unclean. Jesus’ potty humor here may make you smile, or may offend
you, but it has a purpose. He goes on to say that it’s what comes out of the
mouth, the words you speak, that show the cleanliness or uncleanliness of your
heart.
Immediately following
this we have the Canaanite woman calling out “Have mercy on me Lord, Son of
David.” This is shocking and unexpected. Why?
Well a couple of
reasons. One, Canaanites had not been around for many, many years. The promised
land had been the land of Canaan, and the region had been “cleansed” shall we
say by the Israelites as they moved in.
There were not a group
of people who called themselves Canaanites at this time, it was an ancient label
meant to evoke a feeling, an image. “Outsider, other, Gentile.”
This woman was not
Jewish, she was not of the family of Abraham, she was not a part of the family
of God.
She however, has heard
of this Jesus, this Lord, this Son of David, and as a mother, will do anything,
even speak publicly to a man she is not related to in any way shape or form,
for the sake of her ailing child.
And Jesus ignores her.
Perhaps he is exhausted
from the crowds. Perhaps he doesn’t hear her. Perhaps he thinks one of the disciples
will step up. These are all arguments I’ve heard, but they go in the face of
what is on the page. He does not answer her at all.
He couldn’t have missed
her crying out, described as squawking, and to be sure he doesn’t miss it, the
disciples beg him to send her away. Send away this gentile, loud obnoxious
women, Jesus. Her begging for mercy is getting on our nerves, we are sick of
it. She needs to be quiet and go back where she comes from.
The disciples are
uncomfortable. This Gentile woman is making a scene with her asking/demanding
for mercy and healing. She should know better, she should know her place.
And Jesus doesn’t seem
to disagree. “I was sent to the lost children of Israel.” That’s it. Jesus was
sent to the people of Israel and everyone else is just out of luck.
She however, she
persisted. She did not give up. She hit her knees in the dirt before him and
again cried out “Lord, help me!”
Jesus looks at her
there on her knees and says, “It’s not right to take the children’s food and
give it to the dogs.”
Yes, this is Jesus here,
calling a woman, an entire group of people, dogs. And not in the cute and
cuddly, I love that puppy kind of way. Dogs were not pets. They were
utilitarian at best, used as living alarm systems. But more often than not,
they were scavengers, roaming the outskirts of town and launching missions into
populated areas in search of food.
Jesus say his mission as being to the children
of Israel. The chosen people. God’s people. This gentile woman did not fit into
the picture. She complicated things, perhaps even made him as uncomfortable as
she made the disciples. She didn’t fit into how Jesus saw this whole thing
working out.
And that’s a hard thing
for many of us to hear. Jesus had to learn. As Jill Duffield points out perhaps
at this point, “How can this be? He is Jesus, Son of Man, Son of God, Son of
David, divine, Jesus!
But he's fully human
too, remember? Without sin, but fully human, and being fully human encompasses
grief, frustration, desperation, fatigue, love, compassion and indifference.
And I find this messy display of Jesus' complex discernment a relief. If Jesus
has these feelings they are not only allowed, but sanctified and holy. It is
also a relief to know that our circumstances today, no matter how dire or
seemingly intractable, are not destined to be our circumstances forever. God
is, after all, always doing a new thing, and Jesus in this story proves that
truth.”[i]
The woman does not give
up at this point, but instead says “Even the dogs get to eat scraps.” And with
those words, in that moment. Jesus learns more about himself, recognizes more
about his calling. He sounds joyful to me as he is honestly surprised by this
gentile woman’s faith. His tone is celebratory as he agrees to heal her
daughter and to step into this part of his mission, as a savior to not only Israel,
but to the world.
It is as if she showed
him the other half of that truth, you are loved, and so are they.
That is the truth that
Jesus, for lack of a better word, learns in his encounter with the Canaanite
Gentile woman. There is a wildness in God’s mercy. It spreads farther than we
can imagine and is deeper than we can fathom.
Sometimes I am guilty
of forgetting that truth. Sure, I know God is no made in my image. I know that
God is reflected in the eyes and faces of all nations, races, genders. But it’s
not always easy to see.
Jesus didn’t take the
easy road here, and neither should we. We need to speak out against the things
that are sinful, that harm God’s people, like the sin of While nationalism, the
sin of Neo-Nazi attitudes and actions. These things must be condemned in the
strongest of ways.
At the same time, we
must not become that which we condemn. We must pray for, love, seek to teach
those whose sins lead to actions and words of hate. We must not fight fire with
fire, because if we keep doing that, the only thing that will happen is the
whole world will burn.
The woman could have
yelled at Jesus to treat her better. She could have spat in his face, called
him racist and shook the dust off of her feet. She could have led a group of
demonstrators against him. She could have called for Jesus and his people to be
attacked. But instead, she humbled herself before him and honestly spoke of her
need.
We need to humble
ourselves before God and ask for what we really need. Healing, forgiveness,
unity. We must listen when our brothers and sisters tell us what their lives
are like. We must acknowledge that, in the words of Will Wheaton “It is a privilege
to learn about racism instead of experiencing it your whole life!”
We must be willing to
open our eyes, minds and hearts, just like Jesus. And have faith that the God in
whose image we are all created, will heal us all.
