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"Did You Hear What He Said?" I struggle with this story. I don’t like the way Matthew tells us about these awful words Jesus says. After all, in Matthew’s story, Jesus calls the woman a dog. Tells her that what he has to offer, the healing he brings, is not for her, not for “her kind.” Not for people like her. I also don’t like the notion that the Christ seems unfeeling and uncaring for the woman until she one-ups him in his rabbinical argument. Turns the words on him. “For dogs like us,” she tells him, “crumbs are enough. We’re used to getting the crumbs.” In the story, that seems to change Jesus’ mind, and he grants the woman her wish. Not a very flattering picture of Jesus. My own understanding of Jesus is the inclusive one. The one who offers Samaritans living water. The Jesus who eats with tax collectors and associates with sinners. The Jesus who heals lepers and touches the unclean. THAT Jesus. How could THAT Jesus tell a Canaanite woman that she was no better than a dog. That what he had to offer was only for the children of Israel? Doesn’t that bother you? You see, I need a Jesus who is inclusive. The story Matthew tells here seems to imply that Jesus is just like so many of the rest of us--overall, pretty good people, but on occasion, prejudicial, arrogant, narrow minded, not too open to folks different from the us. We have all, probably, at one time or another, have shut someone out. I have done it. I know I have. There is, for most of us, someone we’d rather not associate with, at least not closely. Goodness knows, the Disciples were that way! “Send her away, Lord, for she keeps shouting at us!” Maybe they were embarrassed, or maybe they were feeling harassed. Either way, they didn’t want anything to do with her. Sometimes we want to send people away. Perhaps we are embarrassed to be associated with them, or embarrassed by their behavior. Or, perhaps we are feeling overwhelmed, harassed. Pushed to our limit. Either way, there are those we don’t want anything to do with. Can you think of some in your mind? Sometimes it is the color of their skin. Or their native language or accent. Sometimes it is the smell of their body odor. Or their rude or brash behavior. Sometimes it’s the choices they make which bring about their problems (alcohol, tobacco, promiscuous sexual activity, drug use) It could be their sexual orientation. Or their clothing, hair or body art. Who do we distance ourselves from? It can even be their religious beliefs. Who stands over the line that you cannot bear to cross? Mormons? Jehovah Witnesses? Jews or Muslims? Shortly after the 9/11 disaster in this country, a Missouri Synod Lutheran pastor was forced to give up his credentials because he participated in an inter-faith worship service in Yankee Stadium. The supervising bishop said that the Lutheran pastor had “worshipped with pagans.” Apparently, he agreed that it was not right to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” You see, I know humanity can be prejudiced. I have plenty of evidence that people are not inclusive in their relationships with one another. I know that mere mortals will always find a barrier somewhere that they cannot cross. That’s why I need to know that Jesus is better than that. That Jesus can teach us a lesson on how to be more inclusive! Ah--maybe that’s exactly the point. What if Jesus is trying to teach his Disciples a lesson? Maybe Matthew, in telling this story, is trying to help all of us learn a valuable lesson from Jesus. I have come to believe that is what is happening in this passage. I find my first clue not in what Jesus says, but in what Jesus does. I’ve learned that to lift a particular incident from the rest of the story, to pull one thing out of the larger context is dangerous. And that most of the time, there is an answer awaiting those who take the time to dig a bit, study a bit, and figure out what is happening in the story. This is an open bible sermon--don’t get lost. Let’s take a look at Matthew 15 for a moment. You can turn in your Bibles or follow with me on the screen. Let’s begin at verse 10: Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. Okay, there appears to be something important he wants to teach them. he says, What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth--that is what makes him 'unclean.'"
But the disciples are worried that what he says has hurt some feelings. Whose feelings? Well, the Pharisees standing there with whom Jesus is having this confrontation. The Pharisees are precisely the “Children of Israel,” remember. Matthew goes on: “they came to him and asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?" And Jesus answers “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit."
Who is “them?” The Pharisees who were offended by Jesus‘ words. The Children of Israel. They are the “Blind leading the blind.” Leading Synagogues full of people who blindly adhere to the law. Peter asks Jesus to explain just what he’s talking about. Sounding a bit exasperated, Jesus replies to Peter: "Are you still so dull? Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.'"
The issue is apparently some Pharisees have objected to Jesus and his disciples eating with unwashed hands, claiming that this has made them unclean according to Jewish law. Remember, Jesus is teaching. He’s trying to show his Disciples that these very “Children of Israel,” the Pharisees, are misguided, wrong, and blind in their choice to follow the letter of the law rather than seek God’s intent. All of this sets the stage for the story of the Canaanite woman. Now then, comes a very important line. A CRUCIAL line. Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. Suppose for a moment that Jesus really had come only for the children of Israel, as we hear him later say to the Canaanite woman. Why then, did he withdraw to the region of Tyre and Sidon with his disciples? To the very region where he was much more likely to come into contact with a gentile, a Canaanite than he would a Jew, a child of Israel? This is a key point. Jesus was continuing his lesson. If he couldn’t make them understand with words, he would show them with actions. So he takes them to the region of the Canaanites. And sure enough, who should approach them? A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession." Jesus did not answer a word.
Do you suppose he’s waiting to see how his disciples might respond to her? They do respond, exactly in the way he had guessed they would. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us."
Then he answered them, using the age-old device of assuming the opposing argument to drive home his point. "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." Do you hear it? The inflexion in the voice that protests too loudly…as a way of goading those who are listening into defending their own position? Haven’t you ever done that, or been in a debate with someone who has done that? “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel…” Isn’t that right fellahs? Isn’t that what you believe? And by saying this, Jesus casts the logic of the disciples, who were so worried about offending the Pharisees, into a new situation. The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said. He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."
Ah—those awful words. But does it change it, if Jesus is saying those words aloud to make the most of a teachable moment for his disciples? Can’t you almost see him glancing to the side, looking to see if the disciples recognize the rhetoric they had heard from those in the Synagogues. Tongue firmly planted in cheek, he says those awful words, I believe, not because he means them, not because he wants to belittle the woman, but because he is teaching the disciples a lesson. “Right fellahs? The children of Israel, we feed them, but not these animals out here in this region.” (You remember of course, it was just the day before he and his disciples had handed out bread and fish to feed the crowd of thousands that had followed him in Galilee) "Yes, Lord," the woman replies. "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."
Excellent! The woman’s own reply could not have been better. She exhibits what Jesus has been trying to show them, teach them from the beginning. It is faith, it is what comes from within a person that matters, not what one eats. He concludes his lesson with the final point. The Christ has something to offer faithful people, no matter who they are and where they come from. Jesus tells the woman, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
Matthew tells this story for a particular reason. He knows that there are those in his community, Christians who first were Jews, who are now concerned about others who are being included Christian faith who were not first adherents to the Law of Moses. Matthew knew that a powerful story from the life of Jesus could perhaps open his Christian community up--to be more inclusive. To focus upon the faith of those who proclaimed Jesus to be the Son of God, the Lord of all, rather than any of the dozens of differences that might exist between them. In the end, what mattered most was not how much one adhered to the laws and the rules and the dietary code—what mattered most was what was in one’s heart. No matter who you were. And so, the story is a lesson for us today. We who are often consumed by who should be or should not be in the family of Christ based on how different they might be from the rest of us. This lesson begs us to focus instead on what we might have in common: our faith in Jesus, the son of God, the Lord of healing, the hope for all people, the Shepherd of the lost. It’s true, we are the ones who need the lesson. And thanks be to God that Jesus is always our model for true faith. For true inclusiveness. For true revelation of the nature of God.
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