Matthew 15:10-28
There’s been a lot of name calling,
drawing of lines and taking sides this past week. It really shouldn’t be a surprise. We human beings are tribal by nature. We have a deep desire to belong, whether it
be to a family, a social group, a political party, a church. Well-meaning people, without intentionally
trying to exclude anyone, tend to congregate with others who are pretty much
the same as they are. (I mean, look at
us.) Clearly, we find comfort in the
familiar. Which means that people who
are different than us or circumstances that ask us to change at the very least
makes us feel uncomfortable, but more often stir up anxiety and fear which
rarely brings out our best selves. This
darker side of humanity has been particularly on display.
Given all that’s been going on in our
city and our nation, I can’t help but see our gospel lesson through this lens
that makes me acutely sensitive to name calling, line drawing and taking
sides. What’s particularly disturbing in
this instance is that Jesus seems to be on the wrong side of the issue. It beings in the middle of our reading when
we are told that Jesus goes away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. This is foreign territory naturally inhabited
for by foreigners. It is there that
Jesus is approached by a Canaanite woman who desperately needs help. Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my
daughter is tormented by a demon.
It’s not the first time that a parent had come to Jesus asking,
pleading, with him to heal their child.
And Jesus, at least the Jesus we know and love, is always more than
willing to help.
But this time is different. Jesus ignores her. So the woman keeps shouting, Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my
daughter is tormented by a demon!
She is causing such a ruckus that the disciples ask Jesus to just get
rid of her, send her away. It comes as
rather a shock to hear Jesus respond, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. Translation - she’s not a Jew, she’s not one of us, I didn’t
come for her. On the surface, at least,
Jesus draws a line and takes a side.
And it only gets worse. The poor woman, able to get herself right in
front of Jesus, kneels at his feet and continues to plead, Lord, help me. Jesus has
already drawn a line, made her the “other” and now here comes the name
calling. He says, It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs. It’s a racial slur that demeans this woman,
her daughter and all of her people.
It’s ironic that it is the very
teachings of Jesus, himself, about the great love God has for all people that
makes this encounter with the Canaanite woman so disturbing to us. It doesn’t
make sense. And there’s a lot of
theological backbends that people do to justify Jesus’ behavior. A common
explanation is that Jesus was testing this woman’s faith knowing that she’d
pass with flying colors. Others say that
Jesus’ body language and tone of voice made it clear that he was just
joking. Some suggest that it
demonstrates Jesus’s human side that was influenced and prejudiced by his
culture. Still others insist it simply
didn’t happen and that early Church made it up.
Whether or not these explanations help you to understand this story
their very existence speaks to the consensus of thought that being exclusive
and insulting is not the way of God revealed to us through Christ.
That’s something we all can agree on and
the truth is that we may never know what’s really going in this story. Nonetheless, for whatever reason Jesus did
what he did his behavior mirrors the tribal tendency of human beings. Jesus is acting (again, for whatever reason)
like he too wants to keep to his own people, staying safe with the familiar and
comfortable. We can identify with that,
can’t we?
But Jesus doesn’t get stuck there like
the rest of tend to do. Remarkably, even
in the face of insult this woman does not give up. She is given the gift that I’m sure we’d all
like to have - the gift of the quick comeback.
Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat
the crumbs that fall from their masters' table. And here Jesus models for us an openness to
growth and change - he switches gears. Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done
for you as you wish. And her
daughter was healed instantly. Clearly,
by the end of this encounter the interaction between Jesus and the Canaanite
woman demonstrates to everyone that in God’s Kingdom there is no line, no
boundary, no in or out group that separates one human being from another. In God’s Kingdom there is just love and grace
and mercy for everyone.
Now, I can’t say how it works for Jesus,
being both fully God and fully human, but for the rest of us who solely fall in
the fully human category, along with our tendency to be tribal an essential
part of our humanity is growth and change.
Obviously, that happens with our bodies all the time, but it needs to
happen with our minds too. Problems
develop when we get stuck and think we know it all. Teenagers often feel this way. I know I did.
But it doesn’t take long for life to happen, give the necessary dose of humility
to prod us along in development.
However, we can revisit that mentality at various times in our adulthood
when we are certain that we’ve seen enough, experienced enough, learned enough
to come to firm, intractable conclusions.
In the encounter Jesus has with the
Canaanite woman, Jesus shows us a different way . How a person can start with one understanding
that feels safe and comfortable, but then be willing to let it go in order to
embrace a new perspective that is truer and richer. That’s what human beings are really good at
when we are brave enough to chance it.
Now I would be surprised if there is anyone here who thinks that God’s
love and grace is limited to a select few.
But I would also be surprised if there are not things in all of us -
what we do or think or believe that needs to change so that we can more fully
bring God’s love and grace into the world.
The rally in Charlottesville last week
and all that has come in its wake has stirred up a lot of fear and anxiety in
our community and in our country. As we
seek to find the best response the all-inclusive love of God needs to be our
guiding principle and Jesus our exemplar.
With all humility we must dare to let our perspectives and our
understandings grow and change so that we are better able to see like Jesus
sees, do what Jesus does, love like Jesus loves. The deep desire all human beings have to
belong is only able to be fully met in God’s Kingdom where there is only love,
only grace, only mercy for everyone, no exceptions. In in the power of the Spirit let us be at
work to make it so.
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