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BACKGROUND INFORMATION {21} Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Do you notice a pattern in these stories in Matthew? Every time Jesus encounters religious zealots who want to enslave people with their laws, we see him leaving Jewish territory and going to Gentile land. After Jesus failed to make friends with the Pharisees, he once again departs to Gentile land, to the region of Tyre and Sidon. (MAP SLIDE) {22} 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." There are several reasons why this encounter was in violation of norms and customs of that time.
What is also interesting here is that this Gentile woman addresses Jesus, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David," with the same words already used by first century Christians in their worship. Later Christians would develop this into what is called, "The Jesus Prayer." "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Is Matthew working in a prayer already familiar to the audience to which he is writing? {23} 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." {24} He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Jesus’ response is somewhat confusing. Is Jesus being silent in order to think about what he wants to say? Is he truly trying to ignore her? Or is it a strategy to engage her? No doubt the disciples, seeing that Jesus was ignoring the shouting woman, asked him to send her away. There wasn’t much compassion for this woman and she was likely beginning to get on their nerves. Jesus responds by saying that his mission is only to the Israelites. Why would he say this? Israel was the necessary first stage in God's whole design for human salvation -- a plan that included Gentiles, but not at this moment. Jesus understood the whole path of his ministry as a journey leading toward human salvation. But biblical tradition ordained that to save all humanity the message must first go to Israel so that the Jews could then witness to the rest of the world. {25} But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." {26} He answered, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." {27} She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." The woman demonstrates the proper respect for Jesus by kneeling and calling him, "Lord." How are we to understand Jesus’ response? As "the children" of God, the Jews are to be fed first. Still, Jesus' characterization of the Gentile others as "dogs" hits us as an unnecessary racial slur. Some scholars have tried to soften this characterization by noting that the term Jesus uses here is for pet or domesticated dogs -- not the wild untamed dogs of the desert. One interesting aspect of this story is the reversal of the usual pattern. Usually a situation provokes a hostile question from some onlooker to Jesus, to which Jesus responds with a correcting question, and then drives home his point which the opponent would be hard put to deny. In this story it is Jesus who provides the hostile saying and the woman correcting him. Instead of disputing her status as second-in-line behind the mission to Israel, she humbly acknowledges her position. But her clever use of Jesus' own image demonstrates to him that there is still a way that she might receive a portion of God's bread. The woman does not deny the children of Israel the primacy of the table. Yet, she asserts that there remains a place for her as well. {28} Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly. Jesus is clearly impressed and inspired by this Gentile woman's tenacity and vision. He is now able to see how the table of God set before Israel may be stretched to accommodate a far more inclusive group of diners. But note that it is not the woman's cleverness Jesus praises or deems as the reason he will now give her the healing she desires. With his declaration, "great is your faith," Jesus defines the new qualification for admission to the table -- faithfulness. WHAT GOD MIGHT BE SAYING TO US TODAY This story comes with lots of questions. Why do you think Jesus is so harsh to this woman? Does she finally best him in an argument and get him to do something he did not want to do? How did a Gentile woman come to have faith in Jesus as "Son of David"? Such questions reveal our own need to understand biblical stories as eyewitness reports, where everything being told is an absolute fact of history. But Matthew is interested in teaching us the meaning of what God has done in history through Jesus Christ. It is this larger picture that we need to see. I’d like to offer three large picture views of what God may be saying to us through this story. First, during Jesus’ ministry, God’s plan for salvation was offered first to the Jews. After Easter it was broadened to include all nations. When you think about it this is a natural human phenomenon. Any knowledge, any experience, comes to some human beings before it comes to others. God’s purpose in choosing Israel was to show the world that it is God’s nature to be in relationship with people. The Jews began to feel that their chosen-ness made them superior to other nations. They wanted God to only be their God and no one else’s. I remember feeling this way in 1972 when I attended Explo 72 in Dallas, the first modern mass Christian gathering. In the evenings we assembled in the Cotton Bowl to listen to Christian music and preachers. It was there that I first heard the song, "Pass It On." As I encountered hundreds and thousands of Christian young people I felt a bit jealous. It took me awhile to get my mind around the concept that God was their God too! When you have an intimate relationship with God it can be hard to think that God has that kind of relationship with millions of other people. The second large picture view has to do with the nature of faith. Had the woman said, "If you are the Son of God, command my daughter to be healed," she would be in same category as Peter. Remember last week when Peter called out to the figure walking on the water, "If it is you, Lord, command me to come out on the water." We tend to assume we know what faith is, and that our main problem is that we don’t have enough of it. Matthew’s stories challenge our false assumptions about the meaning of faith itself. There is a pastor who starts each confirmation class with a jar full of beans. He asks his students to guess how many beans are in the jar, and on a big pad of paper writes down their estimates. Then, next to those estimates, he helps them make another list: Their favorite songs. When the lists are complete, he reveals the actual number of beans in the jar. The whole class looks over their guesses, to see which estimate was closest to being right. The pastor then turns to the list of favorite songs. "And which one of these is closest to being right?" he asks. The students protest that there is no "right answer"; a person's favorite song is purely a matter of taste. The pastor, who holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Notre Dame asks, "When you decide what to believe in terms of your faith, is that more like guessing the number of beans, or more like choosing your favorite song?" Always, the pastor says, from old as well as young, he gets the same answer: Choosing one's faith is more like choosing a favorite song. Let us remember that Peter, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, was told by Jesus, "You of little faith." This Gentile woman heard Jesus say to her, "Great is your faith." Faith isn’t always what we think it is. It’s not about our preferences, our sincerity. It’s about giving our lives to Jesus and believing he is who he says he is, and that he will do what he says he will do! This woman didn’t need a sign like Peter did when Jesus walked on the water. She believed in her heart that Jesus was Lord, that he had power over demons, and that he could heal her daughter. The third larger view from this story is to remember that relationship with God is never confined to a few. The Canaanite woman was clearly an outsider from a Jewish perspective. Who are the "outsiders" in your life? An estranged member of your family? What about the homeless who beg for food at our city’s intersections? Are we tempted to think we are somewhat more valuable than them in the eyes of God? Dr. John Rosen, a psychiatrist in New York City, is well known for his work with catatonic schizophrenics. Dr. Rosen moves into the ward with them. He places his bed among their beds. He lives the life they must live. If they don’t talk, he doesn’t talk. It is as if he understands what is happening. His being there, being with them, communicates something that they haven’t experienced in years—somebody understands. But then he does something else. He puts his arms around them and hugs them. He holds these unattractive, unlovable, sometimes incontinent persons, and loves them back into life. Often, the first words they speak are simply, "Thank you." In this gospel story we are invited to place ourselves in the role of the "other", of this "outsider" woman. We are invited to struggle with Jesus. We are invited to struggle with our own perceptions of all who are labeled "other." Our faith, your faith and mine, is not based on how we feel. It is founded on the facts of history, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the faith into which all are invited. This is the faith possible for so-called "outsiders." This is the faith made real for people like you and me. For the promise of the gospel is that it doesn’t matter where we are on the journey of life. We can be loved back into full and complete life. And we can say with a grateful heart, "Thank you, God." |
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08.18.02 - BYOB – Matthew 15:21-28
