Matthew 15:[10-20] 21-28
[10 Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” 12 Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” 13 He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” 15 But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” 16 Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding?17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. 19 For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”] 21 Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 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.” 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.” 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.” 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.
Isaiah 56:1, 6-8
1 Thus says the Lord: Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed.6 And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant— 7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. 8 Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.
Grace, peace, and mercy are yours in the name of Christ. Amen.
It’s time. The day is finally here.
You have to make a decision.
You don’t have enough information, but you still have to decide. And whatever you choose, there will be ramifications.
First, you go to the professional. You read article after article that makes you think you should choose this option, but then you read something else and suddenly it sounds like you should choose that option.
And which is the safest way to go? What will people think of you, depending on the decision you make? What is the most faithful decision for the precious ones, who’ve been entrusted into your care?
It’s time. The day is finally here.
You’re the preacher on Sunday, August 16th, 2020 and you have to decide if Jesus needs to be scolded or defended.
Thanks a lot Jesus. You were on such a roll there. You had the sermon on the mount and all those beautiful beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who hunger for righteousness. Yes, yes, yes. More of that.
Then you tell us to love our enemies, and not to worry about our life because we are like treasure hidden in a field, or the most precious and valuable pearl. You cleanse a leper and heal a Roman centurion’s servant without skipping a beat. And then you take nearly nothing and turn it into something and feed almost 12,000 hungry people. This is good stuff. Keep going, Jesus. Then when each one of us is sinking a sea of despair and have little faith, you reach out your hand and pull us into the boat of safety. We loved that part.
And then today – you scold those Pharisees about not getting so hung up food purity laws but that rather we should pay attention to what comes out of our mouth – to the things we say, because that is what really reveals the nature of our hearts and that is what can truly defile a person. I totally agree, Jesus. Thank you – this is the kind of stuff we come to church for.
But then after all that…after everything you said… you head to a cabin up North to take break from the campaign trail and let this dog-gaff fly out of your mouth?
Breaking news this morning, Christianity’s Lord and Savior Jesus Christ suddenly goes off his Church party’s platform and calls a Canaanite woman a dog. No one is entirely sure why he said it or what he meant by it, but the speculation is fierce. Jesus Christ could not be reach for comment at the time of this sermon.
A Canaanite woman from the region of Tyre and Sidon came out to Jesus and his disciples and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” 23 … And Jesus answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25 But she doesn’t back down. She kneels before Jesus, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26 And Jesus answers, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
What was Jesus thinking? And does he need to be scolded or defended?
We don’t have enough information to decide.
Many scholars will scold Jesus and uphold the persistence and faithfulness of the Canaanite woman. They dismiss any suggestion that Jesus didn’t mean what he said, or the suggestion that he did mean what he said, but he meant dog in the cute-cuddly-lets-adopt-a-new-dog-during-a-pandemic sort of way. They dismiss any suggestion that Jesus and the woman were in on the joke together. That Jesus and the Canaanite woman were sort of nodding and winking at each other as they put on this little dramatic display of a disagreement for, you know, the disciples’. They always need to learn something.
Nope, many will say. Jesus is just plain wrong and this Canaanite woman knows it.
The word Canaanite should stand out to us. This is a word that is out of time. There were no Canaanites in Jesus’ day. But it is a word that acts as a time machine that takes us all the way back in the scriptures to when the wandering Israelites entered into the land of Canaan…and…well…took over. Stole their land. Israelites and Canaanites – enemies.
Now, here’s Jesus face to face with an enemy, an outsider, a foreigner, a great-granddaughter of the victims of Israel’s conquest. And Jesus seems to all but slam the door in her face and hang outside the house of Israel a no-vacancy sign…
“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”, Jesus says.
Why is Jesus being so exclusive here? I thought Jesus loved everyone. Isn’t that…like…his thing?
Jesus may have slammed the door in her face, but like a prophet of old, she won’t stop shouting. “She didn’t hang her head, or leave the room, or flare with anger.” None of that would heal her daughter. No, she persisted. She clung to her faith that Israel’s God could maybe be her God too. Kneeling in worship before Jesus, she will not take no for an answer. “Lord, help me.”
Jesus tosses back at her, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
And she doesn’t disagree. It wouldn’t be fair to take the children of Israel’s food away from them. She never asked for that. She just knows that there is more than enough to go around. Doesn’t Jesus remember? What did the disciples pick up after the feeding of 12,000? The broken pieces. Also known as crumbs. 12 baskets full. Can I just have some of that, she asks?
This woman is the New Testament version of Jacob. She simply will not let go of God. She will wrestle with God all night long, and she might walk away limping, but she will not walk away until she gets what she came for – the blessing of her daughter being healed.
She knows she come to the God of Israel, and that she is not an Israelite. She was just coming to see if it were true… that there is a god out there, as the prophet Isaiah says, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, and who will gather others beside them. Others…maybe, like her daughter.
This Canaanite woman comes in need to Jesus. They get into an argument and Jesus loses. She teaches the teacher. Teaches Jesus that his ministry was big enough to include her and, more importantly, her daughter, too. And for the only time in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus sees great faith in someone. And it was her. And her daughter was healed.
Many scholars read this story and for good reason scold Jesus and uphold the persistence and faithfulness of the Canaanite woman.
But others think there is another way to look at this story. And dare I say it, think Jesus is worth defending. They aren’t ready to throw Jesus out with the bathwater. Some scholars of this story say…look… the God of Jesus, the God of our Christian faith, is first the God of Israel. We, the gentiles along with this Canaanite woman, were just not the first ones invited to the party. Maybe he’s not being exclusive. Maybe he’s simply being loyal. Being faithful.
Do not forget – Israel was the foreigner, the outcast, the forgotten, the oppressed once too. It’s possible, scholars say, that this woman from Tyre and Sidon is a person of privilege and power in allegiance with the Gentile Roman Empire. Jews were often the ones living in poverty outside of Tyre and Sidon and victims of persecutions. And it gets worse. Way, way back in the history of Israel, they were sent off to Babylon in exile. Sent off into slavery and captivity, they lost their homes, their land, their temple, their families. They lost everything. But then when they were rescued from exile and set free, they returned home to find people living on their land and in their homes. Those people were called “Canaanites”. And they had taken everything. The power dynamic in this story is not always so clear not necessarily tip in just one direction. They both have taken so much from each other.
And so, it is possible that when Jesus comes face to face with this Canaanite woman, he sees an enemy that has hurt and taken from his people once before and perhaps might do it again.
I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
Whether we like it or not, as one preacher puts it, “God is one who chooses. To put a sharper point on it, God takes sides, plays favorites. We don’t know why God chooses the way God chooses, but we do know God has something of a preference for the unlikely. God chooses a 90-year-old, Abraham and Sarah, and says he’ll give (them) more descendants than there are stars in the sky. God chooses not the firstborn Esau for blessing but the younger, Jacob, who happens to be a scoundrel. (Later on) God chooses Joseph, the snotty youngest brother, and makes him ruler Egypt to save his murderous 11 brothers from famine. When God has to take sides between mighty empire Egypt and lowly slaves Israel (God) picks Israel… the underdog—and then chooses a stutterer like Moses to preach and lead. And God chooses not the strapping…handsome sons of Jesse, but the youngest stick figured weakling David to take on Goliath and be king. As Kenda Creasy Dean of Princeton Seminary puts it this way: God has a preference for the unlikely. Israel, no one else.”[1]
Jesus, the Son of God, is committed to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. People call this the scandal of particularity. That God would choose a people – the chosen people – can suggest just how picky and stingy God might be, when in fact it is meant to show just how faithful God can be.
Imagine for a moment that you’re back at recess and the daily kick ball game is about to start. And your stomach jumps into your throat because you just don’t know if you have can handle being picked last again. In fact, you’re not even picked. As the last one standing there waiting for a team, no one even needs to say your name. They just gesture to you in such a way that says, “Oh, fine. Come on.”
Now, imagine that on this particular day there are plenty of people left to pick. The kid with the big leg, who kicks a home run every time. Or the one with the daring leap, who can throw her body is such away that it covers massive amount of ground is a short amount of time, in order to catch the pop fly just before it hits the ground. There are so many all-stars left to choose from, and suddenly the choosing starts and you hear your name called. The whole field goes quiet. No one can believe it. The captain said your name. You’ve been picked, not simply tolerated. Out of everyone available, they wanted a particular person – you. You, the unlikely one, have been chosen.
That’s the story of God and Israel. As the prophet Isaiah says, “Thus says the Lord: God, who created you, O Jacob. God, who created you, O Israel, do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine.” That’s the story of God and Israel
And so, perhaps Jesus is saying to the Canaanite, “Look, you cannot just come and take that away from the children of Israel.” You cannot take that promise away from this unlikely people and just distribute it in a generic Oprah Winfrey give-away. You get some grace and you get some grace and you get some grace. Everybody gets some grace.
Which is why most of us roll our eyes at the generic obligatory parental claim, “I love all of my children equally.” It might be true, it just doesn’t feed the child’s soul and settle their weary heart. Because each child doesn’t want to know that they are loved equally with all of their siblings. Each child wants to just wants to know what it could be about them in particular that their parent really does love.
That’s the scandal of particularity. That God is one who chooses. And Jesus has been sent to the unlikely lost sheep of the house of Israel. Maybe this isn’t Jesus being exclusive. Maybe he is just being faithful.
So, we are nearing the end of the sermon. Which one have I decided on? To scold Jesus and uphold the persistent mother? Or to defend Jesus? I’m not sure….
I’m not sure that I can decide. I don’t want to lose sight of the faithfulness of this woman. But I also don’t want to lose sight of the faithfulness of Jesus.
The Canaanite woman came for a god like no other. A god that would be unrelentingly faithful to God’s people. A god who would stand by them, even after every disappointment. Even after they were not faithful to God themselves. And that’s what Jesus gave her. An unrelenting faithfulness.
In the end, she can now see just how faithful he is. And he can see the same in her. They have both given each other so much.
I’m not sure I know the answers to all the wrinkles and complexities of this story.
But what I do know the God of Israel is faithful and that at the end of the story a Canaanite woman’s faith in a god who is not her god and whose people are not her people, is declared great and her daughter was healed. Oh and, if you turn the page…suddenly there is Jesus with a crowd again. Thousands of them. And they all were hungry. In need. And once again, with some bread and a few fish, every one ate. And you know what? There were many broken pieces, many crumbs left over at that meal too. Amen.
[1] https://chapel-archives.oit.duke.edu/documents/Byassee–HonoraryJews.pdf
Untying the Cerebral Knot 