To begin to understand this story about the Canaanite woman it is important we remember last Sunday’s story of Jesus walking on water. Now, while walking on water is very cool, we should not forget it was the disciple’s doubt that brought Jesus to his feet. Their faith had taken a big hit that night, especially Peters.
The disciples were in their boat in the middle of the lake when a big storm comes up. Next thing they know, Jesus came walking towards them through the rough waves and howling winds and they thought he was a ghost. Jesus shouts out, “Take heart, it is I: do not be afraid.” Peter said to Jesus what they all must have been thinking, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”
And Jesus does, saying “Come.” Peter comes bounding out of the boat onto the water only to become frightened. Revealing his true doubting nature he began to sink. He cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Jesus did not hesitate, he saved Peter and then admonished him saying, ‘Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?’
Our passage this morning is a direct response by Jesus to his disappointment in his disciples and their repeated lack of faith. Jesus must have felt discouraged that the ones he personally chose to follow him still had little faith in who he was. He must have wondered what it would take to get through to them; I am their Lord and Master. Yet, they still don’t understand. They keep acting so predictably human. Saying they believe, yet acting otherwise.
So Jesus tries again with a story about a woman of unwavering faith. Jesus’ disciples, men specifically chosen, were at best shaky in their sure and certain knowledge. Yet here is a woman, a Canaanite, who is not from Jesus’ neighborhood, who is sure and certain and rock solid about where her faith is grounded.
Why then, we may wonder, does Jesus seem to reject her plea and try to push her away? If she is to be the true example of a faithful disciple why does he get into a debate with her when she continues to ask him for help?
‘Why’ questions can be the hardest to answer. It reminds me of all those times our children asked ‘why’ when we told them they had to eat their green peas. Our answers about healthy diets and nutritional value and a balance against all those sweets they had eaten fell on deaf ears. The kids had no clue about nutritional worth, they just knew they did not like peas and their question ‘why’ was not an attempt on their part to understand. It was their way of saying no to green peas. Children are practical folk, when they see no good reason whatsoever to eat green peas they won’t! Babies are the best example of this. When we put food in their mouths they don’t like they do the reasonable thing. They spit it out!
Our question ‘why’ just may be our refusal to accept the fact that Jesus really is out of character in this story. He appears to be pushing the woman aside, saying she’s one of those people and is not worthy of his help. This is so unlike the Jesus who cures the sick, helps the lame walk, and even restores life.
Or we may think Jesus was right. How dare she, a foreign woman think Jesus has been put on earth to help the likes of her. Indeed.
But something isn’t right with that option. Typically Jesus has been the liberator of the oppressed and especially of women who, in first century times, were the most oppressed. Scholars have viewed Jesus as a man who approaches women with compassion, friendship, even equality. This encounter seems to be an exception.
We have learned over and over again in scripture that Jesus was sent to save all people. We have been taught to love our neighbor, forgive even our enemy and certainly not talk about other people unkindly. We have been taught to not judge or be prejudiced to other people, be their man or woman, friend or foe, local or foreign.
Certainly Jesus was an enemy of such prejudice. He ate with tax collectors and sinners. He treated women and children with unusual regard. He touched and healed people who were considered unclean. Yet with this woman Jesus appears to not be Jesus. What could he be up to?
Here’s what we know. This woman is a Canaanite from Tyre and Sidon. She comes from the very people displaced by Israel’s occupation. It would be like a Palestinian woman of today asking for a favor from an Israeli leader. Despite their long history of antagonism and her foreign identity, this woman seeks Jesus’ merciful help for her demon-possessed daughter. In today’s Holy Land, it just wouldn’t happen.
Initially, Jesus ignores her and claims his mission is only to Israel, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”, he says. But she was not to be deterred, calling out to him again, ‘Lord, help me.’
Jesus’ response is in the form of a ‘No’ and he tells her why. ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
No, he is saying, I was sent only to the lost sheep, the children of God to bring them nourishment, to share with them the feast of the table of the Lord, to bring them food for salvation. It is not fair to take my calling to those people for that reason and throw it to the dogs. The gentile, the foreign dogs, we defeated to have their land, the land we were promised.
Can you believe this is Jesus speaking? Not only does he call the woman a dog he cuts her off completely from the promise of eternal salvation. Apparently she is not among those chosen as a child of God to be fed the gift of life.
And Jesus even places his argument against helping her in the context of fairness. I wonder what fairness has to do with anything. Life is not exactly intended to be fair is it?
For her part, the woman does not flinch; she comes back with a strong counter argument of her own. She does not argue with Jesus, she does not offer proof to nullify his argument, she does not offer evidence to the contrary. She doesn’t even attack the unsupportable claim of fairness. Instead, she uses her deep faith and Jesus own logic to show the complete story.
First she humbles herself. Then accepting her identity of even being called a dog she exposes the part of the story Jesus left out, she said, “yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table”.
Jesus must have smiled deep down inside; this woman gets it! Finally, someone with their wits about them to see the entire picture, to recognize when someone speaks of fairness in a limited context, to claim right and wrong in a self-serving way, that someone worships self before God. Finally, someone who realizes that faith is humbling, that a faithful person is one who must empty himself or herself of conceit and self-confidence and wholly depend on God’s unmerited favor.
I read once, faith in God requires us to admit to ourselves that we are not worthy of anything because of who we are, it is only because of whose we are that we can gain the favor we seek.
Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith!’ Great is her faith though she be a defeated enemy, a dog, she eats the crumbs that nourish life from the table of her master, the giver of eternal life. This woman recognized Jesus to be the source of the bread of life and that even a crumb from the table of her master was accessible to her. This is what is fair. Her life is bound to her unwavering faith in being able to receive life giving sustenance from her one Lord who was available to her only in the person of Jesus Christ. Alleluia!
Here we encounter Jesus being Jesus. He is playing this wildly out of character antagonist role to make an illusive point and to test his disciples and the woman herself. He is teaching us that in life we will have our doubts about God and Jesus and we will encounter faithless acts of prejudice over and over again. But we will never be alone. God will never leave us to face our doubt alone.
Time and time again his disciples have not acted as if they really believed him to be the Messiah. They have been unfaithful or at the least, ones of little faith. So Jesus was going to role-play with this woman to help show them the kind of response he expects from those who claim to believe in him, to model the depth of faith he expects even from the most unlikely of followers.
Yet that is not all. There were false claims in his initial argument with the woman. Did we miss them? The disciples certainly did. Jesus’ being sent only to the lost sheep is a false teaching. Jesus’ claim of unfairness for taking the Israelites’ salvation and throwing it to the gentiles is also a false teaching. Jesus used them as a test, as a truth statement sort of test in his argument with the woman and his disciples said nothing. They were so totally set up for the real truth message to follow.
The correct teaching comes from the woman, she does not exclude the Israelites from their salvation, and actually, she does not exclude anyone. Yes, Lord, the Israelites, and even the gentiles, all lost sheep eat the gift of salvation that falls from their saviors’ table. The gentile woman gets it. The apostles were silent in the face of the false teaching. She is shouting the truth. They ask that Jesus ‘send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’ Jesus recognized the truth when he heard it and would not silence it! Salvation is for all.
What is the other message for the faithful: Prayers will be answered.
Jesus said, “Let it be done for you as you wish”. From our faithfulness, from our prayer for help, mercy is given and received. From our prayer we receive help from the Lord, and we will be healed.
Dear ones. We are to take what little faith we have, no matter how slight the ember that burns and know with conviction, Jesus includes all of us, even the dogs who gather here at his table, when he promises eternal salvation. Our job is to fully believe in him. Fully being for all of us a slippery slope at times. But never for Jesus. Jesus is grounded. Grounded in his love for us shown there on the cross where we need not argue for his help, his hope, or his grace.
“Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
081405.uvd
No comments:
Post a Comment