Worth It
Matthew 15: 21-28 (NIV)
Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” 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 the dogs.” “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.
Friends, back at the end of August I went out of order in the lectionary for two weeks, so that I could talk to you all about forgiveness. The Gospel passage that I skipped ahead to during those two weeks is the lectionary-appointed Gospel reading for this morning. So, I planned that when I got to this Sunday I would go back and look at one of the Gospel stories I skipped back in August. This morning's Gospel lesson is one of those stories, and it's a great one: Jesus and the Canaanite woman.
This is one of a few Gospel stories that leaves us scratching our heads, trying to figure out just exactly what Jesus was thinking. His behavior in this story just seems so incredibly out of character for him. Up to this point in Matthew's Gospel we've now spent fifteen chapters hearing about a young man with tremendous compassion and gentleness. Right after returning from his forty days of fasting in the wilderness, he sat down with his twelve disciples and took great care to interpret the Law of Moses for them. For all we can tell, he's hardly taken a moment to sleep since then. He's helped every single person in need that has come his way, and no request for help has been too great for him. He helped a disabled man walk, he helped a blind man regain his sight, and he prepared a lunch of bread and fish for five thousand hungry families. He's never shied away from anyone who's needed him, even when Jewish Law commanded him to. He healed a leper. Then, after a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years touched him, and made him ritually impure, he wasn't shocked or disgusted at all, he simply declared her healed. He even went into a room with a child who had just died, and brought her back to life. He helped absolutely everyone who asked for help. Without exceptions, without limits, and without prejudice. Everyone.
So when we hear the way he talked to the woman in this morning's story, we find ourselves asking, Gosh, Jesus, what's your problem? All of the sudden he's actually turning someone away. After all these times that we've seen him scold the Pharisees for getting hung up on the letter of the Law, all of the sudden he's turning around and acting like there's rules for who he's allowed to help. And, most shocking of all, after all this time that we've seen him treat everyone with a truly prophetic level of equality, he's discriminating against someone.
What's wrong with Jesus? It's not even as if we could say he's just having a bad day--the man's voluntarily homeless, just so he can spend more time on the streets with the people who need him. When he needs to eat something, he grabs a bite to eat with prostitutes and tax collectors, so he can eat while he keeps helping people. He's given up every minute he's ever had to himself so he can keep helping people. What makes this woman so different from all the other people he's saved?
Well, what's different about this woman is that she's from the wrong side of the tracks. Sure, we've seen him show mercy to countless people that had been tossed off to the margins of society--women, children, lepers, the homeless, the physically disabled, even dead people--but all of those people were Jewish. This woman isn't. And she's from a region that no upstanding Jewish person wants to be anywhere near: Canaan.
There's a deep-seated history of antagonism and hostility between Israel and Canaan that you can read all about in the Old Testament. The Canaanites were not only foreigners and Gentiles to the Israelites, they were pagans and worshipped idols. And not only was this woman approaching Jesus a pagan, she was, of course, a woman. A woman talking to a Jewish rabbi? A woman talking to a man who isn't a relative? A woman talking at all? A woman out alone in public without a male relative escorting her? Who does she think she is? There isn't a single ancient near Eastern social custom she isn't breaking by talking to Jesus.
Keeping all of that in mind, Jesus' disciples react just as you would expect them to: they lose their cool and ask Jesus to tell this woman to get lost. She's bugging them.
Jesus has a decision to make. A woman who needs help has come to him, and asked for his mercy. But helping her means crossing a giant chasm set in place by racism, sexism, and a general case of xenophobia. Everyone around him has something important to learn today, and Jesus is their teacher.
So Jesus plays into his disciples' prejudice and says, You're right, my twelve trusty companions, God's love is only for Jewish men like us. He's now challenged this woman to take a stand for her dignity and worth. And she takes a stand.
Lord, help me, she says. I'm worth it.
Knowing the disciples still don't get it, Jesus pushes the issue one more time--It's not fair to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs.
The Israelites likened the Canaanites to animals all the time. The disciples were used to doing it, and the woman was used to hearing it. Now is the time for this woman to decide, once and for all, where her place is. Is she going to follow society's rules, take a seat on the back of the proverbial bus, hang her head in shame, drop her case, and go home to her sick and helpless daughter...or is she going to fight back?
Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.
She is claiming her spot at the table. She is claiming her right to be heard, and healed. She is standing up for herself, and she is not taking no for an answer.
Lord, help me, she says. I'm worth it.
And, in the presence of his disciples, these men stuck in their ways and so sure they were better than her, Jesus commends her exemplary faith, and tells her her daughter will be okay.
There's no prejudice in the Kingdom of God. And Jesus doesn't discriminate against anyone--even when we're tempted to. The doors of salvation are wide open to everyone.
We United Methodists have become rather well-known in recent years for a slogan we've been using for outreach: open hearts, open minds, open doors. This slogan is so prophetic it's taken on a life of its own, and it's become part of a bigger project to revitalize the Church called "rethink church". (You can read all about "rethink church" here: www.rethinkchurch.org).
There's a very deep sense of public mission involved in rethink church, and one of the most important pieces of rethink church's mission has been that we need to stop thinking of the word "church" as a noun--as a building, as an experience in worship on Sunday morning, or even as a gathering of people. Rather, we need to think of "church" as a verb.
Jesus told his disciples that the world would know them by their love. When we reach out into the world and love, we go out and church. When we don't expect the people to come to us, but instead we find the people who need our love and mercy and we go to them, we church. John Wesley, the founder of what became the United Methodist Church, called this social holiness--going out into the hurting places in the world and putting a salve on those wounds with Christian love. Jesus just called this discipleship.
It's our calling as disciples to church everyone. It's our calling to reach out with radical love and mercy to everyone. And it's our calling to be a Church with open hearts, open minds, and open doors.
The Church is for everyone. Jesus is for everyone. Jesus' love extends to everyone, and he doesn't care about our prejudice, or our judgments. Everyone belongs to the Kingdom of God. Jesus spent his whole year of active, earthly ministry crossing our chasms and breaking our boundaries. If you think there's someone outside the reach of our Church, think bigger. If you think there's someone who doesn't belong here, think bigger.
And if you ever wonder if God has enough mercy for you, if you ever wonder if there's a place for you at the table, know that the bread we share, the body of Christ, is for everyone. Jesus challenges our whole human family to take a seat at the table, because we are all worth his time and grace.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment