Cleaning the Unclean

Merciful God, we confess that we struggle to forgive and to embrace those who are different from us. We hold grudges and exercise prejudice instead of understanding. Forgive us and fill us with Your spirit to embrace unity and love. We pray this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Call to Worship

Leader: How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!

People: It is like precious oil on the head, running down on the collar of Aaron’s robe.

Leader: Jesus said, “Great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”

People: We come to worship the one who welcomes all to His table of grace.

Leader: Come, let us rejoice in the Lord’s mercy and love.

All: Alleluia! We praise the God of reconciliation and peace!

Scripture: Matthew 15:10-28

Matthew 15:10–28 NIV

10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” 12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” 13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” 15 Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.” 16 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. 17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.” 21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 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.” 23 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.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” 25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. 26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” 27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” 28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

Cleaning the Unclean

Movement 1: What do you hold onto about Jesus?

We learn about Jesus in lots of ways from many different people in our lives. We often think of preachers and teachers giving lessons from the bible, and sometimes we see those lessons lived out in the lives of our parents and grandparents. You may have had a neighbor or a friend who showed you who Jesus was even more than they told you. Maybe you had an experience with Jesus early on, praying for something, or perhaps praying for someone else, and that experience taught you about him.

Take a moment to think back to the first people who introduced you to Jesus and those first experiences that showed you who he is.

What was one of the first things you learned about Jesus that you still hold onto today?

(pause)

Movement 2: The Mud Room

For the Jewish people, one of the first things they learned was the difference between clean and unclean. Dirt stayed outside the house, and you kept the inside clean. Most of us are very familiar with that concept, especially if you grew up working the land or doing dirty work. Your muddy boots don't come in the house. They stay in the mudroom. And if you've been out in the pasture or the pens with the livestock, your clothes might stay there too. I can remember days getting sprayed down with the hose before being allowed in the house to clean up in the bathroom.

And it's not just the house you are protecting. It's yourself. You wash your hands before you eat, making sure you didn't get any of that dirt inside you. Sometimes we joke about all the food laws, the unclean animals that the Jewish people were forbidden to eat. Yet we teach our babies and toddlers that they can't just put anything in their mouth, even if it is food. If that food has been on the floor, touched something unclean, or left out too long to be tainted by bugs or bacteria, throw it away. Better safe than sorry.

That's what the Pharisees and the Jewish leaders concluded about God. He was holy, which meant set apart. So they assumed he didn't want to be near people who were not holy. They truly thought the best way to live was to stay away from unclean things, and if you were not sure whether something was unclean... better safe than sorry.

But Jesus told his disciples that they misunderstood the source of being unclean. Unlike the dirt and grime we find in life, the really unclean things did not come from outside the home or even from outside us. They come out of our hearts, and there is no amount of handwashing that can get that dirt out.

The disciples didn't understand, so Jesus explained the kinds of things that made people unclean: evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, false testimony, and slander. These types of things make a person unclean, and they don't come from somewhere outside. These unclean things come from the heart, the deepest place within a person.

And so does faith.

Movement 3: The Canaanite Woman

I've mentioned several times this year that geography is important in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus has been ministering to people up in Galilee, the northern border of Israel, teaching them where clean and unclean things come from. Then, in verse 21, Jesus steps out and crosses the line. It says, "He withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon." There, a woman from that Gentile territory that Matthew calls a Canaanite—an old name for the people that God instructed the ancient Israelites to drive out of that land—approaches Jesus and says, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession."

She didn't know the law or the prophets. Probably everything she picked up about Jesus came from the rumors that she heard about him from people that traveled across the border. Son of David is one of the titles of the Messiah. The way she welcomes and cries out to him echoes the way the crowds would shout to Jesus on Palm Sunday in Jerusalem. The disciples were still trying to decide who they thought Jesus was, but this Gentile woman, whom Matthew calls a Canaanite, part of the enemies of God's people, calls him by his true title.

She left her suffering child and came to Jesus, crying, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

What does Jesus do? Nothing.

She found the right person, called him by the right name. She came not on her own behalf, but on behalf of another. And Jesus doesn't even answer her. None of it seems to matter. She gets silence.

That must have felt awkward for Peter, following Jesus, and trying to figure him out. He just witnessed Jesus feed thousands, walk on water, enable him to do so too, and calm the winds and waves. He lectured them on unclean things coming from inside us, not outside us, and then walked into Gentile territory as if he missed the boundary marker. The next thing he knows, this pagan woman is crying out to Jesus, just like all the suffering Jewish people were several days before. Not thousands. One. And Jesus just stands there silently.

"Send her away," the disciples tell Jesus. The situation is too uncomfortable for them. But Jesus doesn't send her away. He stays there with her in that awkward silence.

Finally, Jesus breaks the silence. But it was not what she was hoping to hear.

"I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

What he had was meant for someone else, not her. He gave her a heartbreaking refusal.

This woman refused to take the no from Jesus. She didn't fight it. She lowered herself, kneeling down, dropping the Messianic title, and begged plainly:

"Lord, help me."

Just last week, Peter had prayed a desperate prayer like that. But he wasn't kneeling; he was sinking. His encounter with Jesus on the water began with "If it really is you, Lord...". This woman, though, who had never met Jesus before, called him as he truly was: "Lord, Son of David." There was no if.

Jesus reached out and saved Peter immediately, despite his little faith in that moment. But this woman, gets silence first, followed by a no, and then lowers herself and prays a simple prayer that echoes Peter's own words.

Peter was watching and listening to this woman addressing Jesus as 'Lord' and 'Son of David'. Peter may have wondered why, if she knew who the Messiah was, she didn't seem to understand his answer. She should have known that he was not her Savior.

Then Jesus tells her more plainly:

"It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs."

Those are the words of a rabbi covering up an insult in a proverb. That's not polite or kind, and they are coming from the lips of our Jesus. I don't know if Peter's jaw dropped at those words or if part of him was cheering because Jesus was telling off the foreigners, but all the disciples would have noticed the begging Gentile woman whom Jesus had just called a dog.

Given silence, told no, and now insulted by Jesus the Savior, the woman doesn't lash out or try to defend herself. She has lowered herself physically before Jesus, and now she lowers her request.

She's not asking for what everyone else got. She's not even asking for the leftovers—and there are still baskets full of leftover bread and fish. She just asks for the crumbs that will be swept off the table anyway. Just a crumb from Jesus will be enough for her and her daughter.

Movement 4

There's only one more verse in this passage, and most of it comes as no surprise to us.

Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

We're not surprised that Jesus granted the request of this Canaanite woman and that her daughter was healed. We're not surprised that her daughter was healed even though the daughter wasn't even there. What surprises us is that this woman chose Jesus even when it didn't seem like he was choosing her.

Peter watched Jesus walk over the boundary line into unclean land, and when a gentile woman approached him with a request that he would have granted without a second thought to any Israelite, Jesus instead created an uncomfortable situation for everyone. Her prayers are not answered with a yes or a no. They're answered with silence, refusal, and insult.

So she throws it all aside, and the only thing that she clings to is that Jesus is the one she needs. He can save her daughter. No matter what he says or does, no matter how little he is willing to give to her, it will be more than enough.

That is what Jesus calls great faith.

If you try to read this passage looking for the right formula to get your prayers answered, you're going to be disappointed because this passage shows that there is no formula. Jesus is who he is. There's nothing we can do to change or manipulate him. But if you put yourself in the shoes of Peter and read this passage, watching Jesus, you start to notice a recurring theme.

Jesus can feed thousands with not enough to start with. He can walk on the water, command the winds, and keep his disciples safe through the storm. He can even take a disciple struggling with doubt and allow him to walk a few steps on the water, just because he asked.

We know that as the Messiah, Jesus had a clear mission. He had dozens and dozens of prophecies that he was fulfilling with his life and a limited time. We know it was geared toward the redemption of God's chosen people, Israel, because they were the ones who had the relationship with Him. God had to come to them first to keep his covenant, and God faithfully chose to do so.

And yet, while making time for His people, Jesus chose to step outside the Promised Land and brush one of the crumbs from his table into the open hands of one woman. Why did he choose to do that? Because he's Jesus, and that's what he does. That may be the only thing this woman knew about him, but it was more than enough for her and her daughter.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, Thank you for being bigger than our boundary lines, bigger than our sin, bigger than the unclean things that spill out of us. Give us the faith to hold onto what we know is true about you, even when we cannot see it. Help us to trust that even the crumbs from your table can change our lives and the lives of those around us, because you are more than enough. In your Holy Name, Amen.

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