Pentecost 12a

The Text

Matthew 15:21–28 “When Jesus left there, he withdrew to the area of Tyre and Sidon.

So we are no longer in Israelite territory, the people we are about to encounter are not Jewish. This is going to inaugurate Jesus not Israelite mission.

Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came and kept crying out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David!

The geographical note is now important as we have a Cannanite woman, not a Jew calling to Jesus.

And listen to her call. Kyrie Elesion, Lord have mercy. This ancient prayer of the church, and this staple of almost all Liturgies. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.

Used as a breath prayer more in the East but also here.

My daughter is severely tormented by a demon.”

We tend to live a little bit sterilized in the west. We don’t always see or acknowledge the demonic as its active around us. I have several time invited people to explore, is the demonic keeping you or your loved one ill. I ask when they have explored the medical options. The illness is a mystery, they are not sure what is going on, we need to remember there is an evil one who hates what God loves. John 10:10 “A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.”

Jesus did not say a word to her. His disciples approached him and urged him, “Send her away because she’s crying out after us.”

Here is where the encounter with Jesus becomes especially difficult. It begins with the prejudice of the disciples. A woman crying out in a time when women did not have the social standing to do so. A foreigner with whom the Israelites have ancient animosity. Jesus says nothing but the disciples are ready to shoo her away.

Here is a human in profound need and no one is doing a blessed thing. And its only going to get more jarring.

He replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came, knelt before him, and said, “Lord, help me!” He answered, “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

Jesus refuses on racial grounds, he is only here for the children of Israel, she continues to beg. And he calls her a dog, a profound insult.

“Yes, Lord,” she said, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

Now we see the radical injustice of the racial prejudice going on here. It that time 2000 years before abolition, before Dr. King, before Malcom X, people thought it racial categories and they understood these prejudices to be part of the social fabric. She does not make an argument about all men created equal and endowed by their creator…she acknowledges her standing. “yet even the dogs…”

Then Jesus replied to her, “Woman, your faith is great. Let it be done for you as you want.” And from that moment her daughter was healed.”

It was not her pitiful situation, with a sick kid, she does not try to convince Jesus that she is one of the virtuous Canaanites, she call out to God in humility and faith. She shows the only true virtue man can show God. Humility and faith.

The Daughter was healed. Not after a while she didnt start to show signs…at that moment.

Some Pastoral Notes

Lets tackle a couple easy ones, then look at the really challenging one. First off: The Jesus Prayer, let us join with the church of the last 2,000 years and make this prayer part of our DNA. When we sing it in our Liturgy, let us sing with gusto. When when you like me have an episode of anxiety breath the prayer.

Second note: We have nothing in our arsenal but humble prayer and faith. We cannot read this text thinking, if I was Jesus how would I respond, its healthier to read it and think If I was a disciple how would I respond, but it is healthiest to read this and think, if I was this woman how would I respond. She does not fight with Jesus premise. She knows she is low. But she also appeals to God’s mercy, “Even the dogs…” She is not saying that she is not a dog she is saying even the dogs receive something.

There is a prayer from my liturgy that we say before communion that I absolutely love.

We do not presume to come to this your table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your abundant and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table; but you are the same Lord whose character is always to have mercy. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us.  Amen.

We approach God with Humility and faith.

Prejudice and the kingdom: You will notice two themes in the Old Testament that are collide in a way that barley makes sense. One is the Theme of one nation, and many nations. Abraham father of many nations, all the nations coming to Jerusalem at the end. At the same time God shows a preference to Israel, to the point of diminishing neighboring communities. He is protecting his chosen people from the Idol worship of their neighbors.

So which is it, is the kingdom for Ethnic Israelites, or is it for all the nations? The answer is “yes.” There will be a new Israel dfined by the Gospel, it will not be an Ethnic Israel as defined by the Law, it will be an Israel of Faith not DNA. This woman was not ethnically of the old Israel, but by faith and by prayer she becomes part of the New Israel. The new Israel we all joined in our baptism. The Ethnically biased patterns of the past now dismantled by the glorious multi ethnic future.

How fitting the metaphor of food from the table.

Jesus is saying who is in the kingdom and who is not uses the metaphor of who can sit at the table to eat and who cant. And she understands the importance of eating from God’s table. Today my hope is that we also understand the importance of eating at God’s table. I hope we are prepared to approach in faith and humility. Were do we put our faith? In the death of Jesus to forgive our sins. When we say Lord have mercy, we are understanding that at the cross he takes our sins and grants that mercy. And the breaking of his body become the food that we eat. Come by faith oh you citizens of the new Israel, come with the prayer on your lips, “Lord have mercy on me a sinner.”