Going to the Dogs

Intro

GOING TO THE DOGS 8-17-08

We’ve heard the expression, “going to the dogs.” Someone may say that their house, their marriage, their place of business, their health, the economy, the nation, or the world…is going to the dogs. And we know what that person is saying. It’s an expression used when things are not going well, when things are not going the way we think they should go. Yes, sometimes it seems the world is going to the dogs…and we just don’t think that’s the way it ought to be.

I remember hearing about an outdoor wedding several years ago in someone’s back yard. Right in the middle of the wedding the flower began yelling and screaming as she took off after a dog. She ran up and down and around the whole yard trying to catch that dog. Why? Because her flowers had been snatched right out of her hands—they had gone to the dog and the dog was not supposed to have them.

A Hard Gospel to Swallow

In today’s gospel reading Jesus has something to say about things going to the dogs; what should or should not go to the dogs. A certain woman approaches him asking for help and he tells her that the help he has to offer is not for her. She is an outsider after all and he was sent to care only for his own, the people of Israel. Jesus explains that it is not fair to give the children’s bread to the dogs.

It’s not a nice thing he tells that woman. He’s calling her a dog; a mangy mongrel who deserves nothing but to be shooed away. The message is loud and clear; the good that Jesus has to offer is not going to the dogs.

OK, let's be honest: this is not an easy story to understand. Jesus doesn't do what we expect him to do or what he usually does. Instead of being kind and compassionate, he’s downright rude and insulting.

He had a bad day

Maybe we need to back up a bit to see what this is all about. Now to start with, Jesus is tired. It has been a long day. He had a run-in with the Pharisees, who jumped all over him for not following the traditions that the elders of Israel agreed were necessary for good religious people to follow - like washing your hands before you ate. That was not a matter of hygiene back then - they didn't know about germs. It was a religious ritual, and Jesus and his disciples didn't follow it as closely as some thought they should. The scribes and Pharisees complained to Jesus, "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands before they eat."

Jesus replied, "You hypocrites! You don't understand your own traditions. You turn them around and use them as excuses not to do what God really calls you to do." For instance, he said, you declare your possessions to be dedicated to God. Your bank account, mutual funds, everything belongs to God. And then when your father and mother come and say, "We need help," you say, "Sorry, mom and dad. I can't help you - all my stuff is dedicated to God." And so, you use the tradition of dedicating your things to God to avoid actually honoring your mother and father as the law commands.

Afterward his disciples said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees were really offended by what you said? And to be honest, we don't really get it either." Jesus has been called to bring the kingdom of God to his own people, but the leaders reject him and his own followers don't understand him. Wouldn't that wear you out? It had been a bad day.

So Jesus decided to get away, away to another country. He crossed the border, went up near Tyre and Sidon, in modern-day Lebanon. He needed a break. He needed a vacation. But when he got there a woman comes to him with a need. He had come to this area to get away from this kind of thing. Even in this out-of-the-way place yet another person was asking him for something. She is described as a Canaanite woman. This description brought up all of the ancient hatred towards the enemies of the Israelites who had inhabited the land before them. She wasn't just called a Gentile, but a Canaanite, which was really a put-down.

She comes to Jesus and begs for help. Her daughter, we are told, was tormented by a demon. We don't know exactly what that meant. But we do know that here was a woman whose daughter suffered great pain from forces beyond her control. And so, she comes to Jesus.

What is Jesus' response? Nothing. Nothing at all. He ignores her.

A part of us can certainly understand this. There are limits to what we can do. We can't be all things to all people. You can’t contribute to every cause that asks you to give. There are boundaries. So this foreign woman comes yelling at Jesus, and his reponse is to just ignore her. He has to set a boundary, and she is beyond it. The disciples are annoyed with her. "Send her away," they say. "Get this woman out of here--she doesn’t belong." And here’s where Jesus speaks; but like I said at the beginning, it’s not what we would expect from him. "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel," he says. Sorry lady, you don't meet the eligibility requirements.”

Unexpected Jesus

We don't expect Jesus to act this way and speak this way. And we're talking about healing a child. Is Jesus really sayng these things? Is there a limit, a boundary, on his love? This woman says, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy," and he has no mercy. She begs for help, and he says, "I'm just here for my own people." She kept begging for help, and Jesus said, "It's not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs."

Ouch! It is hard to hear Jesus talking like this. We would expect the woman to be insulted, angry and just go off in a huff. But she doesn't. She doesn't even argue with his calling her a dog. “Yes, Lord, maybe that’s what I am. Yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table." Jesus is amazed at the faith of this woman. Her faith is seen in her persistent belief even in the midst of struggle, and her daughter is healed.

There are different ways of understanding what happened in this story. We can see how this story gives us a picture of Jesus’ humanity. He was God, but he was human too. Truly human.

He had a bad day. He was short with somebody. He grew up in a particular culture, and was influenced by that. But the woman’s comeback rang true. What happened is that Jesus learned. He changed. He grew. And in the end, he reached out in compassion even to a Canaanite woman and her daughter. Even though it was against the tradition, even though it was against the ancient law in Deuteronomy, he healed her. I think I can understand the story in this way. But again, it's not easy.

End result

You may go with that interpretations, or some other. But maybe what is more important is the end result. Whether we believe Jesus was testing the Cannanite woman, insulting her, using her as an object lesson to educate the disciples, or something else, look at what happened. He made the point that his mission was to the Jews. She disagreed with him by enlarging on his view. And Jesus said that she was right, and he healed her daughter.

How thankful we can be that she was right, because we stand where she stood. We were the outsiders who, by the grace of God, have been included under the umbrella of God’s love and care. We are the dogs seeking crumbs from the master’s table. The question for us today, I guess, is this: what do we do with this story? What do we take home from it?

There is a big danger in thinking of ourselves as gatekeepers to God. And the fact is, like this Cannanite woman, sometimes those whom might be thought of as being on the outside have a better sense of where God's spirit is moving and what God's kingdom is about than we may have. We need to be open to folks who are very different from us - we just might learn something.

Second, this passage, difficult as it is, may teach us something important about Jesus. His humanity is on full display. We believe that Jesus is fully human and fully divine, but the divine part is sometimes easier for us than the human part. But when we say that Jesus was fully human, either we mean it or we don't. Either Jesus was human like us or he wasn't. This passage is a close-up shot of his humanity, and it gives us hope, because we follow a savior who really knows what it is to feel stress, to have a bad day, to be… well… human. And we follow a savior who knows what it is to grow in understanding and grow in one's sense of calling.

Third, this challenges us to think about the boundaries that we erect, and how they can keep people away from God.

Author and well respected theologian, William Willimon shared that as a young person, he brought a friend to church with him. The friend had a serious drug problem and Willimon thought that the church might help. As luck would have it, the preacher that day used an illustration about a "worthless" drug user and how he had ruined a "good person's" life. The friend never went back-he knew that he was an outsider, knew he wasn't welcome, knew that God didn't want him.

The disciples said, "Get this woman out of here." I wonder if we don't sometimes implicitly say the same thing.

Conclusion

Jesus' interaction with this woman is not what we expect. But the end result is very much what we have come to expect. This wasn't the first time Jesus reached out to outsiders. He gave living water to the Samaritan woman and used foreigners, outcasts, known-sinners as the "good guys" in stories he told, like the Good Samaritan. And while it is true that Jesus' primary mission was to Israel, Israel's mission was to be to all people. Isaiah said that Israel was to be "a light to the nations." Jesus quoted the words of the prophet, who said, "My house shall be a house of prayer for all nations."

We are those "nations" that Jesus spoke of. How can we who have been welcomed into God's family do anything less than welcome others, whoever they may be? Even those we are not comfortable with.

William Willimon invited his friend with a drug problem, and the church turned him off. How does our church feel to newcomers, to outsiders, to people who are different, to people who are hurting?

God's love extends to everyone. If not for the grace of God we would all be outsiders, but through Christ we are all welcome. God's love is not bound by limits. Thanks be to God.