Pentecost 14
Grace, Mercy, and Peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
Text: Matthew 15:21-2826[Jesus] answered, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." 27 She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Jesus traveled a lot. So much of the Gospel accounts tell us of Jesus walking from place to place, disciples in tow. When he was done walking, he’d stop and teach. That’s another thing he’d do a lot. And if he wasn’t teaching, he was healing. The lepers, the blind, the deaf, the lame, the demon-possessed: Jesus healed them all.
So when we hear Matthew’s account in our text today, it almost seems like a slam-dunk, where we can simply tune out and concentrate on something else. Jesus is walking, needy person comes up to him and asks for healing, Jesus heals, and they continue o…
But, wait a second[DS1] . There’s something different this time, isn’t there? This woman comes up to them and cries out for mercy, and Jesus just walks on, as if he didn’t hear her. What’s that all about? Has Jesus ever ignored a plea for help? Has he ever refused to heal? This, from the guy who helped even when the biggest problem was being out of wine at the party?!?[DS2] After a while, even the disciples intercede for her, apparently asking Jesus to simply grant her request and make her go away. Evidently, she’s beginning to cause a scene, and that’s not good for a group who wants to keep a low profile. He tells the disciples “no,” and it isn’t until she kneels down right in front of him that he finally acknowledges her, and his answer is still “no,” even calling her a dog![DS3]
How can Jesus be so different from the One I met in Sunday School, or from the “Friend” we sing about in favorite hymns? Are we really seeing a different side of Jesus, as if he changes when he’s outside of Judea and Galilee? How can he refuse to help this poor woman who begs him on bended knee, for the sake of her daughter? Upon reading this text, the question looms over us: Why does Jesus initially refuse to help this woman?
As much information as Matthew gives us in this account, we don’t get to see into the mind of Jesus. We’re left to try and answer that question on our own, with what we know about Jesus from the rest of Scripture. For people like us, who are familiar with the Gospels and many of the accounts of Jesus’ healing acts, we can rule out quickly some of the simpler answers: it’s not because he didn’t have the power, it’s not because he couldn’t control the demons, or that the woman couldn’t pay some required fee. This question is just not answered that easily or neatly, and it leaves us wrestling with our text.
ŒAs we struggle to find an answer to this question, it’s important to remember just where we are, where Jesus comes into contact with this woman: he’s traveled outside of his usual territory, to the region of Tyre and Sidon[DS4] . Here, far from where he usually spent his time, he is approached by a Cannanite woman. That’s right, from the land of Canaan, of a pagan people. This woman is not a Jew, not one of Jesus’ own people. Aha! So that’s why Jesus didn’t help her, right? Perhaps he had reserved his miracles for just the Jewish people[DS5] . Was it just that she wasn’t born into the right nation? After all, Jesus states out loud and clear: "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
Mind you, this question is near and dear to my own heart, as it probably is to many of us here today[DS6] . I, for one, have no Jewish blood in me at all, and am purely Gentile. If Jesus’ work and healing are only for those born Jewish, I’m in eternally big trouble. So when I read this and the facts start to point toward the “Jewish-only” answer, I start to get a little nervous, to say the least.
But for someone to assert that Jesus was only interested in the concerns of the Jews, they’d have to miss quite a bit of the Gospel accounts, to say nothing of the writings of Paul and Peter[DS7] . Even just looking at Matthew’s Gospel, we’ve already met a Roman Centurion in chapter 8, a Gentile of Gentiles, for whom Jesus healed a servant from a distance. We’d also have to overlook the great numbers of sick and demon-possessed, most or all of whom were probably Gentile, healed by Jesus in chapters 4 and 8. This is also the same Jesus who commanded before He ascended into heaven, recorded in chapter 28, that the Good News should be preached and taught to all nations. That doesn’t sound like someone who was only concerned with Jewish matters or people.
So with the precedent that’s already been set in previous chapters, as well as the insight we get by skipping ahead some, we see that Jesus is certainly not refusing this woman on account of her heritage. It’s not because she’s not “in the club” that he won’t grant her request, and that’s comforting to us today as well. Jesus, by healing and helping all people, and showing concern for the baptizing and teaching of all nations, declares that His love and grace go beyond all national and ethnic boundaries. But, it still leaves us with our question: if it wasn’t because of her nationality, then why does Jesus refuse to help this poor woman?[DS8]
In His years of public preaching and teaching, our Lord used a number of methods to get His point across to the people. So there are some who would suggest it was because he wanted to teach her a lesson[DS9] . She rushes up to him, shouting at him and following them until she can get her way. Did she simply see him as a means to an end, a wandering miracle-worker who could heal her daughter? Perhaps Jesus was playing a part, hoping that his refusal to help this woman would build her resolve and test her, putting her spirit into the fire of the kiln, knowing it would come out shining like gold[DS10] , and be stronger than ever.
For sure, this potential answer makes sense, while it also makes us nervous and just doesn’t sit right[DS11] . If one were to read just these few verses, it might give an impression that Jesus is cold and hard, showing “tough-love” to those who would follow him. The woman would have to prove her faith by enduring this test and show herself worthy of Jesus’ help before he would deign to heal her daughter. Perhaps he’s just dangling the cure in front of her like a treat in front of a dog, getting her to jump ever higher? Some of us, as we’ve struggled with our own issues in life, may have felt like this: like we were being stretched, like the answer was just out of reach, and we were constantly being made to jump higher to try and reach it.
Once again though, even a cursory reading of the rest of Matthew’s Gospel, to say nothing of the rest of Scripture, flies in the face of this potential answer and shuts it down in a hurry. In many instances, as we read of people coming to Jesus for help, there’s no hesitation, no conditions, nothing expected for payment. Someone cries to Jesus for help, and he has mercy on them. Jesus never plays the actor in the Scriptures, never pretends to be something that he’s not. He doesn’t play around just to make a point, and doesn’t hold off what people need so they can overcome him and change his mind. He speaks the truth, even when people don’t want to hear it, or when they’ve shut their ears to it. There’s no duplicity in him, not even for some test of faith.
ŽIn fact, it’s Jesus’ concern for the truth that starts to bring this question into the light so we can start to see just what’s going on here. [DS12] Jesus did indeed grant countless petitions for healing in the Gospels, and many more that aren’t recorded for us, even when the Gentiles asked Him for help, as long as there could be no misunderstandings. While he traveled through Jewish lands, the occasional help granted to a Gentile person did not threaten to cause any problems. But as Jesus walked through pagan, Gentile lands, things were placed in a different perspective.
Jesus tells us that He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and this is the truth. God’s plan of salvation did not happen by coincidence, and was not left to chance. He specifically worked in the Jewish nation and not elsewhere. Jesus came as a Jewish man in Palestine, and this was not chance. Even though his own nation had rejected him, this was still the plan of God, and it was out of concern for this eternal plan that Jesus initially refused to grant the petition of the Canaanite woman. Were he to quickly grant her daughter healing, it might have caused people to think that God had forsaken Israel. Instead, Jesus speaks of Israel as his sheep, and his children. In this, he shows his love and kindness toward allpeople.
That is the truth which is so precious to our Lord that He’s willing to pass by a woman on bended knee, pleading for healing for her daughter. Jesus has come, living, healing, dying and rising, so that all people of the world can be saved. He came for the Jew, the German, the Norwegian, the African-American, the Asian and the Swede, just to name a few. He came for the cheater, the thief, the homosexual, the murderer, so that all could be forgiven and live a new life in Him. Jesus came so that you and I, “Chief of Sinners Though I Be,” could be washed clean and live eternally with Him. All three readings today say it loudly and clearly: Our God loves His whole creation, the Jews and the Gentiles alike, and calls all of us by His Word so that all can be covered by His grace and brought back into His fold. Our heritage is precious to us, but it’s not the reason we’re saved. It’s not Jewish-ness or Gentile-ness that matters. No one will be admitted into the Kingdom because they were born of a certain family or line or nationality… we’re admitted to the Kingdom because we’re reborn by the Word of God and are saved by His blood.
Curiously, after this account we hear of no further miracles done by Jesus in this area. So what makes this woman different? [DS13] Notice how she answers Jesus when he remarks about throwing the children’s bread to the dogs. Never does she appear offended, nor does she balk at apparently being called a dog. Instead, she shows wit, humility, and faith: she actually agrees with what Jesus says! She takes the analogy farther, using it to describe what she understands about her place. The children of Israel must be taken care of, as we all are; they are His people as well. But, even the dogs are not without their place, and the ownerwill take care of them. They come around the table, confident that their master will feed them in the prescribed way. They’re confident that there will befood given to them, as there always is! She understands her place and submits to it, never asking why God acts as he does. She knows there will be food, even if one has to humbly sit under the table instead of in a place of honor at it[DS14] . “Better indeed to be a dog in Jesus’ kingdom than a king elsewhere!”The faith of the woman, which understands and accepts God’s mission, is not great because of its strength, but in its simplicity.
What comfort that is for those of us living over 2000 years later, in a society that has so many different versions of Jesus, to say nothing of versions of “God”.In the end, it’s not a new Jesus that we see in this account, and it’s not a tough-love Jesus that we see[DS15] . In the end, it’s the same Jesus, that is to say the same God, we see in all of Scripture. We don’t always understand his actions, to say nothing of his reasons for them. But our God worked out a plan of salvation in His own way, at His own time. Our Savior suffered and died, to rise again on the third day, so that you and I could be forgiven[DS16] . Even the scraps in that plan are the best feast the world has ever seen.
In the Name of Jesus,
Amen.
[DS1]Here, I like the way in which you allow the account itself to surprise us. That’s good. You are performing the text, so to speak, so that we can hear it again and be surprised by something that raises questions for us. Good job.
[DS2]I know that you are using this example to bring to mind the relatively minor works of Jesus (making wine rather than raising the dead). The only problem here is that for those who know this miracle there is also a moment of seeming hesitation in Jesus here. This may raise other questions. I would try to choose one that is without such hesitation.
[DS3]Here, I think you might actually be able to let the text be heard more forcefully. This is a strange incident, shocking, and not much like we anticipate our “gentle Jesus” to act. Therefore, I think you would do well to let the text come across a bit harsher and stronger to create that surprise.
[DS4]Here, your opening move is interesting. Rather than offer us the first answer, you actually offer us a basis for arriving at that answer – the place of the text – and then lead us into the answer. If you are going to do this, it might be helpful to have the same pattern all the way through so that a clue found within the text leads us to propose an answer and further study either denies it or affirms it.
[DS5]Good. Here, you clearly state the question and the false answer. This is important, particularly when you are delaying the statement of the first answer. You will want to make sure that we link the question with the answer.
[DS6]Good, here you do well to help us figure out the ramifications of this answer.
[DS7]Great. Here, you are asking us to work with the principle that Scripture interprets Scripture as a way of testing this answer. Good work.
[DS8]Good work, here. You do well at this point to offer us a small glimpse of gospel proclamation that takes care of our fear (the effect of the law of this wrong understanding) but then helping us see that this ultimately does not yet answer our question. Hence, we have both a gospel proclamation and then a movement back to the question which still needs to be answered.
[DS9]Here, you now move straight into the second false answer. In this case, notice how you don’t have any link to the text that would cause us to see this (as you did in the first false answer). This is usually the way the false answer works – it is simply introduced and then the text read in light of it. The one thing you could do here, however, is help us see how there are times when Jesus teaches and tests and that it would not be beyond the bounds of his work to test the faith of some. That way, this looks like a reasonable answer and needs to be studied more carefully to be dismissed.
[DS10]I like the slight nod toward Paul’s language of faith and testing. This helps to solidify the idea that this is a possible Scriptural answer.
[DS11]Good, here you do well to take this from a merely technical observation about this text to a theological teaching that starts to have ramifications on our lives. What I would do is pursue this just a bit further so that we can begin to wonder if there are times in our lives when Jesus does this with us. That will then make us personally invested in your answer to this dilemma.
[DS12]Here, you have chosen to move inductively into the proper answer. This is a bit of a risky move. Since the other options have been so blatantly stated, this change of format may cause some to miss the final answer. If you do this, you will need to be explicit in the final answer when it is offered.
[DS13]At this point, we seem to be moving to a second question. The first question was why did Jesus hesitate in answering her. Now, the question seems to be what is it about her that caused him to help? In this case, are you working toward a final larger answer to the opening question or are you moving into another aspect of the sermon or is this being offered as further support of your point – because her speech highlighted the role of Jesus for Israel, there was no chance of misunderstanding and therefore Jesus helped?
[DS14]The phrase I like that is often used with this text is “better to be a dog in Jesus’ kingdom than a king somewhere else.”
[DS15]Here, I like what you are starting to do. You are starting to give names to the types of Jesus that we encounter based upon our answers to the question. Thus, we have a tough love Jesus if we are thinking he is testing her faith. You may want to embellish this and use it more fully earlier in the sermon as a clear and easy handle to see the type of Jesus we are given. The ultimate answer, then, will be the Jesus who acts in mercy in God’s time to save.
[DS16]Here, notice how we do have the gospel proclamation but I am not sure that the sermon has offered us a clear handle on the malady that makes this means a powerful proclamation of forgiveness.
