Even The Crumbs

Matthew 15:21-28

13th Sunday after Pentecost ~ August 14, 2005

“Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the masters’ table.” Our lesson from Matthew’s Gospel today is a challenging one. There are some things that happen in this text that may seem shocking or contradictory to what we think about Jesus. To dive into this text today we need to understand some of the background of Matthew’s Gospel.

First we need to realize that this Gospel was written to for Jewish audience. Matthew quotes more Old Testament scripture than any other Gospel. His intended audience was those who were very familiar with Jewish traditions and way of life. How does that impact this text?

Right away in our text we see Matthew appealing to his Jewish audience when he uses the term “Canaanite” to describe this woman. Mark records this same story and doesn’t use this term. So why “Canaanite”? To a Jewish person Canaanite conjures up a specific thought of someone far from the Jewish faith. Canaanites were the people who lived in the Promised Land who worshiped pagan god performed rituals that Jews would have considered unclean and some even performed sacrifices of their children. A Canaanite was the lowest of lows to a Jew. It was an antithesis to the Jewish faith. A Canaanite was a term for someone who was farthest from the Jewish faith and tradition. A Jew hearing these words would have a vivid picture in their mind of this woman, and it wouldn’t be positive. I believe Matthew is capturing the attention of his Jewish readers.

And he continues to grab their attention when he records what the Canaanite woman said, “Have Mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David.” Why is this significant? This Canaanite woman, someone who should be farthest from the Jewish faith, uses very specific Jewish terms for the Messiah. How could this Canaanite woman know and use a Jewish term? Matthew’s audience is now hooked. How is Jesus going to handle this woman, this Canaanite?

This is what Jesus did - He did not answer her a word. What? How cold is that? We have in our minds that Jesus is a super compassionate person, and He gives her the cold shoulder? But then we have to remember our audience – Jews who despise Canaanite people. They were probably agreeing with Jesus here and were glad that He didn’t respond to her. Their attention is kept as the story unfolds.

Then Jesus disciples take it a step further. They were annoyed with her and ask Jesus, “Send her away.” Again, a Jewish person seeing this story unfold or reading it in Matthew’s account wouldn’t be surprised by this but welcome their reaction. This Canaanite woman, who is the furthest thing from the Jewish faith, doesn’t deserve the attention of Jesus, a Jewish teacher and miracle worker. That may be hard for us to swallow. How could Jesus be so cold as well as His disciples? Isn’t the Gospel for all people?

Listen to Jesus response, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” That sounds like Jesus was excluding this woman because she wasn’t a Jew. Could that really be what Jesus meant? Context is important for us here. Jesus, and Matthew, has captivated their audience by what is going on and even the specific words that were chosen to describe the people and events. But something else is going on. Remember where Jesus is, in Tyre and Sidon. That is a region outside of Israel. Jesus wasn’t just passing through but He went there on purpose. Why would He go there if He were only to go to “the lost sheep of Israel?” And why does He call them lost sheep? Something is different about his story but we have a captive audience waiting to find out what is going to happen.

The story continues as the woman continues to elicit help from Jesus. She gets down on her knees and says simply, “Lord, help me.” Getting on her knees was a sign of respect and honor she was giving to Jesus. And her request was simple – she wanted help.

Then Jesus says, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Again, this statement seems cold. But lets look at it in context. Bread is a symbol of that which we need of life. It is a basic symbol with great meaning. Jesus even calls himself the Bread of Life in John’s Gospel. The children represent those who need the bread, the very thing to sustain their lives. Jesus makes a case that why would anyone waste the very thing that gives him or her life with an animal that doesn’t need it. It is a simple proverb. But there is another wrinkle in the context here, which is important for us to know. The term “dog” would have been used by Jews to describe, obviously in a negative tone, a Canaanite. It is in many ways a racist term, and Jesus incorporates that term in His teaching here. But before we call Jesus a racist lets see how the woman responds.

“Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” The woman says. And then Jesus drops the bombshell, “O woman, great is your faith!” I am sure every Jew in Jesus presence or reading this story for the first time had their jaws drop open. Jesus says she has great faith. How can a Canaanite, someone far from the faith, a pagan, have great faith? But she does and her statement showed the depth of her faith. You see the woman didn’t argue with God about being a dog – she even agreed. The term “dog” from a human perspective is racist and a harsh term and should never be used. Spiritually it is a harsh term too but it reminds us of our sinful nature. We are all dogs – Canaanites, Jews, all of humanity because of our sin. This woman knew that she wasn’t approaching Jesus for help because she deserved it but because of God’s grace and mercy. In fact she recognized that God’s mercy is so great that even if she never could sit at the table, the very crumbs would be enough. The very crumbs of grace are enough to transform our “dog life.”

There is another concept that drew me into this text too – Fairness. For my children, as I think it is for all of humanity, they want things to be fair. If one child gets a toy then all the rest should get one too. We play the same game, just in a more “sophisticated” way. We say that everyone should be equal. That in some way we all are deserving of good things. And this creeps into our spiritual life. We think that since we haven’t done some of those “horrible sins” that we should deserve some good things in this life. Or since others have made terrible choices in their lives that they don’t deserve to hear the Gospel message or receive our help. Or we even say, “Until they get their act together I will not help them.” We want the system to be “fair.”

Well I am here today to tell you that our God is not fair. You heard me right – God isn’t fair. None of us deserves grace and mercy. All of us have earned damnation and they wrath of God because of our sin. You want God to be fair? Then prepare for hell! But God wasn’t fair, He was gracious and merciful to us and sent His Son to be our Savior. That is not fair, but it is fantastic. When we recognize that we are “dogs” because of sin we know our place before God. And even the very crumbs of His grace are enough to transform our lives. We can be satisfied with just the crumbs but obviously God gives us more. He gives us the very Bread of Life – Jesus!

Back to Jesus phrase of only going to the lost sheep of Israel. How we view this phrase will have a great impact on our witness to the world. God chose Israel not because they were special or unique in their own right. He chose them to be His messengers of His grace and mercy. They were special because of God’s work not theirs. But they had lost that idea. They felt their “specialness” should make them better than others. They thought they could pick and choose who was worthy of their time and effort. And in this they became lost. Jesus was coming to the Jews to steer them back to their true calling – sharing the message of God and of His loving kindness to all mankind. Israel was to be a servant to the world. Paul recognized this in our Epistle lesson for today (Romans 11:1-2a, 13-14, 28-32). He knew that the very witness of the Jews and the Gentiles, both positive and negative, had an impact on reaching out with the Gospel.

As ones called by God’s grace we are also part of “Israel” and we are called to go to even the “Canaanites” to proclaim the Gospel. Not because we are better or more deserving, but because we know that we have been the “dog” too. Even the very people our society shuns because of their “dogness” need to hear the Gospel. Lets get off our duffs and proclaim Jesus. Lets stop judging who is worth of the Gospel and lets show the Love of Jesus. Lets get out to the “others” and love them into the Kingdom of God. For even the very crumbs from the Bread of Life are enough. Amen