August 14, 2005 (Jimmie Johnson)

Romans 11:1-2, 29-32

I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.

Matthew 15:21-28

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

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Too often we think and believe Jesus found the experience of being the Messiah a piece of cake. Nothing could be farther from the truth. There were always the testing and the tension going on within him as they do within us. There is a quirky, overlooked little text in Luke that alerts us to Jesus’ struggles, but preachers and believers have never paid any attention to it.

It’s tucked into Luke, chapter 4, verse 13. Right after the temptation in the desert story, Luke writes: “When the devil had finished every test, he departed from Jesus until an opportune time.” Clearly the struggle of Jesus to be faithful lasted a lifetime.

I think this idea of Jesus struggling with his identity and his calling is important for understanding this rather ugly passage in Matthew 15 where Jesus and the Canaanite woman argue vehemently over God’s compassion for all and not simply those who believe they are chosen. If Jesus had stayed the course of his initial response to the woman, I would believe him a cruel bigot. Jesus faces a huge test when the Canaanite woman confronts him, a test that initially he seems to fail. The woman cries out for compassion for her daughter. The disciples find her annoying. Jesus seems out of sorts and lambastes her by calling her a cruel and demeaning name.

What’s going on Christians? I think what’s going on is what goes on in our lives every day. Every day we act and think as if God is imprisoned within the certainties of our childhood religion. So was Jesus. Pay attention to how the story in Matthew 15 begins with a geography lesson. Jesus has led his disciples to Tyre and Sidon. This means he has brought them into pagan land. Un-chosen people live there. Jesus has traveled to the edge of orthodoxy, to the edge of his childhood religion.

Now pay attention to the characters in the story. Other than Jesus the main character is the Canaanite woman. Who is she? You know her kind well. She is the kind of person your childhood religion has taught you to disrespect. She is part of the group of people you can least tolerate. You can’t stand to be in the room with her for five minutes. That’s who she is. And she is crying out for mercy, specifically mercy for her sick child. She is shrieking for help. “Lord, Son of David, have mercy. Help me. I am losing my daughter. You must help me. Please. Please help me.”

The text doesn’t say it, but it is not hard for me to imagine one of the disciples yelling at her: “Shut up, woman. You have no right to be here! You don’t believe the same as we. Your people are Gentiles. Your people are unclean. You are unclean.” Perhaps a less harsh response came from another of the disciples. “Look, lady, I understand. I know you are frantic. But he’s not going to help you. You are a Canaanite. You don’t go to synagogue. You don’t obey the law of Moses. You are unclean. You eat forbidden food. You can’t interrupt us like this. Go away!” The woman simply gathers her strength and charges again. She will not be denied. “I know he will help me. He’s got to help me.”

The text indicates the disciples now lose all control and instruct Jesus to send her away. Jesus seems suddenly unclear and lashes out with the only truth he believes and knows: “Woman, you are not one of us. God doesn’t give a rat’s tail about you.” This is where his childhood religion has taken him. He has gone right to the edge. The pull of his orthodoxy is back to the center. But something within Jesus resists the safety of his beliefs. It’s not easy for him.

You can’t read this text without seeing that Jesus is struggling to know what to do with what he has previously believed. And somehow God speaks to Jesus through the woman. Jesus at first thought her voice unclean, un-chosen. Then with the text giving no reason, Jesus says he has never seen such wonderful faith. Just a few moments before Jesus says words about having nothing to do with her kind, says words about not being sent for her kind.

With no embarrassment the text from Matthew shows Jesus as closed minded and closed hearted. He doesn’t care about a Gentile woman and her sick child. He knows what he has been taught is right and wrong. He knows his true religion. He is right on the boundary of correct theology. Will he stay there?

Remember that little odd text about the devil leaving Jesus to return at a more opportune time? Okay, where is the devil in this story? Is the devil in the unclean woman crying for Jesus to help? Or, is the devil in the clean religion of Jesus, the religion he has cherished from his childhood?

I think the devil is in the religion and the believers in this text. Look, anytime faith thinks God is only in the past and not in the future, then watch out. Faith can’t simply look back over the shoulder to know what is good and right. We have to look forward to and be willing to change.

Is there any sadder commentary on religion than a statement from that religion declaring belief in a sad little god for a tragic little tribe of believers? What do you think of this Matthew 15 story? Do you think Jesus simply has been under too much pressure? Has he tried to be too available? Has he extended himself beyond his emotional resources? Maybe. And surely if this were the case, it would be one of those opportune times the Luke passage mentions for a devilish temptation.

Or, is it something else? Have you ever experienced the turmoil brought about by crossing the boundary of your childhood religion? Do you know something of the experience of what it is like to go beyond everything you have previously believed as right and wrong? Do you know anything of the turmoil of rebelling against God in the name of the God who is beyond God?

Jesus isn’t described as sweating blood here as he is in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:44), but this is a crucial moment in his mission and for his faith. His whole God-concept is at stake. His sense of self is at stake. What kind of Messiah will he be? “Tell her I only came for the sake of the Jews.” “Tell her I only came for the sake of the Christians.” “Tell her I only came for the sake of the Muslims.” “Tell her I only came for those that my childhood religion has told me are safe and chosen and clean.”

I wish I could have seen Jesus’ face upon his saying these words. The intensity. I wonder what he felt in that moment when he knew what he had said was small and hateful and wrong. The woman says, “Lord, call me a dog if you want, but can’t you at least grant me the crumbs
that fall from your table?” The woman speaks the voice of God. Jesus hears God challenging the interpretations and the texts of his religion and once again resists temptation. He lets go of a faith that says God only speaks through the orthodox, the clean, the acceptable. Just as Jesus had done in the wilderness temptation of forty days and nights, Jesus responds with greater faith than what he woke up with that morning. “Woman, you have beautiful, wonderful faith. Go home. Your daughter is well.”

Sometime this afternoon, before you take your nap, read the temptation story of Jesus again or simply read Matthew chapter 4, verse 11. The Bible says after the temptation of Jesus
in the wilderness angels came to Jesus and ministered to him. They gave him some compassion and strength. (The word “angel” means “messenger.”)

Isn’t this Canaanite woman doing the same thing for him? Isn’t she ministering to Jesus with a message that we don’t expect angels to say? Isn’t she ministering to Jesus even though not as
we expect our angels to appear? The church always faces day in and day out the temptation of Jesus. Is God really as small and frightened as our faith and its present boundaries? Or, does our faith need to grow larger to embrace a bigger God who loves the whole world and whose mission in Jesus includes all?

Never think God is incapable of surprising us. Never think God is bound and constricted by our beliefs. God is free. The woman in this passage elieved this. Jesus chose to do so. Jesus lived into this freedom with the result being the powers of darkness never found their opportune time to bring him down to their level.

Sometimes the religion of our childhood is the clear voice of God. Sometimes the religion of our childhood is anything but the voice of God. Do you wish it could be made easy? Lots of preachers and churches are willing to make you such an offer. We are not at First Pres.