The Road Not Taken: August 2008

Matthew 15:21-28
8.17.2008, Pentecost 14

"Jesus Outside the Boundaries"
When I was little, like many children, I used to have bad dreams. They could be about anything really, but the one that I still remember is a recurring dream that I used to have about robots. Yes robots. Not like Wall-e from the new Disney/Pixar movie, but big, scary ones. My bedroom in the house that I grew up in for most of my childhood had a loft in it, and this is where I had my bed. Directly across the room from the loft was a closet. And I kept having this recurring dream about robots being in the closet. And I wouldn’t dream that they were coming to get me or anything like that it was just that they were there and it really haunted me and made me uneasy.
Like the dreams of my childhood, the story from our text this morning is a story that haunts me a little bit. This is one of those stories that has the potential to keep you up late at night, but not because there are monsters, goblins, or robots, but because of the implications and significance of the story. It is one of those stories that is messy; one that dosen’t make a whole lot of real sense. After all we have an account of Jesus seemingly mad and wanting to reject this woman. It dosen’t seem to flow with the rest of this part of the Gospel narrative and so we are tempted to try to “sweep it under the rug” so to speak. There is a tendency to want to leave it alone, and move on to the more savory stories and images in the Gospel of Matthew. But here this story sits, in the 15th chapter, glaring at us, like a scary dream from my childhood. And this is precisely why I wanted to share it with you today; because I want this story to haunt you a little bit, not in a scary way or in a way that makes you fearful of the Gospel story (that would be counter-productive right?) but in a way that forces you to come to grips with the fantastic and overwhelming implications of this story.
The story opens by telling us that Jesus and his disciples have traveled away from Jerusalem and to a place called Tyre and Sidon. Tyre and Sidon was north of Galilee and was the only non-Jewish place that Jesus went in his recorded life. Tyre and Sidon was not a nice place, it was a “wild-west” kind of place with lots of idol worshipping, fertility cults, and other things that Jesus and his disciples found repulsive; it was certainly a place that was out of the boundaries of what might be considered safe and normal. But Jesus didn’t really go there to preach like he had been other places; the Bible tells us that he went there to get away, he knew that this was the last place that the scribes and Pharisees would come looking for him. He had many things to tell his disciples about; namely, what was going to happen to him and what that would mean for them. He went to this place to compel them to understand some things. And he wanted a safe and quiet place to do so.
But even in these foreign parts of Palestine, Jesus was not free from the demand of human need. Like the story says there was a woman who had a daughter who was grievously afflicted. The woman must have heard somehow of the great works and miracles that Jesus had performed at earlier times in different places and so now she came in hopes of having her own miracle performed. And she followed the disciples around everywhere desperately crying and begging him to help her and her daughter. And it seems pretty clear that she was becoming quite a nuisance to the disciples. For starters she had several things going against her: First of all, we have to recognize the fact that this was not just any woman - this was a Canaanite woman. In the time of Jesus, a Canaanite would not have been considered within the circle of ancient Judaism. She would have been thought of as a person who would be suspected of worshiping false gods. That's strike one against her. Strike two is the fact that she is a woman, simply female. For in ancient Israel as is true throughout the world today, the place of women is often not recognized as being in leadership within religious life. Women were not to speak of such things. In the time of Jesus, most particularly, women were still considered the property of their husbands or their fathers. That's strike two against her. She is a Canaanite; she is a female. And strike three: she's pushy. When a man speaks out, that man is often considered decisive or leader-like. When a woman speaks out, she can be accused of being nagging, pushy, annoying or uppity.

And then there’s Strike four, if there is such a thing: is that being a Canaanite she was probably involved in what were called fertility cults, and without going into great detail understand that if I did you would understand why Jesus calling her a dog was more than metaphorical. She was a Canaanite; a gentile, she was a woman; the property of her husband, she was pushy and demanded to be heard in spite of her social status, and she was involved in the fertility cults, not a nice someone the disciples wanted around them. This was a person who was way outside the boundaries of acceptance.

And so the disciples were embarrassed by her, and they told Jesus in no uncertain terms just to give her what she wants so they “could be rid of her.” The disciples didn’t really act with compassion and Jesus really didn’t appear to at first either as he said, “I was sent only to the house of Israel.” And a little later he adds, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” The implication being that he came only to save the House of Israel, and that he didn't want to waste "food" on dogs like the Canaanite woman. Jesus sounds rather arrogant here doesn’t he? And this is part of what could be disturbing in this story. Where is the Jesus that is so welcoming, that is smiling, where is the Jesus from the song, “Jesus loves the little children.” Where is the Jesus that fed 5,000+ people, who walked on water and calmed the stormy waters? Jesus says, perhaps in a moment of frustration or anger, I haven’t come to save you, only the lost sheep of Israel, and metaphorically says that I am not going to waste the time of giving you, a dog, food that belongs to the children of the house of Israel. It seems that he and his disciples do not want their private meeting, their private retreat, their time to get away from the pressures of the Pharisees and the scribes to be disturbed by the local riff-raff, especially since she was the epitome of what good orthodox Jews disdained; a Canaanite, a woman, and perhaps a participant in fertility cults, someone from the margins of society.

But in the woman’s pleading, we see her real reason for coming to Jesus. We see that the primary reason she comes to Jesus is because she is motivated out of love. It is after all because of her daughter that she so desperately pleads to Jesus to save her. And what else could Jesus more closely relate to than the kind of sacrificial love this woman was displaying. So, rather than having some kind of lapse of judgement and flying into a rage at this woman, I think that Jesus knew all along what was going on and he knew what he was doing when he called her the worst name of all, a dog. Different commentators and scholars have said different things about what was going on here. Some say that there was a clever play on words with the word "dog," others say that Jesus really was caught off guard but that he quickly remembered who he was. However, what I want you to understand is that Jesus did not reject this woman who sought after him so earnestly out of concern for her daughter. Inspite of her social standing and the life that she lived, Jesus did not reject her.

But then something happens, and she responds, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat crumbs that fall from the master’s table,” and in an instant Jesus’ frustration at the situation turned to compassion and he saw that she had faith, and the story ends saying, ‘“Woman! Great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.’” Even though this woman was far from being a saint, she was motivated by love to come to Jesus, and Jesus was ready to hear her. And Jesus is always ready to hear us and everyone who so desparately comes to him. So here are the startling implications for us: try as we might, we can never run from our calling from the savior of the world, even by going to a place like Tyre and Sidon, a place outside the boundaries, to love the unloveable, to help those in need, to be accepting of those in the margins, even those whom we despise, who have terrible reputations, those who live out of the boundaries of normal.

You have heard me talk before about a person named Robbie Burns. He lived just a mile or so from the church where I was involved in the youth program and so we invited him to join us in our activities, everywhere we went. The thing is though, Robbie was different; while he might have been the same age as us he was mentally handicapped, not severely, but to the point where could easily be taken advantage of by the people around him. The house he lived in didn’t have running water or they couldn't afford to pay it and so he rarely bathed, and had a distinct odor about him as well. And then he also had a tendency to say embarrassing things when we were in public places. So much so that we became known by many people as the, excuse the expression, “youth group with the retarded kid.” At the time that label was just something that came with including Robbie in everything, but as the years have passed I have thought at what a perfect picture of the Gospel story that was, and how similar that is to our story today. There are no doubt a lot of "Canaanite women" out there, there are a lot of "Robbie Burns" out there, I would submit that we are in many ways just like them, except many times we hide our problems behind smiles and handshakes. And we are all coming to Jesus, not because we think we deserve it, but because we are in desperate need of him. This is the lingering thought that should haunt us, that Jesus Christ came to love all people, especially those whom nobody else liked, and his church should reflect that attitude. In the spirit of living outside the boundaries, Amen.