The Second Sunday in Lent
3/20/11
Matthew 15:21-28
Bror Erickson
[21] And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. [22] And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon." [23] But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, "Send her away, for she is crying out after us." [24] He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." [25] But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." [26] And he 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." [28] Then Jesus answered her, "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly. Matthew 15:21-28 (ESV)
“Oh Woman, great is your faith!”
This is not an easy narrative to preach on. In many ways if follows a formula familiar to the gospels. And unexpected person comes and asks Jesus for help with a son, or a daughter, friend, slave etc. Sometimes there is a bit of hesitancy, the person displays faith in some manner, Jesus praises their faith and heals the person in question. In that respect this story isn’t much different than all the others. Jesus wants faith, faith saves, one cannot be saved without it. And this is a story of tenacious faith. But there are those troubling statements about being sent “only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (A phrase that only occurs twice, and twice in this gospel that was originally written in Aramaic to target the Jews.) There is the whole discourse about children and dogs, that sort of grates on our ears. These statements have been known to provide a bit of consternation. If only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, then what about me? The bit about children and dogs would have many today adhering to pre-millennial thoughts believing that the Jews have some sort of blessed relationship to Jesus apart from faith. The reality Jesus is trying to convey though might be just the opposite.
It makes sense that Jesus would spend time trying to convert the people that are his own according to the flesh. He was born a Jew, he grew up with Jewish customs, customs that were tailor fit to Jesus by the way. Custom’s, laws, norms built around a book whose chief purpose was to prepare the people for Jesus. It is for this reason that Paul says if the Jews have an advantage it is first and foremost that they were the ones who “were entrusted with the oracles of God.” (Romans 3:1-2) It makes sense that he would perhaps care for them a bit more than for others. The promises God had been making to them for centuries, for a couple millennia were to be fulfilled in him! Including the promise to Abraham that in his offspring all the nations of the earth would be blessed. (Gen. 22:18). But it would at least start with the lost sheep of the house of Israel, who are such according to the flesh. They would get the first crack. They would be the first to see that the promises were being fulfilled, that their messiah had come. But they would not be the only ones to benefit, and many of them would miss out all together.
And to illustrate this comes a Canaanite woman, making a nuisance of herself. Her ethnicity sticks out like a sore thumb. A Canaanite. She is from the people that had originally inhabited the land, who the Lord ordered to be driven out of the land, to be exterminated. The people who routinely persecuted the Israelites in the early days during the time of the judges. But who eventually came to inhabit only those parts of the land no one really wanted, and perhaps were a bit too rugged to make concerted effort against without any really reason. Not just a Samaritan, but a Canaanite.
The disciples do not make an appeal for her as they had with other people, and other gentiles. By all human accounts this woman has the least reason of any to be harassing Christ. The disciples just want her gone. “Send her away Lord.” Then the harsh side of Jesus comes out. He isn’t going to help her. He isn’t sent to these people. But then one wonders why he is in their territory at all.
Jesus knows he is going to help this woman. Jesus has to be impressed with her faith already. We cannot forget that Jesus knows the hearts of men, and women. We cannot forget that He is even now God. That he has love.
But he begins to treat the woman quite harshly. Something the woman won’t listen too. She won’t take no. And this Jesus must have been counting on. He has just finished with the Pharisees and Sadducees who thought they were too good for Jesus. His own people had all but rejected them at this point. And now there is a Canaanite woman who wants his help, because where as his own people will not have faith in him, this woman has Great faith. It is faith and not nationality. Faith and not position. Faith and not family affiliation that is now the dividing line.
He harasses her with all the language he had probably even heard from his own disciples. He talked of her as if she was a dog. More insulting in that culture than when we refer to a woman as the female of that species. And her reaction is that of all believers everywhere. Yes Lord, I am not worthy, even dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the children’s table. She calls his bluff, and he reveals his love.
And the message is clear, to the disciples. There is no room for bigotry among believers. Those who believe in Jesus Christ have this in common with each other more than anything else, regardless of ethnicity, or nationality. And it is not an easy lesson for us. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek. How is it then that Christians should believe that Jews should be considered a more privileged race than others regardless of whether they have faith? Why should we think that we ourselves are either inferior or superior to others because of race, nationality or ethnicity, when Jesus himself sees none of this but looks for faith alone as the dividing line, and those without faith are not to be maligned, but loved so they too might hear and know the love of God that shows itself in the salvation of all, Jew and Greek, male and female, black or white, Hispanic and Anglo, for he died not for Jews alone. But God so loved the World that He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. But those who refuse to believe? Well, when you reject your salvation there isn’t much more God can do for you. So believe, and be saved. And those who believe, pray for those who don’t that they too might be healed according to your desire, the desire shared by God. That all the lost sheep of the house of Israel, whether Jew or Greek, Canaanite or Philistine, white black, male or female, will be found in Jesus Christ who died that they might live.
Now the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
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