August 17, 2014
Matthew 15:1-28, The Voice (edited)
M Narrator: Some Pharisees and scribes came from Jerusalem to ask Jesus a question.
Scribes and Pharisees: 2 The law of Moses has always held that one must ritually wash his hands before eating. Why don’t your disciples observe this tradition?
M Narrator: 3 Jesus turned the Pharisees’ question back on them.
Jesus (exasperated): Why do you violate God’s commandment because of your tradition? 4 God said, “Honor your father and mother.[a] Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.”[b] 5-6 But you say that one need no longer honor his parents so long as he says to them, “What you might have gained from me, I now give to the glory of God.” Haven’t you let your tradition trump the word of God? 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah must have had you in mind when he prophesied,
8 People honor me with their lips, but their hearts are nowhere near me. 9 Because they elevate mere human ritual to the status of law, their worship of me is a meaningless sham.[c]
M Narrator: 10 To the multitude gathered he said,
Jesus (confidently): Hear and understand this: 11 What you put into your mouth cannot make you clean or unclean; it is what comes out of your mouth that can make you unclean.
M Narrator:12 Later the disciples came to Him.
Disciples: Do you realize the Pharisees were shocked by what you said?
Jesus: 13 Every plant planted by someone other than My heavenly Father will be plucked up by the roots. 14 So let them be. They are blind guides. What happens when one blind person leads another? Both of them fall into a ditch.
Peter: 15 Explain that riddle to us.
Jesus: 16 Do you still not see? 17 Don’t you understand that whatever you take in through your mouth makes its way to your stomach and eventually out through the bowels of your body? 18 But the things that come out of your mouth—your curses, your fears, your denunciations—these come from your heart, and it is the stirrings of your heart that can make you unclean. 19 For your heart harbors evil thoughts—fantasies of murder, adultery, and whoring; fantasies of stealing, lying, and slandering. 20 These make you unclean—not eating with a hand you’ve not ritually purified with a splash of water and a prayer.
M Narrator: 21 Jesus left that place and withdrew to Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman—a non-Jew—came to Him.
Canaanite Woman (wailing): Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is possessed by a demon. Have mercy, Lord!
M Narrator: 23 Jesus said nothing. And the woman continued to wail. His disciples came to Him.
Disciples: Do something—she keeps crying after us!
M Narrator: Jesus said to the disciples.
Jesus (contemplating): 24 I was sent here only to gather up the lost sheep of Israel.
M Narrator: 25 The woman came up to Jesus and knelt before Him.
Canaanite Woman: Lord, help me!
Jesus (confused): 26 It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.
Canaanite Woman: 27 But, Lord, even dogs eat the crumbs that fall by the table as their master is eating.
M Narrator: 28 Jesus—whose ancestors included Ruth and Rahab—spoke.
Jesus: Woman, you have great faith. And your request is done.
M Narrator: And her daughter was healed, right then and from then on.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
Like is often true, today’s gospel makes a lot more sense if you know what comes before. [so we read starting with verse one]. The Pharisees came to Jesus to ask him why his disciples didn’t follow the handwashing ritual required of pious Pharisees.
In his conversation with the Pharisees about handwashing, Jesus turns the question back on them. He points to an example where they are not following the law, and have, in fact, come up with a way to avoid following the “Honor your Father and Mother” commandment by giving such resources to the temple instead. A perfect example of how NOT to run a stewardship campaign. [wink]
All of this matters because here is Jesus, having just argued with the Pharisees, wrapping up that teaching by saying:
18But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. 19For out of the heart come evil intentions, […etc., etc. ]20These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile." Jesus has just set himself up for what happens next. After teaching, clearly, that what matters is what comes out of the heart. A Canaanite woman puts him to the test. Jesus is faced with the question: What is clean or unclean? Does it matter who you are and what purity laws you follow? Or is the real issue the stuff you put out into the world. Because this woman, a non-Jew – we call those “gentiles” – and even an old enemy of Israel, comes to Jesus begging for crumbs, asking for a healing of her daughter. And Jesus’ first reaction is a big fat no. Horribly un-Jesus like, don’t you think? Jesus is trying to stay focused on his vocation, his call to the “lost children of Israel,” which up until now in the gospel have surely provided him plenty of work in themselves – as shown by the whole clean/unclean argument. Israel isn’t “getting it” – and even the disciples at this very moment want Jesus to send the Canaanite woman away. Which he won’t do. He engages, once again, in conversation with someone who is culturally off-limits. A woman, non-Jew, from the “wrong” side of the lake.
Yet, the woman persists. And we have to wonder what’s going on in Jesus head. He’s just been arguing with the Pharisees narrow vision of who is clean, who gets included in the promises. The gears are turning as he recalls more of Isaiah’s prophecy
“the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant — 7these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
With extreme humility she calls him her Lord, she calls him the Son of David – she knows who he is! –she points out to him what HE JUST SAID. If it is what comes out of a person that really matters, and this woman insists on humbly claiming trust in Jesus as God’s son, capable of transforming her and her daughter’s life…. Well, what would Jesus [you] do?
And here we get a glimpse into the 100% human Jesus is, alongside his 100% divine. It looks like Jesus changes his mind. It looks like Jesus’ understanding of who all gets included, of who all can display the clean heart of faith, shifts. She has opened his eyes to the reality that great faith can come from even someone on the outside.
And thank God he did! Because, I mean… did any of you grow up Jewish?
That woman is us! We are the non-Jews who get crumbs from the table, get included on the Holy Mountain. The promises that were made to Israel wrap us up too. That’s what God does, draw the circle wider and wider, include us in the joyful house of prayer, that’s what God is up to in Jesus, gracing each and every one of us with the promise of new and eternal life.
Something clicks in Jesus, maybe it’s the 12 baskets of crumbs, maybe it’s Isaiah, maybe it’s his own divinity revealing itself in this moment. We praise God today, and every Sunday, for the blessing of being loved into God’s family.
This week I had a woman come to the door asking for crumbs. It doesn’t happen every week, but it happens often enough that I am working together with other pastors and faithful Christians in the area to figure out how to faithfully steward the crumbs we have been given. I wonder if we too are able to recognize how we sit at Jesus table as guests. We did not inherit the promise of Abraham until Jesus came in flesh and grafted us in. If we, gentiles, non-Jews, have been given crumbs that have resulted in abundance, and resulted in a secure place at the table… who is the Canaanite woman now?
Is it the single mom who’s food stamps doesn’t stretch to the end of the month?
Is it the one who has had his electricity turned off for weeks in Detroit?
Is it the men and women on the street of Ferguson, MO with their hands up chanting “hands up, don’t shoot”?
Is it the people of color in our society that must learn from a young age how to lower the anxiety of the police?
Is it the hungry people who eat rice and beans, not macaroni and cheese?
The central American children showing up on our doorstep… asking for our crumbs?
It is time, people of God, to take up the gospel challenge, to see the other as Jesus saw the Canaanite woman. Worthy of being included fully in the promises, and therefore fully included in our life together.
Amen.
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