“It is not
fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” I know that you are sitting there thinking to
yourself “I could not have heard that right.
There must be some mistake, some misprint. For Jesus would not, could not have said
something so harsh, so callow, so cruel. Jesus was about love, and this is
clearly not a loving comment.”
Well, as
much as I hate to burst your bubble, there is no misprint. This is what Jesus said. It appears not only
in Matthew’s gospel, but in Mark as well.
And as much as it may offend our
21st century sensibilities, it was a turning point in his
ministry. But before we explore that, we
need a frame of reference.
There are
two separate stories in this morning’s gospel, the encounter with the woman and
the conversation with the disciples and the crowd about the Pharisees. For the past several weeks we have been
exploring the gospel of Mathew as Jesus and the disciples travel from Jerusalem
to Galilee. We have heard the familiar
stories of the parable of the kingdom of heaven, the feeding of the 5,000, and
Peter’s lack of faith as he tried to walk on the water. What we didn’t get in the lectionary was the
story of the Pharisees following Jesus from Jerusalem to Galilee.
Matthew 15:1
tells us “Then the Pharisees and the scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and
said, ‘Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they
eat.” For Jews of that time, eating
without washing meant that one was unclean.
They had developed an elaborate process of ritually washing the hands in
order to purify oneself. This was not
due to any concerns for hygiene, but rather they believed that this was a way
to please God. So they went to great
lengths to avoid coming into contact with any unclean person or thing which
would separate them from God. Even
coming into contact with the dust kicked up by the feet of a gentile would make
one unclean. They had taken the laws
from the book of Leviticus and built on them, layer upon layer of new rituals
and practices, in an elaborate effort to win favor from God. To the Pharisees, eating with unclean hands
was no less a violation of the Law of Moses than adultery, false witness or
even murder.
They had
built for themselves a comfortable practice of piety, and what they believed to
be a sure fire way to curry favor with God.
All one had to do was scrupulously follow the practices laid down by the
scribes and the elders and you would be assured of God’s favor. And then this itinerant carpenter from
nowhere shows up and starts mouthing off to the people about the Kingdom of
God. He tells people that the Pharisees
are hypocrites and says that you can’t earn God’s favor, but it is a gift
freely given to all. The nerve of this
guy! So they follow Jesus all the way to
Galilee to question him and, presumably, to shut him up. But it doesn’t go for them the way they had
hoped. Rather than agree with them,
Jesus tells the crowd “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a
person, but what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”
It may not
seem like it, but this is actually the beginning of the end. For in this one sentence, Jesus has basically
said that the book of Leviticus is no longer true. Jesus has, in effect, repealed the dietary
laws written by Moses and substituted a new standard. A standard that says it is not what you eat,
but what is in your heart that makes you good or profane. Remember the parable where Jesus tells the story
of the tax collector and the Pharisee?
The Pharisee prays loudly saying, “Lord I thank you that I am not like
other men, like that tax collector! I
pray three times a day and pay my tithe.’
The tax collector could not even look up and prayed simply and quietly,
“Have mercy on me Lord for I am a sinner”.
Jesus tells us that it was the tax collector and not the Pharisees who
went away with their prayers answered.
In today’s gospel, Jesus tells us why that happened. For, while the Pharisee did the right things
by praying and tithing, he didn’t do them for the right reasons. He did them in order to be seen
doing them as a way of earning respect from people. But Jesus tells us that it is the intent and
not the deed that counts.
"Man," as Aquinas tells us, "sees the deed, but God sees
the intention."
The
Pharisees are horrified at this. By
preaching that the laws set down in Leviticus are no longer true, Jesus has
blasphemed and they can no longer look upon him as a kook or a quaint
distraction. He has attacked a
fundamental tenant of their faith and the rules of engagement are now set. If this were an old TV western, this would be
the moment when the sheriff says to the bad guy, “this town ain’t big enough
for the two of us”. From this point on,
it would either be the Pharisees or Jesus.
But that
still doesn’t explain about the woman so let’s return to that. After the confrontation with the Pharisees,
Jesus and the disciples travel to the district of Tyre and Sidon. They have been traveling for quite a while and
everywhere they go Jesus is mobbed by the crowds. It must have been exhausting and so they try
to get away from it all. Now you may
think they were going to Club Med for a little R&R, but that was not the
case. Tyre and Sidon are actually part
of Phoenicia and are outside of Israel.
Jesus has now traveled out of the holy land and into gentile territory
for the first time. Jesus has left
behind the safe and sacred land of Israel to travel to its gentile rival, right
on the heels of telling the world that what goes into the body does not defile
it. By walking in Tyre, he is setting a
visible example of this as his feet are now touching unclean ground.
It is clear
that Jesus and the disciples were exhausted from their travels and Jesus knew
that the disciples needed to rest, and he needed to prepare them for the ordeal
that was to come. For he knew that he
would soon be arrested, but there was still much that the disciples needed to
learn. So he wanted to take them away
from the crowds, and what better way to do that than to go where no Jew would
follow them? But it didn’t work out
quite the way they hoped. For this woman
began to pester them. This Canaanite
woman, this gentile, this unclean Phoenician woman came out and started
shouting at them. “Have mercy on me Lord,
Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” Jesus did not answer her. But she would not be deterred. She was persistent, in a way that only a
parent can be when they are fighting for their child. It seems to me that all other avenues had been
exhausted for her and this woman knew that Jesus was her last hope for healing
her child. And she was not going to go away.
The
disciples tell him to send her away so she will stop annoying them. What they are really saying is, just heal the
kid already so she will shut up! But
Jesus answers them “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel.” And she catches up to them,
kneels at Jesus’ feet and begs, “Lord, help me”.
I have
always found this to be the most plaintive of prayers. Who among us has not found them self, in the
hour of their most desperate need, when you are cried out, when there are no
more words, when you have no where left to turn, praying, “Lord, help me.” And Jesus, our fairest lord Jesus, lover of
souls and King of all Kings says, “It is not fair to take the children’s food
and throw it to the dogs.”
I don’t
think he could have been more offensive if he tried. But that I think is the point. I think he WAS trying to be offensive. I think he spoke this way, not because he
believed it, but to see how the woman and disciples would respond to it. Jesus needed to prepare the disciples for the
trials that lay ahead of them, and often taught them by example. Sometimes a teacher will stake out a
ridiculous premise to see if the student will refute it. He wanted them to see that, while he had been
sent to recover the lost sheep of Israel, there were also many other sheep that
needed saving.
And then
something wonderful happens. Rather than
be brushed aside by this expected response, the woman turns the tables on
Jesus. She tells him “even the dogs eat
the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” And Jesus smiles and says “Woman, great is
your faith. Let it be done as you wish”
and the little girl is healed.
This is the
first time that we see the faith extended beyond the Jews. This gentile woman, standing in the unclean
land of Tyre, has demonstrated that the gift of God’s love, while it may have
been first given to the Jews, is for non-Jews as well. Indeed, there is no limit on God’s love as it
falls from the table in amounts enough for everyone. This is not unlike the scraps left over from
the feeding of the 5,000 that filled 12 baskets, enough for everyone and then
some.
We still use
this woman’s example today in the Rite 1 prayer before we receive communion as
we say “We do not presume to come to this thy table O merciful Lord, trusting
in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy, so much as to gather up
the crumbs under thy table.”
And Jesus
knew it all along. He knew that this
would happen, he knew that this woman would react the way she did, and he knew
that the disciples needed to see this happen.
Jesus would be leaving them soon and they would be tested in many
ways. One of the major tests of the
early church would be the issue of whether the word of God was only for the
Jews or for the gentiles as well. When
that test came, it is likely that Peter and the rest of the disciples
remembered this incident with the woman and the lesson they learned from
it. Even though he was no longer with
them, Jesus was still teaching the disciples.
For God’s love is truly big enough for all people. We are all children of God and while none of
us are worthy of it, God’s love and grace are for all of us.
