WHEN WALLS COME DOWN Matthew 15:21-28
Reading today’s Gospel reading is a somewhat uncomfortable experience. Our preconceptions of Jesus seem to come crashing down. Even if we have been a little desensitivised by the antics and language of the contestants in Big Brother, I think that we cannot be other than uncomfortable to find Jesus likening Gentiles which after all includes as far as I know all of us, with the description ‘dogs.’
So what is going on here? Well, at a point when Jesus is tired and shaken by the news of the killing of John the Baptist, along comes a somewhat persistent Canaanite woman, making demands of him. Here is a woman who has a demon possessed daughter and she, as a loving mother, is going to stop at nothing to get her daughter better. And in that objective, she sees Jesus as the one who can meet her needs.
Perhaps at this stage, it is worth looking at what being a Canaanite woman entails. This woman who lived around the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon, would have been at least nominally a descendant of those with whom the Hebrews had been involved in combat against going back to the events of the Exodus well over a thousand years earlier. I say nominally, because the territory from which she came, was territory that had been fought over by a range of peoples since. Philistines and Hittites were amongst those who had settled in this land, and the one thing they had in common was a deep enmity with the Jews. It was from these territories that just a couple of centuries before the time of Jesus, a King had invaded Jerusalem and by use of torture and persecution, sought to destroy the entirety of Jewish religious tradition, leaving a legacy of martyrs who were still very much remembered at the time of Jesus. So, you can see that this encounter is hardly likely to be promising.
Anyhow, the encounter begins with an almighty surprise. This outsider makes her approach, addressing Jesus as “Lord, Son of David.” This is remarkable on two fronts. Firstly, there is the bravery of this action. In the patriarchal society, it was not acceptable for a woman, especially an unrelated woman, to invade a man’s space in search of a favour. This was after all a society in which the system served to prevent women from acquiring an assertive role in public life. Yet here, in her desperation, this Canaanite woman dares to challenge these structures of what today would be described as sexism.
Yet, perhaps more remarkable is the great insight she shows in the titles with which she addresses Jesus. At a time when those on the inside including his closest disciples fail to recognise it, this outsider woman is able to see Jesus as “Lord” and as “Son of David.”
Commentators seem to hold a range of opinions as to her motives in addressing Jesus with these titles. Perhaps their use enables her to address him in an acceptable way as a subject to a King. Perhaps, it is done in this way out of her desperation to bring help to her daughter. But, it seems that out of her desperation she has possibly inadvertently stumbled on the true significance of Jesus. The outsider has come to understand what passed the insiders by. Increasingly, I think that this is important. Too often, we are closed to the insights of those who are other than us. Yet often wisdom comes from surprising places. After all some of the most valuable insights on peace and justice of which I am aware come from Mahatma Gandhi who followed the path of Hinduism, some of the most important insights on environmentalism come from campaigners outside the Christian community and 20 years ago when millions faced starvation in Africa, the most vocal voice to feed the world was an Irishman who had long been disenchanted with the Church with which he had grown up and who was prone to expressing himself in a somewhat non ecclesiastical manner. None of this denies that many times God works through Christian people but I would like to suggest this morning that this Scripture reminds us part of good Christian discipleship is about listening to the insights of those who in many ways might be seen as other than we are.
But now comes the problem. And horror of horrors the problem seems to be Jesus. His first reaction is not to respond. If he is a King, she is no subject and he is in no way obligated to respond to her. Indeed his reaction is to tell his disciples who are vexed at the disturbance, that he was only sent to “the lost sheep of Israel.” Hearing this is uncomfortable to us although it probably would not have shocked some of his followers who saw God in a tribal manner. But our problem soon becomes bigger when as the woman begs still more, by now on her knees, we find Jesus to telling her;
"It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs."
Dogs! That’s gentiles like you and me. Surely not! So in a sense we can only be glad that the Canaanite woman refuses to be put off. Back she comes with the rejoinder;
“Yes Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
And at that demonstration of faith and at that reminder that good things inevitably spread, Jesus changes tact, acknowledges her faith and gives her the healing of her daughter which this woman has craved.
But what has happened here. One view is that Jesus has used this exchange to lead this woman to discover her true value for herself and also to teach the disciples that the Gospel stretched outside of the comfortable box named Israel. Others see this encounter as showing Jesus developing his own understanding of his ministry through this encounter. Remember that Jesus is fully Human as well as fully Divine. And humanity is something that involves developing. Remember those words in Luke’s Gospel, after Jesus has questioned the leaders in the temple;
"And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature."
Perhaps this story hints that in his ministry, as one who is fully human, Jesus is still wrestling with his ministry and growing in wisdom. Indeed, if Jesus is changing in the encounter, might that not be a good example to all of us to follow, that we might not put certainty above compassion. For in the powerful words of the Jewish Rabbi, Sheila Peltz after her visit to Auschwitz;
“As I stood before the gates I realised that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place”
The more I look at what I find to be this difficult encounter, the more convinced I am that it represents a powerful pointer to a God whose love is inclusive. The more convinced I am that it is a story that challenges the walls we build to divide us between an Us and a Them. It reads to me as a story that challenges us with a vision of God valuing even those whom we find it hardest to value. And as such, it draws us into God’s work of tearing down the man made walls that divide and exclude.
On Christmas Day 1989, the Jewish conductor Leonard Bernstein conducted the ‘Berlin Celebration Concerts’ on both sides of the Berlin Wall which was in the process of being dismantled. His orchestra contained musicians from both Germanys as well as the four allied powers who had occupied Germany at the end of the Second World War. A wall had given way to a new unity. For the occasion Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” was renamed “Ode to Freedom.” Walls had come down and most miraculous of all the miracles of that Christmas was that Bernstein was now being feted in that land in which he would have been murdered simply for existing less than half a century earlier.
This morning, I have both a challenge and an invitation. The challenge is to ask what are the walls that exist today in our world, our community and indeed within the Church that lead to some people being treated as lesser. And having recognised them, what are we going to do to help dismantle those walls?
The invitation is that recognising that God is for all, we are invited to the acceptance that is found at our Lord’s Table. For this is the appointed place where God touches us no matter what our individual story might be for as the story of the Canaanite woman reminds us, God wants to touch us even when we may be seen as distant from God .
AMEN
This sermon was preached at a Communion service in Bideford on August 14th
So what is going on here? Well, at a point when Jesus is tired and shaken by the news of the killing of John the Baptist, along comes a somewhat persistent Canaanite woman, making demands of him. Here is a woman who has a demon possessed daughter and she, as a loving mother, is going to stop at nothing to get her daughter better. And in that objective, she sees Jesus as the one who can meet her needs.
Perhaps at this stage, it is worth looking at what being a Canaanite woman entails. This woman who lived around the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon, would have been at least nominally a descendant of those with whom the Hebrews had been involved in combat against going back to the events of the Exodus well over a thousand years earlier. I say nominally, because the territory from which she came, was territory that had been fought over by a range of peoples since. Philistines and Hittites were amongst those who had settled in this land, and the one thing they had in common was a deep enmity with the Jews. It was from these territories that just a couple of centuries before the time of Jesus, a King had invaded Jerusalem and by use of torture and persecution, sought to destroy the entirety of Jewish religious tradition, leaving a legacy of martyrs who were still very much remembered at the time of Jesus. So, you can see that this encounter is hardly likely to be promising.
Anyhow, the encounter begins with an almighty surprise. This outsider makes her approach, addressing Jesus as “Lord, Son of David.” This is remarkable on two fronts. Firstly, there is the bravery of this action. In the patriarchal society, it was not acceptable for a woman, especially an unrelated woman, to invade a man’s space in search of a favour. This was after all a society in which the system served to prevent women from acquiring an assertive role in public life. Yet here, in her desperation, this Canaanite woman dares to challenge these structures of what today would be described as sexism.
Yet, perhaps more remarkable is the great insight she shows in the titles with which she addresses Jesus. At a time when those on the inside including his closest disciples fail to recognise it, this outsider woman is able to see Jesus as “Lord” and as “Son of David.”
Commentators seem to hold a range of opinions as to her motives in addressing Jesus with these titles. Perhaps their use enables her to address him in an acceptable way as a subject to a King. Perhaps, it is done in this way out of her desperation to bring help to her daughter. But, it seems that out of her desperation she has possibly inadvertently stumbled on the true significance of Jesus. The outsider has come to understand what passed the insiders by. Increasingly, I think that this is important. Too often, we are closed to the insights of those who are other than us. Yet often wisdom comes from surprising places. After all some of the most valuable insights on peace and justice of which I am aware come from Mahatma Gandhi who followed the path of Hinduism, some of the most important insights on environmentalism come from campaigners outside the Christian community and 20 years ago when millions faced starvation in Africa, the most vocal voice to feed the world was an Irishman who had long been disenchanted with the Church with which he had grown up and who was prone to expressing himself in a somewhat non ecclesiastical manner. None of this denies that many times God works through Christian people but I would like to suggest this morning that this Scripture reminds us part of good Christian discipleship is about listening to the insights of those who in many ways might be seen as other than we are.
But now comes the problem. And horror of horrors the problem seems to be Jesus. His first reaction is not to respond. If he is a King, she is no subject and he is in no way obligated to respond to her. Indeed his reaction is to tell his disciples who are vexed at the disturbance, that he was only sent to “the lost sheep of Israel.” Hearing this is uncomfortable to us although it probably would not have shocked some of his followers who saw God in a tribal manner. But our problem soon becomes bigger when as the woman begs still more, by now on her knees, we find Jesus to telling her;
"It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs."
Dogs! That’s gentiles like you and me. Surely not! So in a sense we can only be glad that the Canaanite woman refuses to be put off. Back she comes with the rejoinder;
“Yes Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
And at that demonstration of faith and at that reminder that good things inevitably spread, Jesus changes tact, acknowledges her faith and gives her the healing of her daughter which this woman has craved.
But what has happened here. One view is that Jesus has used this exchange to lead this woman to discover her true value for herself and also to teach the disciples that the Gospel stretched outside of the comfortable box named Israel. Others see this encounter as showing Jesus developing his own understanding of his ministry through this encounter. Remember that Jesus is fully Human as well as fully Divine. And humanity is something that involves developing. Remember those words in Luke’s Gospel, after Jesus has questioned the leaders in the temple;
"And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature."
Perhaps this story hints that in his ministry, as one who is fully human, Jesus is still wrestling with his ministry and growing in wisdom. Indeed, if Jesus is changing in the encounter, might that not be a good example to all of us to follow, that we might not put certainty above compassion. For in the powerful words of the Jewish Rabbi, Sheila Peltz after her visit to Auschwitz;
“As I stood before the gates I realised that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place”
The more I look at what I find to be this difficult encounter, the more convinced I am that it represents a powerful pointer to a God whose love is inclusive. The more convinced I am that it is a story that challenges the walls we build to divide us between an Us and a Them. It reads to me as a story that challenges us with a vision of God valuing even those whom we find it hardest to value. And as such, it draws us into God’s work of tearing down the man made walls that divide and exclude.
On Christmas Day 1989, the Jewish conductor Leonard Bernstein conducted the ‘Berlin Celebration Concerts’ on both sides of the Berlin Wall which was in the process of being dismantled. His orchestra contained musicians from both Germanys as well as the four allied powers who had occupied Germany at the end of the Second World War. A wall had given way to a new unity. For the occasion Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” was renamed “Ode to Freedom.” Walls had come down and most miraculous of all the miracles of that Christmas was that Bernstein was now being feted in that land in which he would have been murdered simply for existing less than half a century earlier.
This morning, I have both a challenge and an invitation. The challenge is to ask what are the walls that exist today in our world, our community and indeed within the Church that lead to some people being treated as lesser. And having recognised them, what are we going to do to help dismantle those walls?
The invitation is that recognising that God is for all, we are invited to the acceptance that is found at our Lord’s Table. For this is the appointed place where God touches us no matter what our individual story might be for as the story of the Canaanite woman reminds us, God wants to touch us even when we may be seen as distant from God .
AMEN
This sermon was preached at a Communion service in Bideford on August 14th
posted by Rev Paul Martin at 1:04 AM
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