Sermon preached at St. Alban's on August 17, 2014
Tenth Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 15, Year A
by the Rev. Carl D. Mann
by the Rev. Carl D. Mann
What a snotty thing to say! “It’s not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” Here is a woman vociferously seeking help with her demon-possessed
daughter who is at first ignored, then offered a racially charged statement, and finally dismissed rudely with a derogatory designation. Who is this man and what has he done with Jesus? Where is the compassion? Where’s all that ‘Love thy enemy’ stuff from chapter five?
At first glance, this is one of those passages which are easy to overlook because most people are as uncomfortable in hearing it as most preachers are in attempting to explain it. In fact, I’m actually surprised it made the lectionary for those reasons alone, but in reality, it’s really not that difficult.
Let’s look at the context leading up to this passage. Jesus is weary of the demands of the mobs which have been following him around Galilee; not disheartened or despondent, but dog-tired. Additionally, he is under increasing pressure from the scribes and Pharisees who he has publicly challenged through word and action.
And he is rapidly approaching his final march to Jerusalem in order to suffer death “at the hands of the elders, chief priests and scribes,” of which he has yet to inform his disciples, who, for the most part, really don’t understand most of what he says
without a thorough debriefing after he’s said it.
So he intentionally sets off for a place where most self-respecting Jews would refuse to go, which is the Phoenician coastal territory north of Israel, which is the Gentile world writ large. He is not going there out of fear or to evade his antagonists, but rather to seek a location in which to gather and to prepare himself for what is about to come.
And as soon as they arrive they are besieged by this Canaanite; not just any ol’ Gentile, but a woman from a race of people who have been mortal enemies of Israel since the day Joshua crossed the River Jordan. Now it’s obvious she has heard about Jesus and his healing ways, so she persistently pesters the disciples in seeking an audience with Jesus. Jesus has tried simply to ignore her, but she is so insistent with her appeal that the disciples strongly suggest to Jesus to send her away, or perhaps even submit to her request to keep her from yelling at them.
And in essence Jesus says to them,“You know, I didn’t come all the way to the Mediterranean Sea to work! All I’ve been doing is healing people, and quite frankly I’m a little drained. I need some time to think and pray, and cleanse my spiritual senses without being bothered. And besides, she’s a Canaanite! Need I say more? Look! My primary concern is to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; I’m not quite ready for the rest of the world.”
Now I’m sure that sounds more like me than Jesus, but if you recall, just a few chapters back in this Gospel, Jesus sent the twelve out on their first mission trip and specifically charged them not to go among the Gentiles or to enter the towns of Samaritans, but rather to go only to the lost sheep of Israel. So his words are not surprising to his disciples, but simply a review. However, the woman, who has obviously been eaves-dropping, breaks through the disciples, prostrates herself before Jesus and begs for his help.
Now here’s where it gets a little tricky and why it’s important to understand the original Greek. In English, Jesus says, “It’s not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” To our hyper-sensitive ears it sounds as if he is calling her a dog! Not unlike a pirate calling someone a scurvy dog or when we call someone a dirty, rotten son of a…! And of course because she is a she it’s not hard for us to imagine the ending word of that phrase, which seems exceptionally ugly coming from the mouth of Jesus!
But in fact, it was common for the Jews to refer to any Gentile, anyone outside of the Covenant, as a dog. And it was derogatory because as a rule, dogs were basically scavenger animals whose main function was to eat the garbage that people left behind.
However, Jesus was actually being very compassionate with the woman because he used the Greek word not for a common mongrel, but rather the word for what we would consider to be a small household dog; something along the line of a Yorkshire terrier as opposed to the wild dogs of the Kalahari.
You see, Jesus is trying to explain to his disciples, and to the woman, that he wasn’t just an itinerant doctor who went around curing everybody and their brother. He had a specific, sequential mission, which began with the reminder to Israel that God was being faithful to His covenantal promises through His very presence on earth in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who is not only the herald of the arrival of God’s kingdom on earth, but is also the King! Not just in the sense of an earthly king, as even the Canaanite woman recognizes by referring to him as “Son of David,” but that he is also the Lord of all creation. He is the Messiah who was promised by God in fulfillment of the ancient prophets. And once Israel realizes who he is then it is to be their calling, their mission, and their response to the covenantal promise, to proclaim it to the rest of the world; to the Gentiles; to the dogs if you will. Not the feral dogs that live off the refuse of society, but the family pet that sits at the foot of the table waiting for a crumb to fall, if not an actual treat.
Think about it! We don’t bring home a doggie bag from the restaurant because that’s all we feed our pet, but because it’s a treat for them! We do it because we love them! But it’s systematic and sequential in that we have to be fed first before
there are leftovers to bring home. And so it is in God’s kingdom; under His most gracious and sovereign rule, there is a profusion of leftovers! Only a few weeks ago in the story of the feeding of the five thousand there were twelve baskets full of leftovers from five loaves of bread and two fish! That was a sign of the abundance of God’s merciful love for all of us!
And you see, the Canaanite woman was astute enough to pick up on this morsel of information, because through her faith in Jesus she received a providential glimpse of the bigger picture. Not only did she believe that Jesus could heal her daughter, she also recognized him as the Son of David, which was an expression for the king of Israel and for the Jewish Messiah. But I believe she also sensed the presence of God within him by calling him Lord and falling to the ground, not just in a posture of subordination, but in one of worship. And she appealed to his loving compassion, not being offended by his remarks, but in complete understanding of his mission and his words, which have subtly transformed a negative into a positive, thus giving her courage and hope. As one commentary put it, because of her faith, she “broke through the waiting period; the time in which Jesus would come to Jerusalem as Israel’s Messiah, be killed and raised again, and then send his followers out into all the world.” In other words, Jesus has yet to reveal to his disciples what would take place at Calvary but she is “already insisting upon Easter.” And for this amazing grasp of knowledge and persistence through faith, Jesus bestowed his grace upon her, and her daughter was instantly healed.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as modern day Christians, we need to realize that regardless of our pedigree, we are the “dogs” to which Jesus alluded in this story. But we also need to give thanks to God Almighty for the early Church; those of God’s chosen people Israel who acknowledged and believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah, and shared their“table scraps” with us by proclaiming the Good News to the nations of the world. Without them we would not be here today. But that is not the end of the story; it’s only the beginning! It is up to us as members of God’s single family to willingly share with others what we have been graciously given. And like the Canaanite woman, by faith we need to claim for the present that which is promised in the future, by assisting Christ Jesus in making God’s sovereign
rule a reality, because it is to that purpose we pray in all of our liturgical services, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” In Nomine Patris
daughter who is at first ignored, then offered a racially charged statement, and finally dismissed rudely with a derogatory designation. Who is this man and what has he done with Jesus? Where is the compassion? Where’s all that ‘Love thy enemy’ stuff from chapter five?
At first glance, this is one of those passages which are easy to overlook because most people are as uncomfortable in hearing it as most preachers are in attempting to explain it. In fact, I’m actually surprised it made the lectionary for those reasons alone, but in reality, it’s really not that difficult.
Let’s look at the context leading up to this passage. Jesus is weary of the demands of the mobs which have been following him around Galilee; not disheartened or despondent, but dog-tired. Additionally, he is under increasing pressure from the scribes and Pharisees who he has publicly challenged through word and action.
And he is rapidly approaching his final march to Jerusalem in order to suffer death “at the hands of the elders, chief priests and scribes,” of which he has yet to inform his disciples, who, for the most part, really don’t understand most of what he says
without a thorough debriefing after he’s said it.
So he intentionally sets off for a place where most self-respecting Jews would refuse to go, which is the Phoenician coastal territory north of Israel, which is the Gentile world writ large. He is not going there out of fear or to evade his antagonists, but rather to seek a location in which to gather and to prepare himself for what is about to come.
And as soon as they arrive they are besieged by this Canaanite; not just any ol’ Gentile, but a woman from a race of people who have been mortal enemies of Israel since the day Joshua crossed the River Jordan. Now it’s obvious she has heard about Jesus and his healing ways, so she persistently pesters the disciples in seeking an audience with Jesus. Jesus has tried simply to ignore her, but she is so insistent with her appeal that the disciples strongly suggest to Jesus to send her away, or perhaps even submit to her request to keep her from yelling at them.
And in essence Jesus says to them,“You know, I didn’t come all the way to the Mediterranean Sea to work! All I’ve been doing is healing people, and quite frankly I’m a little drained. I need some time to think and pray, and cleanse my spiritual senses without being bothered. And besides, she’s a Canaanite! Need I say more? Look! My primary concern is to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; I’m not quite ready for the rest of the world.”
Now I’m sure that sounds more like me than Jesus, but if you recall, just a few chapters back in this Gospel, Jesus sent the twelve out on their first mission trip and specifically charged them not to go among the Gentiles or to enter the towns of Samaritans, but rather to go only to the lost sheep of Israel. So his words are not surprising to his disciples, but simply a review. However, the woman, who has obviously been eaves-dropping, breaks through the disciples, prostrates herself before Jesus and begs for his help.
Now here’s where it gets a little tricky and why it’s important to understand the original Greek. In English, Jesus says, “It’s not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” To our hyper-sensitive ears it sounds as if he is calling her a dog! Not unlike a pirate calling someone a scurvy dog or when we call someone a dirty, rotten son of a…! And of course because she is a she it’s not hard for us to imagine the ending word of that phrase, which seems exceptionally ugly coming from the mouth of Jesus!
But in fact, it was common for the Jews to refer to any Gentile, anyone outside of the Covenant, as a dog. And it was derogatory because as a rule, dogs were basically scavenger animals whose main function was to eat the garbage that people left behind.
However, Jesus was actually being very compassionate with the woman because he used the Greek word not for a common mongrel, but rather the word for what we would consider to be a small household dog; something along the line of a Yorkshire terrier as opposed to the wild dogs of the Kalahari.
You see, Jesus is trying to explain to his disciples, and to the woman, that he wasn’t just an itinerant doctor who went around curing everybody and their brother. He had a specific, sequential mission, which began with the reminder to Israel that God was being faithful to His covenantal promises through His very presence on earth in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who is not only the herald of the arrival of God’s kingdom on earth, but is also the King! Not just in the sense of an earthly king, as even the Canaanite woman recognizes by referring to him as “Son of David,” but that he is also the Lord of all creation. He is the Messiah who was promised by God in fulfillment of the ancient prophets. And once Israel realizes who he is then it is to be their calling, their mission, and their response to the covenantal promise, to proclaim it to the rest of the world; to the Gentiles; to the dogs if you will. Not the feral dogs that live off the refuse of society, but the family pet that sits at the foot of the table waiting for a crumb to fall, if not an actual treat.
Think about it! We don’t bring home a doggie bag from the restaurant because that’s all we feed our pet, but because it’s a treat for them! We do it because we love them! But it’s systematic and sequential in that we have to be fed first before
there are leftovers to bring home. And so it is in God’s kingdom; under His most gracious and sovereign rule, there is a profusion of leftovers! Only a few weeks ago in the story of the feeding of the five thousand there were twelve baskets full of leftovers from five loaves of bread and two fish! That was a sign of the abundance of God’s merciful love for all of us!
And you see, the Canaanite woman was astute enough to pick up on this morsel of information, because through her faith in Jesus she received a providential glimpse of the bigger picture. Not only did she believe that Jesus could heal her daughter, she also recognized him as the Son of David, which was an expression for the king of Israel and for the Jewish Messiah. But I believe she also sensed the presence of God within him by calling him Lord and falling to the ground, not just in a posture of subordination, but in one of worship. And she appealed to his loving compassion, not being offended by his remarks, but in complete understanding of his mission and his words, which have subtly transformed a negative into a positive, thus giving her courage and hope. As one commentary put it, because of her faith, she “broke through the waiting period; the time in which Jesus would come to Jerusalem as Israel’s Messiah, be killed and raised again, and then send his followers out into all the world.” In other words, Jesus has yet to reveal to his disciples what would take place at Calvary but she is “already insisting upon Easter.” And for this amazing grasp of knowledge and persistence through faith, Jesus bestowed his grace upon her, and her daughter was instantly healed.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as modern day Christians, we need to realize that regardless of our pedigree, we are the “dogs” to which Jesus alluded in this story. But we also need to give thanks to God Almighty for the early Church; those of God’s chosen people Israel who acknowledged and believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah, and shared their“table scraps” with us by proclaiming the Good News to the nations of the world. Without them we would not be here today. But that is not the end of the story; it’s only the beginning! It is up to us as members of God’s single family to willingly share with others what we have been graciously given. And like the Canaanite woman, by faith we need to claim for the present that which is promised in the future, by assisting Christ Jesus in making God’s sovereign
rule a reality, because it is to that purpose we pray in all of our liturgical services, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” In Nomine Patris
