Mark 7: From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and

Transcription

1 Mark 7: From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, 25 but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 He said to her, Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children s food and throw it to the dogs. 28 But she answered him, Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children s crumbs. 29 Then he said to her, For saying that, you may go the demon has left your daughter. 30 So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. 1

2 A Dogged Faith When I served as a hospital chaplain I once got into an altercation with a medical technician. Medical technicians are the people who perform x-rays and other diagnostic tests on patients. The altercation wasn t physical; we didn t come to blows. It was merely verbal just words. And it wasn t a heated altercation. In fact, it was a strangely, almost comically, friendly altercation. The way it happened is that I was having an in-depth conversation with a patient in his hospital room. That s what I did. I went room to room and talked with patients. Sometimes the conversations amounted to nothing more than small talk, but sometimes they became quite personal and I was able to bring a person to a point of reflection and even spiritual awakening. I lived for such moments. The patient I was talking with was a middle-aged man whom I had met with once or twice before. In those previous visits our conversation had been brief and superficial. For whatever reason, when I saw him this particular day he was in a more talkative mood. Sometimes it took a patient repeated visits to develop a trust in me. The conversation gradually shifted from the superficial to the personal. I sensed that he was about to unburden himself by confiding in me something of a personal nature. I leaned in closer, the better to listen, and as I did I heard rap, rap, rap a knock at the door. Standing in the doorway was the medical technician pushing a wheelchair. He announced that he was ready to escort the patient to diagnostics. That was my cue to wrap up the conversation and take my leave. Only I didn t. Normally I would immediately defer to any and all medical staff. We re trained as chaplains that the medical personnel have priority with the patient. The spiritual can wait; the medical cannot. But because I was on the verge of a moment with this patient, I asked the technician if I could have another minute or two, which he agreed to. A minute or two passed perhaps more. Finally, the patient suggested 2

3 that he d better go. I sensed his nervousness, with the technician waiting at the door. The moment was gone. The revelation would have to wait for another day. I left the room and as I met the technician in the hallway I said in a friendly tone, He s all yours, and I kept walking. In my naiveté, I thought that would be the end of it. It wasn t. The technician, looking and sounding annoyed, told me to stop. Wait a minute! he commanded. I stopped and turned around. You kept me waiting a long time. I have to take this patient to diagnostics. I have important tests to perform on him. I responded in all sincerity, I m sorry to have kept you waiting. That wasn t my intention. Again, I thought that would be the end of it. It wasn t. He wanted to lecture me. How long have you worked here? he asked. I m just here for the summer, I answered, still smiling. What s your name? He took a step closer to read my badge. All hospital employees wear badges with their name and title printed on them. My name is John, I offered. Oh, you re an intern, he said, with more than a hint of condescension. Maybe you don t know how things work here. Let me explain it to you. I can t perform these tests any old time. I need to do them right away. As a chaplain you should know better than to keep the medical staff waiting. The smile never left my face, but in my mind I was thinking, In the time you ve wasted lecturing me you could have already taken the patient to diagnostics, run the tests, and had your lunch. Again, that s what I was thinking, but I never said it. On the surface I was all smiles. I answered in my friendliest manner, Yes, I understand. Thank you for explaining. I m sorry to have kept you waiting. This was verbal jiu jitsu I was engaged in. I was using the weight of his anger against him. He was expecting me to protest, to defend myself. He kept verbally swinging at me, but I wouldn t let him land a blow. All he connected with was air. I could read the confusion on his face. He didn t know how to respond to the fact that he was lecturing and insulting me and trying to put me in my place, but I kept smiling and 3

4 saying thank you. He must have been thinking, Who is this guy? And this was not like me. Normally I would be defensive, but I firmly believe that it was the presence of the Holy Spirit that calmed me and made me go all Zen on him. In the end, all he could say to me was, Next time be more considerate. I will. Thank you. Would you believe that he was so disarmed that he ended by wishing me a good day? Alright then. Have a good day. Thank you. You too. I thought of that incident because in today s passage the Syrophoenician woman responds to Jesus in a similar manner. Jesus pretty much insults her, all but calling her a dog, but she does not take offense. She does not protest. She does not demand that he apologize. She does not act insulted at all, but rather accepts Jesus dog metaphor and responds by using the metaphor to her advantage. Jesus is impressed with her response, so much so that he grants her request to heal her daughter of the demon that has possessed her a request that he initially hesitated to grant. Although this is a short passage there is much to dig into, so let s get to it. The passage begins, From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre (Mk. 7:24). Those words [f]rom there beg the question, From where? The answer can be found in Mark 6:53 [SLIDE]: When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. Jesus and the disciples have just come from Gennesaret, a town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. While in Gennesaret Jesus is confronted by a group of Pharisees who have followed him all the way from Jerusalem, which as you can see on the map, was quite far from Gennesaret. Word has spread of this teacher from Galilee who is rumored to be shall we say more than a bit unconventional. He has been known to perform miraculous healings and exorcisms and to interpret Scripture in an unorthodox fashion, even challenging the authority of the scribes and Pharisees, who were the guardians of Scripture and tradition. 4

5 And so it is with a mixture of curiosity and wariness that the scribes and Pharisees confront Jesus. They note that his disciples do not wash their hands before eating, thus breaking with tradition [SLIDE]: So the Pharisees and scribes ask him, Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands? (Mk. 7:5). Jesus responds by pointing out their hypocrisy, noting that while they uphold human traditions they often ignore the commands of God that they find inconvenient. But for our purposes now, I just want us to note that Jesus is accused of eating with defiled hands. We will see that theme of food and purity come up again a little while later. So Jesus and the disciples leave Genessaret and travel to Tyre [SLIDE]. Tyre was quite a ways from Genessaret several days journey. But Jesus seems to want to get away. He is said to not want anyone to know that he s there. Perhaps he s tired of arguing with the scribes and Pharisees and wants to go somewhere far enough away that they won t follow him. Also worthy of note, Tyre was not Jewish territory. In wandering from Gennesaret, in Galilee, to Tyre, on the Mediterranean coast, Jesus left the Roman province of Judaea and entered the province of Syria. Tyre was once the leading city of Phoenicia, that nation that was a sometime ally but more often a rival of Israel. This connection to Syria and Phoenicia explains why Mark refers to the woman Jesus meets as of Syrophoenician origin. She is not from Israel. She is not Jewish. She is a Gentile. This will factor into Jesus interaction with her. Although Jesus has come to Tyre to have some quiet time, he is immediately noticed by this woman whose daughter is ill. Amid all the whispers that accompanied Jesus arrival into town, she has heard about him and his power to heal. She is likely desperate. No one in town has been able to help her, but now comes this stranger with a reputation for working miracles of healing and exorcism. What good fortune! What an opportunity! Surely he will help her. She immediately falls at his feet and begs him to help her daughter. 5

6 Jesus responds by saying, Why, yes, beloved child of God. Of course, I will help you. Well, not exactly. Jesus response is more direct and less helpful. In fact, it seems so un-jesus-like [SLIDE]: Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children s food and throw it to the dogs (Mk. 7:27). By children Jesus is referring to the Israelites. They were the firstborn of God, God s favored nation. God s children. Dogs would therefore mean the Gentiles, i.e., non-jews, such as the Syrophoenician woman. It was common for Jews of the first century to refer to Gentiles as dogs. It was not a term of endearment; it was an insult. This doesn t sound like the Jesus we have come to know. So how do we square Jesus words here with the more sympathetic Jesus we find in the rest of the New Testament? I did a lot of reading on this passage in preparation for this sermon. I read the works of some liberal scholars, one of whom basically said, yes, Jesus uses a racial slur. He participates in the structural racism of his day by seeing this woman as less than human. He changes his mind about helping the woman when she confronts him with his racism. I read some conservative scholars, most of which bend over backwards to try to soften Jesus words so that they don t seem offensive. One of the commentaries I read notes that the word for dog that Mark uses means a small house dog, not, as was so common in Jesus day, a street scavenger. Alright [SLIDE], but so what? He still calls her a dog! Less than human! Other commentaries note the woman s humility and think that this is what causes Jesus to change his mind about helping her. But why does he need to change his mind in the first place? When we run into passages like this that seem to conflict with our notion of who Jesus is we need to dig a little deeper. We need to read them in their historical context. After all, we re talking about a culture that is far different than ours, not to mention from two thousand years ago. Some things from that time and place are bound to look and sound odd to us. And we need to read them in their scriptural 6

7 context, i.e., what happens in the passages before and after. This can often shed light on a difficult passage. The first thing I want to note is so obvious, but we in the church don t always appreciate it, and that is that Jesus was a Jew. He identified as a Jew. All of his first disciples were Jews. Much of his preaching was done in synagogues and later in the Temple in Jerusalem. He constantly quoted from and interpreted the Hebrew Scriptures. As the Messiah, he was the fulfillment of those Scriptures. The very idea of a Messiah, a savior, was a Jewish concept. Therefore, Jesus mission as Messiah was a particularly Jewish mission. The Gospel of Matthew also features this interaction between Jesus and the Syrophoencian woman, although in Matthew she is identified as a Canaanite. There are several other notable differences. In Matthew s version Jesus says some things that are not found in Mark s version [SLIDE]. For example, he tells the woman that [he] was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt. 15:24). So Jesus own understanding of his mission is that it is a particularly Jewish one. Therefore, we shouldn t be surprised to hear him say in Mark that the children, i.e., Israel, should be fed first. It is the disciples who will carry the Gospel beyond the borders of Judaea to Alexandria, Antioch, Athens, and eventually to the capital of the Empire itself, Rome. Alright, that addresses the problem of Jesus seeming favoritism toward Israel, but what about the problem of him calling the woman, indeed, all Gentiles, dogs? Surely, that is racist! Let s remember the setting for this encounter. It s not Jerusalem. It s not Galilee. It s not even the province of Judaea. The setting is Tyre [SLIDE], a city outside the boundaries of ancient Israel. The woman is from this region. Jesus is not. He is the foreigner in this setting. As much as Jews did not look favorably upon Gentiles, Gentiles felt much the same about Jews. Their religion and customs were thought strange, even barbaric by the predominant Greek culture the culture of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. So then, in using the word dogs, might Jesus be 7

8 making a statement about the way in which these two cultures view one another? Each views the other through a cracked lens not as fully human but as dogs. Let s also remember what has brought Jesus to Tyre. He has just come from arguing with the scribes and Pharisees. They had argued over what? Food and purity. And now Jesus is talking with this woman about those very same topics. He is using a metaphor involving food and speaking to a woman whom Jews would have regarded as impure simply for being a Gentile. Jesus would need to have an extremely short-term memory not to remember the lesson he just gave the scribes and Pharisees. They were so sure that purity lay in external things in washing one s hands and avoiding certain foods but he had shown them and his disciples that purity and impurity were a matter of what came from within [SLIDE]: Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19 since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person (Mk. 7:18-23). Presumably, Jesus hasn t forgotten this lesson that he had just taught. If that s the case, then he is not thinking of this woman as impure because she is a Gentile. He had just taught that purity or impurity come from within. And what Jesus sees in this woman is not impurity but a purity of faith that he had not seen among his fellow Jews, the scribes and the Pharisees. This is a Gentile woman and yet she s come to Jesus, a Jewish man, for help with her daughter. She even bows at his feet! While Jesus may have crossed a border to enter the city of Tyre, in approaching Jesus this woman has crossed more than one boundary. She is a woman speaking to a man who is not her husband, thus breaking a cultural taboo. She is a Gentile speaking to a Jew, not in a public market, but in a private home, breaking another taboo. To top it off, she has placed her trust, her faith, in this complete stranger. 8

9 And Jesus does not dismiss her, as would have been expected culturally. Rather, he engages her in this back and forth. He allows space for her to respond. And what a response she gives! She does not become defensive, as we might expect [SLIDE]. Instead, she accepts Jesus dog metaphor and replies, Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children s crumbs (Mk. 7:28). She is not asking for a seat at the table, but only the crumbs that fall under it. She is not demanding her fair share, but only asking for a portion of this abundant grace that she sees Jesus carry. And Jesus relents. Whereas he was at first hesitant to answer the woman s request, after hearing her response he grants it. And Jesus is clear that it is her response to him that moves him to help her [SLIDE]: For saying that, you may go the demon has left your daughter (Mk. 7:29). Was he testing her, waiting to see whether she had sufficient faith before he would heal her daughter? I certainly hope not. That seems needlessly cruel. But I think that there was a test being given. Yet it was not the woman but the disciples who were being tested. Jesus wanted to see whether they had learned the lesson that he had taught them back in Gennesaret, in Galilee. That was a lesson in faith. He had taught them counter to the scribes and Pharisees that faith was not merely a matter of ceremony and ritual, of maintaining purity and avoiding impurity. Faith was a matter of trust in Jesus himself. If the scribes and Pharisees, the keepers of tradition, prefer a steady diet of ceremony and ritual, the Syrophoenician woman, the outsider, wants only a few crumbs of grace. But more than offering her crumbs, Jesus invites her to feast. For Jesus sees her not as a dog but as a woman of dogged faith [SLIDE]. Dogged means having or showing the attitude of a person who wants to do or get something and will not stop trying. It s another way of saying determined. Jesus sees in this woman s determined, desperate faith a faith that is so much greater than that of the insiders. It s that sort of faith that Jesus wants us to have. Ours is not 9

10 meant to be a safe and sanctimonious faith, a faith that s only concerned with saying the right prayers, professing the right beliefs, and performing the proper rituals. Our faith does not make us members of some exclusive club. But sometimes that s how we treat it. We lack desperation. We lack determination. We are not dogged. Sometimes it amazes me how the Bible, although two thousand years old, continues to speak to us today. The city of Tyre today lies in the nation of Lebanon [SLIDE]. It is only a few kilometers from the Syrian border. If you follow the news you ve no doubt heard about the refugee crisis taking place throughout much of Europe. Twelve million people have fled Syria because of the horror of the conflict there between ISIS, rebel groups, and the Syrian government. Nearly half of those fleeing are children [SLIDE]. It was the death of one particular child, who drowned while crossing the sea last week, that has stirred the consciences of many Europeans and people throughout the world. These refugees have come to Europe mostly on foot [SLIDE], carrying whatever few possessions they could bring with them. They have placed their hope, their faith, their trust in their neighbors to the west. They are desperate, determined, dogged. Here in Korea the Syrian refugee crisis may seem a world away. It s not our problem. We don t share a border with Syria. But we read a passage today in which Jesus crossed a border and helped a woman who was not of his people. If we consider ourselves Christ s disciples, we can do the same. I ve never done this before, but if you re looking for a way to help, in addition to your prayers you can give to a charity like World Vision. Not every refugee is in Europe. Many live in camps in countries surrounding Syria, in Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq. World Vision is a Christian charity that is on the ground in those countries distributing food, clothing, and blankets, providing access to clean water, providing medical care, running schools, and trying to bring a sense of normalcy to children whose lives have been anything but normal. May we show ourselves to have a dogged faith, determined and desperate enough to cross boundaries to help our neighbors in need. 10