Sermon: Crumbs for the Dogs Text: Matthew 15:21-28

Transcription

1 Pastor Chris Matthis Epiphany Lutheran Church, Castle Rock, Colorado Proper 15, Series A (Pentecost 11) Saturday, August 19 th, 2017 Sunday, August 20 th, 2017 Sermon: Crumbs for the Dogs Text: Matthew 15:21-28 Focus: Jesus came to save all people, regardless of race, gender, or socio-economic status. Function: That they would love their neighbors regardless of their background. Structure: Story-Framed Locus: I believe that God made me and all creatures (SC, 1 st Article of the Apostles Creed). Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. When my father served in the Pennsylvania National Guard, he and his buddies decided to spend a weekend in the big city. So they drove down to Cleveland, where my grandfather, my dad s dad, had a house where they could crash. But when they showed up at the door, my Grandpa Matthis was horrified that one of my dad s friends was an African-American. I m not letting that n-word come into my house, he said angrily. My dad begged for his father to relent, appealing to his better nature. My Uncle also tried to reason with him. Hey, Dad, he s an soldier and a friend of Marty s. How bad of a guy can he be?! My dad s black friend even offered to get a motel room in order to keep my dad from getting into it with his father. But my Dad would not give up. When my grandpa would not cave in, my dad simply stated, Fine. If my friends are not welcome here, then I m not staying either. My dad left that doorstep and didn t speak to my grandfather again for a very long time. He suffered dishonor by his father in front of his friends because of his father s racist attitude. Yet my dad would never betray a friend.

2 Matthis 2 Somebody might defend my grandfather by saying, Pastor, that s just how people were back then. Everybody in that generation was racist. First of all, I think it s quite a reach to suggest that all white people are or were racists. Even after America s terrible history of African slavery, extermination of entire Indian tribes, and internment of Japanese-Americans in concentration camps, not all white people hate or fear people who are not white. Yet even if were true, would that really justify my grandfather s behavior? I don t think so. Today s Gospel reading puts me in mind of the mutual distrust and racism that still often impact America. In fact, I see a parallel between my father s embarrassment and our Gospel reading today. For we too are embarrassed by Jesus harsh treatment of the Canaanite woman. Despite her desperate need, he turns away from her and does not answer her a word (Matt. 15:23). Then when she persists with her plaintive cry, he calls her a dog (v. 26). True enough, it was common for Jews to refer to Gentile dogs back in those days. As God s Chosen People, many Jews viewed their non-jewish neighbors as less-thans. Each morning Jewish men would waken, stretch, and pray, O God, I praise you that you did not make me a woman, a slave, or a Gentile dog. But just because everybody else in Cleveland was racist, does that mean we should expect our Savior to talk the same way? True enough, the word Jesus calls the Canaanite woman, kunarion, is not the typical Greek word for dog. A kunos was a street dog, a wild, dangerous creature that roamed the alleys and howled in the night. But a kunarion was a little lapdog, a house pet. A kunarion, the word Jesus calls this woman, was more like a little Yorkie or Chihuahua than a big, ol, mangy mutt. It was almost as if Jesus calls her a little puppy. Yet no matter how much you try parse it, the reality is that calling anyone a dog is a terrible insult. Despite our modern day infatuation with our four-legged friends, in the first

3 Matthis 3 century nobody thought well of dogs. Do not give to dogs what is holy, Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 7:6a, ESV). 1 Proverbially, dogs were dirty and disgusting animals: As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly (Prov. 26:11, NIV). Dogs were also deemed as dangerous (Jer. 15:3; Ps. 22:16). Later on, the Scriptures would use dogs as a symbol of unbelievers and false teachers (Phil. 3:2). The Book of Revelation goes so far as to say that dogs are not welcome in the heavenly Jerusalem, stating simply, Outside are the dogs (Rev. 22:15). People in the ancient near East were not especially fond of dogs. Even today in the Middle East they are kept only as guard dogs and never as pets, according to my friend, Pastor Flamme, who served in Iraq with the Marines. Jesus words to the woman would have the same force as calling a black man the n word or referring to a woman as a bitch (a female dog). See? It doesn t sound nice at all, does it? So why does Jesus call this poor woman a dog? Why does he rebuff her and treat with her so cruelly even after her cry for mercy? Some Bible commentators suggest that Jesus was testing her faith. Maybe he wanted to see what she was made of. Did she really believe in him, or was it just a last ditch effort on her daughter s behalf? Was Jesus her God of first resort or last resort? When the woman first addresses Jesus, she cries out, Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! (Matt. 15:22). Those are significant titles. Son of David is a royal title, tantamount to calling Jesus the Messiah. And while the Greek word Kyrie usually just means sir (kind of like the Spanish word Señor), it can also mean Lord, as translated in our English Bibles today. 1 All Scripture references, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version.

4 Matthis 4 Even though she is a Canaanite, one of the ancient enemies of Israel, this woman recognizes Jesus as both God and Christ, begging him to answer her prayer. But Jesus will have nothing to do with her, not even after his disciples beg him to help her just to make her shut up and move along. I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Jesus replies (Matt. 15:24). The Canaanite woman is correct to call him Lord and Christ. He is Israel s Messiah. But that is precisely the problem: he is Israel s Messiah. As Jesus says in another place, Salvation is from the Jews (John 4:22). And so, it might seem, that salvation is also only for the Jews. After all, did not even St. Paul write, They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises (Rom. 9:4)? But this woman s love for her demon-possessed daughter is so great, that she will not allow Jesus to reject her. Like the persistent widow in Jesus parable, she demands that God give her justice (cf. Luke 18:1-8). Lord, she says, falling on her knees in worship before him, Help me (Matt. 15:25). And that s when Jesus says it, the terrible, awful, racial slur. It is not right to take the children s bread and throw it to the dogs (v. 26). Ouch! Yet despite the sting of Jesus words a terrible slap in the face the woman is undeterred. Yes, Lord, she agrees, calling Jesus Lord for the third time. Yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master s table (v. 27). Those of you who have dogs know what she means. I can still picture my dad s dachshund, Ditto, sitting up on his hind haunches quite a feat for a wiener dog as he whined and begged for table scraps. Who could resist those big,

5 Matthis 5 mournful, brown eyes?! Needless to say, Ditto grew fat on the crumbs that fell from the master s table. And this woman knew that. Despite all the animosity between the Canaanites and Jews, despite the particularly bad blood between the people of Tyre and Sidon and the people of Israel, she knew that even if Jesus was sent to the Jews, he was not just for the Jews. For the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, yes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Rom. 1:16). Even if Israel was a Chosen People, they were chosen to be a light for the nations, not just a light unto themselves (Isa. 42:6; cf. 60:3). Incidentally, there was a pagan temple constructed to a Canaanite god of healing just a few miles away. Yet this woman would rather have a few crumbs from Jesus table than a feast in hell. And so, amazed by her tremendous, confident faith, Jesus granted her request. O woman, he says, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire (Matt. 15:28). And he healed her daughter instantly. Jesus mercy to the Canaanite woman is a foreshadowing of the Church s Gentile mission. Jesus was a Jew, and the apostles were all Jews. Jesus was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt. 15:24), and at first, so were the disciples (10:5-6). Yet Jesus final words to the disciples in Matthew s Gospel are the Great Commission, in which he commands them to Go and make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19). All nations means all people, regardless of race or language or even religion. All people means not just the Jews, but also those Gentile dogs. As fallen, sinful human beings, we are good at drawing lines and boundaries around people. We like clearly demarcated borders that others cannot cross. We divide the world into rich and poor, male and female, black and white, old and young, conservative and liberal,

6 Matthis 6 Christian and pagan. We tend to view whichever group we happen to be in as good, and everybody else, if not as bad or evil, at least as not-quite-as-good-as-us. It s easier to judge people than to love them. It s easier to stereotype people than to get to know them. I grew up working in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, one of the most segregated cities in America. The city of Milwaukee has a majority black population, and yet I hardly ever encountered a person of African descent until I went off to college. My stepfather did not share my dad s color-blind view of the world, so I was raised by a man who had an irrational fear of black people. For example, whenever a black man or family would come to dine in at our pizza restaurant, my stepdad would watch them like a hawk. He was our only delivery driver (until I got my driver s license), but he would wait on delivering other people s orders until the African- American customers left. And if we ever did happen to drive through a black neighborhood, the first thing he did was tell us to lock the car doors. I never heard him say one good thing about the blacks, as he collectively referred to African-Americans. But that is not the way that God calls us to live. The Church is supposed to be a beautiful mosaic of all kinds of people. As the Apostle Paul writes, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:28). Jesus did not come to die just for the Jews or just for the Lutherans or just for the Americans. The Bible says, God so loved the world and everyone in it that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). God so loved the world means that God so loves you, and me, and all the people we like, and all the people we don t like simply because they re not like us. God loves us all. And Christ died for all.

7 Matthis 7 That is why the Book of Revelation holds forth a beautiful vision of people from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages worshiping God and praising Jesus, saying, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! (Rev. 7:9-10). I like to think of this picture as the rainbow of heaven. It reminds me of the song we used to sing in Sunday school: Jesus loves the little children, All the children of the world! Red and yellow, black and white, They are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world! Jesus loves all God s children. Even the Canaanite woman he called a little dog. He saves everyone willing to believe in him. And she did, calling him Lord and crying for mercy. O woman, Jesus declared, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire (Matt. 15:28). Her daughter was healed instantly (from that very hour!). May it also be done for each of you according to your faith in Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Amen.