Peter Hawkins, Dogging Jesus. online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3231

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Coral Reynolds
6 years ago
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1 MEAN JESUS? August 17, 2014, 20 th Sunday in Ordinary Time; 10 th Sunday after Pentecost Matthew 15:21-28 Rebekah M. Hutto, The Brick Presbyterian Church in the City of New York Loving God, seeking unity together, we come to the scriptures. In spite of our human failings, your love continues to draw us together. Realigning our lives with you, we come to hear your Word and be changed. Open our hearts this day to hear your voice. Light the path to change that we may live according to your will. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. The past two weeks we ve been hearing about the miraculous. In the Bible stories we ve read, we ve been looking at Jesus divine attributes calming the storm, walking on the water, feeding the thousands, and healing the sick. All are wonderful to behold; each story leaves us awestruck. But today we encounter a little bit more of the human Jesus. Today we see Jesus slightly flawed and susceptible to change. According to one theologian, the Gospels sidestep much of Jesus psychological development. 1 He was an infant, after all, and although the son of God, Jesus was still a toddler, adolescent, and young adult, going through all the emotional changes that accompany those stages. The Gospel writers show us that, yes, Jesus gets tired, he falls asleep, and he gets hungry and eats. We see him grow agitated with his disciples, get angry with the Pharisees, and lose his temper with the moneychangers. Jesus is also filled with grief at the death of Lazarus and weeps in the Garden of Gethsemane. But outside of these experiences, the Gospel writers don t always show us the emotional growth or psychological change Jesus experiences. Until today s text, that is. 1 Peter Hawkins, Dogging Jesus. online.org/showarticle.asp?title=

2 The humanity of Jesus is something many of us identify with. A friend of mine from seminary found and framed a picture she d drawn of Jesus when she was little. He wasn t doing anything fantastic or miraculous, instead Jesus was sitting on the toilet. Jesus, very human Jesus, was going to the bathroom. This was what she, as a little girl, identified with and drew in Sunday School. Human Jesus now stands framed on her office wall. But today s text offers a picture of Jesus that s more than just human. It appears downright mean. In this story, Jesus and his disciples retreat to a non-jewish territory after some conflicted conversations. While there, a Canaanite woman, a Gentile, sees Jesus and begins shouting at him to heal her daughter. Jesus ignores her at first, then the disciples complain that Jesus needs to find a way to get rid of her. Finally, Jesus speaks to her, but he says that he was sent only to help the people of Israel; she s a Gentile after all. But after the woman begs again for help, this time Jesus speaks to her, but with an insult. He says, it is not fair to take the children s food and throw it to the dogs, implying that she is the dog. Mean, right? In that time and place, dogs were not viewed as friendly household pets. They were scavengers, dangerous pack animals who fed off the scraps of trash left on the street. Because of their unclean nature, the term dog was a common derogatory name for Gentiles during that time. Thus, this word in the Greek isn t friendly. It s a crude term, offensive, used here for a person that was beneath Jesus and, he thinks, not worth his time. But wait a second: Jesus is mean? Why would Jesus use a word, a racial slur, to describe a woman who s kneeling before him in grief? Isn t Jesus the one who reaches out to the poor, the outcast, and the lame? Isn t Jesus the one who accepts everyone and makes a place at the table for us all? Friends, Jesus humanity might be what we often identify with, but in this story his humanity makes us question his character. Jesus purposely isolates and insults a woman in need. But maybe his humanity in this passage offers us the mirror that we don t always want to see

3 Our humanness is what leads us to make mistakes. Our humanity leaves us susceptible to the cultural norms of our day. Being human leaves us vulnerable to the sin around us sin that often limits our vision and narrows our definitions of love. For Jesus, calling a Gentile a dog seems normal because that s a common derogatory term that the people around you use. And avoiding her pleas is consistent with other places in the Gospels where it s clear that Jesus was sent to bring salvation to Israel. 2 Before us in today s text, Jesus exposes his weakness, his human nature, the reality that he s a lot more like us than we thought. He, like us, lets the stereotypes and insults of his culture become a part of his everyday vocabulary. This summer I finished a book of stories by one of my pastor friends from Duke. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and his wife Leah live together with their neighbors in Durham, North Carolina in the Rutba House. Named after the town in Iraq in which they were given hospitality one desperate night, Jonathan and Leah began this Rutba House as a welcome to strangers in need. They live in an area of Durham called Walltown, a neighborhood unfortunately defined by its poverty and crime. Welcoming the stranger and offering hospitality in Rutba House has led them to intense and beautiful encounters with their neighbors drug addicts, former convicts, the homeless, sex workers, wanderers, and those fleeing abuse. But what they ve found is that the people they welcome in are more than these titles society gives them. In his book, Strangers at My Door, Jonathan shares stories from their last ten years in the Rutba House. Over and over again, the stories of those who come inside their doors open their eyes, and reshape their perspectives, in particular as they navigate the complicated history of race. As Jonathan says, when you open the door you welcome a world that you know will change you. 3 Unfortunately, though, not every person they meet is open to the same change. One such neighbor that moved in to Walltown and came to Rutba House to introduce herself was Elizabeth. She was a young professional who recently purchased a house in Walltown to refurbish. Jonathan says she had a considerable amount of 2 For example, Matthew 10: Wilson- Hartgrove,

4 energy and was eager to get involved in rebuilding the community. However, he admitted to himself that a humorless white woman with extra energy 4 could be dangerous to their predominantly black community. They soon found out that Jonathan s suspicions were correct. Elizabeth was eager to start a neighborhood watch and take over parts of the community. Jonathan and others shared with her that this wasn t a good idea because the grandma on every block always knew what was going on; you just had to take the time to earn her trust and ask her. Neighborhood watches weren t necessary in their neighborhood, and many of the neighbors often distrusted their efforts. But Elizabeth persisted, and before they knew it she was wrapped up in a police investigation where she accused a young black man in the neighborhood of threatening her. Forget that this young man had survived years of foster care after the murder of both of his parents. Thanks to the hospitality of the Rutba House, he had also found his way off of drugs and away from crime, graduated from high school and was completing a college degree in education. He realized that other young black men needed role models just as he did, so he planned to return to Walltown to teach. It was when he was leading children in Walltown s summer camp that Elizabeth grew suspicious of him, because he didn t support her neighborhood watch. Because of that, for her he became little more than a black man to be feared. Misinterpreting a comment from him one day, Elizabeth reported to the police that he was threatening her. Rather than get to know his story, learn from his knowledge of the neighborhood, Elizabeth assumed she had all the answers. She never called him a dog, but she had labeled him, dismissed his views, and refused to learn his story. Her sinfulness allowed her to ignore his humanity. Somebody [once] said [that] the day you can no longer change is the day you stop being a human being. 5 Friends, being human doesn t mean that sin has to define our life continually. Our humanity, by nature, leads us to sin, but there s so much more that we have been created for. God created us in God s image, redeemed us 4 Wilson- Hartgrove, From the blog 15a.html

5 through the cross, and has given us the Holy Spirit in order that we might grow more and more in God s likeness. We gather as God s people not in order for us to remain the same but instead so that God can change us, transform us from the ways of this world, and lead us to do a new thing. Sin doesn t define us unless we let it. It is the ability to be shaped and transformed by God that defines us if we allow it. Thankfully, in today s Gospel lesson, Jesus changes his mean tone. The story doesn t end with his insult of the Canaanite woman. Although appearing mean at first, Jesus is humbled he allows this foreign woman to reshape his view of God s kingdom. Jesus was sent as the Jewish Messiah, sent to proclaim salvation to those lost sheep of Israel. But God had bigger plans in mind. The future of God s kingdom is breaking into the present in this encounter, and it jolts Jesus. This woman, kneeling, begging, crying out for help, changes him. At the end of the narrative we find Jesus praising her faith and granting her request. The Canaanite woman, the outsider, shows Jesus that God is truly doing something miraculous in Israel and beyond. Like Ruth, Rahab, and Tamar 6 before her, this foreign woman reveals God s purposes for all the people of the world. Consequently, Jesus changes his tone. Just as in our own lives, God s purposes unfold throughout Jesus life. God has a bigger plan for salvation, and it goes beyond our human limitations, our own egos and our stereotypes. In his humanity, Jesus allows himself to be changed through this encounter with the Canaanite woman. Growth, maturity, and transformation happen to Jesus. And if Jesus can change, then so can we. Wrestling with my friend Jonathan s stories from Walltown encourages me to wrestle with my deeply held prejudices. Story after story in Jonathan s book convicts me that God is trying to break into our reality to help us reimagine [our] world. 7 And as it turns out, God usually does this through encounters with those who are different from us. Listening to and spending time with those whom we might rather avoid moves us to change, because it teaches us to open our eyes and 6 All 3 foreign women listed in Matthew s genealogy in chapter 1. 7 Wilson- Hartgrove,

6 challenge our assumptions. It moves us beyond our selfish desires and compels us to consider the needs of people we do not know. Like Jesus, it can move us to overturn the cultural and stereotypical norms that we ve become accustomed to. We may not call people dogs, but we all find our spiritual growth and transformation stunted by the sin that limits our view of God s kingdom. Therefore, [we must dare to] let Jesus be our exemplar: we must dare to let our outlooks be changed. 8 May God give us the humility to admit that if Jesus can change, so can we. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. 8 From the Blog: 15a.html - 6 -

Jesus Heals in Response to Faith October 2, 2016 Matthew 15:21-28 Matt Rawlings

1 Jesus Heals in Response to Faith October 2, 2016 Matthew 15:21-28 Matt Rawlings And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And behold, a Canaanite woman from that