Mark 7: 24-31
This Gospel reading is a troubling
one; partly because it forces us to ask some tough questions about who Jesus
is. There is nothing more fundamental to
our faith than Jesus, which means this text can be complicated…really
complicated. The problem is that Jesus
is mean in this story. He calls a woman,
who is begging on behalf of her sick daughter, a dog. A dog. There is never a good time to call
someone a dog. While it was not unusual
for Jesus to criticize men in power (like the religious authorities we talked
about last week), he was usually compassionate toward anyone on the margins,
which often included women.
For centuries, preachers and theologians
have been trying to justify Jesus’ words.
Maybe he was testing her. Maybe
the word dog was meant affectionately, more like a puppy, and he said it with a
smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. Perhaps she was even in on the
joke. No. Calling a woman a dog in any culture at any
time period is always bad. So why did
Jesus do it?
There
was a great deal of friction between the Jews and the Gentiles. Jesus was a Jew and as a Jew, he had been
taught not to interact with Gentiles.
Gentiles were unclean. Typically
Jews did not even travel in Gentile territory.
Yet the first sentence of our reading tells us that, “Jesus set out and
went away to the region of Tyre.” This was deep in Gentile territory. The fact that Jesus went there tells us something
was shifting in his ministry. We saw
that shift begin in our reading last week.
While there was animosity between the Jews and the Gentiles, you
might remember that in last week’s Gospel reading, Jesus declared that there
was no food that was unclean. This was a
big deal because the distinction between food that was clean and unclean was a
huge point of contention between the Jews and Gentiles. But according to Jesus’
statement last week, things once considered unclean were now acceptable. This shift laid the groundwork for the people
he encounters in today’s reading. If he
could declare unclean food acceptable, perhaps he could do the same for
Gentiles who were previously considered unclean.
However, the Gentiles weren’t just
unclean. The Gentiles were hated. They were commonly called dogs. Jesus didn’t just randomly call this woman a
dog; that is was what Jews called Gentiles.
This woman in our Gospel reading was a Gentile. It is obvious that she had heard that slur
plenty of times because she did not even bother denying it. She just accepted the slur and used it to effectively
state her case. Therefore it is
understandable that Jesus would call the woman a dog--- or is it? He should have known better. This is Jesus, the Son of God. He should have
known better. This is where things get complicated. If we say that Jesus didn’t know better and
his heart was changed by his interaction with this woman, then are we saying
that Jesus was wrong in the first place?
And if he was wrong, is that the same thing as saying he sinned? One of the fundamental views of many
Christians is that Jesus was sinless. He
was perfect.
That’s true. But he was also human. This got me thinking about how we define
sin. Think about it for a moment. If I put you on the spot right now, how would
you define sin? I bet you could think of
lots of examples…but what exactly is sin?
The catechism in the back of our prayer book defines sin as, “seeking
our own will instead of the will of God, thus distorting our relationship with
God and with other people and with all creation.” By that rationale, Jesus could not sin
because he was God which meant his will was the same as God’s.
Yet still, I am troubled by his
treatment of this woman. Then I am
reminded that by becoming human, Jesus took on our frailties and to some degree
our limitations. What he knew, what he
had been taught from his birth, was that Gentiles were less than. His ministry
was for the Jewish people. What made
Jesus divine was his ability to let go of these human prejudices with relative ease.
He was able to see past the slurs and see this woman for who she was—a child of
God. While most (if not all) religious
leaders would have simply dismissed her words, he listened to her
response. He let her response and her
compassion for her daughter change him.
He was able to see past the distortion that sin had created. Remember how our catechism defines sin---“it
distorts our relationship with God and with other people.” It was sin that had
distorted the relationship between the Jews and the Gentiles. Jesus was born into a world of
distortion. Unfortunately we all
are. As a result, we are programmed to
see people who are not like us as “the other.” We can either accept that, or we
can learn from Jesus’ model and listen to “the other.”
Right now, our world is dominated by
sound bites, memes and 280 character tweets.
As long as those remain the parameters of how we know a person or learn
about an issue, we will never actually learn anything new. We will never be pushed outside of our
comfort zone. Virtually every time someone
has explained to me how their views shifted about an issue or a group of
people, it was from knowing someone who thought differently or was different.
In high school, I fell into a quirky and diverse group of
friends. They were diverse religiously
more than anything. Several were Hindu.
One was Muslim. One was Jewish.
There was a Catholic, an Episcopalian and a few agnostics. My Muslim friend was the one who taught me
the most. She also happened to be the
most devout of the group and so we talked a lot about our faith. This was before 9-11 and we were not yet
living in the culture of fear we now live in.
But after 9-11, I remember feeling grateful for having her in my life,
because Muslims weren’t a group for me, there was a face I associated with that
faith. I know that face. More
importantly, I know her heart.
I think we can all agree that what
is going on in our world right now (the suspicion of people who hold views
different than our own, the name calling, etc) is causing far more harm than
good. It is so easy to judge people
now. Recently I was behind a car and
they had all these bumper stickers. I
remember thinking, I definitely would not like that person. Then I saw their
Episcopal shield and I thought, huh, well I guess I can get past those other
stickers.
While judging people based on things like bumper stickers or
ethnicities is wrong, it’s part of human nature. It comes from living in a world full of
distorted relationships. Fortunately,
because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we have endless
opportunities for redemption. That
redemption comes in the form of relationships, relationships with people who would
be a lot easier to judge if we did not know them. For Jesus and this woman, it took one
sentence. She said, “Sir, even the dogs under the
table eat the children’s crumbs.” However, most of us need more than a
sentence. Most of us need a relationship.
I want to challenge you all
this fall to seek a relationship with someone who is different than you (a
different socio economic class, religion, political party, ethnicity,
etc.) Don’t enter the relationship
trying to change them, open your own heart to a potential change. We can’t just complain about the lack of
kindness or civil discourse in our country.
Gandhi once said that you have to “be the change you wish to see in the
world.” We all have that
opportunity. Not only can we be part of
the change, as Christians we can be part of the redemption.
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