by Fr. Bill Garrison
Please note that the following sermon text was provided prior to the audio recording. The two versions may differ substantially.
Mark 7:24-37
Michael Angelo Immenraet: Jesus and the Woman of Canaan
Jesus 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, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 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.” But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”
Have you ever not seen what was right in front of you? And then someone else tells you it’s there, points it out to you, and it pops right out at you? Then you wonder why you didn’t see it before? Well, today this is what we are talking about, seeing what we haven’t seen before, or perhaps reseeing what we have seen before but do no longer.
I think this might be a good example. I borrow the story from another pastor.
After services one Sunday morning, Brian, a member of our congregation, asked me a hypothetical question. He said, “Pastor Ray, if you were stranded on a desert island and could only have one book, any book in the world, which book would it be, and why?”
As a minister, I thought the answer to his inquiry was very apparent. I said, “Brian, if I could only have one book, I would want the Bible because it would help give me spiritual strength in getting through the challenge of being stranded on a desert island.” I believed that my answer had a great deal of merit. Especially since it was Sunday morning and we had just completed church services.
Expecting him to reinforce my answer, I asked Brian the same question; “If you were stranded on that island, which book would you want?”
With a smile on his face his answer was immediate. He said, “If it were me, I would want a book titled, 'How to Build a Boat.'“
Have you ever noticed that in scripture the folks that fully recognize Jesus, or are doing the loving thing, are often the ones we wouldn’t expect to do so? Here are some examples: the Good Samaritan, the Roman Centurion, the only one of the nine lepers that turned back to thank him for healing them, Mary Magdalene and her seven spirits, the woman who was a sinner and washed the feet of Jesus, the tax collector, and many more. In fact, today’s gospel contains two of those stories.
The first story really grabs us. Jesus is in the region of Tyre, a famously gentile area despised by many of the Jewish people. Apparently, Jesus would like to rest a bit, but there is no hiding for him. A gentile woman has a sick child. She has the temerity to interrupt him and ask him to heal her daughter.
Now please think first century. Honestly, to some extent metaphorically think Taliban. Men were not to have anything to do with women in public. And that included talking, touching, or anything else that would bring them into some form of contact. During their interaction she and Jesus break every societal custom in the book. Any Jewish person watching would have been horrified.
His answer to her request is startling. “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” Now I have to tell you I cannot explain why he said what he said. Something got lost along the way. He is clearly saying that the children are the Israelites and come first. The gentiles are the dogs in the metaphor and come second. I have heard all sorts of explanations and none satisfy me. So, I hang on to the word “first”. I take solace that the dogs will get fed along with the people of Israel.
It’s just that the children are to be fed first. I am also aware that Jesus was harder on the Jewish leadership than anybody else, including this woman. He told the “children” on more than one occasion that what was theirs would be given to others since they appeared to be rejecting the food that was represented in his teaching.
In any event, this woman persuaded him to heal her daughter. She was absolutely sure he could. She bowed to him, and even said the dogs take the crumbs that fall to them. She impressed Jesus with her certainty about him, her recognition of who he was, and of what he was capable.
Why then didn’t those in power recognize Jesus for who he was? It’s an easy question for us to answer, but I warn you we answer it with some trepidation. They didn’t recognize Jesus because what he was teaching was counter-cultural and because it wasn’t in their best interests to do so.
The theology of Jesus was one of common sense. We heard last Sunday about hand washing. What comes out of a person defiles them, not what goes into a person. We hear often in scripture about the Sabbath. Was humankind created for the Sabbath or was the Sabbath created for humankind? Speaking of the Sabbath, when is it appropriate to come to someone’s aid? Jesus spent time with the outcasts of society, something those in power never would have imagined doing. Jesus even touched folks those in power would never have touched.
And, I wonder for those in power, if taking care of their own self-interests wasn’t even more important than their differences in theology. You see agreeing with the theology of Jesus shined a light on them that was way too bright. It exposed the flaws of their thinking, living, and their associations with each other, their fellow Israelites, and the world around them.
Now this is where you and I are required to sit up and take notice. Are we that much different from the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Scribes, and those other folks of money and power that encountered Jesus? Have we compared our own lives and the theology that guides us with them? Is it convenient for us theologically, and in terms of our station in life, to follow him? Or do we build other theologies, ones that allows us to acknowledge Jesus in some form or other without really engaging with him and seeing who he really is? Do we fail to see what is right in front of us?
In order to see Jesus clearly, we must go back to basics. For me that means engaging the writing of scripture, and in particular the writings of Paul in the New Testament. And there is really only one question that needs to be answered. It is the lynchpin for the entire Christian theology, and reminds us who Jesus Christ was in this life and beyond. The question: was he more than just a great man?
Now I have beaten to death the reality of Paul’s writings. I have talked time and again about the seven letters he actually wrote that are historical documents. Documents of truth if you will. I won’t bore you with the background again this morning. It is here that we find the answer to this most important question.
Let’s go to First Corinthians, chapter fifteen, verse three through eight for the answer.
“For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me.”
Doesn’t that passage bring Jesus into focus? Doesn’t it help us to see him more clearly? Doesn’t it highlight who he is? And doesn’t it shine a light on our own belief systems, ones we are so careful to protect? Others on the planet already see him pretty clearly it would seem, but then they probably don’t have as much to protect.