Sermon prepared for
by Gregory S. Kaurin, associate pastor
Text: Matthew 15:21-28
Sermon:
The Day that Jesus Ate His Words
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My favorite passages in the New Testament are the ones where Jesus was clearly enjoying himself, and found joy from the people around him. I think that is what was going on in our lesson today. It’s also one of the most important scenes to happen in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus was very aware of the conflicts and barriers all around him. He knew how to bring those barriers out in order to crash right through them.
This scene is especially important
in Matthew’s gospel. Jesus was being
hounded by some of the Pharisees and others who criticized the way he seemed to
ignore tradition: not washing his hands in the right and ritual way, for
one. In his frustration, Jesus reminded
them of God’s words spoken through the prophet Isaiah when he accused all of
Jesus turned to the people around him and shocked everyone by saying that “It is not what goes into the mouth that makes a person unclean, but what comes out of his/her mouth.” That was not just about keeping your language clean. Jesus was saying, “Look, it’s not the rituals themselves. Religion and worship are meaningless unless your heart is saying something.” It blows me away, though, how convinced and how focused we are on the externals of peoples’ lives, and make huge judgments on their faith, or lack of it.
There is a living God. Jesus was telling people to let the reality of God, the living God, crash through all the barriers that we use to try to separate ourselves from him. We even use worship to do it, and it’s got nothing to do with the worship itself. It’s called role-playing, using the actions and process of worship and life, the roles we’re playing, focusing so much on them, that we ignore the God that we’re supposed to be worshipping. Do you understand what I’m saying? The purpose of rituals and worship are to talk to God, but we can get so focused on what we’re doing, that we ignore the point of what we’re doing, and who we’re doing it for.
And this is not just the danger of what we sometimes call “traditional” worship, or “contemporary” worship. It’s a fear or a distraction of the heart that happens anywhere. God is real, and he’s right here. Real worship depends on knowing that. I want you to take ten seconds right now to let that sink in: God is here, right now, listening to the beat of your heart and the synapses of your brain…
We get scared of that idea sometimes. But I know from personal experience, that if you can get past that fear, feeling God, feeling Jesus right beside you, completely changes everything that you’re doing, and singing, and saying. I would almost love for us to start this service completely over with that frame of mind. It changes how you confess your sins. It changes what it feels like to have those sins forgiven. It makes life more real and exciting. I think it makes your worship more fun, powerful, educational, and expansive. Because, now, you are listening.
God has promised to be here. Real. Alive. And he is talking. Sometimes we wish our lives came with a soundtrack running in the background to help give it significance and drama. But there is! That soundtrack is the presence of God’s Spirit, and his Kingdom and eternal life running alongside everything you think, do or say right now.
So you can’t see it, or hear it. But for thirty glorious years, Jesus was the
face and grace-filled melody of God, crashing through barriers. If life is a football game, Jesus is the
I’ve read a lot of stuff about this passage with the Canaanite woman. Some of it is pretty dumb, but I understand the difficulty. Jesus embarrasses us a little bit here. Imagine reading this story for the very first time. You’re reading along and maybe you think, “This is kind of like the time that there were children clamoring to see Jesus.” The disciples tried to shoo them away, but Jesus says, “No, let them come to me, for the Kingdom belongs to children like these.”
Oh, we love that story, warms our little hearts. But what happens here? The woman was clamoring to see Jesus. (She was Canaanite, sure, but why would that stop the compassion of Jesus?) Our translation said the disciples wanted Jesus to dismiss her because of the ruckus she was raising. It helps to know, though, that in the original language they said it this way, “Send her away, with what she asks, Lord.”
You heard that? I don’t think they were being entirely selfish either. Yes, they felt pestered and frustrated—but I think some of the frustration came from pity, maybe even compassion. She was asking to have her little daughter healed from the demon that was tormenting her. “Send her away, Jesus, with what she asks.”
But Jesus turned to her and said,
“I’m only interested in the lost sheep of
She got down on her knees, this desperate mother. I don’t care what nationality or warped faith she had…I know you could feel for her, and understand her cry, “Lord, help me.”
And Jesus, looking down on her, said, “You do not take the food that belongs to the children and throw it to the dogs.”
What? Did Jesus, our Jesus, just call that woman a dog? This is one of the times when I think you better not follow the advice of that WWJD slogan. Don’t ever do what Jesus did here. That moment belonged to him alone…because he was going somewhere very important with this. And I think you an only really get the incredible message—and grace and love that he’s heading toward—if you understand irony and the slight gleam that’s in his eye.
No, this was no joke. Some translators try to soften it by telling us that Jesus used the “diminutive” form for dog, as if being called a “little dog” isn’t quite as insulting as an adult dog. This was the insult that Jews said about Canaanites behind their backs, and only in front of them when they really wanted to insult them. As Jesus said those words out loud. I know everyone around him, including his disciples, must have sucked air.
But Jesus knew what kind of woman knelt before him. She was kneeling before him, yes. And she was pleading. And she was desperate. But Jesus knew this woman was no weakling. So, he dared to take this moment, and he used this woman, and Jesus brought the insult, he brought the barrier right out into the open. He said the insulting words that too many others were harboring in their hearts; even while they pitied her…they saw her like a wounded, begging dog.
I don’t know if the woman took the bait, or if she took Jesus’ queue, but I hope you can feel the incredible way she rose suddenly in stature, in power and beauty. I can almost picture her rising up off her knees, and, standing face to face with our Lord, she answered, “Yes, Lord, but even we dogs should be allowed the crumbs that fall from the tables of the master.”
And now watch as Jesus tore through that insult, the barrier and the greater need of the woman, the greater need that we all have. He tells her that in that moment he knew of no greater faith. He healed her daughter instantly. No greater faith. “That,” he was telling everyone, “is what defines your right to the table.” Not ritual, not purity, not lifestyle, ethics, beauty, power, lineage, political affiliation, past mistakes, borders, and on and on. You come to the table with your palms up, saying, “Lord, help me. I do not deserve it. I have not earned it. But I trust that you will help.”
In other words, Jesus’ compassion and love for the woman ran deep. This was not his way of saying that he was only interested in the Jews for now. He helped her, and that is what makes this a powerful story. His love was not bound. Our love should not be bound.
What does this mean for us? For you, it might mean facing the insults of
the world head on, and rising up from your knees. Look your Lord in the face, and realize—once
and for all—that you have as much right to the love and experience of the
Or, we are sometimes like the people standing on the side. We think we know who’s in and who’s not, who’s right and who’s wrong. But Jesus is saying that we need to listen even to the people that we believe our faith and religion has condemned. They, like this pagan Canaanite woman, have something to say about faith and the love of God. Jesus said he would be in the people that we tend to ignore or despise. He found faith where we’re sure it doesn’t exist. Instead of letting that offend or scare us, we need to take delight in it. You and I depend on that kind of grace and mercy. That’s the only way we get invited to the table: with our palms up.
And it also means that Jesus
Christ can be absolutely everywhere, and in anybody. I think it makes life incredibly exciting,
enjoyable, deep and important. I think
this kind of love and forgiveness lets us have more fun, more compassion. It makes agendas and calendars, goals and
accomplishments, worth next to nothing, and makes this moment right now most
important. Because God is in it. And he is talking to you. And he is saying, “Quit shutting me out.” A simple step: start trusting the love and
mercy of God, and let his joy fill you.
If there is any hate left in your religion, leave it here at his altar
today. He’s got something better for you
to take home. Peace, joy, love. Amen.
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