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Warning: You’re about to be offended.
Today’s Gospel lesson (Matthew 15:1-28) is a story about what is actually offensive.
The Pharisees, who—let’s be clear—are not the villains in the story, come to Jesus to complain that his disciples are not washing their hands properly, not observing the religious rituals and customs.
Is this a big deal? Maybe, maybe not, but Jesus points out a greater problem with the Pharisees’ own behavior: not providing for their elders, and teaching people that it’s okay to give offerings directly to God and make yourself look extra righteous by saying, “Oh, whatever I would have given to support my elderly mother or father, I give that to God instead.”
Jesus points out that this goes against the commandment to honor mothers and fathers, and puts this in context: “For the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God.” To neglect to wash one’s hands before eating, this injures nobody. To neglect to provide for your elders, this breaks a commandment.
Jesus is saying that God has a problem with this, quoting the prophet Isaiah: “This people honors me with their lips but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.”[1]
This is important context for the gospel lesson assigned for today. Jesus is in a religious discussion about following commandments versus following traditions. So that’s why Jesus speaks to the whole gathered crowd: listen up, folks! It’s not what goes into your mouth that makes you unclean, it’s what comes OUT of your mouth that makes you unclean!
Following your tradition will not save you nor make you righteous. You can follow all the rules to the letter and still miss the entire point if your focus is on your own behavior. If you care more about how other people perceive you—isn’t that what public righteousness is about?—than you care about other people getting their needs met, then you’re not taking God’s Word seriously. For the sake of your tradition, you nullify the Word of God.
That’s when the disciples are like, ooo. Uh, Jesus. I think you just offended the Pharisees.
And Jesus is like, alright, let’s talk about what’s actually offensive. It’s not about bad manners or hand-washing or committing a social faux-pas. The hateful words that come out of your mouth, the words that reveal what’s in your heart, and that’s where the problems are. You know, stuff like “I’m not a racist, but—” and “I wish that person would die.” and “Why can’t they just take care of themselves?”
I’ll be the first to say I’m frequently guilty of this too—saying the stuff that reveals what’s in my heart. Catch me on a day when I’m really tired and my mouth might reveal the sorry state of my heart. And it seems unfair because just because you said something doesn’t mean you’re gonna do that thing. Shouldn’t actions matter more than words?
Jesus is leading us to consider the heart from which words and actions come. If you say that righteousness is your goal, but your main concern is self-righteousness, being perceived as right and worthy, then this isn’t the kind of righteousness God is concerned with. God is concerned with right relationships—relationship between God and humans, and relationships between people.
Being polite is not the goal. Avoiding offense is not the goal. Keeping people happy is not the goal. Because the goal is the kin-dom of God, as Jesus taught his disciples to pray to God: your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I don’t think Jesus could care any less about the appearance of righteousness. Jesus cares about actual righteousness. Actual healing. And if he has to offend some people along the way, well…so be it.
Because the next thing Jesus does is get offensive. I always thought this gospel story was a story of a strong woman, talking back to Jesus, standing up for herself, a fierce mother defending her daughter, refusing to hand over her dignity. But I think Jesus is offensive on purpose, to get our attention, using offensive language to highlight what’s going on, and to broadcast that things need to change.
A little background here. In Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 10, which we read here just a few weeks ago, Jesus has sent out his disciples with the express instructions—do you remember? Those instructions are: GO NOWHERE AMONG THE GENTILES!!! YOU ARE SENT OUT TO THE LOST SHEEP OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL![2] ONLY! STAY IN YOUR LANE, FOLKS! Those are the marching orders! It’s pretty clear.
But here in chapter 15, suddenly now it’s Jesus who has gone among the Gentiles. Oops? Or, is it possible that Jesus may have done this on purpose? Because he’s minding his own business when a Canaanite woman shows up seeking healing, carrying just loads of historical religious baggage what with the long-time hostility between Israel and Canaan.
It’s not hard to imagine what that might look like. It’s obvious to everyone there. This woman is making the disciples nervous. Jesus is saying nothing. The disciples are telling Jesus, psst, tell her to leave. Or, whatever, heal her daughter, and don’t make a big deal about it, and let’s get outta here. We are here among Gentiles, where YOU said we are NOT supposed to be.
Because remember the marching orders? GO NOWHERE AMONG THE GENTILES! Don’t ask questions, just don’t go there.
But Jesus went there. And oh boy, did he ever go there. That’s why I think he replied loudly at this point, “I WAS SENT—apparently—ONNNNLLLLLYYYYY to the LOST SHEEP of the HOUSE of ISRAEL.” Other ethnicities need not apply, mind your own business, we’re staying in our lane. Remember?
But then the woman kneels before Jesus, a frustratingly disturbingly worshipful thing to do. “Lord, help me,” she pleads with him. Oh, she even calls him Lord.
“But OHHHHH…it is NOT FAIR,” Jesus sarcastically moans, “to take the CHILDREN’S FOOD…and THROW IT! To the DOGS!!!”
Everyone is paying attention now. The disciples must be absolutely dying inside. And I think Jesus is waiting to see what the woman will do.
But she does it, she calls him Lord AGAIN. “Yes, Lord,” she says, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
Remember what Jesus just said about how the words that come out of your mouth reveal what’s actually in your heart? This woman isn’t simply desperate, or mouthy, or focused on her own dignity—in her heart, somehow she knows that there exists a table with more than enough food, and there is a Lord with more than enough power to heal her daughter. She’s not even asking Jesus for a place at the table; she would be content with crumbs.
Jesus must have given up a smile by now, to the woman who passed the test: “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” Not “great is your persistence.” Not “great is your self-respect.” Great is your FAITH.
And because Jesus was bold enough to offend us to get our attention, I think Jesus has revealed something about what’s in his own heart. The mission of the disciples is not really about determining who’s in and who’s out by drawing lines around ethnicity or religion or history. The mission is bigger now than when it began. The original instruction to “go nowhere among the Gentiles” has become a mission to distribute the abundant food of God’s healing mercy to anyone around the table or even any creature waiting patiently under the table. Who out there—and it really could be anyone—has the faith in God to believe that healing can happen?
If you’ve heard this story before, a very similar story appears in Mark’s Gospel, a Syrophoenician woman asking Jesus to perform an exorcism, to take away the demon from her daughter. In a commentary about Matthew’s version of the story, Professor Eunyung Lim said that the gospel-writer Matthew has turned the gospel-writer Mark’s exorcism story into “a story about faith overcoming entrenched social divisions.” This has to do with the community of faith that Matthew was writing for—they had been faithful, law-abiding Jews who came to follow Jesus. They were defining their mission and discovering where they were called to welcome Gentiles.[3]
So what does it look like in our day to break down social divisions? Who are we called to welcome, as the faith community of Gethsemane Lutheran Church? What does it look like to be a church that feeds the poor? What does it look like to be a church that cares for the needs of unhoused people, and that has been a learning experience in its own right?
What does it look like to TAKE THE CHILDREN’S FOOD—the life-giving nutrition for your precious and vulnerable little ones—and THROW IT TO THE DOGS—who won’t understand and can’t appreciate the gift they’re receiving and besides why should you be responsible for dogs anyway when they can scavenge their food from somewhere else???
What would it look like to have even an ounce of the same faith of the Canaanite woman in the Gospel story: content with crumbs, trusting that at God’s table there is more than enough for everyone? Will our words and actions offend some people? Probably so. Can we be part of doing God’s will on earth as it is in heaven? Absolutely.
Lord Jesus, give us a heart like your heart.
Amen.
Pastor Cheryl
[1] Matthew 15: 7b-9, quoting Isaiah
[2] Matthew 10:5-6
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