Matthew 15:21-28

One of the TV shows I really enjoyed watching was “Nashville.”  On one episode, Maddie, a young white woman, was riding in the car one night with her African American boyfriend, Clay, when they were pulled over by the police.  The officer told them that they rolled through a stop sign.  Clay was very deferential to the officer, but Maddie got angry and asked what stop sign, and said that they didn’t do anything wrong.  The officer told her to be quiet.  Then he asked Clay for his license and registration.  Maddie continued to argue with the policeman.  Clay said, “My license is in my wallet in my back pocket.  Is it alright for me to reach for it?”  He got his license.  Maddie was still protesting their treatment.  Clay asked the police officer if he could reach for the registration, which was in the glove compartment.  Then the officer told Clay to step out of the car.  Maddie really got angry then, and she got out of the car, yelling that they were only stopped because Clay was black.  They ended up being arrested and taken to jail.  Later, Clay and Maddie were talking about what happened, and Clay was really upset with how Maddie behaved.  He told her that all that could happen to her was being arrested.  But he could have been shot and killed by the police.

Unfortunately, we all know that Clay was right.  We have heard news reports of similar types of incidents happening.  That is why African American friends have told me about “the talk” they have with their children in order to try and keep them safe from the police.  They tell their kids to always be polite, no matter how they are being treated, and not to argue with the police about whatever they are being accused of.  They are told never to run down a street, because it will be assumed that they are a criminal running to get away. They are told not to wear hoodies with the hood up, because it makes them look like criminals.  By taking these things to heart, young African American males just might be safe on the streets and in their cars.

We have a racial problem in America, and it was only too visible several years ago in Charlottesville, Virginia.  For various reasons, there began to be an atmosphere in our country that seemed to encourage racists – especially radical, right-wing racist groups – to come out of the darkness into the light of day and assume that they were acceptable.  There were more and more incidents involving neo-Nazis and white supremacists involved in demonstrations that led to some kind of violence or destruction. And too often these groups didn’t just target people of other races, but people of other religions, as well.  In Charlottesville, armed demonstrators hovered outside a Jewish synagogue just as they were dismissing services.  Members felt compelled to exit through a rear door to avoid walking past men holding flags with swastikas on them.

Since then, there have been a number of incidents of unarmed black men and women being killed by police officers.  Perhaps the most horrific of them all was the death of George Floyd, who died while a police officer was kneeling on his neck, which did not allow him to breath.  These incidents have also inflamed racial tensions in our country.

I have wrestled with the gospel passage designated from the lectionary for today.  It is a difficult passage to preach on.  Jesus doesn’t behave the way I want him to.  There are issues that are raised that are uncomfortable to talk about.  And yet, the more I struggled to make sense of current events and the more I tried to make sense of this passage, the more they seemed to go together.

Jesus had traveled to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  This was an area northwest of Galilee on the Mediterranean coast.  And it was Gentile territory.  One commentator said, “Jesus is in the Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon, where prudent [Jews] do not walk alone.  Racial stereotypes and bigotry inform all encounters between Israelites and Canaanites.  The disciples walk with full attention, informed by the stories of animosity and violence.  Then one of them, a resident of this alien territory, shouts at Jesus.” 

It was a woman, a Canaanite woman, who started shouting.  By identifying her as a Canaanite, Matthew did not have to say anything else to convey a lot to his readers.  Canaanites were the people who lived in Palestine when Joshua led the Israelites in the conquest of the land.  They were associated with idol worship and war.  They were of different ethnicity, heritage, and religion.  Canaanites, as Gentiles, were considered to be pagans and heathens, and being near them could make a good Jew unclean in the eyes of the law.  It was not uncommon to hear Jews hurl a particular insult at the Gentiles, calling them “Gentile dogs.”  In fact, that term was a racial slur, just as offensive as referring to an African American with the “n” word.”

On top of being a Gentile, and a Canaanite to boot, this was a woman shouting at Jesus.  That just wasn’t done.  Women were expected to be quiet in public, and a woman would never approach, let alone speak to, a man who was not her husband.  And yet here this woman was, coming right at Jesus on the street.  Helen Bruch Pearson writes of her, “She was not polite or timid.  She showed no respect for their differences.  She did not observe the lines of courtesy and custom that had separated the Jews and Gentiles for centuries.  Determined to get Jesus’s attention, she was shouting, an assaulting scene-maker of the most irritating and embarrassing sort!”

This woman had a third strike against her.  She was the mother of a child possessed by a demon.  People would assume that the demon-possession was a result of the mother’s sin.  Being a parent of such a child would have further marginalized her.

But listen to what she was shouting.  The woman was shouting, “Lord, have mercy!”  In Latin, that is “Kyrie eleison.”  It is a prayer that has been prayed throughout the centuries, “chanted in cloisters, whispered in hospitals, screamed out on battlefields.  It is the cry of the soul in extremis, a raw witness to the depth and the misery of the human condition.”  This woman was desperate for help for her daughter.  And she shouted out her faith, “Lord, have mercy!”  She believed that Jesus had it in his power to heal her daughter and she was going to do whatever it took to get his attention and ask for his help.

It is impossible for me to explain the behavior of Jesus from this point on in any way that satisfies me.  I will simply relay the facts of the story.

Jesus’s first response to this woman was silence.  He didn’t say one word.  He just ignored her.  Now perhaps we could say that he was just following the social customs of the day.  This woman was behaving badly in public and to acknowledge her would be demeaning to Jesus.  And she was a Gentile, and Jews didn’t have anything to do with Gentiles. Regardless of her need, it would have been breaking with tradition to respond to her in any way.

But the woman didn’t give up that easily.  She was still there, shouting apparently, because the disciples came to Jesus and asked him to tell her to go away because she was so irritating.  This time, Jesus answered the disciples, but surely in a voice intended to be heard by the woman:  “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  The mission of Jesus was clearly intended to begin with the Jews.  That is the way that Matthew presents the story, and he was writing to a Jewish audience.  And so, Jesus didn’t feel compelled to answer this woman’s prayer on behalf of her daughter.

But the woman still didn’t give up.  This time she came and knelt down in front of Jesus.  Instead of shouting, she simply said, “Lord, help me.”  She had assumed a position of humility, a position of worship.  She was willing to humble herself even in the face of Jesus’s rejection.  She was willing to put her own pride aside and take whatever insults Jesus may direct toward her, and still worship him, if only he would answer her prayer for her daughter.

This time Jesus spoke directly to the woman.  “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”  Jesus had just called this woman a dog.  He had chosen to treat her as any other Jew in that day might.  He had used a racial slur to refer to this woman who had approached him with faith and hope and prayer.  I read lots of commentaries this week to try and find some explanation that makes this less offensive to me.  Some said that Jesus said this to test the woman’s faith.  Others said that Jesus did this to test the disciples, to see if any of them would stand up for her.  One offered the suggestion that Jesus was “caught with his compassion down.”  I don’t know why he said it.  But the woman’s response was remarkable.  She said, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.”  She was respectful and she was persistent.  She didn’t ask to be seated at the table with the family and enjoy the meal.  She would be satisfied with just the crumbs. And finally Jesus said something that I can agree with:  “Woman, you have great faith!  Your daughter will be healed.”  And in that instant, the woman’s daughter was healed.

I could go in many directions with this sermon.  But instead of talking about Jesus’s words and actions, instead of talking about the cultural and religious context of the story, I want to talk about the woman.  I want to talk about what it means to lead a dog’s life in our world today.

First, dogs are those who are labeled with an offensive name.  They are people who are called something derogatory.  Racists use the “n” word to refer to African Americans, as well as other racial epithets to refer to people of Mexican descent, Italian descent, etc.  Sexists use the “b” word to refer to women who are strong and who function in the business world.  People who are homophobic use slurs to refer to members of the GLBT community.  When you refer to someone using such a derogatory name, it dehumanizes them, it allows you to stereotype them.  It makes it possible for us to move from name-calling to actions that are aimed to harm.  I remember that before the Rwandan genocide, the Hutus had taken over all the media in the country.  They broadcast constant attacks on the Tutsis, referring to them as “cockroaches.”  That made it easier to kill them later.

Second, dogs are made to beg for every concession.   They have to work long and hard to achieve the same rights and privileges as other groups of people.  They are expected to be satisfied with the crumbs that fall from the table, and not hunger for the full meal.  Even though African Americans had the right to vote from the time of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, passed in 1870, it took the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to attempt to remove all sorts of barriers that had been put into place to try and deny them that right.  It has taken decades for gays to win the right to marry anywhere in the U.S., but there are still many places where the rights of gays are being denied.  And the rights of trans people are being removed in many states right now.

Third, dogs are those who are even rejected by the church.  Just as Jesus was “caught with his compassion down,” so churches can be caught in the same position.  There are many churches in our country who would not be receptive to African American members, or members of other races either for that matter.  There are churches that would not welcome members of the GLBT community.  In fact, many people have been so hurt by churches, that they have rejected faith altogether.  This is a serious problem, a theological problem, a spiritual problem for churches.  Just as Jesus seemed to change his mind about this woman, churches need to change their understanding of Christian hospitality.

Lewis F. Galloway writes, “In our deeply polarized society, people of different political views, economic conditions, ethnic backgrounds, or religious convictions are demonized and dismissed.  In such a society, it is easy to decide who to exclude from the circle of God’s love.  Yet no one can limit the grace of God.  One thing the church has to offer society is a visible demonstration of how people of different viewpoints, political parties, and backgrounds not only tolerate one another but love and appreciate each other.  The doors of the church are wide open to the world.  It should always be that way.”

We have a long way to go in our country.  I would have liked to believe that we were farther along than we are.  But there is hope.  There is always hope. 

For those living a dog’s life, I know that the journey has been long and hard and very, very slow.  Whether African American, Hispanic, gay or lesbian, recent immigrant, or other minority group, progress has been long in coming.  The only way to change those who hate is through prayer.  We cannot just ignore them and hope that they go away or somehow experience a change of heart.  We must pray for them.  And we must live our own lives as a witness to Christian inclusiveness and hospitality.  We must take a stand against hatred, bigotry, and injustice.  We must be willing to speak up and take action.  There are ways to get involved in trying to make our society better. 

At the end of the story, Jesus did acknowledge the woman’s faith and grant her prayer.  He demonstrated that God’s mercy was to be for all people, no matter whether they were purest Jews or Gentile dogs.  God’s love reaches out and no one can stop it or limit it or tell it where it cannot go.  We are to be ambassadors of that love and mercy.  We are to share the good news that God loves the world, every single person in the world.  And we are to help those who have been treated like dogs take their rightful place at the table of Christ, seated with us to partake of the feast.  No one should have to be content with crumbs.