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Dear
Friends in Christ,
The word of God that informs the sermon for this morning is from the
Gospel lesson previously read. Specifically Matthew 15:26, “And he
answered, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to
the dogs.’”
Whatever happened to the golden era of comics? Do you remember the good
old days when you could open up the comic page in the newspaper and
laugh at more than ONE comic? Do you remember the good old days when
Calvin and Hobbes appeared on the same page as The Far Side?
I remember those days. I remember one of those days particularly well.
It was Mother’s Day.
To this day, one of the funniest comics I’ve ever read was about
Mother’s Day. It was a creation of cartoonist Bill Watterson, the author
of Calvin and Hobbes. In this particular comic strip, Calvin wakes up
early on Mother’s day, and gives his mother a card which reads, “I was
going to buy you a card, with hearts of pink and red, but then I thought
I’d rather spend the money on me instead. It’s awfully hard to buy
things, when one’s allowance so small, so I guess you’re pretty lucky
you got anything at all. Happy Mother’s Day, there I said it, now I’m
done. Now how about getting out of bed and making breakfast for your
son.”
Needless to say, Calvin’s card was a little unorthodox. That’s not how
Mother’s Day cards are supposed to read.
Today in our gospel reading, Jesus is acting in an unorthodox way as
well. After being hailed by a Canaanite woman to help her demon
oppressed daughter, Matthew says in verse 23, “[Jesus] did not answer
her a word.” The woman remains persistent and she kneels before Jesus
and says, “Lord, help me.” And Jesus responds by calling her a dog.
Listen to verse 26, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and
throw it to the dogs.”
Jesus, like Calvin’s Mother’s Day card, is being a little unorthodox.
And when Jesus doesn’t act the way we expect him to act, our faith get’s
shaken.
In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say that
I am?” Peter replies in Matthew 16:16 “You are the Christ, the Son of
the Living God.”
Peter got it right, but most people do not. I have often speculated with
Bible classes, “What would people say if we walked onto SIUE’s campus
and asked the students there, ‘Who is Jesus?’”
Bible classes usually respond the same way. “They’d probably say he’s a
great moral teacher, or he is a good guy, or he is an ancient
philosopher.”
These responses highlight a troubling trend in America today. Because
these responses are a more accurate reflection of who people WANT Jesus
to be than who Jesus actually IS. People want Jesus to be a great moral
teacher, people want Jesus to be a good guy, people want Jesus to be the
God who gives them stuff, people want Jesus to make their life better
all the time.
The problem is. That’s not who Jesus is, and that’s never who Jesus
claimed to be. Jesus is our Savior. A Savior who has policy of
zero-tolerance toward sin. Jesus is a God who expects us to be in church
every Sunday. Jesus is a God who tells you to buck up and be a good
mother, even if your children steal money from your purse. Jesus is a
God who tells you to buck up and be a good neighbor, even AFTER your
neighbor has continued to let his dog use your yard as a bathroom. Jesus
is a God who expects you to suffer pain and injustice and yet show them
the same respect they robbed from you. That’s who Jesus is, and
unfortunately, that’s not who people want him to be.
We like our life to be predictable, and we want a very predictable
Jesus. Just like we expect Mother’s Day cards to be filled with words of
love instead of cutting remarks, just like we expect our favorite TV
shows to air during their regular schedule, so do we expect Jesus to act
exactly how we want him to act.
The Canaanite woman into today’s text encountered a very unorthodox and
very unpredictable Jesus. She didn’t know what was going on. She didn’t
know why Jesus was ignoring her. She didn’t know why he wouldn’t heal
her daughter. And yet, the way she proceeded in the wake of an
unpredictable and unorthodox encounter with Jesus has been the talk of
the Christian community ever since.
Because you see, we don’t act like the Canaanite woman. We’ve been
brought up in a culture that doesn’t allow for perseverance. In our
culture perseverance goes by other names, “Nagging” “Hounding”
“Harassing” “Annoying.” Consequently, when we don’t get what we want, we
stop trying, disappointed at the lack of instant gratification.
And that’s how we treat Jesus too. When we don’t get what we want from
Jesus, or his church, we walk away and we don’t want anything to do with
Jesus.
If Jesus doesn’t heal my illness after I pray really hard, then Jesus
must not be real, so we give up. If my prayers to Jesus don’t help me
land a new job or a better job, then I don’t want him. And in a fit of
frustration we think, “I’ll show Jesus!” And we leave. We walk away from
Jesus. And we walk away from his church.
But what if the mother in today’s gospel reading had done that? What if
the mother, having received no response from Jesus had just left? Would
Jesus have suffered? Absolutely not. But her daughter would have. Her
daughter would have continued to have been possessed by a demon.
What if the mother had left after Jesus called her a dog? Then the
mother would have been the one to suffer, as she watched her daughter
convulse under the strength of the demon. Jesus, on the other hand,
would not have suffered at all. He would have continued on his vacation
in Tyre and Sidon. Jesus would have continued to be Jesus. Jesus would
have been UNAFFECTED.
And so it is with us. If we get disgruntled with the church. If we get
disgruntled with Jesus. We’re not doing ourselves any favors by staying
home. And we’re certainly not doing our family any favors either. If we
leave the church, the church will continue to be the church, and if we
leave Jesus, Jesus will continue to be Jesus.
It is not the church’s job to take Jesus and shape him and mold him into
a Savior who is more palatable or more ‘relevant’ for the 21st
century. Rather, the church’s job is to proclaim to you the
never-changing Jesus who shape YOU and mold YOU into someone who is
relevant for his mission in the 21st century.
Today, on this Mother’s Day, we see the ultimate mother.
We witness the actions of a mother who knew of a man named Jesus. A man
whose name means “he saves” or “Savior.” And this mother had an unusual
daughter. She had a demon-possessed daughter. A daughter she could have
shunned, a daughter she could have abandoned, a daughter she could have
neglected, but instead she sought out Jesus, this savior. And she had
faith that he was the person his name proclaimed him to be. This faith
caused this mother to break cultural barriers, for she was not a Jew.
This faith caused this mother to break gender barriers as well, for it
was often unlawful for a woman to address a man in public. And so
Matthew gives us a glimpse of a mother who has an unorthodox daughter
and she uses unorthodox means to encounter Jesus, and when she meets
him, she finds him to be unorthodox too. Yet even after she gets the
silent treatment, and even after she gets called a dog, she continues to
speak to Jesus, because she knows Jesus to be exactly what he claims to
be. A Savior.
And finally the mother says in verse 27, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs
eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” In a sense, this
woman is saying, “Jesus, regardless of whether or not food is intended
for kings or children, when it falls to the floor, it’s still food.
Likewise, you are Jesus, you are the Savior. Even if you were sent to be
a Savior to the Israelites, today you are not in Israel. Today you are
in Sidon, and whether you are here or there, that doesn’t change the
fact that you are still the savior. So be a savior to my daughter
today.”
And Jesus heals her daughter as she requested. But I want you to notice
what he says, in verse 28 he says, “O woman, great is your faith!” Jesus
does not commend the woman on her perseverance. Jesus does not commend
the woman on her witty vocal banter. Jesus doesn’t even commend the
woman for accepting the label of “dog” he placed on her, but rather he
commends her solely for her ‘faith.’
Fellow redeemed. Jesus is exactly the man he claimed himself to be.
Jesus is exactly the man this church has faithfully proclaimed him to
be. Jesus is your savior. And in this capacity, Jesus is very
predictable, saving his faithful, forgiving the repentant, every single
time. Even if sometimes his actions to our requests are more than just a
little bit unorthodox.
Amen. |
