AtomGod’s Grace FOR All
Matthew 15:21-28
It was the annual banquet night for a huge Christian Charity connected with Brainerd…being
held at one of the swanky resorts on Gull Lake. It was planned to be a banquet filled with
awards and celebrations and anticipating what the next year would bring!!
The tables were set in with the finest of china, exquisitely folded cloth napkins, linen table
coverings, silver, cups and goblets for the wine. The “invitation only” guests came dressed in
their best…prepared for a great evening of fun and festivity.
The meal was incredible…a many course meal is what I was told…and everything was going
just as the planners had planned until…
A smelly, poorly dressed transient showed up at the door…walked in…and began to beg
for scraps from the tables of the people. Yes…this DID happen…I’m not making this up!!
Table by table went the transient…holding out her hands for food, looking for something to
drink, her begging eyes seeking out the eyes of others, and: the distain in the crowd for this
uninvited person became very evident!!
Because no-one wanted to physically remove this smelly, wrongly-dressed person from the
room: each person and each table in turn shunned her away…tried to coax her to someone
else’s table…and all avoided eye contact…and within the course of a few moments, the
uncomfortability of having this person in the room had spread to most every table.
At this point in the evening…the banquet host stepped up to the microphone to introduce the
main speaker for the evening who happened to be my secretary at Bethlehem Lutheran, Diane
Peterson (the one who told me this story). And…as Diane’s introductions were being made:
The transient walked up the steps to the stage…and, as she removed her transient
clothes, her actual identity was revealed…the one who had been rejected was the
main speaker…and there stood Diane Peterson, the main speaker…dressed in her
finery…ready to give her message, to a suddenly alert banquet room. It was an evening
that I’m sure lives yet today for the many in that room!!
While I didn’t hear her message that evening personally, having worked with Diane for many
years:…I sense she would have said something like:
As people who have received God’s grace and mercy, though we don’t deserve it, and
whose mission is to give this grace and mercy away…let’s be careful before we pat
ourselves too deeply on our backs. I did what I did tonight to remind all of us to be on
guard against our natural tendency: the tendency to want to decide for ourselves who is
worthy and deserving, and who isn’t…which are too often based upon our stereotypes
and prejudices.
And she is a problem for at least three very specific reasons.
First, she is a she. A woman. Women in the ancient world are second-class citizens at best.
They are to be seen, not heard. Good manners dictate that a woman never approaches or
speaks to a man who is not her husband. That is rude and forward. And yet here is this woman
brashly running up to Jesus, a rabbi, and shouting at him for help. That just won’t do.
Second, she is a Canaanite. To these Jewish disciples, this conjures up all sorts of deeply-
rooted ethnic hatred. A Canaanite is someone who lived in the Promised Land before the
Israelites moved into it. The term later came to mean a Gentile, a non-Jewish pagan. The
enmity between Jews and Gentiles is so deep that an orthodox Jew would never set foot in the
Gentile district of Tyre and Sidon where Jesus and the disciples are traveling.
Being a woman is bad enough in the disciples’ minds. Being a Canaanite woman puts
this particular woman into an “unworthy” category all her own.
Finally, like the transient, this woman is a problem because she is an interruption in their
agenda. Remember, we read that Jesus and the disciples entered Tyre and Sidon. These are
places that no self-respecting Jew would go; so they went there to get away from the constant
harassment from the Pharisees. They needed rest. The last thing they wanted is some pagan
woman who doesn’t know her place asking Jesus for something she doesn’t deserve.
Notice how Jesus and the disciples respond to this woman’s plea for mercy.
1. At first Jesus just ignores her.
2. Next, the disciples join in and urge Jesus to send her away. But this Canaanite woman
will not be deterred. Her love for her sick daughter, and her conviction that Jesus can do
something about it, compels her on.
3. Jesus reminds her that his primary mission is to Jews, not to Gentiles like her. But she
continues to press him, shouting, “Lord, help me.”
Then, how Jesus responds is stunning to me. And, this cannot be sugar-coated. Reflecting
the prejudices of the day, he says, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to
the dogs.” In other words, the Jews are worthy of God’s healing grace, but you pagan non-
Jews, “you dogs”, are not worthy.
(Are you stunned by this? I am? I mean, how could our loving, caring Jesus even say such
a thing?? More on this a bit later!!)
But then, even more stunning is the rejected woman’s response.
With a dash of humor and a more than a little theological insight, and a sense of
desperation, the woman responds, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall
from their master’s table.” In this simple statement she (quote) “brilliantly challenges
the notion that God’s love and grace are only for a few, as if only some are worthy”.
She has faith that God’s love and grace are not dependent upon our worthiness, but upon
God’s goodness. This remarkable faith moves Jesus deeply. The woman’s daughter is healed
and her faith is etched in history for all to see.
This is an incredible story on so many levels, let’s check out three:
First of all, we learn from this incredible woman that no matter how unworthy other people
might think we are of God’s love and grace, or how unworthy WE might think we are of God’s
love and grace, God’s love and grace are not dependent upon our worthiness, but upon
God’s goodness.
This story teaches us: No matter who you are, no matter where you’ve been, no matter
what you’ve done or have failed to do, God’s love is for you – not because you’re
good, but because God is. And, there are so many who struggle with this sense of
unworthiness:
Consider this story from a pastor who writes:
Not long ago I ran into a woman in the community who was going through a really
difficult time making ends meet. Rather than blame other people or circumstances for
her challenges, this woman took full responsibility. By her own admission she had made
a number of poor choices. She didn’t take her education seriously, so her job prospects
were limited. She had abused her body with drugs and alcohol, so she had numerous
health issues. She had made some bad relational choices and had burned more than a
few bridges. And now she was trying to provide for herself and two young children alone.
As I listened to her story, I heard more than despair in her voice. I heard guilt and shame.
I told her about the ministry of our Mission Outpost, and how we could help with some
of her basic needs. But she just hung her head and said, “Get help from a church? I could
never do that. After all I’ve done, I’m sure God wants nothing to do with me.”
Maybe you’ve been there. Or maybe you’re there today. You’ve blown it. You’re buried in
guilt and shame, and you’re certain that God wants nothing to do with you. Maybe your
circumstances are so dark and difficult that you’ve come to believe that God has abandoned
you. Let the story of the Canaanite woman point you to the truth that sets us free:
God’s love isn’t based on our worthiness, but on God’s goodness and grace in Jesus
Christ. Period! That’s the first thing we can learn from the story of the Canaanite
woman.
Second, we can learn from this story the lesson learned at that Brainerd banquet years ago:
We, the ones who know God’s unconditional love for us, the ones who have been set
Free by God’s amazing grace, we are called to freely share it with others: without
reserve and without prejudice.
Jesus teaches that old ethnic prejudices and hatreds have no place in God’s
Kingdom. All are worthy of God’s love, because God has declared it to be so.
Thus, at least for me, this Gospel leads us to ask: And I’ll make this personal…FOR ME:
When (I) we see people dressed differently than us…perhaps speaking different
languages with different skin colors …what is (my) our first reaction??
What biases, prejudices, even hatreds are yet living (me) today that may not be of God?
Who could it be that you and I keeping outside the walls of God’s love, and our love,
maybe without our even knowing it?
And, let’s not suggest there are easy answers to these questions: they are complex;
However,
I sense we need to ask these questions…and to ask them, not from a politically correct
position, but from a FAITH position... Why?
Ø Because our faith calls us to ask them…
Ø Because this story of the Canaanite woman confronts us.
Ø And, while I don’t want to be like the disciples in this story, but there’s more of them
in me than I care to admit.
This lesson seems to suggest to me that our response, as followers of Jesus, needs to be
something like the response of Martin Luther, who, when people would suggest that some
people were more holy and deserving than others, simply said:
“There is NO heirachy in the Kingdom of God. In God’s Kingdom…ALL of us are beggars in
need of GRACE!! All are worthy of God’s love, because God has declared it to be so.”
And this applies in both cases:
Ø It applies to those who identify with the Canaanite woman…feeling they are unworthy:
Ø And, it applies for those who identify with the Disciples…feeling others are unworthy;
To both it says: All are worthy of God’s love, because God has declared it to be so.
One more thought. Earlier we asked, “How could our loving, caring Jesus even say such a
thing??” This seems so out of character for what we know of Jesus.
To this, may I suggest that this Gospel also shows us that Jesus himself was learning and
growing and changing as a person?
Len Sweet opened up some new thinking for me this week on this.
After reflecting on Luke 2.., where Luke wrote: "And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years
and in divine and human favor", Len Sweet wrote:
Matthew would have us note something even more: that Jesus KEPT learning, even as
he entered into his active public missionary phase of life. In today's gospel text, the story
of the Canaanite woman, there's no doubt that for Jesus this encounter is a learning
experience. Through confrontational dialogue, a technique of learning that would have
been familiar to Jesus the Jew, this Gentile, this Canaanite, this woman, enables Jesus to
come to a deeper, wider awareness of his own mission, of God's mission, and of God's all
encompassing love.
Thus a third lesson for us…
If Jesus himself needed to keep learning and growing,
Where might it be that you and I have some learning to do…about the depth of
God’s love, acceptance, and mission?
Food for thought…
That Day, back in Tyre and Sidon, places where no self-respecting Jew would step foot, a
Caananite woman taught God’s people a profound message…
That Day, back in Brainerd, Diane taught God’s People a profound message…
Today, this same message comes to us again…
As a people of God…
Ø Whether we identify with the Canaanite woman…feeling we are unworthy: or
Ø Whether we identify with the Disciples…feeling others are unworthy;
we’re reminded:
All are worthy of God’s love, because God has declared it to be so.
Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, chapter 5 says it this way:
“So from now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once
regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are
a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
May it be so with us today. Amen.
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