Sermon for Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 6th, 2015
Text: Mark 7:24-37 Revised Standard Version (RSV)
The Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith
24 And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon.[a] And he entered a house, and would not have any one know it; yet he could not be hid. 25 But immediately a woman, whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoeni′cian by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And he said to her, “Let the children first be fed, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29 And he said to her, “For this saying you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 And she went home, and found the child lying in bed, and the demon gone.
Jesus Cures a Deaf Man
31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decap′olis. 32 And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech; and they besought him to lay his hand upon him. 33 And taking him aside from the multitude privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue; 34 and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, “Eph′phatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35 And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36 And he charged them to tell no one; but the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well; he even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.”
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
First, a bit of a recap.
Mark Twain once said: “It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.”
Over the course of this summer, we have encountered some of the hardest sayings of Jesus in the Gospels. Jesus, as recorded in these passages in John’s record, is unrelenting in his blunt assertions regarding himself as the bread of life and that only by eating his flesh and drinking his blood can we hope to have a shot at eternal life. This concept is the key point on which all of our Christian faith hangs.
But that was tough to hear and tougher to swallow. As John reports, many of the people who heard him say these words were naturally confused and even scandalized; and in the intervening twenty centuries, many who have heard these words have also walked away from God’s gift of grace in Jesus, just as many who have preached on these words, and others who have sought to live by these words, have been ostracized, victimized, and persecuted by others, starting with the Romans and continuing down to the present day. Today, too, there are many people who have grown up in the church, but have found concepts like this just too much to bear and have helped to swell the ranks of the “nones” and the “dones” we’ve heard so much about in the last few years.
“For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” (John 5:54-56)
Particularly today, when we are about to again celebrate the Sacrament of Jesus’ Body and Blood, this concept is extremely relevant. Just what does Jesus mean with these words?
As F. F. Bruce writes in his brilliant book Hard Sayings of Jesus, “Plainly his language was not to be taken literally: he was not advocating cannibalism…Jesus answered their protest by pointing out that his words were to be understood spiritually. ‘It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail’ (John 6:63). The physical or literal meaning of the words was plainly ruled out…What we have in Jesus’s strange language is a powerful metaphor stating that a share in the life of God, eternal life, is granted to those who in faith come to Jesus, appropriate him, enter into union with him.”
Christianity: It ain’t for the faint of heart. Maybe that’s why it’s a religion of community, instead of one of those religions where you can just make things up as you go along, and be an expert practitioner all by your lonesome! Christianity is an “all-hands-on-deck-we’re-all-in-this-together” religion. We need each other. Jesus needs all of us.
But those hard words…they do rankle us a bit, don’t they?
Luckily, today we have a passage from Mark which shows us the Jesus we have all come to know and love – the compassionate healer, the God-Man who comes to us and lifts us out of the mire of the world, who saves us …
But wait! Even here we have a “hard saying” to deal with.
Before we get to that, though, we need to first resolve another little mystery.
In today’s lesson, we find Jesus and the disciples in the “regions of Tyre and Sidon.” You can see on the map provided in today’s bulletin that Tyre and Sidon (circled) are nowhere near Galilee! In fact, they’re not in Israel at all, but in Phoenicia! Tyre was about forty miles northwest of Capernaum; Sidon was even further up the coast, twenty-six miles northeast of Tyre, to be exact. If Jesus’ mission was, as we read elsewhere, “only to the lost sheep of Israel,” he seems to be pretty far afield.
The main thing here is that Jesus is in Gentile territory. So, we are compelled to ask the question: Why was Jesus in the “regions of Tyre and Sidon” in the first place?
Our friend, William Barclay, thinks Jesus and the disciples went there “for temporary escape. In his own country, he was under attack from every side. Long ago, the scribes and Pharisees had branded him as a sinner because he broke through their rules and regulations. Herod regarded him as a menace. The people of Nazareth treated him with scandalized dislike.” (Whenever I feel down in the dumps, unappreciated, or put upon, all I have to do is think of Jesus’ experience, and I suddenly feel a whole lot better – well, some at least!)
There was, of course, more to it than just that. Jesus never did anything without a reason. And, far back in the history of Israel that area, now a foreign country, was once considered to be a part of Israel. Under Joshua, the tribe of Asher was given the land “as far as the Great Sidon…to the fortified city of Tyre.” So perhaps Jesus dragged his disciples all the way up there to reclaim their lost cousins.
In any case, there they were. And the Syrophoenician woman, a woman who had no reasonable expectation that this rabbi from down South would even speak to her, much less help her, nonetheless dared to approach him.
And here’s where we encounter the hard saying in today’s lesson. To this distraught and desperate woman, Jesus says: “Let the children first be fed, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
Ouch. Not only does that seem unduly harsh, but also completely out of character for a man who routinely heals people of all classes and backgrounds.
The key to understanding what’s afoot here is the word used for “dogs.” The Greek word, κυναρίοις – kynariois – (Hebrew equivalent גּוּר , “gur”) does not mean a mature dog, so right away the image changes. When we think of “throwing things to the dogs,” we get a mental picture of a pack of mangy, smelly, half-wild creatures that run in packs and fight each other over scraps. That’s not the image this passage paints – it’s more like tossing scraps to your favorite puppy under the table. These dogs are your pets; they live with you in your house; your children play with them; and you love them.
That’s the kind of dog we’re talking about here.
And the woman was quick-witted enough to grasp immediately what Jesus was getting at – he wasn’t rejecting her or her daughter; he was just saying that Israel came first in his mission. She then seized the moment and gave him a reply that she hoped would cause him to grant her wish: “Yes, sir – but even the puppies under the table eat the children’s left-overs!”
I get this warm mental picture of Jesus smiling as he says, “For this saying you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” In other words: “You did it! You won!”
And then Jesus and his disciples continue their journey – which William Barclay and other scholars believe took as long as eight months – and head southeast into what was called the “Decapolis,” the Ten Cities.
More people flock to him – some desperate, some just curious. Among the desperate is a man who is deaf and has a speech impediment. This man is brought to Jesus – by his family, maybe, or by his friends, or maybe both – and they beseech Jesus, they implore him, to help this man.
What follows shows with crystal clarity how Jesus treated people. There was no sparring or clever repartee, as with the Syrophoenician woman – just an act of deep caring. First, he takes the man aside, away from the crowd. The poor guy had probably spent his entire life being the butt of jokes, and Jesus doesn’t want to add to his embarrassment by making him a spectacle. Then Jesus touches his ears and tongue, looks to heaven, and says “Ephphatha!” – “Be opened!” – and the deed is done. Compassionate and caring – that’s the Jesus people saw that day.
And the people who witness this say, “He has done all things well.”
So, what’s the take-away for us today? How does this lesson apply to us?
First, certainly regarding the hard sayings of Jesus that we encounter in the Gospels, we need to make sure that what we think the words mean is actually what they do mean. But I think that applies to our daily lives, too. I sometimes think that more heartache and arguments have been caused by misunderstanding than by intent. Those people, for example, who were so offended by Jesus’ words about eating his flesh and drinking his blood and walked away, without doing any fact-checking as to what he was actually getting at, lost out forever on being part of God’s kingdom. In our own conversations and interactions with others, when we’re not clear about what the other is saying, it’s always a good policy to ask what they really mean, instead of just getting all hot and bothered and walking away. Common sense, but how often do we do that?
Second, that desperate mother teaches us a few things, too. David Lose tells us, “she teaches us about the power of the stranger. Newcomers, strangers, people who are different from us – they stretch our perspective and teach us things about themselves, about the world, and about us. But only if we will listen.” Jesus went ‘way out of his way” to reach that woman and people like her – how might we follow his example? Whom are we overlooking – not just “out there,” but also in here? What might they teach us? What insights might they have to share?
Third, she teaches us about faith. Faith is most fully seen when it is exercised on behalf of others – like she did on behalf of her daughter. Let me repeat: Christianity is a religion of community. We are not islands; we are not sufficient unto ourselves. We find our true selves most deeply and genuinely in community, in relationships, and when we go to bat for others. Today’s lesson tells us about how Jesus went about 100 miles on foot just to bring his message of healing and grace to that young mother and that suffering man. We can take from that the lesson that the church is an action, and not just a destination. Instead of wearing out the seats of our pants, perhaps we might better serve Christ by wearing out the soles of our shoes.
One of the charges leveled against the church that I hear frequently or read about is that the church does not seem “relevant” to many people. Leaving aside for the moment the validity of such a claim, I think it has a lot to do with perception. These people don’t see the work the church is doing, and so they conclude, incorrectly, that the church is “doing nothing.” But the warning to us is that, if our focus is too inward, rather than outward, we give these detractors their proof. We all want to renew and grow St. John’s, and we are coming up with some ways and means of doing so – but at the end of the day, we will renew St. John’s when we look outside of ourselves into the community and the world to see who needs us, and discern how we might emulate Jesus’ example and go to meet them where they are.
Finally, this lesson tells us once again that kindness is one of the foremost hallmarks of faith. It is also something that every one of us, no matter who we are, can do, and do well! Let’s take for ourselves that old Nike slogan, and “Just Do It”!
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.