Sermon August 16, 2020

 

August 16, 2020           Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28                  Rev. Peter Hofstra

Watching What We Say

             The lesson for today is as follows: It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles the person, but rather, what might come out that defiles a person.  Jesus wants the crowd, then, and now, to get this.  He says clearly, Listen and understand.  Jesus is so specific because he is reversing the usual expectation of what ‘defilement’ means. 

            It usually refers to what we know as ‘kosher’ laws.  The law of Moses has specific rules about what someone can and cannot eat.  To eat what was forbidden was to defile the body.  In the time of Jesus, those laws were double edged.  They defined what it meant to be Jewish, but they also defined one over and against the Romans, their hated overlords.  These laws were a reminder that God was in charge, not them. 

            The disciples try to warn him.  “Do you know the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?”  They took offense precisely because their identity was so wrapped up in the observation of the law.  Jesus brought something more. 

            So Jesus, being Jesus, replies in a parable.  “Every plant that my Father has not planted will be uprooted.  Let them, the Pharisees, alone, they are the blind leading the blind.  If one blind person leads another, they will both fall into the pit.”

            Now imagine the disciples, they are gathered by Jesus, listening to what he is telling them, maybe nodding in apparent agreement, but then Peter speaks their mind.  “And what does that mean exactly?  Can you explain the parable?”

            It would not surprise me if Jesus rolled his eyes at the disciples.  “Are you still without understanding?”  

            It is not about the legality of eating.  Jesus dismisses that.  We eat, we digest, we…take care of business.  As Jesus puts it, goes into the mouth, enters the stomach, and exits into the sewer.  Jesus sets aside the legal implications of eating to make a bigger, more universal point. 

            It is what comes out of the mouth, that proceeds from the heart, that is where the danger lies, where defilement comes from.  For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.  These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile."  In case they missed the reference to the kosher laws, Jesus undermines the laws of cleanliness as well.  In Mark 7:5, the Pharisees accuse Jesus and his disciples precisely because they have not washed their hands.

            But for Jesus, it is not about appearances, it is about what comes from the heart.  To make his point, Jesus leads the disciples north, out of Jewish lands, into the region of Tyre and Sidon.  It is time for a practical example, away from the crowds and the Pharisees and their critiques.

            There is a woman in need, a Canaanite woman (which is an archaic way of referring to her as the Canaanites were dispossessed when the Israelites entered the Promised Land millennia before). She cries out for help, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David, for my daughter is possessed by a demon.”

            Casting out demons, that is part of Jesus’ core mission.  But now the story gets hard because Matthew is illustrating what Jesus said before, but at the expense of this woman. 

            Jesus does not answer her at first.  In fact, the disciples tell Jesus to send her away, because she is making a scene.  Jesus’ response is offensive, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”  She is only a Canaanite.  But she comes and kneels before him, debasing herself before him.  “Lord, help me.”  Then Jesus apparently gets insulting.  “It is not fair that we take the children’s food and feed it to the dogs.”  The disciples would understand that the ‘children’ are the Jews and the dogs include this Canaanite.  Her reply, “Yes Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the Master’s table.”  She will not be put off. 

            And Jesus answers her, properly this time, “Woman, great is your faith!  Let it be done for you as you wish!”  And her daughter was healed.

            How are the disciples to understand what just happened?  Jesus was sent ONLY to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.  Now he helps her.  Did he just lie to them?  Or is he redefining what it means to be the House of Israel?

            I remember a sermon on this passage where the preacher attacked Jesus full on for the way he spoke to this woman.  She was objectified, insulted, subject to racist comments, and belittled.  I can see that as I read this passage.  But the preacher’s conclusion was that Jesus was a bad man, a sinner, and we were challenged to consider our faith in Him. 

            But that is not the point that Matthew is making.  The point is, as Jesus starts, “Listen and understand.”  It is not the kosher laws that cause defilement.  The Pharisees took offense at that.  But defilement comes from the heart, comes from what is said.  And when such laws cut off people from the House of Israel, from among God’s children, that is true defilement.  

            So for the Pharisees, it was offensive that Jesus did not stay on their political message, do nothing to undermine what it means for them to be of the House of Israel.  The political message in this case is that what someone eats CAN defile the body to a member of the House of Israel.  If someone does not wash their hands before eating, this undermines what it means to be a member of the House of Israel.  And what Jesus says, For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.  But how quickly does that universe truth of sinfulness get ignored when it is time to make a political point? 

            And up in the region of Tyre and Sidon, he illustrates exactly what that looks like.  Here comes a Canaanite woman, needing help.  But what she eats-not following the law of Moses-defiles her, according to the Pharisees.  In that frame of reference, when Jesus speaks to this woman as One Who Comes Only To The House of Israel.  And what comes out of his mouth in that moment is racist, belittling, and offensive, so the disciples can understand the defilement that can come out of the mouth. 

            Is it offensive?  Of course it is.  Jesus never backed away from being offensive to make the hard point.  Consider the story of the rich young ruler.  What did Jesus tell him?  Go, sell all you have, give it to the poor, and come, follow me.  Imagine if the Church in the United States made that the first step to membership? 

But the rich found an easy way around that.  In a very different context, Jesus observed, “You will always have the poor with you”.  So those who have use this line to justify not helping those who have not.

            Is the Canaanite woman simply a victim of opportunity for Jesus?  Is she being knocked down so Jesus can make his point?  That is one reading of the passage.  It is one way I have heard it preached.  Or is there something else going on?  Is this what Jesus does?  Or do we trust that the Son of God was able to accomplish this without victimizing the woman?  That is where I come down.  Jesus does not do that kind of thing and there would have to be compelling evidence to consider it.

            Here is something to consider, why Tyre and Sidon?  Why did Jesus go completely out of the lands in which the Jews lived?  Did he go there to find an ‘outsider’, a victim, on which he could illustrate how defilement comes out of the mouth?  Or was it something else?  Did Jesus take his disciples clear of the lands that politically identified themselves as the House of Israel to show them the truth, that faith defines a member of the House of Israel, not one’s political or cultural affiliation?

            Jesus traveled outside the bounds of his usual stomping grounds for the disciples to see that the power of Jesus was bigger than their own parochial thinking.  Maybe they were bound into the idea that Jesus was there only for the Jews, and not the world.  They needed their eyes opened and their horizons broadened if they were going to effectively carry on the ministry of Jesus.

            In the midst of the Presidential race going on right now, this is a powerful reminder for us to keep our eyes open and our horizons broad to understand who Jesus is here for.  There are going to be a lot of talking heads trying to manipulate our faith by telling us Jesus only fits their mold of what is right and wrong.  There is going to be a lot of defilement coming out of people’s mouths as, from their hearts, they are looking for their own victories and if invoking Jesus will fool people into following them, so be it.

            Jesus tells us to listen and understand this problem.  Understand the universality of what defilement is, of what sin is.  Understand that it comes from the heart.  Because to understand that sin is universal is to understand what the work of Jesus is intended to accomplish.  It too is universal.  While the Pharisees, and even the disciples, would have identified the House of Israel as those who followed the right dietary and ceremonial laws of cleanliness to be identified culturally and politically as “Jews”, Jesus opens it up to everyone who speaks sinfully.  For him, the lost sheep he came to save are not from a House of Israel defined as only one group.  For Jesus, the House of Israel includes all God’s children, all the lost sheep.

            And if the disciples did not get that, how could they be expected to carry on the work of Jesus?  Because the work of Jesus is not to identify sinners.  His work is to save sinners.  His work is to be the shepherd to the lost sheep.  His work is to restore the House of Israel to right relationship with God.  And we are all the House of Israel. 

            This is what Jesus wants us to listen to, to understand.  When humans make laws about who are people of faith and who are not, we are in danger of doing as the Pharisees did, cutting people out of the House of Israel.  Paul said “All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.”  All are lost sheep and Jesus has come for them all.  The work of the witnesses to Christ are also inclusive of all people. 

            When we return to our sanctuary, we will see the seal in our stained glass once again.  It says, and I paraphrase, “My heart I offer to You, O Lord.”  We come to the Lord to be healed of all that afflicts us that we, in turn, may bring the love of Christ to those who yet need healing.  This is the promise of our salvation. 

            May we yearn for the opportunity to share the healing love of Jesus Christ today.  Amen.