Body

Trinity 12/Proper 15 Matthew 15:10-28

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11 What goes into a man's mouth does not make him `unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him `unclean.' " 12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?" 13 He replied, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit." 15 Peter said, "Explain the parable to us." 16 "Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them. 17 "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man `unclean.' 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what make a man `unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him `unclean.' " 21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession." 23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." 24 He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." 25 The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said. 26 He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." 27 "Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." 28 Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

There are two sermons on this page...

In today's reading we have a contrast.

We have the Pharisees who were the religious leaders of God's people but spiritually blind. They refused to recognise who Jesus is. They thought that their religion would put them right with God. Jesus had just called them hypocrites, verse 7. He said that what is important is what is in your heart.

We then have a woman who is a foreigner, yet she can see, very clearly. She sees who Jesus is and trust in Him.

Jesus had travelled over 30 miles to the area of Tyre and Sidon to get away from the confrontation with the Pharisees. This was Gentile, or non-Jewish territory.

22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession."

The woman is a Gentile and a Canaanite, old fashioned term, they were enemies of the Jews in the Promised Land. Matthew's Jewish readership would understand this term. She continually cries out kurios - Greek. Lord - a word of respect rather than divinity.

She also calls Jesus 'Son of David' a Messianic title. At the start of his gospel Matthew had established that Jesus was the Messiah through the Old Testament. Jesus was a Jew, the son of Abraham, and also a king, the son of David.

This shows an understanding of who Jesus is. An understanding that the Pharisees did not have even though they studied the O.T. which points to Jesus as the Messiah. Illustrates the blind leading the blind.

The disciples wanted peace, so they asked Jesus to send her away.

We saw recently Jesus' compassion to heal the sick and feeding 5,000. Yet he appears cold and hard to the woman, even insulting, calling her a dog! We need to realise that God sent Jesus first to his people, the Jews whom he had chosen. They had to reject Jesus before the gospel was offered freely to the Gentiles.

24 He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." 25 The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said. 26 He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

Bread = the gospel. Children = Jews. Dogs = Gentiles, term of abuse used by Jews of the Gentiles. Said tongue in cheek by Jesus.

27 "Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."

Woman also tongue in cheek, shows a deep understanding of the issues involved, and a quick mind to reply. She was saying that the primary purpose of eating is to feed humans, but that does not mean that the domestic dogs who hung around nearby should not receive what was not wanted by the humans. So Jesus' primary purpose was to come to save the Jews but this did not mean that he could not help a Gentile with the "left overs". After all, the Pharisees didn't want Him! Jesus then praises her with the highest praise reserved for anyone, Jew or Gentile, in the gospels.

28 Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

Jesus rewards her persistence and her perception by delivering her daughter, at a distance, from the evil spirit. This shows the power that Jesus has over evil, even if he is not physically present.

"You have great faith". Imagine facing Jesus on judgment day and him saying to you, "You have great faith." Wouldn't that be wonderful? It would make up for the times when you were rejected or faced difficult situations for your faith. It would also mean that you could look forward to eternity in Paradise with Jesus forever with no more suffering, pain, death disease, infirmity, or sorrow. But love, joy, and peace. Worshipping God perfectly forever.

What do we need to do for this to happen?

Like the woman,

1) Acknowledge who Jesus is.

He is God and man. He is perfect and showed and taught us how to live. He died for us on the cross. He rose again to give life to those who follow Him.

2) Realise that we need Him.

He is the only way to God. This involves humility...

As we say in the Holy Communion service;

We do not presume

to come to this your table, merciful Lord,

trusting in our own righteousness,

but in your manifold and great mercies.

We are not worthy

so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table.

But you are the same Lord

whose nature is always to have mercy.

3) Trust Him.

The woman kept on trusting in Jesus even when He appeared reluctant to deal with her. She kept trusting Him for the healing of her daughter after he had said it and before she could meet her daughter.

Today's reading reminds us that Jesus is for everyone. You may not feel you are good enough. You may not feel that you know enough. That doesn't matter. All you need to do is to come to Jesus in humility. Realising who He is. Realising that you need Him. And trusting Him. That trust is, itself a gift from God. So just come as you are and ask for God to give you the gift of faith in Jesus.

Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

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Once when he was to preach at the University of Sydney in Australia, John Stott lost his voice. He says: "What can you do with a missionary who has no voice? We had come to the last night of the [evangelistic campaign]. The students had booked the big university hall. A group of students gathered around me, and I asked them to pray as Paul did, that this thorn in the flesh might be taken from me. But we went on to pray that if it pleased God to keep me in weakness, I would rejoice in my infirmities in order that the power of Christ might rest upon me.

As it turned out, I had to get within one inch of the microphone just to croak the gospel. I was unable to use any inflection of voice to express my personality. It was just a croak in a monotone, and all the time we were crying to God that his power would be demonstrated in human weakness. Well, I can honestly say that there was a far greater response that night than any other night. I've been back to Australia ten times now, and on every occasion somebody has come up to me and said, "Do you remember that night when you lost your voice? I was converted that night."

There is a danger of thinking that God will only work in the way that we expect. Perhaps we would expect him to work in multi-media presentations, dance, drama, emotive music. But God uses a hoarse person croaking out the gospel to bring many people to faith.

In today's reading we have a contrast between the Pharisees and the Canaanite woman.

To the disciples the Pharisees were in the religious Premier League. They were born Jews, circumcised on the eighth day, went to all the religious ceremonies, studied the law full-time, and sought to follow all the laws. Two parts, written law, Torah, & oral law, teaching that had built up since which was not directly from God.

Many of us parents will go, or have gone through the ritual of getting children to wash their hands before a meal ! The Pharisees had just criticised the disciples for not washing their hands, which was part of their oral law. This did not mean that the disciples hands were necessarily filthy. The cleaning was ceremonial, with regulations such as how much water was poured onto each hand. Jesus had defended the disciples and called the Pharisees hypocrites because, although they claimed to adhere to the law, their hearts were self-centred and full of pride.

The O.T. law was supposed to show how the people of God should behave in response to his mercy to them. Instead the Pharisees used the law to try and earn God's favour by their so-called good behaviour. The law points to our sin, the Pharisees thought it showed their righteousness.

When the disciples were frightened that Jesus had offended the Pharisees he first compared them to an unwanted plant that would be uprooted by God the Father. Then Jesus said that they were like blind men leading one another towards a painful destination. We are probably so familiar with this expression that we miss the humour of Jesus. Perhaps it would help to picture two blind men pulling one another this way then the other, each trying to persuade the other that they know the best route before falling into a ditch!

Jesus goes on to explain that hands that have not been washed will not make you unclean in God's sight. Such uncleanness goes into the stomach and ends up in the sewer.

Jesus points to an uncleanness that comes from within someone and he lists them, verse 19, evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

Even if someone had filthy hands, ate food and was ill this would only last a relatively short time. Jesus was talking about an uncleanness that lasts into eternity. It is about what is inside us and comes out, not what is outside us and comes in ! So what separates us from God is following our own desires rather than obeying God's ways.

The way to do this is not in our own strength which leads to pride, and egotism. We are to rely on God which involves humility and dependence upon the Holy Spirit.

Sign seen in a textile mill, "When your thread becomes tangled, call the foreman." A young woman was new on the job. Her thread became tangled and she thought, "I'll just straighten this out myself." She tried, but the situation only worsened. Finally she called the foreman. "I did the best I could," she said. "No you didn't. To do the best, you should have called me."

So in the first half of the reading we have discovered that religion, living life to a certain code, does not put us right with God. Being a member of a certain race does not put us right with God. Being well-schooled, and having status in society is not enough.

The second part of the reading featured someone who went against all the expectations of what puts someone right with God, yet she is accepted by Jesus.

Jesus had travelled over 30 miles to the area of Tyre and Sidon to get away from the confrontation with the Pharisees. This was Gentile, or non-Jewish territory.

22A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession."

The woman is a Gentile and a Canaanite, an old fashioned term, they were enemies of the Jews in the Promised Land. Matthew's Jewish readership would understand this term.

She continually cries out - Greek. Lord - a word of respect rather than divinity.

The disciples wanted peace, so they asked Jesus to send her away.

We saw recently Jesus' compassion to heal the sick and feeding 5,000. Yet he appears cold and hard to the woman, even insulting, calling her a dog! We need to realize that God sent Jesus first to his people, the Jews whom he had chosen. They had to reject Jesus before the gospel was offered freely to the Gentiles.

Bread = the gospel. Children = Jews. Dogs = Gentiles, term of abuse used by Jews of the Gentiles. Said tongue in cheek by Jesus.

27 "Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Our cat hangs around our table and hoovers up what is left, especially under Chloe's high chair !

Jesus praises her with the highest praise reserved for anyone, Jew or Gentile, in the gospels.

28 Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

Jesus rewards her persistence and her perception by delivering her daughter, at a distance, from the evil spirit. This shows the power that Jesus has over evil, even if he is not physically present.

Karl Barth was lecturing to a group of students at Princeton. One student asked the German theologian "Sir, don't you think that God has revealed himself in other religions and not only in Christianity?" Barth's answer stunned the crowd. With a modest thunder he answered, "No, God has not revealed himself in any religion, including Christianity. He has revealed himself in his Son."
Today's reading is about what a follower of Jesus is like.

Religious ? so are people of other religions or those who live their life according to a certain code.

Believe in God ? So did Pharisees yet Jesus said they would be condemned by God.

Educated ? so are many theologians who would never want to be labelled 'Christian'.

Race ? If you look at many paintings and pictures of Jesus he is very white and European, reflecting the culture of the artists. Jesus was Jewish and olive brown ! Majority of Jesus' followers today are not white European. Places where the gospel is spreading the most today include Africa and Korea.

What does make someone a Christian is to recognize who Jesus is. The Messiah who died in our place on the cross. Something we celebrate and proclaim in this service. We need to radically trust in him every day with the persistence of the unnamed woman in today's reading

A television program preceding the 1988 Winter Olympics featured blind skiers being trained for slalom skiing, impossible as that sounds. Paired with sighted skiers, the blind skiers were taught on the flats how to make right and left turns. When that was mastered, they were taken to the slalom slope, where their sighted partners skied beside them shouting, "Left!" and "Right!" As they obeyed the commands, they were able to negotiate the course and cross the finish line, depending solely on the sighted skiers' word. It was either complete trust or catastrophe.

What a vivid picture of the Christian life! In this world, we are in reality blind about what course to take. We must rely solely on the Word of the only One who is truly sighted - God Himself. His Word gives us the direction we need to finish the course.

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