Sermon on Matthew15:10-28
Pastor Jennifer Garcia
As I’ve been reading article after article for the past couple months about the cyclospora outbreak, adjusting my produce buying habits and avoiding lettuce at restaurants, I’m not sure I agree with Jesus that what goes into the mouth doesn’t defile a person—at least on a literal level.
Jesus, of course, was talking on a spiritual level, though—saying that people should be more careful with the words they say than withobserving the intricacies of ritual. It goes along with Jesus’ teachings on not judging each other, like Jesus was saying to the religious leaders who were complaining: “Stop worrying so much about whether my disciples have observed the hand-washing rituals and pay attention instead to whether or not you’re hurting people with the way you treat them.”
And then immediately afterward, it seems like Jesus got a chance to practice what he preached. But, at least at first, he didn’t do a great job.
I have a hard time with this story.
Even when I read Jesus’ words as gently as I can and give him grace for maybe being overwhelmed already by his mission to spread the good news of Beloved Community just to his own Jewish siblings, I just can’t shake the feeling that what came out of Jesus’ mouth was defiling. To me, it seems callous, maybe even racist.
The Canaanites were the ones Jesus’ ancestors planned to wipe out so they could settle in their territory, the Promised Land.
So, I can understand Jewish people and Canaanites not getting along very well in the first century. Jesus’ disciples’ reaction of wanting Jesus to send her away is understandable, though not kind or compassionate.
But Jesus’ reaction is no better—ignoring her, comparing people of her heritage to dogs, saying she and her people are less worthy of God’s good gifts.
I don’t like this version of Jesus. I don’t like it when he reflects the prejudices we humans are prone to. I don’t like to see an uncompassionate side of him.
I don’t know what to do with that part of the story. Feel free to share your thoughts with me—I’d love to hear your insights.
What I do appreciate about this story, though, is that Jesus didn’t stay there.
He experienced the banter and exchanging of thoughts present in Jewish rabbinical culture with this woman who was considered so different from him on a social level, and it expanded his perspective.
I won’t go so far as to say she changed his mind, because Jesus knew his scriptures well enough to know thatGod loves the whole world, that the “year of the Lord’s favor” is for everyone, that God’s “house shall be called a house of prayerfor all peoples,” as our Isaiah reading today says.
But Jesus did seem to pivot his mission after this. Early on, he was focused on his Jewish siblings, telling his disciples to only go to Jewish towns as they started to share the good news of the Beloved Community, and spending most of his time in Jewish territory. But the plan was always to expand the scope of that mission to everyone.
An article[1] by Catherine Jones Payne compared this story to the wedding at Cana in the Gospel of John.
Jesus knew he was going to have a public ministry, but when his mom prompted him to help with the crisis of the lack of wine, he told her it wasn’t his time yet. But his mom simply told the servants to follow his instructions, confident that it was his moment to act. And he did, saving the event and foreshadowing the abundance of the eternal banquet of the Reign of God.This encounter with his mother seems to have prompted Jesus to begin his public ministry.
And this encounter with a desperate mother seems to have prompted him to expand his ministry to match his mission more fully.
Payne’s article notes that this interaction came after the feeding of the 5,000, which you all explored with Pastor Jaz a couple weeks ago, and shortly before the feeding of the 4,000.
It seems odd that Jesus would repeat a miracle like this and that the writer of the Gospel of Matthew would think it important enough to include both.
Payne argues, though, that the feeding of the 4,000 was a response to Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman. The crowd in the feeding of the 5,000 was mostly Jewish people, and the feeding of the 4,000 was mostly Gentiles.
While the twelve baskets left over from the feeding of the 5,000 might have symbolized the twelve tribes of Israel, the seven left over from the feeding of the 4,000 may have symbolized the seven nations of Canaan or simply the number of completion. Either way, it seems like there was an expansion of the Beloved Community into Gentile territory from this point on.
Jesus freed the woman’s daughter, he then fed people outside his bubble, and after his resurrection, he commissioned his disciples to make disciples of all nations.No one is excluded from the Beloved Community—not then and not now.
But today, even though we have more access than ever to people around the world and we live in a diverse area, it’s easy to get siloed.
Social media algorithms put us in echo chambers. AI chatbots tend to reinforce whatever we already think. Media companies have their biases. Our neighborhoods tend to be largely one ethnic group or another, even though overall Southern California is a very diverse place. Human beings tend to gravitate toward people we perceive as being similar to us.
Our lives can get small, curated, and biased really easily.
But even though it can be anxiety-inducing to strike up a conversation with someone different from us, those interactions can be incredibly enriching.
Sure, we can learn from books, articles, documentaries, and so on, but hearing people’s stories and perspectives can be one of the most effective ways of broadening our horizons.
In seminary, one of my program requirements was a cross-cultural experience. There were several options, but the only one that fit my schedule was a program all the way in exotic Los Angeles.
I felt silly signing up for a “cross-cultural” experience so close to where I grew up, but I have to tell you: I got to see sides of LA I never had before.
It was coordinated through New City Parish, a coalition of ELCA congregations that joined together in 1992 to respond to civil unrest around the not guilty verdict inthe Rodney King police brutality court case. Their vision was to provide“hope, healing, and support to the community as it began the long process of rebuilding.”[2] And they’re still doing great work together throughout LA.
We stayed with families from those congregations. I got to stay with a family from Belize for a few days and then a Salvadoran family.
We spent time learning Spanish and bits of Mexican culture from teachers from Mexico, visited various historical and cultural sites in LA, and learned from and worshiped with our various host congregations.
For all I thought I knew about LA, I experienced so much on that trip. I learned about my similarities with and differences from my LA neighbors and siblings in Christ. It deepened my love for Southern California. It expanded my understanding of what church can look like and what it means to be Lutheran.
Despite some lingering stereotypes, pupusas are just as Lutheran as Jello salad.No matter what cultural foods we bring to the table, we’re Lutheran because we believe God’s unearned grace is for everyone, and out of gratitude and love for God we can joyfully love our neighbors.
Those neighbors include people of all cultures, skin colors, religions and other beliefs, income levels, housing situations, people with piercings and tattoos and those who get squeamish at the thought, people of all gender identities who love people of all gender identities, people with any nation on their passport and people with no passport, people with any kind of disability or addiction or mental illness—I could go on and on. You get the idea.
For all my issues with Jesus at the beginning of his encounter with the Canaanite woman, maybe the most helpful way to read the story is as a mirror.
In Jesus, I recognize my own biases, discomfort, and fatigue at one more person asking something of him, someone he might have preferred not to cross paths with.
And also in Jesus, I can recognize our human potential to be changed by an encounter with a stranger. It can help us see the world in a new way.
It can help us be generous, giving more than we thought possible, and, maybe more miraculously, being generous to ourselves, giving ourselves grace and allowing ourselves to grow and change.
After all, there is a wideness in God’s mercy, and it’s for everyone, including you.
[1]https://www.catherinejonespayne.com/p/it-is-right-to-give-the-childrens?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=22w6vy&triedRedirect=true