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| Pietro del Po (Italian, 17th Cent.) |
Now the woman was a gentile, of Syrophoenician origin.
She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the
children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw
it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat
the children’s crumbs.” (Mark
7:26-28)
I
love Starbucks. Seriously. Sometimes I just like to sit in my favorite
Starbucks, savor a grande dark roast, pair it with some pastry, and read a
chapter or two of an Agatha Christie novel. It’s pure heaven. I’m not at home.
I’m not at work. I’m at my own little table where nobody can bother me.
Except
somebody always does.
One
of the baristas or somebody who drops in who knows I’m a pastor will come up to
me and ask me to pray for their cousin or something. I can’t just say, “Sorry.
I’m taking a break now. Could you ask me later?” You see, I never stop being a
pastor because I never stop being a Christian. Anybody else might be able to
say, “Call my office tomorrow and make an appointment.” I can’t. Belief in
Christ and what Our Lord stands for never takes a rest. At least it shouldn’t.
In
the gospel lesson for Pentecost 16, Year B (Mark 7: 24-37) Jesus is actually
trying to put a little distance between himself and a hurting humanity. The
Church has always taught that Jesus was fully God, but we sometimes forget he
was fully human, too. Here he is up around Tyre, which was the stomping
ground of the old Philistines[i]. Nobody up there was supposed
to know about him since they were all a different religion and nationality. It
would be like Taylor Swift going to some tiny island in the Indian Ocean to get
away from her fans.[ii]
But—wouldn’t you know it?—along comes this foreign chick who has actually heard
of Jesus and she’s got a demonically possessed daughter. What’s the Savior to
do?
(By
the way, it’s not that uncommon to have a demonically possessed child, is it? She
could be hooked on meth or she spends like a Kardashian or she binge eats and
then barfs or she’s just brought home a loser boyfriend with a neck tattoo whom
she says she loves. There are lots of demons that can attack our children and
if one ever gets your child, you’ll do anything to rescue her. I’m just saying.)
What’s
really troubling about this particular Bible tale is Jesus’ reaction. He
actually tries to send this worried and hurting mom away. It seems he’s telling
her that, since she’s not Jewish, she and her wacky kid aren’t entitled to any
compassion. Exorcising the demon from this girl, he says, is like throwing
children’s food to dogs—and “dogs,” in the world of this text, was not a
compliment. He’s basically said, “Go away, bitch. You’re not deserving of
compassion.”
So,
what are we to make of this? It doesn’t sound like the Jesus we know and love,
does it? You’ve got to ask why Mark included this remark in his gospel. Was
Jesus trying to test the woman? If so, that’s almost as cruel as dismissing
her. What if she took him at his word and went away? Her daughter would still be
sick and hopeless. Or, what if Jesus, being fully human, was echoing the party
line of his place and time and intentionally keeping apart from gentiles? I
like that explanation better. That would mean the woman’s plea for compassion—noting
that compassion is even shown to dogs—had moved Jesus and changed his
thinking. He was deeply touched by what she had to say. It opened his thinking
and caused him to open his ministry to Jews and gentiles alike.
But
let’s not move away too fast from Jesus’ shocking insult to this poor mother.
Calling her a “dog” was to call her less than human.[iii] We should take time to
consider how often we dehumanize others whom we find “not like us” or “undeserving.”
We can so easily relegate immigrants, refugees, the homeless, or welfare recipients
to the status of “those people.” Former President Trump has openly referred to
those seeking refuge at the southern border of the United States as “animals.”[iv]It is the nature of all
human conflict to see other people as subhuman. This way we need not consider
they are children made in the image of God just as we. We can kill them or
starve them as we please without troubling our conscience—and it all begins
with the words we use to describe them.
As
I stated above, I believe this moment in Mark’s narrative is another turning
point in Jesus’ ministry. It’s similar to his baptism, the call of the twelve
disciples, and the journey to and entry into Jerusalem which begins the last
chapter of his earthly life. This is the moment when he shows us that we all are
God’s Chosen People. The miraculous healing of the deaf mute which follows reinforces
this new ministry focus. If Jesus left Tyre by way of Sidon (v. 31), he would
still be in gentile territory. His encounter with this unfortunate foreign
fellow is even more poignant than the exorcism he’s just performed. He only
phoned in the healing of the possessed daughter. Now he actually touches
the unclean gentile who needs his help. There’s a moment of personal intimacy
when he tells the man to “be opened.”
Maybe
that’s what Jesus is also telling us. We are to open our ears and really listen
to one another. And we are to let our tongues speak truly and not carelessly,
remembering God’s love and desire for healing and wholeness are for everyone.
Let’s
all try to be a little more open this week, okay? Thank you for taking these
moments with me. Feel free to leave me a comment, and please come again.
[i] You
remember them? They were the bad guys in much of the Old Testament.
[ii]
Assuming, of course, that there exists such a place that’s never heard of Taylor
Swift.
[iii]
That is, in the world of the text. I sometimes think my dog is slightly more
than human. But that’s just me.
[iv]
See this link: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/16/trump-immigrants-animals-mexico-democrats-sanctuary-cities/617252002/
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