Aug 24 | “She persisted,” (Sermon, August 20th 2017)

“Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them, ‘Listen and understand: ¹¹it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.’ ¹²Then the disciples approached and said to him, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees took offence when they heard what you said?’ ¹³He answered, ‘Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. ¹⁴Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.’ ¹⁵But Peter said to him, ‘Explain this parable to us.’ ¹⁶Then he said, ‘Are you also still without understanding? ¹⁷Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? ¹⁸But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. ¹⁹For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. ²⁰These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.’

21 Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. ²²Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’ ²³But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’ ²⁴He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ ²⁵But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ ²⁶He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ ²⁷She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ ²⁸Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.”

Matthew 15: 10-28

Yesterday my husband Paul and I attended a counter protest at City Hall. It was in opposition to a proposed rally by several odious far right Canadian groups known for spreading Islamophobia, racism, and anti-immigration fear.

Paul and I have been to protests together before, but this was the first one I had ever been to where I felt apprehensive about my safety and the safety of others. The terrible events of Charlottesville obviously loomed large over our week.

Thankfully, the ratio of protestors to counter-protestors was about 500 to 1. We were proud of the huge turnout, and the diversity of those we saw. In this one place, I ran into people I knew from university, people I knew from church, and people I knew from the Goth club I go to.

Despite their small numbers at this wonderful display of support for diversity and hospitality, we know that there are many people in our country who share in these intolerant beliefs. Some are vocal and some seethe beneath the surface, and some don’t even realize that their beliefs are dangerous. But they are. We know this personally, and I know that many of us try our best to repudiate it when we see it.

That’s probably why this is such an uncomfortable Gospel story, isn’t it? There are two versions of it, one in Matthew and one in Mark, and in the Mark version it’s easier to be sympathetic to Jesus, because he is just trying to get some alone time. But in the Matthew story, he actively ignores the woman, which he doesn’t do in Mark, and only engages when the disciples whinge about how annoying she is.

Notice that the woman calls him “Lord, Son of David.” Jesus and the disciples have travelled into foreign territory and are among the Gentiles. And this isn’t just any woman. This is a Canaanite. One source I consulted for this sermon explained that the word Canaanite was not in common usage during Matthew’s time anymore. ‘Canaanite’ was chosen deliberately, to make sure the hearers of this story understood that this woman was an Other, a historical enemy of Israel.

So how does she know who Jesus is – not just a healer, but the Messiah, which is what Son of David implies – when even the disciples haven’t quite figured that out yet?

How does this no account Canaanite understand what the inner circle do not?

It is often the oppressed who recognize God the fastest.

There’s a very interesting dynamic at play here when you consider the interaction between Jesus and this woman. They are both from underclasses, both brown, both poor, both uneducated. There is much that unites them, and yet their shared history is a barrier. But it’s not just shared history that divides them. They live in occupied territory, and Empires run on division.

Jesus was not immune. We’re Anglicans, so we believe he was fully incarnate. That means that he was subject to the same assumptions that we make. He too was subject to Empire. Unlike Paul he was not a Roman citizen who could access the privileges of that station. We know this because he was crucified. Roman citizens were never crucified. Crucifixion was for occupied backwater upstarts like Jesus and Peter. Crucifixion was for troublemakers.

Empires run by first finding ways to make us feel small. It could be something like making it impossible to escape the crushing poverty and drug addiction all around you. It could be bankrolling media that constantly scream about a rainbow of threats to make you feel hyper-aroused, constantly triggered into fight or flight.

It doesn’t matter if the threats are real or not. What matters is that the subjects believe that they are.

The best tools of Empire involve pushing a narrative of how the world works. Once, we believed that our station in life was divinely ordained. This is connected to “just-world theory,” which posits that every event in a person’s life, good or bad, is justified somehow. This can be empowering for some, but for others it simply calcifies their belief that everyone deserves exactly what they get. Flowing out of this is the newer narrative that you can transcend your station in life if you just try hard enough, which is even more pervasive because sometimes it does happen, and when it does it gets a lot of press.

As long as we believe that success is solely determined by grit and not also dependent on who we know, what we look like, and sheer luck, we will continue to happily enforce those divisions.

Empires encourage this because they cannot run without it. In-fighting between people of different colours or castes or creeds in all places may have roots in past divisions, but it is always encouraged by the ruling class, because they know that if marginalized groups come together, they will have a problem. So we argue about who is more oppressed, and the Empire continues to run.

Like an old anti-fascist film put quite elegantly: “We human beings are not born with prejudices. Always they are made for us. Made by someone who wants something.”

God knows this. Maybe that’s why She sent this woman to Jesus.

In the Book of Joshua we read that the Canaanites were living on the land when they were violently displaced by the Israelites. Jesus and the woman were ancient enemies because of battles that happened centuries before they were born. And yet she recognizes him as the Messiah. The disciples had to witness miracles and watch Jesus walk on water before they would call him the Son of God. Peter doesn’t even use the term ‘Messiah’ until several verses on. This woman, who lived so far from Jesus’ stomping grounds that it’s amazing she even heard of him, knows who he is immediately, bowing and kicking up a fuss in flagrant disregard for the norms of communication between men and women of her time. She’s alone, which is already suspect, and yelling at a strange man. What is the world coming to? Subtext, what would you expect from a Canaanite?

But she will not be silenced by ignorance or by the nasty name that Jesus calls her. It’s not a playful moment. It’s not a compliment or a term of endearment. She’s not a puppy. She’s a scavenger, a cur, a female dog.

Not one of Jesus’ best moments.

But she’s too smart to let him off the hook, to give up and abandon him to his prejudice. This woman’s a hell of a theologian. She should be the patron saint of everyone who has ever said, “Oh, I can’t do theology.” Everyone does, and everyone can.

She gives him a quip to end all quips – pointed, but not rude. “Even dogs eat the crumbs from the children’s table.”

And he responds, “Woman, great is your faith.”

Take a moment to contrast that with the passage we heard last week: “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

That’s Peter, the rock of the church, he’s talking to! “You of little faith!”

And this Canaanite dog: “Great is your faith.”

It’s a cryptic statement. But for our purposes today, let’s say she earned it because “she persisted.”

And that’s not even the most beautiful part of the story.

After granting her request, Jesus goes among the Gentiles, and does another miraculous feeding. The numbers here – 4,000 people, seven baskets – make it clear that this is a spiritual repetition of the earlier miracle, whose numbers – 5,000 people, twelve baskets – represented the Israelites. 4,000 and seven are Gentile numbers in the ancient Jewish mind: four directions, seven nations.

She changed his mind. He granted her request – and then he did her one better. This one person changed his mind about entire nations, entire peoples.

In a world where we are so often pitted against one another, in a world where it can be so much easier to fear than to love:

Let her persistence be ours in our interactions with those who would wish us harm.

Let her conviction that the one who turned her away may still bring healing and wholeness be ours as we affirm the presence of Christ in every living soul.