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Jesus and ‘Those People’

The Rev. Thomas W. Simmons

Last week Tait, the boys and I visited the Clarke County Fair. It’s a great place for people watching, which I love to do.  You get to see your neighbors – all of them.  Folks you don’t ordinarily see are out there in full force. 

As I people watched on Thursday I kept wondering what it would be like if some of those people showed up at church this morning and sat in YOUR pew.  A lot of them didn’t look like Episcopalians, if you know what I mean. 

I imagined them coming down the aisle for communion with every eye in the house following them, wondering why they are wearing THAT, wondering why they are HERE.  Some of us might be a little nervous about them visiting and, though we wouldn’t admit it, some would prefer they didn’t come back.

It is a natural response.  We all prefer to rub elbows with people like ourselves: nice-looking, well educated, stylish, reasonably well off, polite, well groomed, witty, with well-behaved children. That’s us right!?  Well, there are a lot of people in the world who just wouldn’t fit in here.  That’s the way all groups of people are.  They are affinity groups, even – lo and behold – churches.

We see that in our Gospel lesson this morning.  In Jesus’ day Israel was one of the most insular affinity groups in history.  Their identity as God’s chosen people was very exclusive and it had been for nearly 2000 years for two crucial reasons.

First, God wanted a people among whom he could dwell.  To do that the people must be holy, unlike the rest of the world. All the laws and restrictions of the Torah shaped a culture of holiness for the people of Israel so the Most Holy could dwell in their midst. 

Second, God intended to save the world through Israel. This nation, kept pure by the law and protected by the presence of God, would one day bring forth the Messiah to redeem not only Israel but all the nations – you know, “those people” – from the curse of sin and death. Our Psalm expresses that messianic hope, “Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the nations praise you.”

But the longer Israel waited for Messiah, the dimmer their vision of his coming became.  The exclusivity with which God intended to keep Israel holy and preserve the Messianic line gradually morphed into a towering arrogance, condescension, contempt and close-mindedness toward outsiders. 

This attitude is reflected in Jesus’ words to the Canaanite woman as he quotes a common Jewish saying about feeding the children’s food to the dogs. This is how Israelites viewed Gentiles, as dogs, unclean scavengers and predators.

In our story Matthew confronts this insularity and prepares us for a whole new way of looking at Jews and Gentiles in relationship to God.  We see it in the exchange between the Canaanite woman, Jesus and the disciples.  Let’s look briefly at each of these characters.

First there is the woman.  She is one of “those people”: a Canaanite, a Gentile outside of God’s covenant with Israel, a “dog.” The people of Israel had expelled the Canaanites from Palestine 1400 years earlier because their idolatry, immorality and uncleanness polluted God’s Holy Land.

But here’s a Canaanite in desperate need of help for her demon-possessed daughter. She knows Jesus can help and is convinced that she, though a Gentile, has a claim to God’s mercy and grace.  “Even the dogs,” she argues, get some crumbs from the table. 

Like the movie dad John Q, played by Denzel Washington, fighting to get a heart transplant for his son, this woman will not take no for an answer.  She doesn’t care if she has to beg, be a nuisance or abase herself.  She will do what she can to get her daughter is healed. And that’s a good thing because she has a lot to overcome in appealing to Jesus for help.

Jesus appears indifferent – which is troubling to us. But when viewed in context I think we can understand why.  Jesus is just plain worn out. Like everyone else, Jesus needs some time away from work – a little “Jesus time.”  You know how it is. I just had a much-needed week at the beach sleeping to the sound of the waves, cracking open a mid-afternoon beer every day, watching movies and swimming in the rough surf.

In our lessons for the last couple of weeks Jesus was after the ancient near eastern equivalent.  But the crowds keep following him, so he has to feed the 5000.  He sends the disciples away on a boat but must race to their rescue from the storm. He figures he can escape by taking an international vacation to Tyre and Sidon.  But no! Before long this frantic woman is following him. 

He was moved with compassion for the Israelite crowds back in Galilee, but this woman is a Canaanite .  As he says, his mission at this point is to redeem “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  But all that is about to change.  This Canaanite woman has her foot in the door and before long it will fly open for all the world to enter.

But alas, there are the disciples trying to keep it closed.  It’s typical of them. They were into turning “those people” away. They did with the hungry crowds, the children coming to be blessed, the woman with the flow of blood and now this Canaanite woman. 

The disciples constitute what bishop Mark MacDonald of Alaska calls the “duh-zone” – as in duh-ciple. He says, “If you followed Jesus around with a skycam you’d see that he has a select group continually around him, a circle of people, a buffer.”  The disciples viewed themselves as Jesus’ entourage, his posse, to protect him from “those people”. The only way to gain access was to shout past them, like the Canaanite woman.

The duh-ciples consistently underestimate the intentions of Jesus and the potential of the situation .  In the duh-zone they are more concerned with the deep questions of life: when do we eat, who’s in charge, why are you talking to that woman. Bishop MacDonald says, “The nearer you get to Jesus it seems the dumber they get.”  

Unfortunately, it is still true. The duh-zone still exists and many of us are the proud protectors of it.  Many of us have become so comfortably ensconced in our pews that we have forgotten what it is like to not know God, to be on the outside, to be one of “those people.” We have lost our compassion for them. 

As a result, many churches have become ingrown, like a toenail turned inward.  Like the duh-ciples they are focused on the “deep questions” of life. Visitors come and go.  Some stick around when they are able to fit in with the duh-zone way of doing things, but if not, that’s fine. They’ll go somewhere else, like the disciples were hoping the Canaanite woman would.

But you know what? Jesus finds in this Canaanite woman the faith he was hoping to find in Israel .  In Matthew’s narrative Jesus’ mercy to this woman foreshadows an epochal realignment of the people of God when the ancient doors of salvation were thrown open and even the most despised people are invited to enter. 

That’s why we who once would have been considered Gentile dogs are now worshipping the God of Israel. This despised woman’s persistent faith was the foot in the door for all of us.

Remember that when you’re tempted to fear or despise “those people” on the outside, whoever they may be. The doors of salvation are opened wider than you might think and Jesus is looking for faith where he can find it – even among “those people.” He is very interested in them and we should be, too.

And for those of us in the duh-zone Matthew’s story of Jesus’ vacation in the land of Tyre and Sidon reminds us not be like the duh-ciples who consistently underestimate the intentions of Jesus and the potential of the situation.  Let’s remember that God “can do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we can ask or imagine” and YOU are living proof of it.  Jesus is offering this same salvation to everyone.  AMEN