Going to the Dogs

Delivered July 17, 2011

Matthew 15:21-28; Isaiah 56:9-12

There are a lot of legends about Jesus traveling outside of Israel. There are stories about Jesus in India, Jesus in Tibet, Jesus in Nepal. There are even stories about Jesus in America. But there is no historical evidence for any of these accounts. They are just ways that other religious traditions try to claim Jesus for themselves. Jesus was a Jew who lived all his life in the Middle East. There are no so-called “lost years of Jesus” between the ages of 12 and 30. That is when these legends say that Jesus did all this globetrotting. The reason why the gospels are silent about what Jesus was doing between the ages of 12 and 30 was that it was boring. He was just living an ordinary life in Nazareth. Except for when Jesus was a child and lived in Egypt for a couple of years with his parents, Jesus never traveled outside of Palestine. He did take brief excursions just beyond the borders of what we call Israel today, into what is now the Golan Heights, and Jordan and Lebanon. Our story is one of those times. I am going to go through this story in four sections.

I. First a woman approaches Jesus – verses 21-23. Our story opens, “Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon.” Ancient Tyre and Sidon are in territory of what is now Lebanon. There he meets a “woman of Canaan.” That is a very general term. Mark’s account of this same story is more specific. He says, “The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth.” She is from that area. She is not a Jew, yet she seeks out this Jewish preacher. The story says, “and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.” ²³ But He answered her not a word.”

This story is fascinating to me because it dispels one of those myths that we have about Jesus. Sunday school lessons and Hollywood films both picture Jesus as one of those kind, gentle souls who is always polite and nice to everybody. Anyone who thinks this is true has never read the New Testament. Here is one of those times when a woman comes to Jesus, and he ignores her internationally. She comes to him with a serious need about her ill daughter, and Jesus won’t give her the time of day. At one point in my ministry many years ago, a woman got very angry at me because she said I ignored her as she was going out of church. I did not intentionally ignore her. You know the way it is at the church steps. Sometimes I get caught up talking to someone and do not get a chance to talk to someone else. But this woman said that I refused to shake her hand, and that I was intentionally snubbing her. I don’t do things like that, but Jesus did. Jesus intentionally ignored this woman. She cried out for help, and Jesus acted like she wasn’t even there.

Have you ever felt like God was ignoring you? I have had many people tell me they feel exactly like this. They cry out to God in distress over some very serious problem in their lives. They cry out for healing for a beloved family member (just like this Syro-Phoenician woman did) and they feel like they were treated exactly like this woman was treated. There was no answer from God, only steely silence, as if God didn’t hear or didn’t care. That is what seems to be the case in our lives sometimes. That is what seems to be the case here in this story.

II. The story goes on in verses 23-24. Now the disciples come into the story. It is clear that this woman did not just ask one time for Jesus to help. She was crying out over and over again. She was following Jesus and the disciples, and she wouldn’t shut up. She wouldn’t stop, and yet Jesus wouldn’t even acknowledge her presence. Finally the disciples could not take her incessant begging any more. It says, “And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.” ²⁴ But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” In other words, Jesus was saying that He was a Jew who was sent to the Jews. He would have nothing to do with this Canaanite woman.

So we have Jesus ignoring her, the disciples wishing she would go away, and then Jesus saying that she was not his responsibility. He was sent by the God of Israel to be the Jewish Messiah to the Jewish people. Forget this Gentile; he wants nothing to do with her. This sounds almost bigoted, and it keeps getting worse, as we will see in a minute. Jesus starts calling her names. The whole incident is very disturbing. This doesn’t really fit our picture of Jesus at all. He doesn’t seem very Christian here.

But this story is put here to address all those times when people don’t think that God acts very nice. Earlier in the winter I preached about the New Atheism. There is a very militant aggressive form of atheism on the rise today, which makes the claim that the God of the Bible is not a very nice fellow. Christopher Hitchens wrote a book a few years ago entitled: “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.” That is preety clear. He says that the biblical God hates gays, and commits genocide, and endorses slavery, subjugates women, and so on. In his book entitled “The God Delusion, atheist Richard Dawkins puts it this way, "The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully." Don’t hold back, Richard. Tell us how you really feel!

We would not go that far (I hope) but there have been many times when good faithful Christians confess to me that it seems that God is not listening, is not acting, and does not seem to care. That is exactly the point that is being addressed in this story. If you have ever felt like your prayers have been bouncing off the ceiling, then this story is for you. This woman was repeatedly crying out to Jesus for help, and Jesus completely ignored her; his disciples wished that she would just shut up and go away. Sometimes churches wish that people would just be quiet when they raise these disturbing issues about the seeming silence of God, when God is not answering prayer. Churches are often uncomfortable with raising the issue of the suffering of the innocent and the seemingly unjust behavior of God in the Bible. These are tough issues raised by tough people, and too often Christians wish they would just be quiet so we get on with singing hymns and having potluck suppers. I don’t want those issues to go away. I want them front and center. I read this story and I am cheering for the woman. I want her to keep pestering Jesus and those disciples until she gets an answer. That is what happens.

III. In the third section of this passage, verses 25-26, the woman persists. “Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” ²⁶ But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”  This is uncomfortable. Here is Jesus referring to her as a dog. You have to understand that in the Bible, dogs are not man’s best friend. Dogs are always pictured negatively in the Bible. That is why we heard the passage from Isaiah as our OT reading, as an example of how the word “dogs” is used in the Bible. I know that doesn’t sit well with dog-lovers. We even have a dog that comes to church regularly. Cindy’s dog Sebastian is one of the most faithful attenders of the Federated Church. I see Sabastian as the church mascot. There is a joke I have to tell here.

A woman had a dog that she loved. She lived alone in the country and her dog was her constant companion. Finally after many years the dog was nearing the end of his life. The woman came to her pastor and asked him to baptize her dog before he died. The Baptist preacher said that he could not possibly baptize a dog. The woman pleaded with her pastor, saying she wanted to make sure that the dog was with her in heaven and therefore she wanted him baptized. But the pastor insisted that he could not baptize animals. She said, “I will write out a $50,000 check to the church right now if you will baptize my dog.” The preacher immediately replied, “Why didn't you tell me your dog was a Baptist?"

The woman in our scripture text says to Christ, “Lord, help me!” ²⁶ But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”  I think it is interesting that he uses the phrase “little dogs” – puppies. I am not a dog owner. I don’t dislike them. I just have never had one. We have always had cats. But puppies are different. One time Jude and I were at a mall and wandered into the pet store. In that pet store they had puppies. Specifically they had Saint Bernard puppies. Like I said, I am not a dog person. The idea of following a dog around on a leash picking up dog poop is not my idea of fun. But when I saw those Saint Bernard puppies, my hard heart melted. And when I picked him up, I was hooked.  I almost bought that puppy. The only reason I didn’t is because my wife Jude kept reminding me that that little puppy would turn into a huge dog, and I would be picking up huge dog poops.

IV. Back to the story. The woman cries out for help, and Jesus says, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”  This is meant to discourage her. You start calling a person names and you expect that person to get mad and leave. But this woman does not leave. She persists. Verse 27  “And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” I want you to see the point here. The point is the persistence of the woman in the face of adversity of all types. In the face of being ignored by Jesus, rejected by his followers, being called names, being told that she because she was a Gentile she was no better than a dog, and that Jesus did not come for her. In spite of all that opposition and resistance, she persevered.

This type of perseverance is exactly what is needed today. We live in an age of spiritual pampering. People come to church expecting to be catered to, to have their needs met, to have everything exactly the way they want it. The music needs to be the way they like it and the preacher better be interesting, and his theology better be pretty much in keeping with theirs and there better be programs for everyone in their family. The biggest and most successful churches today are those that are called “seeker-sensitive.” What that means is that they find out what people want and they give it to them. It is consumer driven religious marketplace these days. Church is seen as a business, and the customer is always right.

Unfortunately that is not the way life is. Bill Gates is reported to have given a graduation address at a high school where he put forth 11 rules for life. I think it is an urban legend, but whether or not he actually said it, it is still true. The first rule is: “Life is not fair -- get used to it!” That is certainly true of the spiritual life. Think of it. The symbol and centerpiece of our faith is a man being crucified. That is not fair! He did not do anything wrong, yet he was arrested, tortured and executed. Life is not fair. Get used to it. The life of faith is not fair. Faith is not about having everything go your way. It is not about things working out the way you think they should. Evil happens. Suffering happens. Injustice happens.

Many people, including and maybe especially Christians, expect to be pampered by God. They think they deserve special treatment. They expect God to work things out according to what they think is right. And if God doesn’t comply, they get upset with the Lord. Then they won’t worship God or serve him, and won’t have anything to do with church and may even not believe in God any longer. I can’t tell you how many times people have told me that they used to be part of a church, but this happened or that happened or things didn’t happen, and therefore they have nothing to do with religion anymore. The woman in our story had everything go wrong, and it was still going wrong, and yet it says that she worshipped Jesus, and called him Lord.  Verse 25 says, “Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” Verse 27, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” The whole point of this passage is to present us with a model of a woman with tough faith, who does not shrink or back down when she is ignored or rejected or even when called names.

Jesus calls this “great faith.” Verse 28 “Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.” This woman’s daughter was healed. This doesn’t mean that if you follow this woman’s example then your daughter will be healed, or your prayers will always be answered the way you want. This is not a formula on how to manipulate God into doing your will. Faith is not magical thinking – that if you do this and that ritual or say these words in the right combination and add the magic words “in Jesus’ name Amen” - then presto, you get what you want. This is teaching us that faith is persevering in all circumstances. The outcome is always in God’s hands, not ours. This woman’s daughter was healed. That does not mean that all faithful women’s daughters are always healed. It means that whether there is healing or not, faith perseveres. In this case Jesus healed. I can’t prove it from the story (and I might be wrong) but I suspect Jesus always was going to heal this woman’s daughter. From the first time she asked him, I think he had decided to heal her. But he wanted to do more than just a physical healing. He wanted to teach his disciples by this woman’s example what it means to have great faith. And that anybody of any background anywhere can have that faith. That is why he stepped over the border of Israel and had this encounter with this great woman of great faith.