"Is This Church Going To The Dogs?"

Mark 7:24-30 also see Matthew 15:25-28

September 9, 2012 + Rally Sunday

Reverend Dr. David C. Brown
Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ
400 Glenwood Drive, Chattanooga, TN 37404

Excuse me. Did I just hear Jesus calling someone a dog? That doesn’t sound like the Jesus I’ve heard about all my life. Patty, would you please read verse 27 again? (Patty Lane, the Sunday scripture reader, reads the verse again.) So it’s true. Jesus did call her, her daughter and all the other people in that country dogs. Why would Jesus say such a thing? Hold that question as we look at our story together.

Mark tells us Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and have gone north of the Sea of Galilee to a region called the Ten Cities. The people living there are Gentiles. The Jews living in Israel had nothing good to say about them. “They are like a pack of wild dogs. They’re dangerous and every now and then God sends a demon into one of them as a punishment.”

It’s quite clear that Jesus needed some “R and R.” He had become something of a celebrity in his own country. Like celebrities today, everywhere he went he was surrounded by a mob of people wanting something from him. Jesus needed a place where no one knew him and he could find some peace and quiet.

Somehow this Syrophoenician woman heard about Jesus and what he could do. She needed his help … badly. As Matthew tells the story, she burst into the house where Jesus was staying and started shouting at him. “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon!” (Matthew 15:22).

We need to pause here a moment. If you believe that God sends demons into people’s lives then or now, you probably don’t have a problem believing this. I do have a problem. A big problem. The God I believe in does not cruelly punish some people and reward others. A God like that is a monster and I want nothing to do with him. I also do not believe that there is some other power loose in the world, an evil being, whom God permits to hurt and harm people.

What was wrong with this girl? I don’t know and no contemporary biblical scholar does either. Remember, first century people had no idea what caused physical and mental disease. Some scholars suggest that this poor girl had some form of mental illness. It has also been suggested she may have had epilepsy. The bottom line: no one knows what was wrong with her. What we do know is that ancient people believed there were evil spirits in this world that caused every kind of physical and mental disease. If you got too close to someone with a serious physical or mental disease the evil might rub off on you. Those poor suffering people faced rejection by their family, friends, and community. They were cursed by God and nothing could be done about it. But this mother wouldn’t accept that.

She found Jesus and started shouting at him to help her daughter. But at first Jesus doesn’t answer her. At this point Jesus’ disciples try to protect his privacy. They tell her to go away but the woman refused. She kept shouting at Jesus to heal her daughter.

Friends, let’s pause again and remind ourselves that people in great need are not always polite. When your family is hungry, perhaps, even homeless, you don’t always lower your voice and politely ask for help. With so many people in desperate need today you have to shout to get attention. Even then you may be ignored.

Some years ago I participated in a program to help clergy have some idea of what it means to be poverty-stricken. We were sent out one Friday on the mean streets of Chicago with a dollar in our pocket and told to come back on Monday and tell what happened to us. Oh, I forgot to say that all of us were not to wash or shave for the prior week and we should wear the dirtiest clothes we could find. We all survived by panhandling, going to rescue missions, or in a few cases by being given a meal in someone’s home. When we reported back on Monday we had learned that poverty stinks and what you have to do to survive is not just difficult, but degrading, even dangerous. None of us shouted for help but we sure could have. Won’t someone help me?

Finally, Jesus responds, but what he says has shocked Christians for two thousand years. “I wasn’t sent here to help you. My mission is only to the Jewish people.” But the woman keeps begging him to help her daughter. Now comes the really shocking part.  Jesus tells her “The children must be fed first. It’s not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” By “children” Jesus means the Jewish people, the children of Abraham. The “dogs” are the Syrophoenician woman and all her kind. That’s not just a refusal to help; it’s an insult.

But this powerful, determined woman won’t accept Jesus’ rejection. She gives an astonishing response: “Yes, Lord, I understand, but even the dogs get to eat the crumbs that fall off the table.” Isn’t she something? “My daughter and I may be dogs but aren’t we entitled to eat the scraps that fall on the floor?”

Jesus tells her she has given a great answer and promises that when she gets home she’ll find her daughter healed. That is what happened and that is where the story ends, but we are still left with the troubling question: “Did Jesus really intend to insult this woman by calling her a dog?” This is so shocking to our picture of Jesus that over the centuries Christians have tried to soften or explain away his words.

Some suggest Jesus was only making the same claim that he has made before. He believes God has sent him to preach a message of repentance and liberation to his own people, the Jews. But while that is true, Jesus also took time to heal a Roman centurion’s servant, to heal a mentally disturbed man in non-Jewish Gerassa, and to enjoy the company of Samaritans and other Gentiles. Why was Jesus so harsh with this woman?

Scholars point out that the Greek word for “dog” Jesus uses means “pet dogs,” puppies not wild scavenging dogs. Jesus was just being a little playful with the woman before he did what he always intended to do: heal her daughter. That’s clever but I don’t think it’s true.

We simply don’t know what Jesus meant, but I believe this story challenges the prejudices of his followers then and now. It is so easy for any of us to give way to prejudice toward people of a different gender, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation or religious faith. We may also harbor prejudice toward poor people. Why can’t they take care of themselves and leave us alone? They can be just as demanding and just as annoying as dogs. What are we supposed to do with them and all the other diverse and difficult people we have to put up with today?

I believe we are supposed to do what Jesus taught us: show real acceptance and true compassion to everyone . . . everyone. We as a Liberal Christian Church are challenged not only to meet our own members’ needs but also the needs of others in our community. We are supposed to live out the motto; “To Believe Is To Care – To Care Is To Do.” That will cost us something in money, time and energy. It may mean some people believe our Church is going to the dogs, but those dogs are our sisters and brothers. If we share what we have with them we will discover there is more than enough to go around and no one will have to live off scraps on the floor.