Woman – Great is your faith

Summary

We have all met people who we would not think would be the type to become members of the church.  We all have stereotypes in mind of who makes a good Christian and who does not.  I bet you, we each even have people who we have attended church with, whom we really didn’t think should be in worship with us.

I know this sounds kind of harsh, but I know it is true. There are many of us that have ignored or been ignored in church, have given the cold shoulder to someone or received it in regards to faith versus actions or belief versus morals.

In today’s very interesting, yet disturbing and finally triumphant story, Jesus, his disciples and a Caananite woman find themselves in a very similar type of situation.

If you were listening closely to the gospel, you heard that it was a woman who approaches Jesus seeking mercy for her daughter and that she was a Caananite, in other words she was gentile, a non-Jew.  And yet she had the chutzpah, the guts, dare I say, the faith, to approach Jesus directly to ask for help.

The problem though, is that when she seeks mercy, she encounters the disciples,

who have set themselves up as the jury, or the gatekeepers who decided who is liable to have true faith and so be able to meet Jesus, and who is simply not worth the time.

Obviously they were not open to the woman’s approach, at all.  The question is, why was the woman practically a non-entity to the disciples?

Well, basically, it all comes down to her not being a Jew.  It also doesn’t help anything that she’s a woman either.  In the first century, Jews did not relate to gentiles unless they absolutely had to, and they never interacted with gentile women, nonetheless non-related Jewish women.  So…this woman as far as they were concerned was not worth a second look, except to send her away, because she was a bother.

What’s more interesting though is how Jesus responded to her, and in such a harsh manner too!  From my reading of the event, it seems that Jesus just wanted to be rid of her, and within Old Testament Jewish law, he had every right to dismiss her.

And who knows, perhaps Jesus was a bit tired and a bit grumpy, and just wanted some peace and quiet, and so it seems he was trying to get her to go away.  He had nothing for her, for she was a gentile and didn’t understand whom he was, or so it seems.

Yet, this woman who was ritually unclean to the Jews, and so out of bounds, then utters a phrase that changes everything.  She says, “Yes Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

What?  Why is this sentence important?  Why does Jesus respond with, “Woman, great is your faith!  Let it be done for you as you wish.”?

It’s because the words that come from her lips, proceeded from her heart, and showed her faith in him, and God’s power.  In other words she was asking Jesus for her daughter’s healing, because she truly believed that as God, he had the power to do just that, heal her daughter.  And, so he did.

What we can understand here is that words are important, or the lack of words for that matter.

Jesus comes to change his mind through his conversation with the woman, and responds eventually in power and active love.

Earlier in the gospel passage for today Jesus teaches his disciples that there needs to be new understanding in what makes a person unclean.  The disciples, the Pharisees and for that matter, the Jewish people as a whole, because of Moses’ law, were primarily concerned with physical actions and attributes that made a person unclean under Jewish law, like I mentioned with the Canaanite woman.

But Jesus turns all of this on its head when he teaches, “Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?  But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart…”

In other words what defiles us, what makes us unclean, is what we hold in our heart.  And, what we hold in our heart is revealed by our words, and by our actions.  Our sinfulness is often first revealed by what we say, or in certain cases what we do not say.

In our world today, we are having revealed before our eyes, more and more, the reality of hate by one person for another.  We have been seeing it by the words and actions of the Islamic State for years, but recently this same sort of hate has been revealed through the words and actions of groups on the other side of the spectrum, groups like the Sons of Odin, here in Norway and Scandinavia, other nationalistic splinter groups across Europe, and lately, again, in the United States.  The openly share words, and the vicious actions of Alt-Right hate groups, made up of neo-nazis and white supremacists reveal hearts filled with hate.  We saw the horror of what that looks like last weekend in the State of Virginia.

As Jesus teaches today, “For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication theft, false witness, slander.  These are what defile a person…”

What comes out of our mouths, our words, are a mirror of our hearts.  We can see what is in a person’s heart by listening to their words.  Words that hurt, and slander another person are not words of love, and do not come from a heart that is loving…at that moment.  Words that are spoken with evil intent, and to demean, and to mar a person in the eyes of others, do not come from a heart full of love.

Can we always speak in love?  Of course, not.  Yet, when we know our heart is not filled with love at that moment, perhaps we do not speak at all.

Can we always love everyone?  We should try, but of course we will fail, but we can pray to our Lord, that he guard our thoughts and words, so that we do not speak with evil intent, or act out of hate.

This is important within our families, our friends, and within the congregation.  Too often because we know people well, we think we can say whatever we want, because we feel we can pass judgment, and they should be able to take it.  Yet, this is not true.  We need to speak in love.  That does not mean, that speaking in love, does not at times mean speaking hard truths, but they are always spoken to build up, not to tear down.  Remember, we are called together as sisters and brothers in Christ.

And just as importantly, we need to watch our words, and pray for the Lord’s wisdom when speaking with, or about all people, especially those we find ourselves struggling with, be them individuals or groups of people.  Our words, and subsequent actions must be spoken and lived out in the love of Jesus.  And, when we fail at this, we must speak an apology, and ask for forgiveness.

Too many people, are speaking from hearts filled with hate.  We must try and speak from hearts filled with Jesus’ love.  And, we must use our words, and live out our actions as Christ’s people, to counteract, to speak out against those whose words defile.

Jesus said, “They will know we are Christians by our love.”  As well, he taught, “Love your enemies.”

Let us pray that Jesus gives us the words, the actions, and the courage to speak and act, truly from his love.  Help us Jesus!

Amen.

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