Wisdom from a PR Disaster - Matthew 15:10-28

Good morning friends, and welcome to two famous scenes in the gospel of Matthew. In the first, Jesus is teaching about the human heart. True to form, he’s taking a jab at the Pharisees and their focus on the religious rules. Jesus is more concerned about the evil instincts in our hearts than with ritual purity. It’s what comes out of hearts that actually defiles us, he says. It’s a timeless reminder to be careful about what we’re putting out into the world. That’s a short summary of scene, but I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention that this vignette is especially beloved by the 12 and under crowd, as well as the young and snickering at heart, because Jesus makes an actual poop joke as well. “Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles.” We should also note that he seems pretty blasé about the need to wash our hands before we eat. In 2020, this passage is a bit of a PR disaster. Obviously, this was written before modern understandings of infectious disease and novel coronaviruses. Today, a publicist for the messiah would have to quickly qualify Matthew’s version of the event. No, Jesus wasn’t anti-hand washing, or for that matter anti-mask-wearing or social distancing, either. For guidance on those policies, a publicist could guide people to the “love thy neighbor” section. 

Today, we also have the story of the Canaanite woman, who begs Jesus to heal her daughter. This story has the potential to be another PR disaster for Jesus. It’s a troubling story. The woman asks Jesus for help, and he calls her a dog, a common ethnic slur at the time. "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs,” he quips. This is not the Jesus we expect. We expect him to be loving to everyone, free of bias, unlike the shameful stuff that comes out of our own hearts. He’s supposed to do better. 

But that’s not the response we have in front of us. Was Jesus upset that it was a woman who approached him? Or a foreigner? It’s unclear. Over the ages, interpreters have tried to clean Jesus up, by suggesting that the word he used for dog was in the diminutive, meaning something more affectionate like “little puppy.” Or that he was really tired and it was kind of an off day. Or that he said the insult with a wink or a twinkle in his eye, getting ready to use this as a teaching moment. But there is zero evidence for any of these interpretations in the text. In fact, ancient manuscripts were very careful to omit anything that made a hero look bad. The Jesus Seminar scholars looked at this question with something called the criteria of embarrassment. If something embarrassing is included about the hero, it’s probably true (Pulpit Fiction). It’s seems quite likely, then, that Jesus actually called her a dog. He gave what appears to be the common, knee jerk response against Canaanites, based on a world full of particular prejudices, which was the world he actually lived in. 

Whatever his motives, I think what matters most in this exchange is what happens after he calls her a dog. She persists, and he changes his mind. It’s the only place in the Gospels where he changes his mind. Perhaps he realizes in that moment that his ministry is not just to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but also to this bold, foreign woman who is standing in front of him, in a crisis. This nameless woman has been called the woman who changed history. This exchange would alter the course of the Christian movement and broaden its mission beyond the Jewish community. And besides that, it certainly altered her life - she left that encounter freer than when it began. Her daughter healed, her hope renewed, her inclusion in the kingdom of God firmly established. That’s what happens when any of us comes into the presence of Christ. 

There is a pretty clear Gospel mandate in this. If Jesus could get caught up in knee jerk reactions and common prejudices, so can we. And if he could change his course, then we can, too. This is not exactly what we want to hear. 2020 is not the kind of year in which we want to be told to take the high road. We are literally fighting about everything. And with a national election coming up, I’m afraid it’s only going to get worse. None of us is immune to getting hooked by it all. Who doesn’t judge the morality, intelligence, and worth of those on the other side of issues, whether it’s mask wearing or who we’re voting for or what racial justice should look like in our country. To be clear, Jesus isn’t telling us to stay neutral on pressing moral questions. The life of faith isn’t a passive or neutral one. But he is telling us to stop treating those on the other side like dogs who don’t even deserve the crumbs under the table. It’s a lesson he himself showed us how to learn. 

There is hope for us, because a Canaanite woman kept after Jesus. She saw before he did that his ministry was to reconcile us, to each other and to God. That’s what his church is for, too. We say that the very mission of the church is is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ. That sounds nice enough, but honestly, it’s the advanced material on the spiritual path. It’s hard work that takes constant surveillance of our hearts and amendment of ways. So we come together, even over the internet, to be reminded and transformed into the kind of people that work toward reconciliation and justice and goodness in the world. Temptation is all around us these days to be a very different kind of people. But in Christ it’s possible. That’s the point of an old story about Jesus and a foreign woman. That’s the power of a teaching about choosing carefully what we put out into the world. That’s the beauty of the Christian path that calls us to rise above our less noble habits and contaminated views of others. 

It’s rather remarkable that on a Sunday in August in 2020, what started as a PR disaster for Jesus has a spiritual truth we need, perhaps now more than ever. 2020 is rough, there’s no denying it. This year is testing our fortitude and our faith. It would be easy to get hooked by it all and table our spiritual growth until things get easier. But it is also very possible to be present to the challenge and to come out of this spiritually stronger and more compassionate. If we tend to our hearts as Jesus showed us, if we’re persistent in seeking Jesus, like the Canaanite woman, we’ll get there. In the meantime, perhaps we should focus on the end of the story, when he praised the woman for her faith. When we finally come through these unprecedented times, may that be his praise of us, too.