Scripture Readings: Matthew 15:21-28, Isaiah 56:1,6-8, Psalm 67:1-7
God’s concern for the ‘in’ crowd
Are you in the ‘in crowd’ or the ‘out crowd’? In some places you may feel ‘in’ and in others you may feel ‘out’. What about your friends or neighbours? Have you ever thought about whether they are ‘in’ or ‘out’? Style magazines, TV programmes and the like set the trends for what (and who) are ‘in’ and ‘out’. What happens to football teams (and their coaches!) that may or may not be doing well.
Some countries are ‘in’ and others ‘out’. By accident of birth or great hard work, people living in the west are definitely ‘in’ in global terms, with adequate food, shelter, sanitation and health care. We are not often devastated by earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis or war on our doorstep, and when we are we tend to make speedier recoveries. Do these favourable circumstances mean that God loves us more than others, or that we are more holy? Of course not! God loves each person he has created along with every part of his amazing creation.
There are Christian communities all over the world. It’s clear then that God does not favour white Europeans, and in fact most of the global Church is in the developing world! There are places where there is no established church and God loves the people in those places. He also loves people who are not believers in places where there is a Christian community.
God’s concern for the ‘out’ crowd
In earlier times, God chose one nation, Israel, to be his light and show his way to all nations (Isaiah 42:6). But even though his people were privileged, the invitation was always there for outsiders. For example, Ruth, who was King David’s great grandma, came from Moab and so she was a foreigner. Sadly, Israel focused so much on being the ‘in’ crowd that they shut everyone else out. This was not what God had required! All through their history, God kept reminding the Israelites of their role, for example in Psalm 67; God also reminded them through the prophets, for example Isaiah 56:1 and 6-8. These readings are full of references to ‘the nations’, with God’s light and message being for other nations too.
Jesus’ encounter with the Syro-Phoenician or Canaanite woman has a number of surprises and points that demand clarification. It is somewhat surprising to find Jesus leaving Israel at all. He didn’t do this very often and on this occasion it seems simply a matter of withdrawal, perhaps to find space for himself and his followers. As he says later in the story, his mission was to Israel (Matthew 15:24). We are so accustomed to thinking of all nations being welcome before God that it is a surprise to find Jesus affirming this limitation to his audience. The disciples had little sympathy for the woman and wanted Jesus to dismiss her (Matthew 15:23). My Greek translation guide takes the view that the disciples figured that the woman wasn’t going to leave without getting what she wanted so they were asking Jesus to give her what she asked so that they would be free of her pestering. (Compare Jesus’ story in Luke 18:1-8).
At this point they seem to lack missionary zeal. It is not really until the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 that the early Jewish Church embraced the idea of a mission to the Gentiles. There was nothing new in this. You could read Jonah for a critique of this attitude.
What is more, Jesus’ own words to her seem uncharacteristically harsh (Matthew 15:26); a dog was an unclean animal, not a household pet as we might think of it today. Even if he did say puppies, not dogs. His words, however, bring out the best in the woman who is to be numbered among the many feisty women of the Bible. Her point that even dogs (puppies) pick up scraps beneath the master’s table indicates a profound understanding of God and an even deeper faith, as Jesus recognises. It had always been God’s intention that Israel should be a witness to the nations and that they would be blessed through Israel’s faithfulness to him (see Genesis 12:1-3).
Jesus would die for the world, but the plan always was for his disciples to take the message to the ends of the earth. Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, understood this better than anyone. His preaching and ministry, his life and writings show his belief that God has not rejected anyone (though some may well have rejected him…) but has made it possible for people from all nations to receive the mercy that God wanted to extend to them.
The Church does not always make everyone feel welcome.Think about who, if they were to come on Sunday morning, you might struggle to accept, causing them to feel rejected. How about noisy babies, people who smell, a blind person with their guide dog, someone who we think is somewhat strange, or who talks loudly to themselves, the person we had a run-in with last week, or someone people laugh at? Would they feel rejected or welcomed? Would we manage to make them feel welcome or would our body language belie our words?
The reason we accept people and love people and serve people is that this is what Jesus told us to do. More than that it is what God does. It reflects the nature of our God who loves unconditionally. As John put it in his letter, “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 3:16)
A common phrase used today to act as shorthand in reminding us of how to act is the acronym WWJD or ‘What Would Jesus Do’. In Matthew’s account of the meeting with the Canaanite woman, Jesus shows us what to do – engage, accept and bless. Jesus’ words might seem harsh to our ears, but the response of the woman shows us that she did not feel rejected, though she may have felt tested! So here’s the challenge – when we meet those on the edge, the ‘out’ crowd, how are we going to let the light and love of God show in us so that those who think they are unwelcome sense their welcome, acceptance and blessing?