Introduction to
the reading:
In order to better understand our gospel reading we should remind
ourselves of the dynamics of congregation Matthew appears to have written
for. We’ve talked before that they were
almost certainly a congregation of Jews who had decided to follow Jesus. You’ll remember that Matthew’s gospel is
probably written around the year 80.
From roughly the years 66-70 there was a Jewish revolt against the
Romans which culminated in the Romans destroying the temple in Jerusalem,
destroying the whole city of Jerusalem, and effectively ending all branches of
Judaism centered around the temple. The
only branch of Judaism left was the Pharisee branch. Matthew’s congregation surely was among these
Jews.
The Pharisees were hardly a unified
group, however. They were scattered
throughout the region and they still depended on the unity Jerusalem
created. In the years following the
destruction of Jerusalem there appear to have been some councils or meetings in
the city of Jamnia, which is east of Jerusalem on the shore of the
Mediterranean Sea. Pharisee leaders
gathered and were struggling to put something back together of their
faith. It was the period scholars call
“formative Judaism” and it continued until about the year 200.
It is to Jews living in this chaos and
uncertainty that Matthew writes.
Matthew’s gospel is not attacking a historical, well-established
religious group when he writes against the Pharisees. He’s writing to people living in faith
chaos. These are people struggling to
know what to believe. They don’t know
where to turn to trust. They don’t know
how to express their faith. And remember
this very very important detail.
Christianity has not yet emerged from Judaism as a distinctly different
religion. From the point of view of the
Romans Christianity was just one more sect within Judaism at this time.
At issue for Matthew’s readers is how
to live out their faith? What does daily
life look like as a Jew and as a believer that Jesus was God’s Messiah? What traditions and rituals are important, what
aren’t? And maybe most importantly,
where is Jesus, and what is God up to?
In Matthew chapters 14 through 17 we see
into the struggles of this young church.
As we read it I invite you to try to feel the chaos that is in the
background. People are lost. They are confused. They are searching and not finding. And also pick up on the underlying principles
Jesus is teaching.
(Read Matthew 15:1 - 16:12)
If you were here last week you may
find yourself asking, didn’t we just read about the feeding of the 5000, what’s
with this feeding of the 4000? Indeed as
Matthew portrays them, the stories are almost identical. Mark’s gospel, whom Matthew is using as his
major source here, recounts two feeding miracles too. Mark makes a distinction that the first one –
the feeding of the 5000 - was in Jewish territory. The second one – the crowd of 4000 – was in
non-Jewish territory. Mark makes a tidy
teaching of it showing God’s abundance for both Jews and non-Jews alike. Matthew either downplays that point, or doesn’t
make it at all. Instead he seems more
interested in showing the repeatable abundance that Jesus can provide. A great feeding miracle was not just a
one-time thing for Jesus. Or said
differently, God’s abundance for his people is not limited at all.
And that may help us enter what is
perhaps the most troubling part of these chapters, Jesus rejection of the
foreign woman. This is one of those
passages where scholars have spilt gallons of ink over the centuries trying to
make sense of. Truthfully, we do not
know exactly why Matthew included it. It
was in his source of Mark but he doesn’t stay locked into Mark always.
More radical feminist scholars have
had a field day with it. Perhaps most
interesting is Sharon Ringe in the 1985 Feminist Interpretation of the Bible. Her conclusions are widely recognized as
being wrong, but she may actually help us to open the door to what is going
on. Ringe points out that the usual
patterns of controversy with Jesus are reversed. Usually someone hostile to Jesus counters
him. He responds with a corrective or
reproving remark. Then he concludes with
a statement the opponent would be hard pressed to deny. Here, this foreign, presumably uneducated
woman appears to best him. And because
of that Jesus gives her what she wants.
As if to make a contentious conclusion Ringe suggests that this woman is
doubly and outsider – foreign and female.
She continues that she is an aggressive single parent who defies
cultural taboos and acts to free Jesus from his sexism and racism by catching
him in a bad mood or with his compassion down, she bests him in an argument and
herself becomes the vehicle of his liberation and the deliverance of her
daughter.
As I said before, this conclusion is
truly an inaccurate interpretation of what Matthew intends, but it can be
useful because I think she is on to something.
Remember, we’re talking about a Christian community struggling to
identify who it is and figuring out how to live out faith. If nothing else, this scene doesn’t allow us
to put God, and how we express our faith in God, into a tidy little container
that is convenient and make sense.
God will not be limited; certainly not
by human conclusions of how God should work and how God should act. God is God.
We are not.
And do we not also easily take the
point of view Jesus appears to present?
Many people believe the saying, “Charity begins at home,” is in the
Bible. It’s not. If anything, the Bible teaches the opposite!
As dean I’ve worked with most of the
churches in the conference. All are
declining. Many are anxious. When numbers dwindle and finances get tighter
and tighter there is a tendency to turn in on ourselves. Churches will cut giving to the synod and
other outside giving. They will focus on
preservation. They effectively say, “It
is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
Jesus is certainly not being mean to
this woman. Nor is he testing her
faith. He is, however, voicing a concern
many people in Matthew’s day and our day have.
Resources are tight, better hunker down and protect.
Who are we to say who is worthy to
receive and who is not? Who are we to
say that God’s will is that we take care of ourselves and reject the needs of
others?
God cannot, and will not, be bound by
our fears and our limits.
What made that Canaanite woman
faithful? Was it her beliefs? Nope.
It was her persistence. It was her
insistence that the God of Israel has not limited his goodness only to Israel
but that it is for all people. She was
vehement that God’s grace not have bounds or limits.
I’ve preached many times that we
should not expect our prayers to result in miraculous solutions to our
problems. But I’ve never preached that
you shouldn’t make such prayers. If you
want something from God, ask for it!
Demand it! Pressure God. Let God know your wants and needs regardless
of whether they seem righteous or plausible.
The key is to bring them to God.
Don’t sit there in your mind and think, “This is what I really want, but
I know I’m not supposed to think this way so I’m going to change my prayer to
something that feels more righteous.”
God knows what you want better than
you do yourself. So pray what you
feel. Pray what you want. Don’t worry if it’s appropriate or not. Let God know.
Let God decide. About the only
prayers not suitable are prayers of hatred where you want to bring divine wrath
down upon your enemies. And if you feel
that way, then pray for a different perspective.
As I read these chapters of Matthew I
feel a community of believers struggling to know what is right. They want to draw lines between righteous and
unrighteous, between Godly and Ungodly.
But Matthew is teaching that God will not be so bound.
For many churches in our conference,
and for us as well, I say that God is up to something new and unexpected. Refusing to accept that God can work in new
and startling ways is an attitude that is sure to miss what God is really up
to.
If you limit Jesus to only being a
nice sweet guy, then you miss the fullness of God. And if you insist that seven loaves and a few
small fish can’t possibly feed a crowd of thousands, then you miss the fullness
of God. And certainly, if you insist
that death is the end and that there is no hope, then you also certainly miss
the fullness of God.
God is not a tamable beast. God is doing big things. We do well to stay open to them. Just like in Matthew’s day, the church and
the future both belong to God. We should
rejoice and be open to a quite-likely wild ride of faith!
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