Jesus’s response to the crowd, Pharisees, and the Canaanite Woman reveals how hard it is to be perfect and how ridiculous the pursuit really is

a Homily for Proper 15 A

Text: Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28

 

on the water, on the land

Jesus is walking along while some crazy woman is shouting at Him. Shouting. Running to catch up to Him. She’s making such a commotion that the disciples start to think that they need to get rid of her. This woman has obviously heard about the people who were healed when Jesus came across the sea and she is asking the same for her daughter. And Jesus calls her a dog; dismissing her with a racial slur. Canaanites are lower. A good Hebrew Jew might say worse.

But let’s back up. From before the coming ashore, before the big storm and the walking on water, before the feeding of the five thousand, there was some bad news. Jesus heard about John the Baptist’s execution and he tried to get away; to be alone. He tries to find some seclusion by boat. And the people won’t let Him. They follow Him to a deserted place.

The elements of this story come from this moment–Jesus going into the water to a deserted place. It is from this deserted place that the multitudes are fed and from this deserted place that the disciples are sent across the water. So Jesus can climb the mountain alone.

On the water, a great storm tosses the disciples and on the water, Jesus comes to them. The sea, serving as a metaphor for chaos and danger–so far from the security of land and the elevation of the mountain. It is in the sea they might drown. It is on the sea that Peter’s “little faith” allows him to walk on the water’s surface in spite of the danger.

But the land isn’t really safe. It is on the land that Jesus faces the Pharisees. They despise Jesus for breaking their rules–rules they show no remorse in breaking themselves. They are the liars and abusers.

It is on dry land that Jesus faces the Canaanite woman, the ancient adversary and occupier of the Holy Land. Canaanite women are the people the Patriarchs were to avoid and never marry. That’s the rule. GOD’s rule. And this woman has “great faith”.

afraid

These two chapters in the middle of Matthew push the danger of the sea against the danger of the land. The wished-for seclusion of the sea is stolen by the demands of the crowd. The wished-for safety of land is stolen by the punitive outrage of the Pharisees. Even the places themselves: the sea and the land: embody a natural tension. For it is on the sea that GOD has control and it is on land that people are in control. Perhaps the only real danger comes from here.

Our minds are captivated by the fierceness of nature; the danger embodied by nature. It is Shark Week after all. The stormy sea makes a powerful metaphor for our tormented hearts, wrestling with forces well beyond our control. Like the waves of the sea, our own sense of community is just too big, too powerful. I can’t do anything! we shout at the world.

We want to trust Jesus when He tells us “do not be afraid.” But fear creeps in anyway. Fear that brings the Pharisees to attack Jesus. Like the fear that led police to trade uniforms for combat fatigues and treat the people standing outside their homes like enemy combatants in a war zone in a town much smaller than Port Huron.

Fear that launches rockets into Gaza and fear that leads ISIS to terrorize their own people. Fear mixed with judgment equals violence. So it is also fear that leads to retaliation. Fear of being abused and victimized.

We are so fearful. Don’t be afraid He tells us and then what do we do? Fear allows us to tolerate domestic violence, racist violence, and economic violence. This isn’t the work of an outside force; we aren’t on the stormy sea; this is the dry land. It is what comes out of us. We defile ourselves by what we do to one another.

after the storm

After Jesus calms the storm in last week’s gospel, the chapter concludes:

When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. After the people of that place recognized him, they sent word throughout the region and brought all who were sick to him, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

Here, there can be no seclusion or separation. Jesus is once again with the people. And now the Pharisees get involved. They confront Jesus about the rules and Jesus calls them hypocrites because they say they care about the rules, but seem more than willing to break them. That’s why Jesus turns to the crowd and speaks

it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles

They had rules about what you could eat, but to Jesus what they said and how they said it was the real problem.

This is the space the Canaanite woman occupies, revealing Jesus’s teaching. She comes into the story here because the Pharisees are wrong. Wrong about the rules and wrong about her daughter. She isn’t evil and neither is her daughter. She shouldn’t be punished. She should not be rejected, for neither she, nor her daughter did anything wrong. Even their status as Canaanites isn’t wrong. Their humanity and existence doesn’t make them illegal. The daughter isn’t evil because the demon is in her, but the demon will have to come out.

The demon is not from her, it possess her. it is not from her heart. But the evil in the Pharisees comes from them, comes from within their hearts. Their fearful, fast-beating hearts. A fear that even Jesus deals with in Himself before driving the demon away.

walking unafraid

We fear the sea because we think it is scary, uncontrollable, untamable. We fear the rocking boat and what if…what if we are thrown from the boat. All the unknowables and uncontrollables. Many of us are much better on land. With the Pharisees and the Canaanites and the crowds and the disciples.

But this inevitably brings us back to Jesus and the woman and the avoidance and the slur and the long distance healing and this faith of the ancient enemy that is “great” compared with Peter’s “little” walk-on-water faith and I’ve got to tell you that I am not feeling we are supposed to walk away super excited or to say that this is just another healing story, but to see Jesus’s challenge in doing this ministry and grieving the loss of His friend and teaching His disciples and what keeps coming at him like a storm are these two groups: the Pharisees that condemn Him and these crowds of people with all of their needs and He climbs a mountain again, on the other side of the sea, and this time a multitude of 4,000 men (plus women and children) follow Him into another deserted location for another feeding.

That the storm is not the thing and the rules are not the thing and the identity as Hebrews or Christians or Episcopalians is not the thing, but facing the bigger fear is the thing. It seems as if there is way too much to think about and do and we long for the safety that isn’t ours to have. But instead we watch Jesus face these frustrated Pharisees and say No. Your words are evil. And to this outsider enemy Yes. Your faith is great.

All that we fear is not too much for us. All that is swirling around and confusing us need not overwhelm us. If our faith means anything at all, even if it is microscopic, just the teensy weensy hint of faith, then we can’t let the fear stop us. We can’t let that ridiculous, evil impulse to fear our circumstances be our motivator. St. Paul’s isn’t in the boat, we’re on land. In fact, many of us are far too cozy with the Pharisees. We can’t let the evil cloud our brains and wound our hearts. This is ours and we can do this.

And we must not ignore the plight of our neighbors in Ferguson, MO, in Detroit, and along our borders. This is not their fault. They are grieving. They have lost. They want safety. Don’t judge them as animals.

We are on the land and we are following Jesus and that is what we need to know. That is the truth we stand on because we need no more than that.