This text is really disturbing to me each time I read it. So, let me begin today by saying, “Blind people don’t lead blind people unless they know where they are going. Let me say that again, just in case you didn’t get it the first time. Blind people don’t lead blind people unless they know where they are going.
Before I say anything more, Jesus is not talking about blind people when he is speaking of blind guides. We will encounter this language again in Chapter 23, and, then as now, Jesus is not talking about blind people. He is making a statement about faithfulness and people’s inability to perceive God’s vision and leading in the world. I personally believe that Jesus’ terminology is unfortunate, but, Jesus is a man of his time, and we have to deal with it. Even the dirt of Jesus’ time rubs off on him.
The greater issue of the day is defilement. What is it? Where does it come from? As I considered this issue in the text, I was reminded of a joke:
The story is told. A day came in heaven when Satan thought that he might finally have the upper hand over Jesus and his attending goodie people so Satan approached the heavenly throne and said, “I believe that I have finally infiltrated the very fabric of the world and that I am ready to take full control. You see I have given bits of information to the people over the years and now they have created this network of computers and programs that are so cleverly interfaced that even you cannot fully understand the genius of my plan. That tree of knowledge thing back in the garden? Well that was just a warm up for what I have planned for this generation. Why all of the knowledge of the world can be accessed in a matter of minutes if you just know the right key combinations. Indeed, the people may not be as wise as you are, Lord, they may be wiser. What do you think about that?”
God curled her hair around her finger for a while; she pursed up her lips; she wrinkled her forehead and then asked, “So why have you come here today to tell me this? There seems to be a weakness in your plan somehow.”
God curled her hair around her finger for a while; she pursed up her lips; she wrinkled her forehead and then asked, “So why have you come here today to tell me this? There seems to be a weakness in your plan somehow.”
Satan hedgingly replied, “I just need a little time without your interference to make it all work. What do you say?”
God said, “I can’t imagine why I would agree to such a plan”.
Satan challenged, “I’ll bet that I can enter more data on more people on earth in less time than anyone you can choose”.
God asked, “Why should I enter data in a computer when I already have the book of life at my disposal?”
Satan cajoled, “Humor me. It’ll be fun, and if I lose, I promise I’ll leave the world alone.”
God considered Satan’s request. She asked, “How long are you thinking this contest will take?”
Satan challenged, “You seem to be fond of three days as a time of interfering in my business, so let’s say three days.”
God agreed, “Okay, I’ll send Jesus to your little competition.”
Well the time came. Satan was jumping with excitement when Jesus arrived. At the moment the starting bell sounded, Satan pulled out a flash drive and started downloading information he had stored earlier. Jesus smiled and started entering information on creation beginning with Adam and Eve, then working his way down through history.
At the end of the first day, Satan had more than twice as much information entered than Jesus. Satan was gleeful. Jesus smiled. At the end of the second day, Satan had more than 6 times more information than Jesus. Satan was prancing around claiming certain victory. As the time on the third day near the end, a power surge ran through the entire network, and Satan’s computer crashed. When Satan restarted his computer, he discovered all of his information on computer science, astrophysics, nuclear physics, wall street finance, and all of the busy people making money was gone.
Satan cried out in frustration, “I can’t believe it! I have lost everything! We’ll have to start again.”
Jesus just smiled.
God disagreed with Satan. “Well, it appears that you have lost, Satan. Jesus seems to have much more information entered than you have.”
Satan, very angry, shouted, “How can that be? The same power surge hit his computer.”
God, smiling very broadly, remonstrated, “That is true, but you see, Jesus saves. By the words of your mouth and the intent of your little contest over power, you have been de-filed.”
So, what does it mean to be defiled? Of course, it does not mean that you have lost all of the information on your computer. Rather, you have lost status, that you are no longer able to be part of the philos, the brotherhood of eating companions; you are not able to have a place at the table because you have become unclean, undesirable, unworthy of social recognition, deserving of being shunned, or put aside. No longer can you speak to and for others because you are untrustworthy.
“Where does this come from?”, Jesus asks. Jesus says that it comes from the heart, the source of evil intent, that place from which plans of murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, and slander arise. All of these are part of the Ten Commandment prohibitions and actions we are not to be involved with. More than that, when these activities arise in our midst, we are to decry them; that is, we are to stand up in God’s name to oppose them.
This opposition has its consequences apparently, because, in the aftermath of the Pharisees’ offended-ness (is that a word?), Jesus leaves town for less controversial climes. He goes out to the edges of the region, to Tyre and Sidon, into the stronghold of Roman power, into the unclean world, the defiled world, into the world of the lost sheep of the House of Israel.
Here Jesus and his disciples meet a woman from the area. Now we have seen Jesus in all kinds of situations with other unclean people. You will remember back in Chapter 9 when Jesus saw the crowds and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. You will remember Jesus sending his disciples out to “heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and cast out demons;” he sent those disciples out to the “lost sheep of Israel”. You will also remember that, before the feeding of the 5000, a couple of weeks ago, Jesus looked at the crowd and he had compassion on them. So, we are expecting a particular attitude and behavior from Jesus when the Canaanite woman cries out for mercy because her daughter is tormented by a demon.
We are not prepared for the shunning response that is presented here. We are not prepared to hear Jesus speaking to his disciples, as if this woman doesn’t exist, saying, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”
When I first read this passage this week, I read it the way I had always read it, but today I believe that I was wrong. I believe that Jesus is ignoring this woman and speaking to his disciples over her in order for them to understand that they have a hand in this ministry that they are about. Ministry is not a spectator sport.
In a sense, Jesus is telling his disciples that their mission and ministry hasn’t changed. They have been sent out to these lost sheep, and they continue to be sent out to these lost sheep. Yet, in the midst of her bleating for mercy, in the midst of her cries, their response is not to listen to her but rather to beg Jesus to send her away. They are much more interested in being ministered to rather than ministering to.
But this woman refuses to be ignored. She comes before Jesus and bows down. She blocks his way; she gets in his face. She bows down before him like the disciples in the boat; she worships him and says, “You have got to help me.”
Jesus responds to her by saying, “It defiles the bread for the children when it is thrown to the dogs.”
And then the transformative moment comes. This woman responds, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs get to eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.”
This is where context matters. We have just witnessed the feeding of the 5000 where all were filled, and they gathered up the crumbs that were left over. How many baskets were filled? Twelve! Twelve baskets of crumbs were gathered up—certainly enough for the rest of the world. If five loaves and two fish could feed 5000 men besides women and children, then there must be enough crumbs for this woman and her child, don’t you think?
So, we hear Jesus say, “Your faith is amazing! Your faith is great! Let your desire come true. Let your daughter be healed.” And she was.
The question for us today is why all of this defilement? Why is it that Jesus looks like a bad guy all of a sudden? Who are the lost sheep of the House of Israel? We need more context!
We know that Scripture interprets Scripture, and so we look to some of the other texts we have today to help inform us. Our passage from Isaiah comes to us from the beginning of what we call Third Isaiah. The first part of Isaiah, chapters 1-39, deals with the fall of Israel and Judah. It covers the destruction of the temple and the enslaving deportation of the people to Syria and Babylon. The second part of Isaiah, chapters 40-55, concerns itself with a new understanding of who God is in the midst of exile and what that means for God’s people. This last part of Isaiah is about returning home and building up God’s people with this new understanding of who God is.
These three parts address the dispersing of God’s people throughout the world. The ten northern tribes of Israel fell first, and those people scattered throughout the Syrian empire. We know that they traveled into Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East, but the records of their exact whereabouts were lost or destroyed. They are the original lost sheep of the House of Israel.
We know about the people who were taken into slavery, but what of the people who were left behind? We have no record of what happened to them. They too are lost sheep of the House of Israel.
In this third part of Isaiah, when the people are returning to their homeland, God is welcoming them and those foreigners who have entered the land over the years, but the people have a different idea. In the 9th chapter in Ezra, we read this awful, awful story of how the people created a community of ins and outs. The people who came home, they were in. The people who were living there, they were out; but they weren’t out before some of the returning people had intermarried, so some of the people sent away were wives and children of those who were in. Those people who were exiled by the returning Jews also became the lost sheep of the House of Israel.
As a matter of fact, by the time you get to Jesus’ time, there are a number of people who are part of the temple and are considered to be the righteous ones. These are the true inheritors of the House of Israel. Paul is one of them. He states that he was born a Jew, of the tribe of Benjamin, instructed as a Pharisee, in all ways considered to be righteous by the law, zealous for the Lord even to persecuting the early Christian community. But something has happened. Christ has entered into his life. He was blinded on the road to Damascus, and, although his leadership is not blind, he most likely has low vision afterwards. Yes, everything has changed.
In today’s reading, we hear Paul concluding his discussion concerning the status of Jews and Christians. He has said in Christ the world is different because Christ has come to us, Christ has acted for us, and we have a new relationship in Christ that cannot be broken. No longer do we need to be part of the first covenant community in order to be saved. Christ has changed the way. This is a new way of thinking, but this new way of thinking does not mean that God’s word is not trustworthy and true. God’s word to that first covenant community, that community that passed through the waters of the Red/Reed sea, that community who wandered in the wilderness for forty years, those people who entered the promised land, is still true. Those who know God through that first covenant are still saved by that covenant. God’s promises are steadfast and enduring--those whom God has covenanted with will always be part of God’s family.
A professor of mine in seminary once said, “We should be very careful about making sure that the Jewish people of the world remain safe. We should do what we can to lift them up and to affirm them in their relationship with God, because Scripture says that if the Jewish people are in some way exterminated, if the promise to the Jewish people that they will be like the sands of the shore can be broken, then the promise that comes to us through Jesus can also be broken, and God’s word and promise is no longer trustworthy. We need each other and we need to affirm each other proclaiming what God has done.
For Paul, and the early Gospel writers, if you are in some way related to those who are part of that first covenant community or of the new Christian community, but not a part of either of these communities, then you are one of the lost sheep of the House of Israel. So, now we see this woman, who is one of those related to the first coming to that promised land, to Canaan. This Canaanite woman is actually one of the people the disciples were sent out to find. She is one of the people that Jesus is actually looking for, and there she is, right in front of him. It is not Jesus who is confused here. It is the disciples who are still without understanding. It is the disciples who have forgotten who they have been sent out to serve. And so, it is the disciples, not the woman, who is being tested, and they have failed.
We come this day, not always remembering all of the information that we have before us, not remembering all of the works that God has done for us. We forget that we have this information saved for us, and saved to us, saved in us, so that in our following of the one who sends us, we might go into the world hearing the cries of the people, to hear the cries of the mothers whose children are tormented with demons. All of this information that we have been given prepares us for being able to expose and address those demons in the world. This information prepares us for being able to proclaim that Christ has redeemed us, that Christ has saved us. This saving information, that has been imparted to us, inputted into us, continues to inform us, to work among us, to lead us, teaching us to listen and understand the cries of pain.
We cannot be defiled. We may participate in defiling activities that reduce God’s presence for others. We may even indulge in evil intentions on our own, but there is always time to repent, to turn our lives around, that is, to turn to Christ, and bow down in worship, crying for help—help for ourselves and healing for our children who are tormented by demons—for as the heart is capable of evil, it is also capable of love and honesty. Let us always walk with the knowledge of the potential danger of evil within us as we practice the ways of the one we would follow, the one who calls us in the midst of the storm, the one who has the true vision of where we need to go and the authority to lead us there, with the confidence of Christ’s love in our lives. In his saving ways, we will not be defiled.
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