jesus was a jerk - mark 7:24-37

my sermon manuscript from this past sunday's sermon, on mark 7:24-37

²⁴From there [jesus] set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, ²⁵but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. ²⁶Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷He said to her,

“Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

²⁸But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” ²⁹Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” ³⁰So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

³¹Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. ³²They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. ³³He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. ³⁴Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” ³⁵And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. ³⁶Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. ³⁷They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

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do you ever have one of those days where everyone seems to want or need something from you and you are just tired and need a break?  maybe you even take off for the week or a weekend, but still people seem to seek you out wanting who knows what?  and finally you get to the point where you just             snap.  one too many people have asked you for help, and so you tell this latest supplicant: no, you little dog, i have been giving, giving, giving, and i don’t have anything left for you.  what gives you the right to ask for anything??  and you turn your head, hoping she will recognize the dismissal and how tired you are and just leave you alone.

and then she does something amazing.  she stays.  she takes a deep breath and she says, “yes, ma’am or sir, I have no right, but even little dogs get scraps.”

your breath catches.  you just called somebody a “little dog”!  could you have been any more degrading?  probably, but it would have been hard!  and now, what do you do?  someone just called you out and did it respectfully.  you have two options:

1-dig your heals in, for better or worse you said what you said and you’ve got to stand by it; changing your mind or your words would just make you look weak. 

2-she is right, what she said called you out and maybe you do have just a bit more energy, and maybe, just maybe, god’s plan is bigger than even you could have imagined it would be.

jesus’ knee-jerk reaction is to dismiss the syrophoenician woman with derogatory name-calling. 

now, i know some of you probably don’t like hearing about jesus acting like a jerk, but it’s important to know that a key characteristic of mark is that jesus is truly human.  mark, more than any other gospel, really portrays jesus’ humanity, which helps us as the readers and hearers to be able to relate better to jesus because he feels more like us.   he feels human.

so, when jesus acts like a jerk to the syrophoenician woman, it could have been the end of the story; the woman could have just gone away to wait for some other miracle-worker or for death to free her daughter, but instead she chooses to confront jesus.  

hisako kinukawa points out that jesus’ hurtful comments were not necessarily born from a desire to harm the woman, but more likely, they were born from a tired jewish man raised in a culture that pinned the affluent gentiles from the city of tyre over and against the jewish peasants living around the sea of galilee.  everything about how he was raised taught him to resist and perhaps resent the people of tyre who used their money to exploit his people, his family, his neighbors. 

the problem is that he doesn’t really know this woman.  he may know that she’s greek, or gentile, and syrophoenician, but in his tired dismissal, he doesn’t take into account that she was probably one of those who, like his own people, lived in a small village, dependent on the whims of those who lived in the city of tyre.  her situation was not all that different from jesus’ people, though they lived in distinct places.

but jesus doesn’t know that by just looking at her.  it isn’t until the woman remains, answering jesus’ dismissal, with her own lived experience, that jesus begins to understand in a new way.  yes, the gentiles in the city of tyre may be dogs for the way they have exploited the israelites, but she is struggling just as those children of israel struggle every day; she, too, needs sustenance.  her daughter needs a miracle; just one, one little crumb.  she is not asking for a huge feast to be spread, she is asking for the crumbs, the dregs, the stuff that nobody else would want anyway. 

it is in this hope for nothing more than crumbs, that jesus is shaken awake.  by not only taking on his derogatory term, but also expecting at most crumbs, she awakens jesus to a new perspective.  she helps him to see a human being rather than a dog; a person with needs and pain and struggle.  

she helps him to understand his own context better as well.  jesus belongs to just one of many groups who are struggling against oppression, who are struggling for dignity in an oppressive economic situation. 

and perhaps the most important of all: through jesus’ encounter with the syrophoenician woman, jesus realizes that the Table is big enough.  the Table is big enough that no one needs to beg for crumbs, big enough that all are welcome to the feast.  but how does this even happen?  i know if somebody confronted me with the hard truth that i had just called them a “little dog,” i would be so taken aback i would probably just get away as fast as i could…which is one—of many—reasons why it’s really good that i am not jesus.

unlike me, when the syrophoenician woman speaks, jesus does the amazing thing of actually listening to what she has to say.  instead of digging in his heals or taking off, he stops and listens to what she has to say, to her story.  and so he begins to realize that his cultural context, how and where he was raised, really affects how he understands what god is up to.  from there, he is able to take the time to correct himself.  he said something offensive and instead of pretending like nothing had happened or trying to justify himself, he recognizes the need for a new perspective.  he changes his behavior and finds a new way to interact with the syrophoenician woman.

and so, as jesus leaves tyre and heads out toward the sea of galilee, jesus encounters a man who is deaf and has a speech impediment.  jesus’ reaction to this man reflects the change he has experienced because of the syrophoenician woman.  jesus still brings the man out of the view of the crowd, finding a more private place, and then he opens his ears and releases his tongue.  

because of the syrophoenician woman, jesus is beginning to open up to the idea of a god whose table is big enough for everyone.  he’s still not quite to the level of confidence that he’s willing to show anyone and everyone what he’s up to, so instead he tells those who are witness to the miracle not to tell anyone!  So, naturally, they tell everyone they can!  that seems to be when jesus really, really gets it. 

from there jesus will depart with everyone proclaiming what he has done.  jesus then goes with a great crowd in gentile territory and, recognizing god’s work of welcome, jesus feeds those gathered in gentile land—all those gathered—with bread and fish to sustain them.

in this short time, jesus transforms from a tired human being who calls a woman a dog without even thinking about sharing so much as a crumb, to one who shares not only the crumbs, but the whole feast with all people.

jesus realizes that this mission he’s on, this good news is for everyone.  the syrophoenician woman gives jesus room to grow and room to be changed by his encounter.  in listening to her words, jesus is changed.  he realizes that he was being a jerk and because he stops and listens to her words and her story, his understanding of god’s grace expands.  he realizes that the Table is big enough for all people and he gives us the room and the power to recognize the same thing. 

there are many times in my own life when i say the wrong thing, when i offend someone by talking without thinking, and even when i don’t speak for fear of saying the wrong thing or offending.  jesus is our light, our leader, setting the example.  he acts like a jerk, but then is able to stop and listen and change.  he allows the syrophoenician woman, her words, her story, her life to change him.  he lets his encounter with her, however badly it started out, be transformative for them both.

and jesus’ transformation provides the light so that we as his followers can let our lights shine, not in doing everything perfectly, but in our ability to also be transformed.  we are able to stop and listen, hearing someone else’s story, someone else’s perspective on life, and we are able to change; to recognize with jesus that god’s table feeds everyone, even the ones we call little dogs.