“Pushing the Boundary of Grace”

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Sunday September 6, 2009

Proverbs 22: 1-2, 8-9, 22-23

Psalm 125

James 2: 1-10, 14-17

Today’s reading from the Gospel of Mark is one of the most provocative, radical and intriguing passages in all of the Gospels.  It is a story that challenges our understanding of Jesus; and that asks us to take a very deep look at ourselves, and our attitudes towards others.  It is a text that has the power to transform our view of the world – but that is only if we are willing to be changed.

In order to realize the provocative and transforming nature of this text, it is necessary to follow the dynamics of it quite closely.

The story begins simply enough. “From there, [Jesus] set out and went to the region of Tyre.  He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there.”

We are not told why Jesus headed north into Gentile territory.  Perhaps he was trying to get away from the crowds; perhaps he needed a break from the disciples; perhaps the controversies that were beginning with the religious authorities were beginning to trouble him.  For whatever reason, his desire to get away for a while was coupled with a desire to remain anonymous.

Unfortunately, that desired anonymity did not last very long.  We read, “he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet.  Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin.  She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.”

The woman’s request was both understandable and usual.  After all, many came to Jesus in their times of need—and lots of them had received his help.

But this is where the unusual dimension of this story begins.  To our surprise --  and to our discomfort -- as readers, Jesus’ response to her was inappropriate, insulting and racist.

To the woman humbly bowing at his feet, Jesus said, “Let the children be fed first; for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

To realize just how insulting that these words are, it is interesting for us to realize that, in English, we have a word for female dogs that is sometimes applied to people – and to women in particular.   And that is essentially how Jesus was speaking about her.  You and your people are dogs. You are not from my country, or from my people.  You are a Gentile, a Syrophoenician, and I am a Jew.  The gifts and the power that I have is meant for the good of God’s chosen people—and you’re not one of us. 

We recoil from these words, for they seem so far from what we would expect from Jesus.  These are words of prejudice, rooted in an attitude of racist and religious superiority.  Such a picture of Jesus does not align itself very easily with our understanding of who he was.  After all, if Jesus was without sin, if he was both human and divine – as we have so often been told -- then how could he say such a thing?

Throughout the ages, Christians have been uncomfortable with this story.  Theologians and commentators have tried to soften the cutting insult that Jesus spoke to the woman, suggesting perhaps that he was testing her, or engaged in some form of friendly wordplay.  Unfortunately, such interpretations do not address the actual situation that is described in this passage.

But it is at this precise point that we are invited, I believe, into a deeper understanding of who Jesus was, and who we are called to be as his followers.

These words clearly remind us that Jesus, as well as being divine, was truly human; he had been raised– as we all are -- in a culture and in a religious and political context in which certain assumptions were made about who is acceptable and who is unacceptable, who is ‘one of us’ and who is ‘one of them’, who is in God’s good graces and who is not.  As such, Jesus been raised in a context in which there were assumptions about who was supposed to be the beneficiaries of God’s grace and power. And the woman who was appealing to him for help was not in one of the ‘acceptable’ categories. She was beyond the boundary of grace.

In this, it is easy to find parallels in our own lives.  None of us are free of biases, assumptions and prejudices about others.  Our culture, our political and ideological preferences, our personal histories, our understandings of the world, our religious beliefs—all of these influences invite us to draw distinct lines between ‘us’ and ‘them’.  Men and women, the rich and the poor, believers and non-believers, Christians and Muslims, Palestinians and Israelis, Protestants and Catholics, socialists and capitalists, gay people and straight people, the left and the right, the educated and the uneducated…so many lines, so many divisions, so many boundaries lines.

And, too often, these divisions not only keep us from seeing the humanity in the other, but also hold us back from acting with true and full compassion in their times of need.  The poor—well, why should we help them?  They have made irresponsible choices.  The sick—well, everyone knows that terrible diseases like AIDS or cancer are the result of bad lifestyle choices, unhealthy habits and immoral behaviour.  The oppressed—why get involved?  All that they need to do is to liberate themselves or pull themselves up like the rest of us have done.  Those who believe differently than we do?  Well, if only they would realize that we are right, then everything will be peaceful.  Yes, some people have it rough, yes, we know that others have problems, but they are not ‘our people’; they are not ‘us’; and our responsibility is to take care of our own.  Our culture, our prejudices, our political and religious systems constantly ask us to make distinctions, to draw lines between us and them.  Why should we use our power, our abilities, our resources to help them – shouldn’t we help our own first?

Today’s reading makes the strange and startling suggestion that Jesus was no different. 

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

But the woman’s reaction changed the entire dynamic of the situation.  She did not enter into a debate, nor did she try to defend herself.  In actual fact, she accepted his derogatory description of her, and placed herself in exactly the role that he had assigned to her. 

“…she answered him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.’”

OK, she was saying, so I’m a dog.  But my child is still suffering. Yes, my people might be dogs, but even the dogs get the scraps from the children’s table.  Please, please help my suffering child.

And it is at this point that the inspiring example of Jesus emerges and stands before us in all of its transforming power.

To her statement, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs,” he said, "For saying that, you may go--the demon has left your daughter."

The woman’s words had pushed Jesus’ understanding of the boundaries of grace.  He realized the truth in her words, and allowed his assumptions to be transformed. Even though his initial response to her had been rooted in all of the culturally, politically and religiously shaped attitudes and prejudices of his time; he demonstrated the wisdom, the humility and the compassion to be changed in his encounter with that strong, courageous woman who was bowing at his feet.

And, having allowed himself to be freed from his prejudice, he no longer had any reason not to help her.  Her daughter was healed.

That example continues to stand before each and every one of us.

Even though we are not immune from the tendencies and assumptions of our culture and our time, the actions of Jesus in this story set before us the fact that the path of discipleship, the path of following Christ, calls us to develop the capacity, as he demonstrated, to allow our attitudes and prejudices to be reshaped in our encounters with others. And, as those prejudices and assumptions about others break down, we begin to realize that, like Christ, we are called to use our God-given abilities, talents and power—even in the service of those who our human prejudices would initially lead us to dismiss as being unworthy of concern, and beyond the boundaries of grace. 

Both the world – and the church – need to ponder this calling in ever deepened ways. Both the world and the church need to allow God’s grace to push us beyond the boundaries of prejudice and exclusion.  We all need to ask ourselves how the example of Christ, in this passage, challenges our assumptions about how we should treat people of different religions, of different sexual orientations, of different theological or political viewpoints?  Do we have the capacity to allow our attitudes to be challenged and to change when we experience truth in our encounters with those who are different from ourselves? 

To be a follower of Jesus is to open ourselves – ever more fully – to the possibility of being transformed.  And the ability to be transformed is a prerequisite for accepting the Gospel. After all, the Gospel of Jesus Christ both reminds us that none of us have all of the answers or always act in the right ways, and at the same time it sets before us the vision of transformed lives in a transformed world.  It is a vision of a world where the love of God reigns supreme, and where obedience to God leads to the fullness and abundance of life for all; it is a vision of a world where love triumphs over prejudice and hatred; where enemies are loved; where conflicts and divisions give way to grace and reconciliation; where forgiveness triumphs over even terrible wrong. 

It is a vision that, unfortunately, led Christ to the cross, for it was this vision of a new type of community, a new type of kingdom that motivated him to defy the religious and political authorities of his time.  The kingdom of God, as Christ lived and preached it, had space for those who were otherwise deemed to be unacceptable.  And such a vision was too challenging, perhaps even too dangerous for those in power—so they tried to destroy that vision on a crude wooden cross.

But the resurrection of Christ proved, once and for all, that the power that lay behind that wondrous vision could not be overcome.

So it was; so it is; so it shall be.  In Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God has come; the kingdom of God is here; and the kingdom of God is coming.

As we await that kingdom, let us also allow our assumptions about the boundaries of grace to be pushed and expanded. Let us repent of anything that holds us back from exercising our power in acts of true and unconditional love for all people; and let us embrace, instead, a life transformed by the provocative, radical and intriguing good news of God’s love made known to us in Jesus Christ.