Mark 7:24-31
In last week’s gospel story (Mark 7:1-23) Jesus terminates purity religion. Keeping yourself clean to keep the offensive out would not be part of his kingdom message or way. This is not a sectarian holiness movement, like the Essenes, who were keeping themselves undefiled out in the desert. Jesus is not forming an exclusive group of “holier than thou” religious purists, self-righteous in their good works. Jesus has declared kosher laws dead and cleanliness rituals obsolete. Because the kingdom of GOD is not about purity laws that exclude. It is about pure hearts that bless and include and serve the weak and the poor.
But Jesus is put to the test in our gospel for today. Will he embody the new rules of the kingdom he is establishing as he goes along teaching and healing and walking to the cross? He is on a mission to reorient the Jewish community to love God by loving the neighbor; even the sin-sick, poor, wretched Gentile. But he is met by a woman, a stranger, a foreigner, a syro-phoenician woman---a Gentile. Whose daughter is possessed by demons! A single mom at her whits end—her daughter is using drugs, hanging out with this awful boy doing God knows what. Her only little girl curses at her almost every time she sees her. And now she is in real trouble. 16 years old. Sick. In danger. After a night of drinking and who knows what else, she comes home and calls for her mom, “mommy help me” she hears her say softly. Her daughter is lying on the floor convulsing. When she comes downstairs she finds her unresponsive, tremoring, vomiting. She calls 911 and the ambulance comes. She hears the medics begin CPR; she isn’t breathing. Oh my God. She says. Oh my God. No. As the ambulance speeds away, she falls on her knees in the front yard crying and she prays, “Lord, help me, I beg you. Save her. Please. I’ll do anything. Don’t let her die tonight.” No answer. And then the overwhelming self-doubt. Its my own fault. Her mind is racing. She thinks of her divorce and her alcoholic ex-husband’s abusive temper and how long her daughter had endured him. And she thinks of her own sins, her own missteps, her own sicknesses. She curses the damn cigarettes and the weight she has gained since the divorce. She curses the house in disrepair and the money she has spent on herself. She curses the second shift nursing job that prevents her from seeing her daughter in the evenings. She curses her distance from her sisters, who seem to have it together, and clearly judge her a failure. She is a failure. She curses her loneliness in the world. She is so angry with herself. She does not deserve God’s help. Would God even listen? Had God not turned his back on her, after all she had turned her back on GOD. She hadn’t been to church in 20 years. Her daughter had never been. And now she is on her knees begging for her daughter’s life. She dared to beg God. Why should God care about her or her messed up daughter? She clutched her stomach and sobbed and sobbed in the grass. This was it.
Why should God care? A purity religion might say, God doesn’t. God takes care of those who take care of themselves. Or God blesses those who are worthy, God-fearing, religious, faithful, etc…A sign of God’s blessing is prosperity, health, harmony. She is obviously cursed. Punished. God does not work on behalf of the ungrateful, on behalf of the sinful or the wicked. God does not care for those who reject God’s commands and laws. They are left to their own devises. They get what they deserve.
Jesus was in no way obligated to speak to this woman, in no way obligated to help. He could have ignored her. Jewish custom and religious habit, actually obeying God’s commandments, would require that he ignore her. She has three strikes against her: the wrong gender, the wrong race, and the wrong religion. Jesus was supposed to let this one go.
So why does Jesus help her? Is it not love? Not his, but hers. She loves her daughter enough to face rejection and humiliation, scorn, prejudice, misogyny, abuse. She could’ve been hurt or killed. And then where would her daughter be? She takes a bold risk in fear and trembling because she loves her daughter. Like all of us. She loves. Love is boundless. Ask anyone, who do you love? And they will tell you.
Jesus recognizes this maternal love. It is how he understands God the Father. Love. It is why he has come to teach and to suffer for sinners. Love.
The Kingdom of GOD has been opened for all who will hear this message of grace and tell its wonders. When have you begged God? When have you felt unworthy and yet somehow blessed? How has God saved your life or the life of one you love? This woman is out there. I met her. She is a neighbor. And God loves her too much to let her suffer alone. Jesus knows its safer and easier to hide, to ignore her, to walk away. There’s only so much I can do. Her story is overwhelming and her needs are too great. She is offensive to me and undeserving. God’s work. Our hands. Amen.