the dogs

Scripture: Mark 7

24 From there he 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.

Observation:

Jesus has basically left Israel and entered a predominantly Gentile territory.  He is in what is now  Lebanon.  He has just finished teaching his position on Kosher cleanliness laws that set Jews apart from non-Jews.  Jesus rejects these laws as the basis of morality and religious exclusivity.  He says that what comes out of the human heart, not what one eats or does not eat,determines how faithful someone is.  Its not how badly you eat that determines what kind of a person you are, but how badly you treat other people.
And then he meets a woman whose daughter is possessed. Think of her daughter as a heroin addict.  Or struggling with severe schizophrenia. This woman somehow hears about Jesus (his message and mission precede him, he is known beyond the borders of Israel now).  She comes seeking help.  He flatly and rudely denies her.  Because she is a "dog", a non-Jewish woman---a nobody to a righteous Jewish rabbi.  He says, "the children are fed first."  Jesus is prejudiced against her.  But her humble and bold response lets him know that she believes he alone can and should help her.  So he does. If he had rejected her, would his mission fail to expand and welcome Gentile women?  And what would that have meant for the future of his movement? Jesus' teaching is put to an actual test.  How far does inclusion in God's kingdom go?  Who is eligible for help, for God's mercy, for Jesus' life-giving power?  Who is ineligible?     

Application:  

Have you ever been ignored, rejected, or disqualified from anything because of your race, ethnicity, culture, language?  If not, you experience privilege.  Many people experience daily ineligibility and denied access because of those things.  Because of skin color or metal illness.  Prejudice and privilege seem to be natural expressions of the human condition.  And yet, we are called to a higher way.  Jesus' heart and mind was changed by a mother's tenacious, pride-swallowing insistence that Jesus help her daughter.  Dorothy Day, activist, said "I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least."     Being on mission with Jesus will take us to new territory, outside of our safe, comfortable, suburban worlds.  We will encounter people who are not like us.  Will we embrace and help them?  Or will we deny and reject them?  Who do I love the least? Who are the "dogs" God intends for us to welcome and serve? 

Prayer:

Jesus, as a Lebanese mother once challenged and changed your mind, so now challenge and change us so that we might see the person or people you need us to love and serve.  Open our eyes to see and our arms to receive with mercy those who are suffering on the margins of community.  Amen.