Why Are You So Offended? Perhaps You Shouldn't Be
Text: Matthew 15:21-28
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
What a jerk! Yes, what a jerk to call a woman a dog! Can you
imagine? And in you aren’t, you should be offended right now! Jesus just called
that Canaanite woman a yippy and annoying dog.
What a bigot! What a sexist! What a misogynist! If you are not
triggered yet, you should be right now – Jesus just called her a
dog!
My friends, this story of Jesus and the Canaanite woman has
offended many throughout the ages, especially in our generation. The way that
the disciples and Jesus treated the Canaanite woman is considered not only rude
but also incredibly offensive to the modern feminist movement. In fact, many
liberal theologians are greatly offended by the reading from the Gospel of
Matthew. They believe that this passage
shows Jesus as a misinformed sexist and harsh misogynist. In fact, these
liberal theologians will go so far as to say that the woman’s persistence served
to create a teachable moment for a male chauvinistic Jesus. They teach
that the Canaanite’s persistence actually helped open the eyes of a racist
Jesus to the fact that His mission was not only for the Jews but also for a
greater audience.
And so, according to liberal theologians, Jesus had to learn
from the Canaanite woman so that He could not be a racists and a sexist. Jesus
had to learn that the Gospel was for Canaanites and women too. Jesus had
to learn to be accepting of all people different from Him – that there were no
boundaries.
What this means, according to liberal theologians, is that
today’s Gospel reading from Matthew is more about the Canaanite Woman teaching
Jesus than Jesus teaching the woman. Liberal theologians would have you read
today’s Gospel lesson with the Canaanite woman being the hero and Jesus being
the villain. The theme is: don’t be like
the prejudiced and racist Jesus but be like the all-inclusive and loving
Canaanite woman.
Now, perhaps these liberal theologians might have a point.
Perhaps we should be offended by the words of Jesus. Maybe we should get
triggered and upset and worked up. Maybe we should work ourselves up into
a frenzy. But there is only one problem with everything that we have talked
about thus far. And that is this – the Canaanite woman was not offended or
insulted by being called a dog in the first place. When Jesus called her a dog,
she responded,
“Truth, Lord, I
am a dog, but even though I am a dog, I should get scraps from the master’s
table.”
In other words, the Canaanite woman does not shout back,
“You are a
misogynist and a sexist Jesus! How dare you call me a dog!”
The Canaanite woman does not use the opportunity to victimize
herself. She accepts the fact that she is a nobody; she accepts that she is a
dog underneath the table. She accepts the fact that she is a beggar. There
were no phrases like: ‘yeah
but’ or ‘that
sounds intolerant Jesus’ or ‘gee that is not a loving thing to say.’ Rather,
she accepts the classification. She is not offended in the least but agrees
with the term. When Jesus called her a dog, she immediately responds by saying,
“Yes, Verily, Truth.”
Dear friends, we will always be offended by Jesus when we come
before Him with our own agendas, ideologies, and expectations, just like the
liberal theologians do. And when we are
offended? Well, the only option is to
turn against Jesus and make Him into the bad guy like liberal theologians do. But some of us are not comfortable making Jesus
into the bad guy, so we start playing that stupid game called, ‘Jesus didn’t mean what He said in the
Bible but meant something else.’ And that ‘something
else?’ Well, it is typically what we want Jesus to say to prop ourselves up
with comfort.
But today it is hard to twist the words of the Canaanite woman.
It is tough to try and get offended when she was not offended to begin
with. And so, we are left with her clear
words of agreement.
Now, with that said, what are we to make of her agreeing with
Jesus that she is a dog? Well, Jesus says that she has great faith. Consider
our Gospel reading again: she admits that she is a dog and then barks out with
faith, demanding that as a dog that she has a right to crumbs that fall on the
floor. You see, her faith is great for two simple reasons. She
accepts the title of dog; she is not offended by the title. She accepts it, and
then, secondly, she barks for crumbs of grace.
Dear friends, today, at the beginning of our Divine Service, we
did not admit to being a dog but admitted to being poor miserable sinners who
deserve temporal and eternal punishment from God Almighty. That is right; we
agreed with what God says about us in His Holy Word – the Bible. We agreed
that we are sinners. We admitted to the truth that we have failed. We
confessed that God would be completely justified in sending a lightning bolt to
smite us for our disobedience. Like the Canaanite woman, we accepted the
truth about ourselves that we do not deserve a seat at the table but are a dog
at the Master’s feet. We did not debate, correct, or blame God for calling us
sinners in thought, word, and deed.
And so, beware of people who are not willing to be called a
sinner or to be a sinner. They are not advocating Christianity; they do not have
great faith.
Beware of people who loathe and detest the confession of sins –
those who say that they are not poor, not miserable, and not a sinner. They are
not advocating Christianity; they do not have great faith.
Beware of people who use a lot of words to rationalize away why
they are not a dog or a sinner. They are not advocating Christianity; they do
not have great faith.
Beware of those who believe Jesus is doin’ a new thing in the
twenty-first-century as if Christ needs to be re-educated to be politically
correct – as if He is somehow wrong. They are not advocating Christianity; they
do not have great faith.
And be especially aware of claiming yourself to be free of sin.
Believing that you are without sin is only fooling yourself. A claim like that
is naïve nonsense.
But instead, dear Baptized Saints, agree to the truth and the
term ‘sinner’ – like that Canaanite
woman – and then cry out to the Lord with boldness. Confidently beat your
chest, saying, “I am a
poor miserable sinner,” and then boldly cry out even
more, “Lord, be gracious
and merciful to me, for the sake of Jesus,” for this is great
faith.
Dear Baptized Saints, the Canaanite woman is a picture of the
Christian Church. She is a picture of the Church living by faith – always
admitting that we are dogs, always crying out to Jesus, always trusting in
Jesus, and always relying on Jesus. She is a picture of you and me coming to
this sanctuary each and every Sunday confessing that we are nothing more than
dogs, yet we still rise up with great faith and come before this altar to
receive sips of wine and crumbs of bread from the Master’s Table.
Baptized Saints, hear this loud and clear! Great faith is not
pretending that you are sinless, powerful, and strong – a super Apostle. Great
faith is not having confidence in your abilities or accomplishments. But
instead, great faith consists in agreeing with Jesus about your sinful
condition. Great faith is when you find no comfort in yourself and your
abilities but cling to the grace and Word of Jesus alone. Great faith says,
“I am a great sinner, but I have an even greater Savior.”
Great faith is confessing sin and then grabbing Christ by His
ankles – never letting go – because even the smallest of His bread crumbs of
grace is bigger than all of your sins.
But never forget, as we saw with the Canaanite woman, it was
impossible for Jesus to turn away from her. And so it is the same for you. Yes,
Jesus opposes the proud, but when you cry out for grace, you do not merely have
a share in the crumbs and morsels of the Lord under the table, but you are
given a seat with Christ at His table. Yes, even though you confessed you were
a sinner today, at the beginning of the service, you have a seat at the Lord’s
Table where you receive His true body and blood.
Hear this today! It is
impossible for the fount of divine mercy to remain shut to poor miserable
sinners clinging to Jesus by faith because Jesus did not come for the
super-elite, the religious superstars, or the cream of the crop but came for
dogs, sinners, and ragamuffins - like you and especially like me.
We confess boldly our sins, and we believe even more boldly in
the Gospel that is spoken in our ears, pour on our heads, and laid in our
tongues.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
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