Matthew 15:21-28. "Humble Faith is Great Faith."

This Sunday sermon, based on Matthew 15:21-28, was preached at Grace of God Lutheran on August 20, 2023.  Scripture selections come from the New International Version. 

Our services are at 9:30am on Sundays mornings, at our campus in Dix Hills on Long Island. Visit our website for more information, at www.graceofgod.church.

Transcript

Humble Faith is Great Faith.

Matthew 15:21-28

Grace and peace to you in Jesus’ name, friends. Amen.

I’m going to assume that what was true for me in high school was true for you also. There was a “cool kids” table in the cafeteria. Maybe you sat there. Maybe you didn’t. Either way: Imagine yourself, for a moment, as a desperately uncool kid. Not cool, not academic, not athletic, not funny, not anything. 

You know you’re not allowed to sit at the “cool” table. No one has to tell you. You know how things work. If you’re in, you’re in; if you’re not, you’re not.

Thankfully, adults never deal with those kinds of feelings, right? We leave that silly stuff behind in high school, right? Adults never worry about whether people like them, are talking about them, will invite and include them. Adults never worry about being left out. Well…

Sinful humans do this. We obsess over status. We want to be in the group on top, and we want to push others down. The kids who aren’t at the “cool” table talk about how those kids are all phonies and hypocrites, “dumb jocks” and “bimbos.” The easiest way sinful humans can make themselves feel better about themselves is by tearing others down.

But in the Christian church, the apostle Paul writes, there is “neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” That verse gets misused, sometimes, as many Bible verses can be misused, to imply that the New Testament church makes no distinction between men and women, and the unique ways in which God intends for both to live in their relationships and in the church. That’s not what Paul is talking about there. What Paul means is that no one - no one whatsoever - is any more special than anyone else because of who they are. Indeed, it’s idolatry to find your value and worth in the circumstances of your natural birth. The only place - the only place! - where God wants you to find your value and worthiness is in his love for you. In the life of his Son, given for you. In his Holy Spirit, given as a gift to you bringing about your rebirth.

To have that attitude is what the Bible simply calls, humility. To regard myself as unimportant, unimpressive, and lowly, no matter who I am or what I’ve accomplished or what groups I belong to. To see others and their needs, always, as more important than me and my own. That’s humility. And God’s promise, throughout the Bible, is to exalt the humble and to cast down the proud.

That’s the dynamic we see at play in today’s Gospel reading. As we get into that text, you’ll see this truth brought out. Humble faith is great faith.

“Jesus went on from there,” the text begins. From where? Well, two weeks ago, we read about the feeding of the five thousand. And last week, we heard about Jesus walking on the water, Peter trying to cross over to him and starting to go under, Jesus rescuing him. Jesus specifically says to Peter, after rescuing him, something which we see was true in both stories. “Oh you of little faith,” he says to Peter. At the feeding of the five thousand, the disciples failed to ask Jesus to provide for the crowd. Little faith.

Between those stories and what we read this morning, we jumped over a small - but important - chunk of Matthew’s Gospel. After they reach the other side of the lake, Jesus and his disciples bump into - dun dun dun - the Pharisees. We’re studying this group and their conflict with Jesus in our current after-worship Sunday Bible study. The Pharisees come to Jesus with a complaint; an accusation. “Your disciples don’t follow the traditions our elders have handed down! They don’t perform a ritual hand-washing before eating.”

Jesus blasts them, as he always did, for being pious hypocrites. Not that the Pharisees were what you might call “gross sinners.” They were good, upstanding people. The example Jesus gives of their hypocrisy in this encounter kind of goes over our heads. He criticizes them for carving out a narrow loophole in the law of Moses allowing people to avoid supporting their parents with their money. Not that the Pharisees themselves did that, according to what we know about them! But they held that it was probably okay to do so, because of this loophole. 

This is what angers Jesus about the Pharisees, over and over. It’s not that they were wicked, immoral people. It’s that they were loveless. He says elsewhere that with all their rules and regulations, all their dictums about the proper way to live as God’s people, they laid heavy burdens on people, yet wouldn’t lift a finger to help those they had burdened. Loveless. And so Jesus says, “It’s not ‘unclean hands’ that will defile you. It’s the things that come out of your heart that defile you.” The Pharisees were loveless, slanderous, and proud. That defiled them more thoroughly than if they had eaten lunch sitting in pig slop.

But then Jesus goes and says what we hear him say in our Gospel reading. This woman - a scared, sorrowful mother - comes to him pleading and begging, terrified for her demon-possessed daughter. And Jesus calls her, a dog. 

If it is indeed what comes out of the heart - off the lips - that defiles, as Jesus says, then what does this say about him? We hear Jesus say this, and as modern Westerners in 2023, we can’t help feeling shocked. Jesus sounds like a racist! 

Bible commentators address that particular thought. And one thing that should be noted is the particular word that Jesus uses is not quite “dog.” The Greek word for “dog” in general is kúon, and Jesus calls this woman instead, kunárion, “a little pet dog.” The word definitely means, “a canine,” but the shading of it is important. I wish our English Bible reflected that a little more clearly by saying something like, “pet dog,” or, “lap dog.” What Jesus is saying is not, “Get out of here, you mutt,” but instead, “It’s not right to feed pets before children.”

Does that really make this a whole lot better, though? So maybe Jesus isn’t a hateful racist, but he’s at least a patronizing one. Or if “racist” feels like a strong word, maybe we reach for something like “prejudiced” or “biased.” There has to be some word, something we can use, to label this behavior.

Call it what you will - prejudice, racism, bias - all of these words simply describe, more or less strongly, the same stupid inclination of the natural human heart that creates things as pointless as “cool kids tables” and as cruel as Jim Crow. And Christianity has no room for any of it. 

Our first and second readings today made that clear. Through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord announced to his people, seven hundred years before Jesus, that his house - which is the Christian Church - would be called “a house of prayer for all nations.” To a congregation of Gentiles in the Greek city of Ephesus, seven centuries later, we heard the apostle Paul write that “you Gentiles are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.” So Paul writes to that group, later in that letter to them, that this is the life they ought to lead now. “Be completely humble and gentle. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace, because there is one body and one Spirit; one hope; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

So what gives in our Gospel reading? What is Jesus doing? What are these dismissive, unloving words that come off his lips? If there’s one Lord, one hope, one God who is Father of all people, then how can Jesus even say that he was sent only to Israel? How does any of this confusing story come together?

This story can only come together when we see what Jesus’ goal was here. When Jesus fed the five thousand, he wanted to stretch the faith of his disciples. When he called Peter out to him on the water, he allowed Peter to exercise his faith. But in both instances, the disciples proved that they had little faith; weak faith. When Jesus then landed on the other shore and encountered the Pharisees, he encountered not just weak faith, but no faith! No trust in him or in his mercy; only loveless self-reliance. 

So Jesus “left that place and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.” Jesus himself chose to go into this region populated by Gentiles. Why? Because it was high time the disciples saw strong faith in him at work. The crowds hadn’t shown strong faith. They completely misunderstood Jesus’ miracle and mission. The Pharisees hadn’t shown strong faith, despite all their pious posturing. Even Peter, a leader among them, had faced Jesus’ gentle rebuke when his faith wavered. No - it was time that they see what strong faith is like.

So Jesus goes into this region, where the Gentiles live. He lets his presence become known, so that this woman hears of his visit. She knows who he is. She knows that this is not just some miracle healer, a traveling conjuror. “Son of David,” she cries out to him. “Surely you are the promised one, the Messiah!” she’s saying. Not only the Son of David, but “Lord,” she calls him. Her God, her Creator. She knows who he is, and she knows who she is. This is key to true faith: Understanding the relationship between yourself and God. 

The Pharisees did not understand their relationship with God. They thought that they brought something to the table. They misunderstood themselves. The disciples, on the other hand, regularly misunderstood who Jesus was. On another occasion in a boat, when Jesus calmed waves threatening to sweep them over, the disciples marvel, “Who is this man?” 

But this woman understands who Jesus is, and who she is. She is humble. She knows that she brings nothing to the table; indeed, when he introduces this “pet dog” metaphor, she seizes it to illustrate exactly what their relationship is. “Yes, Lord, that’s exactly it! I have come to your table with nothing! And I know that even pets can expect a handout, because their masters love them.” This is great faith. Her humble faith is great faith.

We still have that question: What do we make of Jesus’ attitude toward her? Does he value her less than he values his own people? Does he regard her as less than himself, less than people of his own ethnic background? Is she, to use a technical word, dehumanized in his eyes? Less human than him, worthy of less dignity, less respect, less love, because of who she is?

“Woman, you have great faith,” he says to her. Here we see his heart all along. Everything up until now has been a show for the benefit of his disciples. He wants them to see someone chasing him, hounding him (pun intended). Someone holding him to his own promises of who he is. That he is not the God of any one tribe or people, but that he is the God of all! That he is not a God who expects us to bring something to his table, but instead is the God who rains manna out of heaven for the dinner tables of undeserving rebels.He wants the disciples to see someone chase him with dogged, indefatigable, humble faith. 

But he knows how his comments could come off to her. And so he not only teaches the disciples what he was looking for, but he comforts and rewards her. “Woman,” he calls her. She is human. A human being. Fully and completely, his dear creation. And then what does he say? Our English Bible reads here, “Your request is granted.” What he says literally to her is, “Let it be done for you just as you wish.” She’s sitting down at the table now, and he is her servant; her waiter. “What would madam like this evening?” Oh, this is our Jesus! He humbles himself to serve his humble people. How does Christ elevate the humble? He does not raise us up higher than others. That would be a worldly form of exaltation. Instead, he lowers himself. He makes himself your servant. He puts himself - his own body, his very life - at your disposal. “Ask and it will be given to you,” is his word. That is your exaltation; having Christ the Lord as your Servant.

With such a great and humble Savior at hand, may we humble ourselves in faith to cling to his promises, even when he seems cruel and distant. For he is not so. He is gentle and kind, and in him you will find rest for your soul. Amen.