The Word of God is always relevant. Often times, and maybe you’ve noticed this too, the particular passage chosen and appointed for a given Sunday somehow seems eerily pertinent to the happenings of the day. I’ve seen this happen with individual Christians – who notice that whatever problems they are facing sometimes are addressed by that passage of the day. I’ve also seen it happen many times with the broader issues we face in the public square, in the culture wars, or the news headlines of the day.
Sometimes preachers get blamed for not speaking directly
enough to the issues in the national conversation. And sometimes, preachers seem to find every
excuse to shoehorn the word and make it speak to their pet issues according to
their own agenda. But let’s avoid either
of these extremes. Rather, our aim
should be to preach the word as it is given.
To apply it where it applies (and of course, it always does). And to let the chips fall where they
may. Sometimes the connections are right
in front of us, easy to make, and we should have the courage to say what God’s
word says to our world.
And so today, perhaps you noticed that all three of our
readings, somehow or another, touch on the topic of race. No, it’s not Black and Hispanic and White and
Asian. It’s Jew and Gentile. The Israelites and the “Goyim”, that is, the
“nations”.
In the reading from Isaiah, we hear that God intends his
house to be a “house of prayer for all nations”. It’s sort of the Old Testament version of the
Matthew 28 “Great Commission”, where Jesus sends his disciples to baptize and
teach “All Nations”.
In our Epistle, Paul discusses his ministry to the Gentiles,
and his sorrow for his own people, the Jews, who as a whole rejected
Christ. But the underlying theme is the
desire of God to have mercy on all, and that all would be saved – Jew and
Gentile alike.
Then there’s Jesus and the Canaanite woman in our Gospel
reading. And at first, it seems very out
of character for Jesus to deny the woman’s request. Even worse, it seems he’s denying her because
she’s of the wrong race! Not a Jew but a
Canaanite. Not one of the children, but
one of the dogs, as the Jews called them – no nicer a smear today than it was
then.
Is Jesus here being a racist? Is he asserting the superiority of his own
people over their neighboring tribe? Is
he withholding his blessings from someone who isn’t deserving because of her
ethnic origins? No.
The best understanding is that Jesus is testing her faith,
or proving it – by his apparent unwillingness to help. He knows, of course he knows, that he will
help her. But he gives her faith a
chance to shine. What a good confession
she makes. She traps the Lord Jesus in
his own analogy: “Even the dogs eat the
crumbs that fall from the table”. Great
is your faith, woman! Your daughter is
healed. And Jesus is anything but a racist.
His compassion knows no such barriers.
Jesus is the same God who proclaimed salvation for all
nations in Isaiah 56 and wants disciples of all nations in Matthew 28. He’s the same Savior who was hailed as king
of the Jews, and even named so on his cross.
But he’s also the savior of the nations, who desires all to be saved and
come to a knowledge of the truth. God so
loved the world that he sent his only Son, not just some of the world, but all
men and women, young and old, rich and poor, all races and peoples and tribes
and languages.
So why is this so hard?
Well because of sin, of course.
Sin touches every corner of our experience, every aspect of our humanity
– and not just our deeds but also our words and thoughts. And so sin corrupts how we relate to our
neighbors. Sin will use any excuse to
act apart from love – and if your skin color or ethnic origin is a convenient
hook – then there the sinner tends to go.
The ancient Jews certainly had a bad case of ethnic
self-assured superiority. “We have
Abraham as our father, after all! We
have Moses and the Prophets! We have the
temple! We’re not corrupt half-breeds
like those Samaritans over there. And
we’re certainly not rank pagans like that woman who begged Jesus on behalf of
her daughter. We’re better than
that. We’re the good people.” You can almost taste the arrogance.
Remember when Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh? It wasn’t out of fear of public speaking. It wasn’t because he didn’t think he had what
it takes to be a prophet. No, Jonah
tells God exactly what it was – after he finally preached and the Ninehvites
miraculously repented – and God relented from destroying them. Jonah raged against God for have mercy on
those wicked people! He said “I knew
this would happen! This is why I
ran!” In the end Jonah looks like a fool
as God calls him out for his jingoism, or as we would say today probably, his
racism.
Now, to what extent racism is a problem for you I will leave
you to ponder in your own conscience. Christians need not find an imagined sin
under every rock, nor are we above confessing a sin when we truly commit
it. But at the root of the sins related
to race is the sin of pride. The
arrogance of thinking oneself something when you are really nothing.
Imagine if the woman who came to Jesus reacted to him in
sinful pride: “Are you calling me a dog!?
Who do you think you are! We
Canaanites were here long before you Israelites came on the scene. You’ve victimized our people for over a
thousand years!” And then one of the disciples
might answer, “Who do you think YOU are!
We’re the Jews! We’re the chosen
people! Pay some respect, lady!” And on and on it might have gone.
When we are insulted or mistreated – for our race, or our
affiliation, or our beliefs, or any other reason – sin often wants to claim
rights and prove our superiority and station and denigrate another to do it. Who do you think YOU are? Don’t you know who I am? Show me some respect! I deserve that!
But look what this woman did instead. She humbled herself. She admitted, implicitly, that she is indeed
a dog, and a beggar. She counted herself
unworthy. No pride here, just a need of
help. And a looking to the only one who
could help, Jesus. Friends, this is the
way of faith. We should all take note.
We too, are beggars at the Lord’s table, and unworthy of the
gifts. Not because of our ethnic
heritage, but because of the corruption that goes much further back in our
family tree, back to Adam. There is the
true and sad unity of all races and peoples – in the disobedience of Adam. All are one – born under the law. Born subject to death. Conceived in sin and unable to escape
it. And this common condition of all men
and women is far more significant than culture, heritage or what we call
“race”.
We need Jesus just as this Canaanite woman did. You may have a request like she did – for
healing or freedom from spiritual oppression.
You may be praying for a fix to your marriage or a job you can depend
on. You may ask God to help your
wandering children or to help you manage your stress. And these and all our needs are good and
right to bring before him. He himself
teaches us to pray for daily bread, and promises to provide far more than
crumbs from the table.
But we also need Jesus to save us. To save us from our haughty and arrogant
selves. To save us from the ridiculous
pedestals on which we plop ourselves, thinking that we can be like God. Save us from our sense of superiority – first
by a right view of our own ugly nature – and then by the grace and mercy that
you so freely give. Save us from the filthy rags of our own good works with the
perfect obedience that only Jesus could accomplish.
This is Jesus, the living bread from heaven, who feeds the
world with himself. This is Jesus, the
king of the Jews and Lord of All Nations, who by his cross removes the pall of
death that covered all people. This is
Jesus, who humbles himself unto death, even death on a cross. This is Jesus, who calls Jews and Canaanites,
Samaritans and Americans and every other people group there may be – the find a
new oneness in his body the church. Here
all are clothed with the white robe of Christ’s righteousness that covers our
sin.
I don’t have the solution to racism in our world. I’m not here to opine about public policy or
what kind of activism you should undertake.
And I certainly don’t have a slogan for you to put on your bumper
sticker. Scripture does inform the
Christian’s view of race relations, but there are many aspects of it that we’ll
continue to have to work through. What
we can say for sure is this. All have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God and all are justified freely by his
grace. And the picture of heaven we see
in Revelation 7 makes it clear that it consists of believers of all tribes and
peoples and languages. Race as we think
of it simply isn’t an issue for God. He
calls all people to faith in Christ. May
we follow in the example of that Canaanite woman, trust in Christ to give us
far more from his table than we deserve, and live in and by the same faith.
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