Jesus the jerk

Pentecost 10A

August 17, 2014

Matthew 15:21-28

I received a text this past Tuesday from a friend and fellow pastor which read “why is Jesus such a jerk this week?”  My first reaction was “what?” but then I read the Gospel text for today and my only response to her was “you’re so right, Jesus is a jerk this week.  I have no idea why.”

If what I just said makes you uncomfortable, you are not alone. 

The Jesus we have been brought up being trained to know and to love is the warm and fuzzy Jesus. The one who welcomes sinners and eats with them. The one who invites children to come sit with him so he can bless them.  The one who feeds people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.  I have never seen a picture of an angry Jesus. Even in the paintings of Jesus cleansing the temple, he still has more of a righteous indignation look on his face instead of straight up anger.  Who are you to call Jesus a jerk, pastor?  My Jesus is not a jerk. 

Except, in this case, he is. 

Let’s take a closer look at this story.  Jesus arrives in Tyre and Sidon, gentile territory, and is met by a Canaanite woman, a woman whose people were descendants of Ham, the son whom Noah cursed after the flood. The Canaanites were pagans and had not only been slaves of Israel, but were also considered to be their enemies.  Seeing Jesus and recognizing who he is, this woman pleads with him for help for her daughter but Jesus doesn’t answer her.  He ignores her.  He ignores her until she her cries for help become so annoying to the disciples that they ask him to send her away.  Then, after she once again pleads for help, Jesus speaks in such a way that she is equated with a dog. 

Let that sink in for a second.  The one who we proclaim as the savior of the world, the one who we call on in times of trouble, ignored this women and then called her a dog. 

If this story doesn’t trouble you…it should.

What is going on with Jesus?  Did he wake up on the wrong side of the bed?  Can’t we just go back to the Joseph story?  It’s a little bit warmer and fuzzier than what we are encountering here. 

If, however, we take a look at the news this week, and in the past few weeks, actually, it seems that warm and fuzzy is not what we need right now. 

Having Joseph tell his brothers that their attempt to harm him resulted in something good really doesn’t jive well when the photographs from Ferguson, Missouri look like an active war zone that has been easily compared with photographs from the Middle East and from our own country during the civil rights era.  When a mother and father are grieving the loss of a son whose life was taken by a police officer for a reason we may never really know.  When black parents all across this country are living in constant fear that their children will be treated differently by the police and the media simply because of the color of their skin. 

Having Joseph tell his brothers that their attempt to harm him resulted in something good doesn’t really jive well when commentators are referring to Robin Williams’ death as selfish and cowardly.  When they take no time to consider what it means for someone to be so lost and beaten down be a disease called depression that they become a victim of the demons living inside of them. 

Having Joseph tell his brothers that their attempt to harm him resulted in something good doesn’t jive well when only 0.2% of welfare recipients in Utah tested positive for drug use amidst allegations that welfare recipients are enabled by a government provided safety net which would allow them to use drugs without consequence.   

We don’t need warm and fuzzy right now.  Warm and fuzzy would just lead to complacency and that is the last thing that this world needs in this moment. 

What we do need is a very real and very human Jesus.  Right now we need a Jesus that is so human that even he isn’t immune to expressing a prejudice he was raised up with.  Right now, we need a human Jesus who will shake us awake to see all the terrible things in this world and the fact that, unless we say something, unless we stand up, unless we take action to rid the world of violence and injustice in our state, in our nation, and in our world, we are considered to giving our consent to the massive conflagrations taking place in this very moment in Ferguson, Missouri, in Israel and Palestine, in Iraq, everywhere where peace has been overcome by war. 

We need Jesus to be a jerk, sometimes, if we are going to look in on ourselves and see all of the places in which our prejudices get in the way of us looking like the little Christ’s that I spoke about two weeks ago. 

And so this morning we stand toe to toe with a very real, very human Jesus.  A very real human being who was taught to avoid those pagan Canaanites.  A very real human being whose purpose was to bring salvation to the lost sheep of Israel.  Period.  And we watch as this very real, very human Jesus, who is also very God, do something that happens time and again throughout the biblical witness.  He changes his mind. 

In this exchange between Jesus and the Canaanite woman, we are seeing Jesus changing his mind about the mission that he is on.  It is no longer just to save the house of Israel…now salvation is even available to the pagans.  Jesus changed his mind and his attitude about the Canaanites all because of the faith shown forth by a mother crying out on behalf of her sick daughter.

What if, though, part of the purpose of Jesus’ interaction with the Canaanite woman was to point out to the disciples just where their prejudices lay so that they could see where they are getting in the way of the Kingdom?  What if part of the reason that Matthew didn’t just jump to Jesus healing the Canaanite woman’s daughter is that he wants us to search ourselves and see where we are getting in the way of the Kingdom?  Because if Jesus is just a jerk, whatever the reason may be, it shows us that we very real human beings are much worse.  That we all have prejudices. 

Some come from how we were raised, others come from negative life experiences that we have had, while still others come from negative perceptions expressed in the public forum.  But regardless of where you picked it up, prejudice is not ok.  Prejudice blinds us to seeing the children of God-ness in others and therefore their value in this world.  It is very painful to admit that we are people of prejudice.  It is even more painful to fight our prejudices and rid ourselves of them.  If we do, though, our eyes and our hearts can be open to giving and receiving so much more love that our lives will be changed for the better. 

Because of Jesus’ interaction with the Canaanite woman, salvation was not just limited to the lost sheep of Israel, it became available to the whole world.  When Jesus went to the cross, it wasn’t just for a specific group, but for everyone…for all people. And Jesus’ mission didn’t just stop once he had defeated sin and death. There isn’t a big “the end” after the resurrection.  The mission goes on. The work continues and it will not end until God’s love wins and sometimes that means we have to endure a little bit of discomfort or some mild pain so that our kinks can get worked out so that when we sit at the eternal banquet table, the person sitting next to is someone whose company we can enjoy regardless of the color of their skin, their religious or political affiliation, or who they love.  In the kingdom of heaven, a KKK member will be able to enjoy the company of a black man, an anti-Semite will be able to enjoy the company of a Jewish woman, Trayvon Martin will be able to sit next to George Zimmerman and Michael Brown Jr. will be able to sit next to Officer Wilson in peace, because in the kingdom of heaven there is no prejudice.  There is no hate.  That means, though, that we have work to do getting rid of it all here.  It’s not going to be easy…but it will be worth it.