We are all connected;
To each other biologically
To the earth, chemically
To the rest of the universe atomically. --deGrasse Tyson

Last week, we saw Jesus letting us know what it means to be “holy” or “different” as opposed to “common.” Hint. It’s not about our perceived physical or biological differences! This week, we see him once again affirming the strength of what binds us together as a “common” people, as a “common” creation! Jesus spends a lot of time in the passages we are reading right now to make sure we understand that all people are beloved of God –even those designated by the Jewish faithful as “gentiles.” He has just spent a great deal of time explaining to his disciples and the Pharisees that what makes someone “common” or koine (translated in our scriptures as defiled) has nothing to do with heritageor rule following but with the state of the heart and one’s desire for and faith in God, that which issues in a loving, kind, merciful, and compassionate spirit. After this conversation, which his own disciples still find difficult and opaque, he will deliberately lead them purposefully into gentile territory (where the supposed “common” folk dwell), where he will demonstrate a number of “teachable moments” that will challenge not only his contemporaries but us still today.

It's impossible therefore to splice and dice these passages of scripture and look at them individually. This has typically resulted in huge misinterpretations. We need to read these stories whole, in context, and as Jesus’ actions unfolded. When we do, the beauty of his expertise as a master teacher emerges.

Discipleship was meant not to merely be a series of “lectures” or “book study.” Discipleship in Jesus’ time meant observing and engaging with the master as he interacted with others and demonstrated and acted out the precepts and character-building and faith-forming theses that he wanted his disciples to understand. Jesus was not interested merely in imparting knowledge; he was interested in changing peoples’ entire “worldview.” This required a kind of holistic understanding that needed to be experienced.

So, let’s follow Jesus as he takes this journey to demonstrate the “real life” lessons behind his lecture on what it means to be “defiled” or “common.” From Syro-phoenicia to the Decapolis, this is an important series of teaching events that illuminate Jesus’ “gentile mission,” a mission to prove that we are all God’s beloved.

Still today, one of the most difficult challenges for us as human beings lies in being able to see those outside of our group of familiar people as family. The irony of course reveals itself in that we are all in some way related. One of humankind’s greatest myths is that we must be defined by our differences, despite knowing that any two human beings are 99.9 percent identical. Not only are we interconnected as human beings, but with all creatures, that is all that is living, that inhabit this planet we call earth.

Did you know in fact that you share 84% of your DNA with your dog? Not only that, humans and dogs share a remarkable amount of habits, preferences, lifestyles, and health trends, says Mimi Padmabandu.And not just dogs. We share habits and DNA to some extent with all creatures on our planet. Despite our differences, with which we tend to define ourselves the most, we are remarkably similar. Jesus wants us to know that while God wants us to celebrate our uniqueness, God always wants us to recognize our commonness, our mutual bonds, our sisterhood to all of creation. For when we recognize that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves, part of a unique ecosystem, a created world in which we play one part, our entire worldview changes.

Today’s scripture, as transcribed by both Mark and Matthew, Jesus once again has trouble getting his points across to disciples whose mindset is firmly nestled into Jewish tradition and bias. In order to have them see and hear differently, he needs to “show” them exactly what he means. To do this, he takes them out of Jewish territory and into the region of Tyre and Sidon. There, his disciples react as he expects them to, with their typical Jewish bias against a Canaanite (Greek, Syrophoenician) woman, who they see as a “bother,” just as they would a wild dog from the streets. In Matthew’s text, they ask Jesus to send her away from them, lest they be “defiled.” This sets the “stage” for Jesus’ teachable moment.

[If you can, have people act this out so they can see the expressions of the disciples during the interaction and their shock as Jesus turns the tables on their assumptions.]

Canaan (Syrophoenicia) is the age-old pagan region that later became part of the “promised land.” The Canaanites and later the Greeks worship other gods. They engage in a polytheistic religion, and they practice foreign traditions, rites, and rituals. Their beliefs do not align with the Jewish faith. 

When a Greek woman comes to Jesus and begs him to heal her daughter, Jesus first tests her faith in him. But at the same time, he is also testing the “bias” of his own disciples, by saying exactly what they expect him to say. Well….not quite.

Jesus says, “The children have to be fed. It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their pets.” 

She replies, “Lord, even the puppies under the Master’s table eat of the children’s crumbs.”

Jesus replies “Good answer!” in Mark’s gospel. In Matthew’s he commends her for her “great faith,” a comment he never gives his own disciples.

At that, he heals her daughter.

A number of things have just happened here in that twinkling of an eye: 1) instead of treating her like a “street dog” as his disciples saw her and expected him to, he instead slyly calls her a “pet” –the word iskunaria, a puppy that one keeps as a house pet; 2) the bread, or God’s Word and Jesus gift of his body, which has been calling himself in our scriptures all this month, is to be fed to the entire family –not only those of the Jewish family who already know God, but even those who don’t understand God but still are a beloved part of the family; and 3) she recognizes what he is saying, and she understands that she is beloved by God no matter what her heritage, her background, her language, her gender, or even her faith. She, more than Jesus’ own disciples, understands the grace and love of God, and she recognizes the attributes of YHWH and recognizes them in Jesus. She sees him more than his own contemporaries!

Now, I want you to notice something here too. Jesus does not demand that she repent, that she become Jewish, that she turn away from her pagan religion, that she change anything about herself. He simply commends her faith and heals her daughter.

How that must have smarted to Jesus’ disciples. Imagine their look of shock, as he commends the faith of a pagan woman (considered by them to be a defiled gentile dog) more than he commends theirs!

The word “puppy” or “pet” is a clue. For how do you feel about your pets? Sure, you may not look like your dog (although maybe some of us do). You may not behave like your dog or consider your dog the same as your human family. But boy do we love our dogs! They’re our beloved pets, furry members of our families. We adore them. They are loyal to us, and they love us. We hug them, feed them, share our lives and beds with them. They are a vital and important part of our family! Our family tree contains us and also our pets!

While Jesus’ interaction sounds strange and harsh to us today, what he was doing was creating a metaphor for his disciples to understand. This woman is not a “defiled” street dog. She is an honored, cherished, beloved part of their family –God’s family, and as such, she deserves to be healed, accepted, loved, and honored like everyone else.

After this encounter, Jesus would go on to the Decapolis, ten Greek cities in solidly gentile country. There he would not only heal a man deaf and mute, but he would duplicate his feeding of the Jewish people by feeding 4,000 plus gentiles, with 7 baskets remaining, driving home to his disciples that all people are God’s beloved. And he will heal, love, bless, feed every one of them that he can!

In our world today, we can be so easily tempted to “demonize” or “separate” others according to our bias and their perceived differences. But our eyes can easily deceive us! For we have more in common than we think.

In order to put our “judging eyes” at bay, we need instead to open our ears to the Word of God, the Bread of Life, Beloved Son of God, for he has come not to “condemn” the world but to “save” it. And that goes for everyone!