Pentecost 15

Pentecost 15 (Mark 7:24-37)   “He has done everything well.”

Jesus reveals that God is universal unconditional love.

This was not what people believed in the first century.

People then believed that God had a favored nation and a favored segment of that population. The favored nation were the descendants of Abraham through Isaac, Jacob and Judah. The substance of divine favor is the perceived promise that Israel would rule the world under the leadership of a divinely anointed descendant of David.

Within the favored nation were the righteous elite. They were the ones who by their beliefs and behaviors earned divine reward, avoided divine judgment and had the right to judge, condemn, exclude and if necessary destroy the unrighteous. By definition Gentiles were unrighteous. They were not part of the covenant, the legal contract, God made with the favored people. They lacked the law. They embraced the wrong set of beliefs and practiced the wrong behaviors. The righteous frequently referred to the Gentiles as dogs- unfit to enter the house of God and fit only to serve as a slave.

This is the context for the conversation Jesus had with the Syro-Phonecian woman. The conversation was a process for Jesus’ disciples and for the woman and her famil, and for us. He quotes the accepted belief that the Gentiles do not deserve God’s favor in any way. At this point in the conversation the disciples are shaking their heads in agreement. They are feeling good that Jesus is reinforcing what they know to be true. They want Jesus to judge, condemn, exclude and deny healing to the woman and her daughter. They are sinners and even to speak with a sinner is an affront to the righteous.

Jesus breaks custom by speaking with the woman. He knows the xenophobia of his nation and his disciples. He grew up in a society where the righteous avoid and exclude the unrighteous lest they themselves become contaminated by sin.

Jesus also knows that the Greek woman is aware of this. He leads her through a process of spiritual discovery that deals with the power and pride of separation. He knows she is desperate. He knows she is willing to humiliate herself and grovel as a slave before him if that is what it takes to heal her daughter. She is motivated by love. It is that love that helps her to overcome her own fear and distrust of a Jewish Messiah. And, it is that love Jesus uses to re-educate his disciples about who God is and who they themselves  are.

The love produces an attitude of humility that empowers her faith. It is the love, the humility and the faith Jesus seeks to elicit from her. As in so many other instances of healing, the faith opens the way for grace through love.

This is not the way the religious people then thought God worked. They thought that right belief plus right behavior were both necessary conditions to earn God’s favor. Love had little to nothing to do with righteousness. Obedience, submission and condemnation were the elements of righteous attitude and action.

Lest we miss the point, Mark then tells the story of how Jesus heals another Gentile. This one is deaf and has a speech impediment. His physical disability symbolizes the spiritual disability of the disciples.  They are deaf to the clear and explicit word of God. In the prophet Isaiah God makes the scandalous statement that the Messiah will be a light to enlighten the Gentiles. A bruised reed he will not break. A dimly burning wick he will not quench.

The people of Isaiah’s generation rejected this teaching as did the people in Jesus’ generation. They wanted the judgment. They demanded the wrath. They expected the condemnation. They received the love.

This was too much for many who witnessed Jesus and listened carefully to what he taught. They could not accept that for their entire lives they had been so wrong. The fact that Jesus was actually fulfilling what Moses and the Prophets wrote made it only worse.

The righteous elites reacted to Jesus with anger and fear. The disciples were astonished and bewildered. But, those who the elites defined as unrighteous responded to the love of God in Jesus with a love that produced faith. They were the ones who exclaimed: behold, he has done all things well.

Religion without love perpetuates original separation from God. Religion that subordinates scripture to xenophobia subverts the Plan of Salvation. Jesus shows us the language of false religion in the first part of his conversation with the Greek woman. It is the language of judgment, exclusion and condemnation. Jesus engages the woman to help us hear the language of grace. It is the language of humility and unconditional universal love.

God is love.

Those who choose to remain aloof in their own perceived righteousness are missing their moment of grace. They are deaf to the word of God. Their tongues are tied and incapable of proclaiming the Good News of God. Yet, Jesus loves them, too. Jesus can heal them and set them free to receive the blessing of divine grace. All they need to is to make a choice to take their eyes off of their own perceived righteousness and look to Jesus. Listen to him. Open the mind to be taught by him. Open the heart to his own sacred heart of compassion. Surrender self-will by grace through faith in love.

There is no one whom God does not love. There is no one whom God authorizes us to judge, condemn and exclude. There is only and preeminently Jesus seeking the lost- those lost in sin as well as those lost in righteousness- with healing and transformation.