Sunday 8^th September 10am Parish Communion

In our Gospel reading Jesus, a first century Jew, has a fascinating encounter with a Syrophoenician woman, a non-Jew, a Gentile.

And in Jesus’ time, there were some significant and insurmountable barriers and boundaries between Jews and Gentiles. The Jews were the people of God, and the Gentiles had their own gods, they were outside the covenant, the contract that the one God and Creator of all had made with the people of Israel.

While these particular boundaries may be alien to us, our society has many other boundaries between people of different class, race, ethnic background, religion or church tradition, social-economic status, sexual orientation, political or other convictions and many more.

And Jesus comes to break down not only these boundaries, but also these identities, and give us a new identity in Himself.

And in our Gospel reading we see the first cracks that are beginning to appear in having a Jewish identity as opposed to a Gentile identity, even though it’s not an easy reading!

Just before our Gospel reading, Jesus has been talking about clean and unclean foods, and about ritual washing of hands, which were huge marks of Jewish identity, and Mark summarises Jesus’ teaching as: ‘Thus he declared all foods clean’. A shocking statement in the Jewish world. I struggle to think of what would be the modern equivalents, and the best I could come up with was that Jesus declared all football clubs equal and that both countries equally deserve to win the test match.

After this has happened, very likely to escape some of the people Jesus has angered with what he said, Jesus goes to the region of Tyre. Jesus goes abroad, he goes outside Israel, so of course it is no surprise that he meets Gentiles on his way, and, there would be people there that knew him as Mark tells us earlier that multitudes came to Jesus from near and far, including from this region.

But after challenging a major part of Jewish identity, it is no coincidence that Jesus goes into Gentile territory and puts himself in the position where a Gentile will approach him for help and healing.

And so it happens, and it leads to a fascinating and puzzling conversation.

A Gentile woman approaches him, begging for him to help her daughter who is possessed by a demon.

And Jesus responds, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ 

It seems quite a rude response. 

Comparing someone to a dog cannot be considered to be polite. Even in our day and in this place where people love dogs very much, I don’t think it would be considered to be a compliment.

So what is going on?

• It is worth noting that giving any response at all is already beginning to break the boundaries. Many Jewish teachers like Jesus would not have responded to a woman asking questions, let alone to a Gentile woman.
• Jesus compares her to a dog using the diminutive, and in Greek, as actually in Dutch, the diminutive is often endearing, and refers to a house dog, a pet, rather than a wild dog that might be roaming the streets in those days. By using this word, Jesus incidentally also opens the way to the woman’s response, because a house dog would indeed be able to eat from under the table of the children!
• One commentator makes the point that, Jesus’ tone of voice made no doubt all the difference. We can call someone names in a voice of contempt or in a voice of affection, and it is very likely that Jesus said it in the second way, possibly even with a smile. 
• Is Jesus maybe saying it teasingly? In contemporary Jewish sources Gentiles, non-Jews, were sometimes referred to as dogs, so is Jesus maybe teasingly referring to this expression – maybe heightened by the fact that he uses the more endearing diminutive – and almost inviting her to challenge this?
• And then point 5 and 6, are maybe the most significant of all. Jesus’ response, very definitively does not shut the door to her. He tells her that the children ought to be fed first, emphatically implying that those dogs, those outside Israel, will be fed!
• In any case, we know often in the Gospels Jesus begins a conversation with those who He will heal, even though he knows perfectly well what they need. He wants to test their faith, and He wants to hear them confess it, and so he challenges this woman to see where she is at.

The woman’s response to this is brilliant, and must have brought a smile to Jesus’ face.

‘Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’

As one commentator states it, she is arguably the one person in the Gospels who actually gets the better of Jesus, which then more blows up the boundaries between Jew and Gentile, man and woman.

It is enough to make Jesus turn around, commend her for her strong faith, and give her what she wants, and the daughter is healed from that hour.

And the once so significant boundary between Jew and Gentile begins to crumble.

And the words of this woman are in both the prayers we sometimes use before we receive communion. ‘we are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table’

‘we were not fit even to eat the crumbs from under your table.’

When I first became an Anglican, this sentence was one of my favourite parts of the liturgy. And still is.

It is appropriate this is in our prayer before communion, because it is when we are invited at Christ’s table, we are all equally invited to come and eat.

To leave behind those old identities that have become too important to us, and to become new, transformed people in Jesus’ identity, and to offer our lives to Him, do what He says, and to go out and be his people in the world around us.

It is not the old identity of who we were or are that is what defines us but that what God wants and calls us to be.

May we have the courage to leave behind our old identities and to take up Jesus’ new identity, and may we see Jesus in each other.

Amen.