Saturday, 21 March Responding to the Messiah. Matthew 15:1–38
My NIV Bible divides this chapter up into two parts: first, ‘Clean and Unclean’, and second, ‘The Faith of the Canaanite Woman’. This is (perversely) a great help to me. These editorial divisions and labels are so often misleading, that I immediately suspect that this is not what I should be looking for in this chapter at all. So I go looking harder - and I am not disappointed.
The first part of the chapter deals with the traditional view that there are ritual states of clean and unclean, and that these matter a great deal. It is important that we understand that this tradition was just that – a tradition – and a fairly late one at that. It is not anywhere prescribed in scripture. It probably arose only in the few hundred years before Christ. So let’s get rid of one hoary old chestnut right here: Jesus is not proposing in this passage that any written biblical commands are to be abandoned. This anecdote is no defence for saying that the Old Testament laws have been abandoned.
The real thrust of this passage is that Jesus severely criticises the legal teachers for their hypocrisy and their blind adherence to human traditions. He points to their tradition that if something was ‘devoted’ to the use of the temple, then it could not be used for anything else. Some of the religious leaders were ‘designating’ part of their personal finances to the Temple – it was an accounting trick, much as a clever but unethical accountant might hide improper expenditure in a column called, say, Provisions, or Depreciation, or Bad Debts.
Once that money had been designated ‘to the Temple’, they would tell their aged parents that they didn’t have sufficient funds to care for them in their old age, so their parents were left in poverty. Jesus calls them back to the fourth commandment, Honour your father and mother. So, far from disparaging the Old Testament law, Jesus is strongly re-affirming it!
Jesus calls out these unethical practices and clarifies for the people and for the disciples that certain foods or drink don’t make you unclean. They're just food and drink! What really makes you unclean is what comes out of your mouth, not what goes into it. Lies, immorality, gossip, false testimony, snide sarcasms, social media ranting and bullying, violent or abusive talk, whispering, character assassination – all these are what make a person unclean, and which demand repentance.
Then, after this, Matthew gives us the story of the Canaanite woman. We should know by now that Matthew doesn’t do anything by accident. We must ask ourselves, why Matthew would place this incident just after Jesus’ strong critique of religious and social practice.
Many people read this story superficially. So did I, for many years. But now let us do three things: a) let us give Matthew the credit for careful structuring of his text; b) let us not assume that Jesus would ever do anything wrong; and c) let us observe the action behind the text.
Following our first prompt, let us be on the lookout for how this story might reinforce the previous teaching. Following the second prompt, let us not even bother to give airtime to any criticism of Jesus acting unkindly to this woman. For Jesus to act unkindly, unfairly, without compassion is just not an option. So what else is going on that we are missing? Let’s, following the third prompt, observe the action being described.
Jesus and the disciples leave the boundaries of Israel. Tyre and Sidon are foreign territories. Their inhabitants are Canaanites and Phoenicians. Jesus’ ministry focussed on Israel. This excursion is a bit of a holiday, a breather, a vacation, to gather strength for the next phase. Of course, Jesus is never on holidays, but his disciples think that they can utterly ignore the needs of the locals. After all, they're not Jews; so they are unclean.
So when the inevitable happens, and a local woman comes along with a problem, looking for a miracle, the disciples make the inevitable judgement on her. ‘She’s a wretched foreigner, not an Israelite. She doesn’t deserve to have any inheritance of God’s kingdom with us! We’re God’s chosen people, not her, the dirty foreign dog!’
Now we don’t have that text in our Bible, but if you read it carefully, you can see it behind the disciples’ words and actions in v23. We know for a fact that it is exactly how the Jews of Jesus’ day thought and acted.
Notice that Jesus does not join in on this vilification; he offers a simple comment on his ministry. Sure enough, it stokes their prejudices. The disciples are the real centre and focus of this story – not the woman, regardless of the editorial headings.
But then, Jesus ups the ante a little. He uses a phrase to the woman that he knows the disciples will pick up on: It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.
Now, we don’t have the benefit of a film version of this, that Judas secretly recorded on his iphone, and uploaded to JewTube. But we can imagine them sniggering, delighting in Jesus’ apparent send-up of this foreigner, and only a woman, too! ‘Yeah, you tell her, Jesus!’
Jesus inevitably and graciously grants her plea. But of course, Jesus is not worn down by her insistence as people often suggest. He hears the woman’s grief and responds in true compassionate love. He is, after all, the perfect Jew, the perfect human, the perfect Adam. That is what God’s kingdom looks like: it ignores ethnic boundaries.
And Matthew uploads this story for us in his Gospel, hoping we will see the subtext, the sneers behind their religious façade, their hatred of foreigners, and the ugly, narrow borders of their prejudices.
Matthew has placed this story here, not to show Jesus as a reluctant witness to the Gentiles, but doing exactly what every Jew had been called to do since Abraham was first called by God to create the nation of Israel (Gen. 12:2–3): I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. … in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
As we reflect on this chapter, let us hear Jesus’ voice to us:
Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Stop worrying about traditions and forms that you think make you look holy. I’m interested in your actions and your words – but mostly your words. Clean your insides – purify your heart – and then what comes out of your mouth will be pure and lovely and honourable and will show you to be of a noble character and a gracious spirit.
Prayer: Ouch! Lord Jesus Christ, I hear your voice loud and clear. How often have I been heard criticising other people – even my fellow-Christians. How can I tear my brothers and sisters apart with my words, and then come and sing songs of praises on Sunday morning? Cleanse me, Lord Jesus Christ, from the inside out, please. Help me to be a vessel of clean water to be poured out for others and refresh their souls. Amen.
