Mark 7:24-37 (NRSV)
From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." But she answered him, "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." Then he said to her, "For saying that, you may gothe demon has left your daughter." So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."
This Gospel account of the encounter between the Canaanite Woman and Jesus, concludes with Jesus healing a person who cannot hear. As the story unfolds we get the impression that Jesus is not quite the compassionate Savior that we think he should be. Just about every encounter between Jesus and others who are sick, dying, even demon possessed is met by Jesus with the greatest compassion. So what's so different about this one? An even better question is what are we to understand from this Gospel story?
Jesus like everyone was raised in a culture filled with it's own traditions, issues and it's people struggling to accept each other. The woman who comes to Jesus is an outcast of the community. She is someone that almost no one wants to associate with. The culture in which Jesus was raised in, looks upon this woman as someone who is "outside" of everyone's social group. However, if we say that Jesus was affected by a racist attitude, it suggests that even the Son of God in his human weakness was not above the attitudes of the day. My problem with this is it seems to undermine the Divinity of Christ, and suggest that the humanity of Christ is somehow superior to the Divine. If that is true, the philosophy of the Divinity of Christ has a big problem. As Christians, we understand that the Divine nature and the human nature are both complete and total. They are opposites, but both equally true. How can the God of all creation who comes to us with a human face in the Person of Jesus, have an attitude of cultural bias? I heard one opinion about all of this that has it's merit. It is not our cultural biases that are wrong, what we do with them is.
Last year during Labor Day Weekend, my partner and I enjoyed a wonderful time at Duluth/Superior Pride. During the Pride Festival held in Duluth's beautiful Riverfront Festival Park we could not help notice two fundamentalists on either side of the Park with big huge signs. Based on where they were and how they were behaving, it was obvious that they were there protesting the celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered individuals, families and couples. They were there to see to it that they could "change" as many hearts and minds as they could. However, what was truly sad was the reaction their arrogance received. At one gate, a group of atheists had taken their place next to the fundamentalist with the big huge sign with Bible verses, and one really big statement: "You are not a good person". The atheists gained all the support and positive attention, while the fundamentalist was ignored and/or walked right by with many unkind things returned to them. Is this really the kind of Jesus that we are told to believe in? Is the Jesus that the fundamentalists encouraging us to believe in, really that narrow? Later on during the Pride parade, the same fundamentalists were walking up one way and down the other of the sidewalk trying to persuade people to see Jesus in the same judgmental way. Unless people saw Jesus in their way, they just were not the Christians they should be. It was quite the different tune when they walked past the announcer who began singing very loudly: "Jesus, save us from your followers." Are the followers of Jesus people that others flock to? Or do they run because of the confusing messages Christians send through their words and behaviors?
As we see through the Gospel story, because of the woman's persistent faith in Jesus the Son of God, Jesus recognizes her faith and grants her request. What happened here? It is very simple, God changed His mind. Why is it so difficult for us to accept the idea of God changing His mind? Because if the God who made the universe, and came to us in the Person of Christ to save the world can change His mind, that means humans have no excuse for not being willing to change their hearts and minds about others that they find difficult to accept. If in Jesus, God showed us how to change his heart and mind toward another person, then it is very possible for Jesus to help us change ours too is it not?
I think it is very appropriate that this Gospel story ends with Jesus opening the ears of a deaf person. If we are going to accept people who are different than us, then we must open our ears and listening to what they have to say. We need to be open to their experiences and ask ourselves if we are truly interested in their common good, or are we just hanging on to our own prejudices?
In this Gospel story, God shows us in Christ how to change our attitudes and it begins with listening to others. It means being open to who and how other people are, and that is not an easy thing for any of us. It means being open to the possibility that our understandings of things is very mistaken. For example the age old usage of Sodom and Gomorrah as being destroyed for homosexuality, when a careful study will reveal it was destroyed for a lack of hospitality. It means seeing God and others as being so much bigger than how we see them now. Are we willing to pay attention?
Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, BCP, Page 219).
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