Divisions Within the Community
Turning to look at the broader context surrounding this reading we see that our Gospel reading today follows right after our reading last week about impurity, or defilement.
You might remember that last week we read about the Pharisees giving the disciples a hard time for not washing their hands before they ate. This was a tradition that the Elders established, but it wasn’t a Scriptural rule. It seems like this tradition was being elevated by the Pharisees to being almost equal to a Scriptural requirement. But Jesus turned this discussion inward saying,
“There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile” (Mk 7:15).
“For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mk 7:21-23).
… We then talked about the seeds of the heart that can grow and bear either good fruit or bad fruit. For example, if cultivated, anger might bear the fruit of murder.
So now we turn to this story about a Gentile woman. Jesus is in a very Greek area and and there were a number pagan shrines in this area. She is said to be Syrophoenician which means that her family might have come from North Africa. It’s important to know that for Jews of the time, Gentiles were generally considered to be unclean, or defiled. It also wasn’t uncommon for Jews to refer to Gentiles as “dogs”. … So, we have the disciples who were just accused by the Pharisees of doing an impure thing- leading them to maybe be considered unclean themselves. And now they run into this “unclean” woman. … If we consider Jesus’ previous teaching, how does that change the way we look at this woman? Is she impure because she doesn’t eat a kosher diet?
Here’s Jesus’ words again-
“There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile” (Mk 7:15).
What is coming out of her? Is what is coming out of her defiling her? … She has bowed down at his feet, begging him. This is an act of great reverence and respect. She is acknowledging his ability to help her daughter- this is faith. She is called a dog, and Jesus actually uses a quite gentle word for “dog”, that would be used of a family pet. But it would still be hurtful, and she responds with humility and faith,
“Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
Jesus has offered himself to the people of Israel and those that have rejected him have allowed the crumbs of his grace to fall to the floor. Her words are humble words of faith. … How does Jesus see her words? He responds by healing her daughter.
So, do her words and actions show her to be pure, or defiled? …
I believe that Jesus is testing the disciples in this episode. … Did they really hear what he said about how defilement works? Are they willing to extend this teaching beyond themselves to others that they meet? …
We are happy when Jesus shows us this kind of mercy. We are happy to be the recipients of this kind of grace. But we often want to remain firmly justified in our judgement of certain others, rather than show them grace. … I believe that Jesus is showing the disciples that this idea of purity and defilement extends even beyond Israel, and this plants the seeds for the welcoming of the Gentiles into the church. …
The letter of James and the reading from Proverbs talk about another kind of division. That between the rich and the poor, which is often not unlike the division between the pure and defiled. This is a division that seems to be perennial. No matter what society we are in, it is hard to bridge this gap.
In Jesus’ day, the wealthy were considered to particularly blessed and therefore beloved by God. We aren’t always so different in modern society. (Why do we look up to rich celebrities as they lecture us on moral or political issues?) … So it was counterintuitive to the thinking of the day for Jesus to call the poor blessed (as he does in the Beatitudes- Matt 5), or to suggest the rich were in some way not particularly special to God, even saying,
“it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Lk 18:25)
(see also the rich man and Lazarus parable- Luke 16).
I suspect this is about pushing against the thought that being rich has any particular moral virtue, and that poverty is evidence of moral vice. … I tend to side with Dallas Willard, which is to say that wealth is somewhat neutral, and that how one uses that wealth determines virtue of vice. Similarly, someone may be blessed with a high IQ, and they can use that to plan bank heists, or to do cancer research. It is a resource, a tool, that can do good or evil in the world.
The book of Proverbs recognizes that the rich and the poor are both created by God-
“The rich and the poor have this in common: the Lord is the maker of them all” (Prov 22:2).
Proverbs tells us that God has a particular care for the poor because of their vulnerability, and encourages generosity towards them-
“Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor” (Prov 22:9).We see this reflected in our reading from James as well. He warns against giving the wealthy preferential treatment against the poor. He warns against making distinctions based on wealth within the church. He says that by doing this we make ourselves into judges over others with such evil thoughts. … And just as we have seen Jesus do, James balances the scale of preference by highlighting some of the stereotypical sins of the wealthy. He says that the poor often seem to be chosen by God to have a particularly strong faith. He suggests that oppression comes from the wealthy. It’s they who drag them to court. If we think about Jesus’ life- the Sanhedrin council, the high priest Caiaphas, King Herod, Pontius Pilate, are all wealthy. … So we should be warned about showing favouritism. He goes on to suggest that our practical help for the poor is a work that gives evidence that our faith is true. It is without such works that our faith is shown to be dead faith. … Again, James’ problem has to do with showing partiality within the Church. He wants the poor and the rich treated equally, so he seems to be trying to balance the scales by bringing up the poor, and knocking down the rich a few notches in people’s minds.
Just as we saw Jesus bridge the ritual purity and defilement divide, so (following Jesus) we see this being reflected in James regarding the divide between the rich and the poor. These sorts of divisions are not to be a part of the church. This isn’t to say that divisions themselves are bad, and that’s a topic for another day, but we have to be careful that we don’t impose superficial divides between people. Paul will reflect this as well, as he writes to the church in Galatia-
“As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:27-28).
This isn’t to say that these don’t matter at all, but they are not to matter in terms of preferential treatment in the church. These divides are bridged in Christ. … It is a very human instinct to want to make barriers between people, but I think it is generally a part of our fallen nature. God is constantly drawing us together as a family under Him as our Father. We should beware of creating superficial divisions, or we may find ourselves resisting God. AMEN
Comments
Post a Comment