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Dec 26, 2010

Leftovers

Passage: Matthew 15:21-28

Category: Holiday, New Testament, Faith

Keywords: syro-phoencian woman, faith, jesus, attitude, christmas, patience. silence

Summary:

What about the Syro-Phoenician woman in Matthew 15? She comes to Jesus and asks for help and Jesus seems to not want to give it? Why does he hesitate? What does he say about her? What does this have to do with Christmas? Read on to find out.

Detail:

What did you have to eat for dinner? Did you finish it? What do you think about leftovers? Do like the main meal better or leftovers? When are leftovers the most desired thing? When you are hungry, really, really hungry?

 

NAS: Matthew Chapter 15

The Syrophoenician Woman

     21     Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon.

     22     And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.”

     23     But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.”

     24     But He answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

     25     But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, “Lord, help me!”

     26     And He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

     27     But she said, “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”

     28     Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once.

 

“And her daughter was healed at once.” At once. Kinda. After all that her daughter was healed. So, kind of “at once.” She had to ask first, no, she had to ask repeatedly and even beg for it. Jesus’ response seems kind of harsh. What happened to Jesus coming to seek and save the lost? It looks here as if the lost are coming to seek him and his first response is ignoring her and then, he tries to get her to go away with a racial slur. “Sorry, you’re not one of our kind . . . you’re lower than us . . . it just wouldn’t be right for me to help you.”

 

At first read, out of context, Jesus doesn’t come off like a savior I’d want. But He is and let me show you why. Three things about this I want you to see or get out of this are:

1.      Jesus’ heart.

2.      The Faith Attitude of the Syro-Phoenician Woman

3.      What all this has to do with Christmas

 

First of all, He just has a flare for the dramatic. What Jesus is doing here, is putting on a little production, a play, if you will. He knows darn well, that this woman is not just going to walk away after his insult. She didn’t come all that way, a foreigner in the midst of these Jews just to be so easily, turned away by an insult. No, Jesus knew by the very fact that she was there and had the gall to approach him, she wouldn’t so easily be dissuaded. He wanted to prove a point. He doesn’t regard her as less than because she is not Jewish. He is making a point in a context of an already racially conflictive environment.

 

So, Jesus is saying to his surrounding audience, his disciples, any Jew within range, and the audience of the Gospel of Matthew. The Gospel of Matthew, if you remember, is written for a ________ audience. One of the indicators of this is it’s repeated reference to Old Testament prophecy throughout the book.

 

See, the Jews, these lost sons of Israel as Jesus calls them, knew they had an inheritance from God. They knew they were the chosen people. They had the law, the prophets and a lineage going all the way back to the beginning of time. Israel, at this time were very likely the only people who had kept an accurate record of their heritage all the back to the first man, Adam that isn’t blurred by myth. Remember all those boring lineages’ back in the Old Testament? They know this. Anybody else, who isn’t purely of the seed of Abraham from their point of view, including Jesus’ disciples even their point of view, the Gentiles, the great unwashed, they can take a hike.

 

 

This plays out in The Book of Acts:

Acts 10:9–15 (NAS)

9 On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.

10 But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance;

11 and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground,

12 and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air.

13 A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!”

14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.”

15 Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.”

Acts 10:19–20 (NAS)

19 While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you.

20 “But get up, go downstairs and accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them Myself.”

Acts 10:34–35 (NAS)

Gentiles Hear Good News

34 Opening his mouth, Peter said:

“I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality,

35 but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.

See, NOW, after Jesus has lived out his earthly ministry to the Jews/Israel, and ascended into Heaven…after all that happened did the disciples get the memo that the message of Christ was for EVERYone, not just every Jew.

 

Acts 11:18 (NAS)

18 When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.”

So, back to the text, the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman. By the way, what is a Syro-Phoenician? Doesn’t matter, she’s not one of us. No, really:

 

Syrophoenician. An inhabitant of Phoenicia, which in NT times was part of the Rom. province of Cilicia and Syria.[1] Greek to me.

 

In this instance, Jesus doesn’t bother to tell the disciples about the whole global ministry thing and even when he does, right before he ascends into Heaven, they still don’t get it, which illustrates a very important point. It’s not that God doesn’t want us filled with the knowledge of Himself, his plans, intentions, miracles--it’s more like, he gives it to us constantly, we just don’t get it until it’s time for us to get it. Got it?

 

See, it was always God’s plan for the whole world to be redeemed. So, Jesus employs what some might call, a first year lie. That’s just an expression. Jesus didn’t lie, he just provides a truth that is digest-able to certain people at a certain time. It’s an expression that is used in college. In your first year of school, they give you enough info that’s accurate and enough to get you to the next level, but there’s really more to it. Jesus was only sent to the lost sons of Israel. That was his mission. His ultimate goal was for these lost sons of Israel to spread his mission all across the globe. We often forget that first several thousand Christians were actually also Jews.

 

That’s what Jesus is saying, “first things first. My mission is to make this offer of salvation through me, to Israel. But you know what? They’re going to reject me, beat me up, hang me on tree. It’s not going to be good but that’s just what it is. They get first rights, I kind of got to do things by the book here. Trust me on this one. I wish they had your faith though. Tell you what I’m gonna do…”  and he heals the woman’s daughter.

 

Jesus’ attitude toward foreigners wasn’t racist like his followers. He is just working out of their context to help them, ever so slowly, to get it.

 

The Apostle Paul in Romans explains all this a lot more clearly.

 

 

Romans 1:16 (NAS)

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

So, in essence, what the Gentiles are offered are what seems like, leftovers. The Gentiles, aka, you and me, what we get are the leftovers, the crumbs from the master’s table.

 

Nobody really likes to hear that they get picked last. Or they get the prize because the real winner didn’t show up. I was in the pediatrician’s office waiting room last week and it seemed that there was a whole episode of Hannah Montana dedicated to this concept. Hannah wasn’t good at football so she was always picked last. I’d to tell you the story had an ending that is parallel or complementary to what I’m trying to teach here today, but I can’t because the show didn’t hold my interest—it’s wouldn’t be my first pick for TV viewing and that’s OK. For some people it would be. My point is, nobody likes to be second. I heard it at a rodeo once, “second place is first loser.” Who wants that?

 

And this brings to my second point, the faith attitude of the Syro-Phoenician woman. She’s amazing to me. What would you do? You go to God for help and he says, you’re not really good enough, you don’t make the grade, you’re unworthy. You might expect her to just walk away saying, “Jerk! You Jews are all the same.” No, instead, she begs for anything he can give, even the leftover crumbs. This is a good attitude.

 

I may have said this before but my girls and I take karate classes and every year there is a winter graduation…big event, celebrating the past year and also everybody moving up one rank of belt ranking. But during the semester the students can also earn tickets for a drawing at the graduation…this year the prize was a $100 gift certificate to Best Buy, but you have to be present to win. Well, the first ticket drawn was a no show, so they draw again and they announce a different name. They call the name and that person did show up and they respond, “are you kidding me? What, I have to be second place now? You couldn’t pick me first? No, that’s not good enough! You’re going to have to do better than that! Next time, pick me first! Then I’ll come up and accept what you have to offer.” No, he didn’t say that, the kid was pretty stoked, because before he was one of many losers, now he’s one of a few winners.

 

And that really is a useful analogy of what is going on here. Israel had to be given the first choice, the first chance to reject the Messiah, which they do, then the Messiah is offered to us, the Gentiles, the great unwashed. We get the leftovers. Leftovers aren’t that bad. When I was growing up, I looked forward to a few weeks of loose meat, turkey and mayo sandwiches. I would even say I enjoyed the sandwiches more than the full meal with all the fixings.

 

It’s the attitude of the Syro-Phoenician woman that I want to camp on. What does she do? She doesn’t walk away, offended. “I’m just going to find another God.” See that is the faith that Jesus is talking about. She, unlike the Pharisees, understands that Jesus is the only deal in town, he’s real thing. The Pharisees are called a brood of vipers by Jesus and walk away in a huff and think of a way to kill him. This woman is called a dog and basically, says, “OK, I can accept that but don’t even dogs get a few scraps now and then, come on, please.”  That’s a very different attitude.

 

See, I think it’s very easy to get a sense of entitlement when it comes to God because a lot of the time he is really nice and when things get hard we can easily expect God to just push a button and make the hard thing go away. And we, unlike the Syro-Phoenician woman, say, fine, I’m going to find another God—His name is Ben and Jerry’s, His name is materialism, His name is a boyfriend, His name is pornography, His name is alcohol, food, anything that makes me feel better than you are making me feel right now, because right now, I feel like sloppy seconds to everyone else whom you are blessing right now. But I’ll still show up on Sundays when I feel like it just in case your attitude changes.

 

24     But He answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

     25     But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, “Lord, help me!”

 

She bowed down in worshipful submission after he says, “no.” She is treating Jesus as if He is God not her co-dependent buddy who is always going to put up her with crap! I’ll be honest with you, I’m getting schooled with this passage of scripture in here.

 

But neither does she take the posture of, “OK, I’m not worthy so I shouldn’t bother to ask.” No! She continues to ask, worthy or no. Her faith isn’t a random thing. She knows God must be good so she keeps on asking.

 

Luke 18:1–8 (NAS)

Parables on Prayer

1 Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart,

2 saying, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man.

3 “There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me legal protection from my opponent.’

4 “For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man,

5 yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.’ ”

6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge said;

7 now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?

8 “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”

Luke 11:5–10 (NAS)

5 Then He said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves;

6 for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’;

7 and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’

8 “I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

10 “For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.

There is a clue with how we are to ask. I think when we give up asking, God gives up listening. If it’s not important to keep asking, it must not be that important. I have kids I understand this. Sometimes you just let them prattle on until they forget about the passing fancy. But if they keep on bugging you about it, you kind of have to give them an answer they can understand—yes, no, not yet, or we’ll see. A lot a people think that God answers prayer only three ways—yes, no or wait. I think, “we’ll see” is also a way God answers prayer. Granted he knows the outcome of any “condition” he would impose on us, but for us that “condition” in our time and space has to be very real and therefore, very relevant.

 

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV)

14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Hear it says in the text. Hear what? Hear prayers of the people, hear their groaning. Are you groaning? Sometimes there are conditions attached to an answer to a prayer. That’s just good parenting.

 

Of course, some answers are absolutely yes or no, no conditions or bargaining applicable. Salvation is one of those. The only condition of course being that it can only through Jesus Christ, belief in His death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins.

Moses, he got a big “no” from God once. I don’t know if you remember but back in Numbers Moses, did a bad thing, got ticked off because of the Israelites and didn’t follow God’s instructions. God had said to speak to the rock to provide water for the people, but Moses struck the rock and implied that He was the one providing the water not God.

 

Numbers 20:12 (NIV)

12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”

 

But later on, recorded for us in Deuteronomy,

Deuteronomy 3:23–26 (NIV)

23 At that time I pleaded with the Lord: 24 “O Sovereign Lord, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do? 25 Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan—that fine hill country and Lebanon.”

26 But because of you the Lord was angry with me and would not listen to me. “That is enough,” the Lord said. “Do not speak to me anymore about this matter.

 

I’m really struggling this one. I’ve struggled with authority even God’s authority in my life. This is a hard one. Sometimes, He answers the request for a miracle, with, “can you hold on for sec, I’m working on something else right now. K?” And we’re all desperate, “No, daddy, I need it now, NOW!”

 

Which brings us to the third point, “What does this have to do with Christmas?”

 

Well, I said earlier that us Gentiles got the leftovers. The promises of the Messiah and salvation were first for the Israelites then for us. That’s true but in the greater scheme of things, mankind as a whole rejected God through Adam when we sinned, all our DNA was wrapped up in Adam, back in Genesis, the beginning of human history.  God, then set a plan in motion to get us back to him. That plan started with the faith of one man, Abraham. through his seed would come specific race of people of God’s choosing. Some people might call that racist, their misinformed. God chose Israel. Through Israel salvation would come to the world.

 

 

                              Isaiah 49:6 (NIV)       

 

                                      6 he says:        

 

                          “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant    

 

                          to restore the tribes of Jacob             

 

                          and bring back those of Israel I have kept.               

 

                              I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,             

 

                          that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”            

Sound familiar:

 

 

                              Matthew 28:18–20 (NIV)     

 

                       18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”        

 

So, God makes a promise to Abraham in his old age, a miracle happens, he and his barren wife have a child in their 90’s. A few hundred years down the line, they grow to over a million but are held captive. For about four hundred year of that time, God is silent, no recorded word, no miracles. Then starts speaking to Moses...miracles, deliverance, Israel becomes a nation with  laws, government and a king.  and slowly over the course of hundreds of years, forsakes God and his laws. During that time though God speaks through the prophets and tells what is to come to pass in the future years--captivity and restoration again and farther down the road, a Messiah, one who will come and save them from all the evil that they do and is done to them. In those prophecies are included that statement we read from Isaiah but also many of the Christmas Prophecies:

 

 

                              Micah 5:2 (NIV)          

 

                                      2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,  

 

                          though you are small among the clans of Judah,    

 

                              out of you will come for me

 

                          one who will be ruler over Israel,    

 

                              whose origins are from of old,          

 

                          from ancient times.”               

 

                              Isaiah 7:14 (NIV)       

 

                       14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.     

 

God was talking to Israel a lot about the future during some intense times, times of war and disobedience. He was talking to them so much because he was going to stop talking for another lengthy period of time, another four hundred years. Four hundred years where God didn’t say a peep to Israel. He just preserved them while He fulfilled prophecy with the nations of the world, the Gentiles. So, after Judah and southern part of whole nation are restored from captivity to the land, God effectively says, “stay there, I’ve some other work to do now, that stuff I told you about through the prophet Daniel, yeah, I’m on that right now.”

 

In the book of Daniel, God gives a synopsis of the political history of the middle east ahead time. And it is so accurate that many liberal scholars refuse to accept it as written and insist that it had to have been written by an author other than Daniel after the events happened. Not true. You can read that in Daniel chapters 10 - 12. Actually, pretty much throughout the book, it’s talking about what is going to happen in the future.

 

So, Israel, you stay there, I’ll be with you in about 400 years. So, during that 400 years, God is setting the stage for the entrance of the Messiah. First he allows Babylon to become great, its decreed that an alliance of Medes and Persians will conquer Babylon, they do and then it is decreed through prophecy that an empire will then conquer with the speed of a four headed leopard with wings. This kingdom’s four heads will divide his this Greek kingdom in to four parts. That is Alexander the Great and his succeeding four generals. Then another kingdom will come and roll over all the kingdoms that came for crushing them with the power of iron. Meanwhile, tiny Israel, seemingly forgotten is tossed about like the deed to Baltic Avenue in Monopoly. Who wants this? You only $20 if you have a hotel on it? Problem with Israel or Palestine as it comes to be named, is right in the center of the overland lanes of commerce between the northern part of what becomes the Roman Empire in Europe and the Southern Part in Northern Africa including Egypt.

 

What is God doing in all this that it is taking 400 years to do. Well for one each succeeding kingdom is bigger and its influence covers more geographical area and more powerful military influence. It really started with Assyrians, but then Babylonians were smart and allowed a certain amount of autonomy instead of just being thugs demanding tribute. The Medes and Persians, I don’t know so much about them, but the Greeks they Hellenized everything and made everybody speak Greek gave the known world common points of reference for communication and trade. This is big. Then the Roman’s come along and enforce peace in the known world with their military might. Kind of contradictory, but effect. The Romans establish safe travel throughout the empire. This lasted about 200 years, it’s called the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace. It took a while to set all this up not because God is slow but because man is.

 

 

                              2 Peter 3:9 (NIV)        

 

                       9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.             

 

God took his time, allowing the Gentile nations to set up a system of trade and communication so that the whole world could receive the message of salvation.

 

So, poor little Israel just watches all this stuff in the world, occasionally mounts an uprising to go against a tide that God set in motion...to no avail. And then, a star appeared to the wise men, angels appeared to the shepherds and God appeared to mankind in the form of a baby.

 

That’s the miracle. Don’t fight against the process that God is working in your life and don’t stop asking for that miracle. I know the miracle that I’m waiting for. I know what I wrote on the rock a few months ago, I know what I wrote on the paper last week. John was right, it’ll take a miracle. Wait for it, don’t despair, keep asking, keep asking until God answers in a way that you understand. And don’t be surprised if it comes in form you don’t expect.

 

I guess at this point I’m supposed to tell you how to apply that your life. Nope, not going to do it. You need to take that up with God. We all have various expectations, hopes, dreams, prayers, a lot of which God gave us, individually. For John, I don’t know, but maybe it rhymes with revival in downtown Spokane. When is that miracle gonna happen?

 

2 Peter 3:9 (NIV)        

 

                       9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.             

 

 

 

 


[1] D. R. W. Wood and I. Howard Marshall, New Bible Dictionary, 3rd ed. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1996). 1144.