From there Jesus 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 go — the demon has left your daughter." So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
Probably fewer passages put Jesus in a bad light than this one. Calling a woman a dog, more or less, seems so out of character. Was he just having a bad day? Was he tired or worn out from people incessantly pestering him for healing? That would make sense. If it was your daughter, you’d pester the guy with a cure, even if it meant he didn’t get a day off.
Christian theology, however, is full of explanations to make Jesus not look so mean. He was really just testing her faith – like the state denying your disability claim the first 5 times to make sure you’re serious about it. Or he wanted to make a point to everyone there, and knew she had faith, but just wanted them to see. Or something like that.
I like the Jesus who has a bad day better. The thought of him toying with the poor woman to use her as a “teachable moment” seems more cruel than just snapping. The explanations involve so many layers of 3D chess: I’ll say this, knowing she’ll say that, so I can give this response, so she’ll give this response, and the crowd will get this message. Wow! Jesus could just tell, what’s that called, a parable, instead.
It's one of my pet-peaves with what I’ll nickname “pious apologetics”. It’s that strain of thought that wants Jesus to always be perfect, never have a bad day, never lose his temper (except the tables, I guess) and always have a good moral lesson behind everything. This Jesus is so milquetoast that he's not really much of a person. We assert in the creeds that Jesus is fully and human and fully divine at the same time. But, to the pious apologists, he’s fully divine in a human shell. His humanity is only physical. His mind is pure-God. That smacks almost of possession – or one of those Stargate movies where the alien takes over the human body.
The Bible is full of passages that are, in some way or another, troubling to our modern sensibilities. A lot of them. It runs the gamut from Lot’s daughters seducing him to have kids, to David wiping out whole cities, to the commands for slaves to be obedient even when mistreated (yes, check out 1 Peter 18-19, Titus 2:9, Colossians 3:22). The outsider reads these and gets offended. “How could a good divinity command this stuff?”. Then the pious apologist responds with a lot of theological and hermeneutical (interpretive) gymnastics. David had to do it. Lot’s daughters thought they had no choice. Slavery in Rome was different, and not so bad (different from the US, yes, but definitely bad. Slave owners, by Roman law, could do anything they wanted to people they owned – including raping and killing). All this preserves the sense of perfection of the scriptures, of our heroes, of our Messiah. But pious perfection has never been the point. It’s about God continuing to work in the world when people aren’t perfect. And it makes Christians look ridiculous trying to explain away things that are indefensible, rather than just say, “look, we don’t take every passage literally, we know it was written by people, and some passages are just wrong – like the slavery ones”. Is that so hard? Even to say that Jesus had bad days and spit out some nasty words to get a woman out of his face.
Maybe Jesus was seeing some bigger picture, but the dog reference is so offensive, I can’t help but think he just really wanted her to go away, and thought if he made it sting she’d get the hint.
I can relate to Jesus here, being exhausted is something we all know. Just ask most moms, or rural doctors. Everyone wants something from you, and they’re demanding, because to them it’s urgent, but you only have so much in you. You want to help, but you don’t have any energy left to give. So when you need most to be calm, patient, understanding, you’re just irritated.
There’s a reason why, I believe, so many of the wisest teachers have light schedules. They have to protect their own inner peace so they have peace to give others. They have to have their hearts filled with the Spirit to lead others to it. It’s why I wish our public school teachers had lighter schedules. And social workers. And counselors. And………
It’s why I don’t have services on Christmas Day. It’s why the office stays closed most of the week after Christmas. It’s why I have more healing services in Advent, and fewer programs and events. We need to recharge, so the faith becomes something that builds you up, instead of another to-do on your long list. As if any of us really want more committees to sit on to manage business and ensure compliance with policy directives. We need committees and policies, but less is more in a world where everyone is over-scheduled to begin with. More things does not mean your church is necessarily better. The experience of the Holy Spirit is more important than filling the calendar with programs. And it will have a bigger impact on our faith and evangelism.
So we begin a new year, 2024. Keep time to find your time with God, your space to breathe deep, the spiritual gifts that make serving a delight, and not a chore, and have the patience to be loving towards those who pester and annoy us.
Peace,
Pastor Lars