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"A Line in the Sand Redux"
Pentecost 14B
September 5-6, 2009
Mark 7:24-37
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Just last Sunday I talked about drawing lines in the sand. The sand of tradition, the sand of theology, the sand of doctrine. And now, in the first section of our gospel this morning, it looks like there is a line in the sand. It seems to be in the sand of, let’s call it, historical enmity. A Syrophoenician woman has come to Jesus asking for the healing of her daughter. Talk about having the strikes against her! First, she’s a woman, and no Jewish male would talk with a woman not of his own family. Second, she’s Syrophoenician – there are thousands of years of enmity, bad feelings, sometimes open warfare between her people and the Jewish people. Third, she’s a Gentile, she’s not even Jewish. Three strikes and you’re out! And Jesus responds with “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” Unbelievable. The bread of life, the living bread from heaven telling her it’s not fair to take what is meant for the Chosen People and give it to the dogs. Calling her a dog!? Even considering that the term for dog is diminutive implying maybe a house dog or a lap dog, it seems to be insulting. Is there a line here? How do we reconcile this? And what does she do? Does she stand on her dignity and walk away stiff-necked? Does she stand on her nationality and say “you’re in my territory now, you’re not in Galilee any more…” Does she respond in like fashion calling Jesus something? Does she demand what she knows (?) she has a right to expect? Does she see a smile on his face or a twinkle in his eye? Does she hear a touch of scorn in his voice? Does she feel she’s on one side of the line and he’s on the other? Does she take it as a comment made, even expected in the culture of the time and not from the standpoint of our time and our culture? Does she respond as one who was brought to Jesus by faith, perhaps inspired by stories she had heard. It’s this last I think, because she does stand before him as one who will accept anything from him, even the crumbs that the children have spilled or rejected. She reminds me of the woman who had been bleeding for many years with nothing helping. The woman who by all rights should not have been in the crowd around Jesus at all because she was “unclean” by the purity laws. There’s that line in the sand business again. But she got through the crowds and touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and was healed. Our Syrophoenician friend reminds me of the friends who brought their paralyzed comrade to Jesus only to find that Jesus was in a house which was blocked off by crowds. No way through, what to do? A line in a different type of sand – maybe the sand of popularity? At any rate, up on the roof, through the roof they go, and their friend’s sins are forgiven and in addition he is healed of his paralysis. And in the second part of our gospel this morning Jesus heals a man who could not hear and who had a speech impediment of some kind. And Jesus heals him by saying “Ephphatha,” or “be opened.” The way is opened, the man can hear, and he can speak, his tongue is loosened, so to speak (pun intended). And Jesus heals the blind, and the lame, and the lepers, and raises the dead, all the time opening the way. And the one who is the “way,” the “truth,” and the “life,” opens all things to us. And that’s the key, that’s the reconciliation. Remember what Jesus tells Nathanial when Nathanial is astounded at Jesus seeing him under a fig tree? Jesus tells him that he shall see the heavens opened and angels descending and ascending on the Son of Man. And later, Stephen, the martyr whose name is the inspiration for Stephen Ministry, as he is near death from stoning because a line has been crossed, sees the heavens open and the Son of Man seated next to God. And the words “be opened” take on even greater significance as we realize that as Jesus hung on the cross, the way to heaven was opened for all who believe. The way to salvation, eternal life has been opened. As I said last week, lines in the sand have been erased, wiped out, made non-existent. Why are they wiped out? They are “wiped out” because of the Gospel, the Good News, because our God so loved us that he gave his only Son, he opened the way for all who believe in him to have eternal life. And lines drawn in the sand by human hands, distinctions imposed by human standards fail in comparison to what God has commanded – love God, love neighbor as yourself – on this Jesus says, the Law and the Prophets depend. Love one another as I have loved you, by this they will know you are my disciples – lines in the sand are wiped out because Jesus opened the way to heaven for us by dying for us, on the cross. Reconciliation is possible because God has reconciled us to him by his action on our behalf, using the gift he gives us, faith, which we receive by grace, not because we are on the right side of a line in the sand. AMEN Rev. Bruce Hannem, Associate Pastor
Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa, Minnesota |
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