The Canine Gospel

14th Sunday after Pentecost

Mark 7:24-37

I’ve been having fun with my sermon titles lately. It’s always fun to come up with a title that is intriguing, a little bit controversial, and vaguely humorous. This week’s title has generated a great deal of interest – I have had people all over town wondering what I was going to preach this week. One church member wanted to know if we were going to hear more stories about Amy. Another asked me if Bucky was preaching this week. I can report that the title is original with me this week, although the idea has been considered by a number of preachers over the past several years.

Mark reports to us that Jesus has traveled outside the boundaries of Galilee. That was His home area. I tried thinking a little this week what corollary I could draw for us. It would be less like traveling to Mexico – the cultural differences are too great for that comparison. Rather, it would be more like us traveling to New Mexico – still a part of the United States, but a noticeable difference in culture, considering the influence of Native Americans in that part of our country. To travel to the region of Tyre, Jesus would have been moving out of His own culture into an area where things were different enough that people would take notice that He had crossed something of a cultural boundary.

I haven’t mentioned it in a sermon, but it was bound to come out sometime this fall. I agreed to teach a course at NOC this fall – I don’t know where my mind was – agreeing to teach a course during hunting season. Anyway, I am teaching a Tuesday and Thursday evening section on Social Problems. I’m enjoying the class, for the most part – and I’m certainly learning a lot. This week, we dealt with the social problems related to race and ethnic inequities in our society. I have never experienced a more tense session than I did on Tuesday night. I consider myself to be extremely unbiased in relation to race and ethnic issues, and I certainly do not consider myself to be prejudiced in any sense of the word. But in dealing with actual data surrounding several “minority” groups in our society, I found myself dealing with language and concepts that made me squirm with every word I said, and every idea we considered. I was attempting to be politically correct in a world where political correctness is constantly redefining itself.

We might gasp, then, when we hear Jesus respond to this woman in the 7th chapter of Mark. She is a gentile, or at least of gentile derivation. He is a Jew – and in His response, He sounds more Jewish than we might be comfortable with. She asks for an act of mercy – not for herself, but for her demon-possessed daughter. He responds with a Jewish based proverbial teaching – “you feed the children before you feed the dogs.” That would be for you and me a truism – except in this case, everyone knew what He was saying. He was saying what every Jew in that day and age would think about the gentiles – that in the minds of Jews, they were “dogs.” I’ve shared this illustration with you before – the Jews had such a distaste for gentiles – they had a name for them, which literally meant “uncircumcised Gentile dogs.” It was not a kind expression, by any stretch of the imagination. Jesus repeats that imagery, and we gasp a little at His language, if not His meaning.

I’ve heard a couple of different explanations over the years to try to explain the rather “insensitive” way Jesus responds to this woman. The one I heard through my youth years and in seminary was that Jesus was offering something of a test to this woman – “Just how much does she want this gift I have to give her? Will she step right past this common insult I throw at her for the sake of her daughter?” I know a lot of folks who think that’s exactly what He was doing – mostly because in their minds, there’s not really any other option that is more palatable. But several years ago, I heard an explanation that I like better, even if it still leaves me scratching my head a little. It’s the explanation that speaks to the human side of Jesus in this exchange. Jesus sounds so very human here, doesn’t He? He sounds like He’s spent a lot of years in the Jewish education system of the day – a system in which a desire to serve God in the purity of God’s appointment of the Jews would look at all others as being “dogs” in comparison to their privileged position. I see the human/divine struggle in Jesus in this exchange – quite like the night He was betrayed, and spent several hours in the garden of Gethsemane, crying out to His Heavenly Father, asking if there was another means by which salvation could be purchased, other than Him giving up His life. The humanity of Jesus was evident in that experience, and I see something of the same in this exchange with this woman.

You say, “Well, pastor, Jesus wasn’t human – He was divine. How could the humanity of Christ conflict with His divine nature?” Believe me – I understand that question – much more than I can pretend to understand the answer. Let me ask us a question. The scriptures and our experience tell us that when we become Christians, our “spiritual nature” is awakened – literally becomes alive. Do you and I still struggle with the flesh? I know that we can’t make a direct comparison between our spiritual nature and the divinity of Christ – I’m not suggesting that we do. Still, I can see parallels. As hard as I try, I still bring my human biases to the table when I try to live out my spiritual life – and I think something of the same was true for Jesus.

Well, most of that is just my opinion. It does set the stage for us, though. In this story, we find ourselves smack in the middle of something of a societal/culture/religious war – something that you and I understand quite well these days. The early “Christian” thinking of the day was that the gospel was for the Jews – that it was a continuation of the story of God’s redemption for mankind. The mistake the Jewish people made was that the gospel was only for them – not just “first” for them – in the sense of “sequence.” They still don’t understand that concept – that God “chose” them in the sense that God first planted the gospel in their field. They were the first to receive it, and it would naturally spread from there. The mistake the Jews made was what was meant by the word “chosen.” They weren’t special – rather, far from it. They were a troublesome people – quick to abandon God at the least opportunity, and prone to wandering toward other deities. They were anything but faithful, as God pointed out from time to time. They thought the gospel was just for them – only them. That’s where they made their mistake.

Thank God.

Thank God that Jesus made this first foray into the Gentile population. She was the first. But every person sitting in this room this morning can claim to be a direct result of what happened on that fateful day. Jesus crossed the line. He crossed the line between Jews and gentiles, and we are of all people most blessed because He did. We are just like her. We are gentiles. We are the people whom the Jews would have called “dogs.” And the good news of Jesus Christ is that His gospel if for us. It’s not just a “Jewish” gospel – it’s also a “canine” gospel. It is a gospel for us – for you and me.

In this class that I’m teaching over at NOC, we have two sessions each week – Tuesday night and Thursday night. On Tuesday evening, I try to hit the subject matter for the week at the “knowledge” level – the most basic level. We work through the chapter which was assigned from the book, making note of the most important details. But on Thursday night, we try to kick it up a notch. I am trying to cover the same subject matter, but at the comprehension and application levels. In that same spirit, let’s switch gears to what James has to say.

James is gospel application. He takes what the church had gleaned by the mid-first century, and translates it into every day action. You heard what Joe read for us a while ago. These are practical application words – and they hit us right between the eyes.

He concludes with these words – “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” You and I buy that part of his claim. We realize that the application of our faith is at least a part of the proof of our faith. It’s the subject matter that comes just before this verse that concerns us. For you see, these verses talk about how we apply our faith, but they speak of that application in terms of how we treat other people.

James first example is one of distinction – if we make distinctions, he says, we have become “judges with evil thoughts.” He then makes the case that we are to treat the poor with generosity, fairness, and a sincere lack of distinction. In fact, James makes the point that God has actually shown favoritism to the poor by offering the riches of the kingdom of heaven to them. We might take umbrage with that idea – that is until we remember that we were the ones described as gentile dogs – we were the poor in this world’s eyes, and God has already shown favoritism toward us by offering the gospel of His good grace to you and to me.

One of the things that gives me the greatest pride concerning our congregation is our involvement at Our Daily Bread. We don’t have a huge role, but our children have helped serve there each of the last two summers, and some of our church members regularly serve and take food to them, and we helped them raise the funds to help build their present facility. We could do more, but I certainly like that we are involved in that ministry. Outside the new building is that great wall, depicting Christ in the bread line. You’ve seen it – it is rather striking – etched in that black marble.

Jesus came and stood in our soup line. He became poor, for us. He offered us the riches of His Father – Who is now our Father. We are blessed beyond measure, gentiles that we were. And now we are privileged to share the grace of Christ with all those who still need to hear the gospel.

Richard W. Dunn, PhD.