Scripture Readings: Isaiah 35:4–7 | Psalm 146 | James 2:1–17 | Mark 7:24–37
“Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?” (James 2:5). Have you ever been chosen last for something? If you have, you’re certainly not alone. As a somewhat timid and uncoordinated child, I can remember many a recess starting off by being among the very last to be chosen for a team. And then there were all those middle-school dances, when it seemed like everyone else was asked to dance, and I would be among those who were passed over… trying to hide the painful feelings that come with all rejection. Thankfully, in the context of my whole story so far, these memories are actually pretty mild. They weren’t pleasant in the moment… but in the grand scheme of things, these were just normal instances of disappointment… something that everyone must face from time to time… and wholly unlike the ongoing damage and destruction caused by true partiality and outright favoritism. Partiality… favoring one person or group over another, is an incredibly common practice… but it’s one which is also at the root of so many problems our society struggles with today, such as racism, sexism, the marginalization of the poor, the elderly, and those unable to advocate for themselves. So much oppression and suffering has been caused by human beings choosing to turn their backs on their neighbours. In many ways, partiality is the complete opposite of the kind of love God longs for us to share in. This is why, as we heard in our second Scripture reading this morning, St. James speaks against it so forcefully, seeing it as a real threat to the integrity and vitality of the Christian Church, and as an assault on the Good News of Jesus Christ itself. James 2:1, “My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?” He goes on to describe how the rich and the poor among them are being treated so differently… as if those with worldly goods were somehow more worthy of honour and acceptance in the eyes of God. St. James goes on to remind his listeners that Christ has shown us another way of life… one that doesn’t simply follow the world’s patterns, but that is shaped by God’s gracious love. James 2:8-9, “You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” According to St. James, partiality is opposed to the love of God that we have come to know in Christ Jesus… the love that calls us to extend God’s compassion, comfort, and care to everyone. But how does this all fit with those parts of the Scriptures that seem to suggest that God Himself plays favorites? If partiality is opposed to God’s love, than how are we to understand the role of Israel as “God’s Chosen people”? Or even more puzzling, how Jesus our Lord responds to the pleas of the Syrophoenician mother in our Gospel reading this morning? Is God actually showing partiality? Or is something else going on? Before we dig into this important question, I just want to make an important point: When we as Christians ask these kinds of questions, the posture of our hearts really matters! We can ask them in faith… seeking to grow in our understanding… humbly acknowledging the limits of our own insights, but still desiring to learn more about our Lord, and how to walk in His ways. Or we can ask them assuming that we can somehow pass judgment on our Creator… trusting that we are the ones who can rightly assess what is best, and that God must measure up to our standards. One of these ways leads to wisdom. The other way leads to pride and foolishness. The Living God is not answerable to us. Nor does He ever need to defend Himself before mere mortals like you and I. And yet, in the Scriptures He shows us, again and again, that He wants us to know more about Him… to wrestle with deep questions about His character, and come out the other side with confidence in His goodness, His justice, His compassion, and His great love for our world. And so, even though our Scripture readings today leave us with some challenging questions, they are there for our own good… inviting us to draw near to God in faith, to search Him closely for a deeper understanding of our Lord, and to learn how we His people today can faithfully walk in His ways. Our Gospel reading today is from nearly halfway through the Gospel of St. Mark: the story of Jesus, the Christ… Israel’s Messiah, the Chosen anointed One… the Son of God. And throughout the first half of St. Mark’s Gospel, we can see Jesus engaged in a clear struggle… a campaign against the forces of darkness, the spiritual evil at work in our world, that has brought pain and oppression to so many, for so long. He heals the sick. He casts out demons. He gathers disciples to share the Good News of God’s Kingdom at work in Him. He travels from town to town, changing lives as He goes… never settling down for too long. He forgives sins. He teaches in parables. He confronts religious hypocrites. To the amazement of His disciples, Jesus performs miracles that reveal God’s power at work in Him, like calming the waves of the storm, feeding thousands with a few fish and loaves of bread… and even raising the dead. All of these acts were a part of His ministry… His mission… being sent from His Father to His people Israel… to the descendants of Abraham and Sarah, whom God had chosen long ago to be a people set apart to share in His holy life up close and personal… blessed in order to be a blessing… so that all the families of the world might be blessed through them. In short, Jesus was not simply wandering about the ancient world doing random acts of kindness. Jesus was at work bringing God’s Kingdom into the world, as Israel’s prophets like Isaiah had promised long ago. Listen again to the words of Isaiah Chapter 35 which we heard read this morning. It is promises like these that Jesus was pouring all of His efforts into fulfilling. Isaiah 35:4-6, “Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.’ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;” Despite the very sketchy devotion of Abraham and Sarah’s descendants spoken of all throughout the Scriptures, Yahweh, the Living God, would not go back on His promises to them. He would not forsake His people, even when they kept rejecting Him. And so, God sent His Son to save His covenant people, and turn their hearts back to Him. But here in Mark Chapter 7, Jesus is approached by someone outside of Abraham and Sarah’s family… a Syrophoenician woman… a Gentile mother, desperately seeking aid for her daughter. “Gentile” is one of those words we might hear in Church, understand it’s basic meaning, and forget it’s deeper significance for the bigger story that’s being told. In a basic sense, it means someone who was not Jewish. A member of “the nations”, in a vague, general sense. A Gentile was simply not ‘one of us’… they were ‘one of those other people, out there somewhere… doing who knows what.’ For most Israelites in Jesus’ day, Gentiles were the people out there in the darkness… while God’s people on the other hand, were the ones living in the light. It's all a pretty common way that we humans keep organizing the world, even today: ‘Us vs. Them’. Who are we tempted to see as ‘those other people’ today? The people we’d rather not have around? The people we dismiss as backward, or ignorant, or downright evil? Who are we willing to pass over, and who do we easily show partiality to, without even thinking about it? Uncomfortable questions we need to ask ourselves from time to time, and which this passage calls us to ponder. Back in Mark Chapter 7, this desperate mother comes to Jesus and pleads with Him to do what? To do for her daughter what Jesus had already been doing for so many others: to set her free from the forces of spiritual darkness that were oppressing her. To cast out the demonic powers opposed to God’s Kingdom, that were making her life into hell. Would Jesus help her? Or would He turn her away? If He came to bring God’s Kingdom into the world, was it only for a chosen few to enjoy, or for all? Was the saving love of God only for Israel, or was there room for ‘those other people’ as well? These are the questions that this passage calls us to ask, and wrestle with too. Not just in these pages from the distant past, but in our own context. In our lives. With our own prejudices and partiality on the line. Imagine ‘them’ in this woman’s place. How would we want Jesus to respond to ‘their’ desperate pleas for His help? However we may have wanted Him to respond, this is what Jesus actually says: “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” (Mark 7:27). Notice… He doesn’t say no. What He says is challenging… but He doesn’t say no! He says “Let the children be fed first…” He has a responsibility… a mission to fulfill. He has come to bring the Kingdom of God to light in the midst of Israel, and His focus needs to remain on accomplishing this work. But He doesn’t say no. He says “it is not fair to take the children’s food”… it’s not right to divert His energies and efforts that are intended to nourish the faith of those who are set aside as God’s own people… “and throw it to the dogs”, that is, to take something precious and treat it like garbage… left to be swallowed up by those who will eat anything… those who can’t see the true significance of what is being offered. And yet… Jesus doesn’t say no to her. He doesn’t refuse to help. He makes plain the barriers already between them… but He doesn’t say no. And she doesn’t give up. This desperate Gentile mother persists. She says in reply, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” (Mark 7:28). Sure, the dogs might not fully appreciate or understand the meal being offered… but neither do the children… and is it not right for the dogs to be nourished by what the children themselves treat carelessly? This woman was not attempting to overthrow Jesus’ priorities, or get in the way of His mission… but she believed Him to be the best hope for her suffering daughter. She believed that Jesus had the power to rescue her child… and she believed in His willingness to do so… to offer compassion and mercy in her hour of need. And she was right to believe all this, because when Jesus sees her faith, He sets her daughter free from the spirits that troubled her. Why does St. Mark include this story in his Gospel account? What does he want us to see in this encounter between Israel’s Messiah and this desperate Gentile mother? I won’t pretend to know everything it has to teach us, but I think part of its message for us today is that God doesn’t play favorites, but in His compassion and mercy He makes room for all who will draw near in faith… even those we tend to overlook or dismiss as insignificant. This passage takes place at a crucial moment in the bigger story that St. Mark is trying to tell: the story of how Jesus, the Christ, Israel’s Messiah, the Chosen One… the Son of God was being sent to offer His life to His own chosen people… but most of them would end up throwing this precious gift away… rejecting Him like crumbs swept off from the table. In short order, St. Mark will make plain that Jesus knew exactly where His mission would lead Him. Mark 8:31, “Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” He knew that in order to fulfill the work the Father had sent Him to do… in order to save Israel, and bring about God’s Good Kingdom in their midst, He would have to die… to be betrayed by His own, and crucified as an outcast. Rejected completely. His body broken, and blood poured out at the cross. Jesus knew exactly how painful in mind and body and spirit all of this rejection would be… but He didn’t say no. He didn’t say no, because He also knew that this is exactly how God would share His saving love, not just Israel, but with the world! From the start, Jesus’ mission was much wider in scope than even His closest followers imagined. Though His focus was on reaching God’s chosen people, it was not out of favouritism, or partiality, but as the way God’s salvation could break through every barrier that we humans keep setting up between ourselves… working through one family in order to bless every family… every people and nation. God’s Son gave His life to the world through the rejection He faced from His own chosen people at the cross, so that God’s compassion, mercy, and saving love might be shown to all… Jew and Gentile… without distinction. Jesus’ encounter with the Gentile mother in Mark Chapter 7 is then an early glimpse of what He was doing all along: first going to ‘the children’ of Israel, so that God’s saving love could be shared with all the nations. But by her persistent faith, this mother gave Jesus a chance to reveal His compassion and saving love ahead of time. Unlike His own people who would miss all the clues, she could see what He was really about: bringing God’s saving power and light into our darkened world. And in telling her story twenty centuries later, we are reminded that the Living God Christ reveals to us does not play favorites, but reveals His saving love to all who trust in Him. But even more than that, this story calls for a response… challenging us all to reexamine our own assumptions about the limits of God’s compassion and care, and how we are to take part in sharing it. Who are we more likely to show partiality to, and who do we tend to ignore? How might God’s compassion and love set us free from these traps, so that we can truly love our neighbours? Or maybe we needed to be reminded that even when we feel like an outsider… rejected or insignificant, Jesus invites us to draw near to Him in faith, and trust in His mercy and love for us as well. Maybe we need to be reminded not to give up on His mercy and rescuing love. However the Spirit of God may be at work in our hearts this morning, may we all find fresh comfort and hope in the Good News that Jesus Christ God’s Son came to save not just some… but to give His life to save everyone and anyone who will trust in His love. Amen.
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Rev. RObRev. Rob serves as the Priest-in-Charge at St. Luke's Gondola Point, and as the School Chaplain at Rothesay Netherwood School Archives
December 2024
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