God's Last Words

“YOU CALLING ME A DOG, JESUS?”

Matthew 15: 10-28

Why don't blind people like to sky dive? Because it scares the dog! 

Most of us love dogs and other animals we have as pets. Pets are family, companions, comforters, lap animals that are sources of great comfort. The ability for some animals and humans to form a bond is a tremendous gift given to us by our creator.

But the strong bond between dogs and humans we see today didn’t exist in the days of Jesus. Families didn’t take their pets to vets to get their teeth brushed and cleaned, nails clipped, or fur groomed. Some people buy dog “health” insurance. No dog food existed and usually only dogs who were useful to a farmer or herder were tolerated around the hose.

Dogs in the days of Jesus were unclean animals and considered for the most part to be scavengers, often living in packs. They were seldom kept as household pets as they are today. The Jews of Jesus day also considered Gentiles to be "dogs," just like scavengers and wild beasts.

The term “dog,” Greek word “kuon,” was often used in two ways. The first was literal, the second was meant to describe a person who was unfit for the kingdom of God. Sometimes the word “kunarion” is used to mean a puppy, a little dog, or one being trained.

Did you know that a story about dogs is an important part of God’s story regarding how salvation and reconciliation and grace is granted to the entire human race? It is as simple as Jesus calling a woman a dog.

Let’s hear our Gospel lesson for today:

Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: ¹¹it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”

¹²Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” ¹³He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. ¹⁴Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.”

¹⁵But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” ¹⁶Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding? ¹⁷Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? ¹⁸But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles.

¹⁹For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. ²⁰These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. ²²Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” ²³But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” ²⁴He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

²⁵But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” ²⁶He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁷She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” ²⁸Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly

In this passage it helps to know the play on words that take place between Jesus and the Canaanite woman. Jesus uses the word “dog” as meaning “someone who isn’t fit to enter the Kingdom of God,” while the woman replies using the word for “puppy.”

She recognizes that she must submit herself to Jesus’ mercy and compassion. That is something that a person unfit for God’s kingdom will never do. This incident is a beautiful illustration of the teaching Jesus has just made. Jesus is concerned with the heart.

Outwardly, this woman has nothing about her that is "clean,” in Jewish custom. But she has three things in her heart that make her right with God:

Her unwavering, nagging, persistent care for her daughter; and, her unwavering, nagging, persistent faith that Jesus can cure her daughter. Jesus’ desire to reach out to His creation in compassion and love.

These three things seem to cause Jesus to expand His mercy to someone He is not supposed to have compassion and mercy for. Gentiles.

As non-Jewish believers this passage is a great revelation to us. While Jesus was sent to heal and restore God’s chosen people of Israel, even we will receive the benefit of Jesus’ sacrifice. All because of a turn of a phrase having to do with dogs!

What Jesus has done for us Gentiles through His sacrifice is almost beyond our belief. Realize that Jesus has brought us from being "dogs" to becoming the adopted sons and daughters of the Living God.

I have a dog, and when we eat she always sits there waiting patiently, under the table, waiting for a scrap or two from one of us to accidently fall. We are messy eaters. She knows she will get it, but she also knows she has to wait patiently for it while sitting there rolling her big black eyes acting as if she really doesn't care.

 
In reading the above verses, it was very striking to me as I thought of what it would be like to be her, waiting for some man to give me a scrap or two of food. My father-in-law "leaves" cherios scattered all around for her to scavenge.

Sometimes when we’re being clean eaters and she waits too long, she sort of shuffles around a little bit and moves an inch or two closer just so we won't forget she is there, patiently waiting. Who could resist giving her what she wants? I know my father-in-law can’t and it only takes one.

Now think about how we as Gentiles were considered dogs at one time, but now as believers, we are considered differently: Ephesians 2:12 says, “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”

Jesus has extended salvation, the Greek word “soteria,” to us even though we are not members of God’s chosen people – the Jewish people of the indwelling nation of Israel.

Throughout our lives of “tarraso,” (troubles), our faith and experiences yield “genosco,” (trust), which leads us to “soteria,” (confessing our sins and professing Christ as Savior), which yields “aionious,” (eternal life in God’s Kingdom.)

During the Spanish-American War, Clara Barton was overseeing the work of the Red Cross in Cuba. One day Colonel Theodore Roosevelt came to her, wanted to buy food for his sick and wounded Rough Riders. But she refused to sell him any.

Roosevelt was perplexed. His men needed the help and he was prepared to pay out of his own funds. When he asked someone why he could not buy the supplies, he was told, "Colonel, just ask for it!" A smile broke over Roosevelt's face. Now he understood--the provisions were not for sale.

All he had to do was simply ask and they would be given freely

Lord Kenneth Clark, internationally know for his television series Civilization, lived and died without faith in Jesus Christ. He admitted in his autobiography that while visiting a beautiful church he had what he believed to be an overwhelming religious experience.

"My whole being," Clark wrote, "was irradiated by a kind of heavenly joy far more intense than anything I had known before." But the "gloom of grace," as he described it, created a problem. If he allowed himself to be influenced by it, he knew he would have to change, his family might think he had lost his mind, and maybe that intense joy would prove to be an illusion. So he concluded, "I was too deeply embedded in the world to change course."

God Grace is free but does cost something.  You have to ask – and asking is impossible for some people.

 
Three elements of personality are involved in making a decision to become a Christian, or in making any significant decision for that matter. They are the emotions, the intellect, and the will.

For example, a young man meets a young woman. They are immediately attracted to one another. They both say to themselves, "Now there is someone I'd like to marry." At that point, if the emotions had their way, there would be a wedding.

But the intellect intervenes, questioning the impulsive emotional response. Would we be compatible? What is she really like? Can I afford to support her? Both conclude it would be better to take some more time and answer a few questions before they proceed.

So the two begin spending more time with each other. He eventually concludes that she is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. Now his intellect has sided with the emotions on the idea of marriage.

But the final and heaviest vote remains to be cast -- that of the will. It stops the march toward the altar with the questions, "Am I willing to give up this lifestyle for another? What about my freedom -- is it worth the trade? Am I willing to assume the added responsibility?"

 

The marriage will occur only when the will finally agrees with the emotions and the intellect. And so it is in coming to Christ.

Your heart has to be right and you have to admit you are not worthy of the Grace given to you. Yet Jesus is always ready and waiting to receive us in Love. Amen.