That Time Jesus Called A Woman A Dog

I was reading this passage from my Bible this morning - Matthew 15:10-28.

In the story Jesus challenges the Jewish belief that what went INTO a body had the power to defile someone.  The Jews had very strict dietary laws and believed that certain meats and foods had the power to make someone unclean and unfit to enter into the presence of God.  

Jesus, however, comes along and says, “what goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth defiles them.”

In other words, what comes out of someone’s mouth and life has the power to defile the world around them and the lives of those around them and this is much more important to consider than whether or not a morsel of food (that will ultimately end up in a sewer!) will make someone unclean.

“Whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body”, Jesus says, “but the things that come out of a person’a mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.”

This is important to consider.

The Jewish dietary laws were very individualistic, right?  It was all about making the individual person clean or unclean, fit or unfit to enter into God’s presence.

BUT.

Jesus came along and shifted the focus to be all about the world - food might make the individual clean or unclean according to the standards of some Jewish leaders, but our words and our actions make an impact on others and unlike the food that we eat, the words and actions that we send out into the world don’t end up in a sewer - instead, they have (sometimes) lifelong consequences.  

The Christian focus has always been community oriented.  You wouldn’t know that today by looking at Evangelical culture in the US that is typically very focused on personal salvation, a personal relationship with Jesus, etc.  

Me.

Me.

Me.

This is a relatively new idea, though, as the earlier centuries of Christianity were much more focused on Jesus’ message to care for others and YAHWEH’s message to be a chosen people who are chosen not because they are special and not because God will ultimately take them out of the world and into heaven, but so that they can be vessels of His love and grace and mercy to the world.  

It’s always been about others, rarely about the individual.  Sadly, we’ve lost sight of this ancient way of life and have made it all about the individual and rarely about anyone else.  

In the next section Jesus calls a woman a dog, which is weird ... right?  Because didn’t he just get done saying that the words that come out of our mouth are important?  And didn’t we just get done saying that our words have consequences and have the power and potential to hurt others?

Why would Jesus say this?  Why would he call her a dog?  She was a Canaanite and so this was a common racial slur that Jews used when talking about the Canaanite people - “bitches” and “dogs”.  

So ... Jesus?  Why are you calling this woman the same terrible names that everyone else called her?  

We could try to explain it away, of course.  We could talk about how Jesus meant something else or he was making a larger point or he was just trying to get the attention of his disciples or whatever.

We could try to squeeze Jesus into the holy box we think he should be in.

BUT.

What if Jesus was just having a bad day?  He was human, after all.  Or what if maybe this story tells us that sometimes Jesus does things and says things that make us feel uncomfortable because they don’t fit into our box of how we think Jesus should and shouldn’t act in the world?  And what if the goal of this story is to get us to wrestle with that and consider the many ways that the Spirit acts in our lives today that don’t always fit within the confines or the boundaries of how we think God should and shouldn’t move and act in our world?

What if in this story Jesus is blowing up the boxes we often try to jam him into?

Something to think about.

Much love,